A New DVD Format War

Just when you thought it was safe to buy a nice new all-singing all dancing DVD player/recorder, along comes a new format war to add to an already confusing marketplace.

Once the original DVD standard settled down, DVD players quickly became one of the most successful consumer items of all time. The new format revitalised the home entertainment market, and hardware manufacturers benefited both directly and indirectly, as enthusiasts clamoured to buy bigger and better televisions and sound equipment to get the best from their new DVD players.

Then came recordable DVD, but the problem, as is so often the case, was that there were a number of different recording standards, all of them incompatible. It was just like Betamax versus VHS all over again. Now low-cost multi-format recorders supporting all the standards are hitting the streets, the recording problem is becoming less of an issue, and so one could be forgiven for thinking that