Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD

For those who don't know there's plans for a newer, better version of DVD, I've written a little about it before. Unfortunately, there are two competing standards: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. HD-DVD is backed more by Microsoft, Intel, Toshiba and others and Blu-Ray is backed by Sony, Fox, Disney, Apple and others. The recent problems with Sony and their rootkit has brought to light the problems of having media companies making hardware as well. In fact, I believe that one of the biggest mistakes Sony made was to get into the movie and music making business. They had a lot of difficulties repeating their success of the Walkman because devices they made didn't support MP3, until recently. They refused to support MP3 for the longest time because it doesn't support DRM. Their media divisions insisted on DRM protected content. The irony is that Sony makes much more money from their hardware divisions than from their media divisions.
Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray promise to have DRM support. If I could, I would support neither one. Normal DVDs have encryption as well, but was so poorly done that it's relatively easy (and illegal) to circumvent. The new versions promise to be more difficult to circumvent.
Like I said previously, stay away from Blu-Ray, if only because Sony is backing it. HD-DVD at least has a chance of being friendlier to consumers since it's backed by companies that make only devices.
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