Blu-ray Vs. HD DVD Slows High-Definition; A Costly Standards War; Sony- and Toshiba-led camps lining up support for incompatible formats.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: BRIAN DEAGON

Much to the chagrin of most everyone, people who plan to buy high-definition DVD players will have to decide between two competing formats.

The first models will arrive later this year, using a format called HD DVD. A second version, using a format called Blu-ray, will follow three to six months later. HD DVD and Blu-ray are not compatible with one another. Blu-ray DVDs won't play on HD DVD players, and vice versa.

For consumers, it's VCR vs. Betamax all over again. (See related story, this page.)

Almost 30 years ago, two competing formats emerged for videocassette tape recorders. The Betamax, made by Sony, arrived first. The VCR followed, supported by an array of manufacturers. Though the Betamax was considered to be the better player technically, the VCR won. The original Betamax could only record one hour. The VCR was designed to record for four hours, which was deemed necessary so that Americans could record an entire football game.

In short, bigger was better. This is also the reason Blu-ray has more high-profile backers than HD DVD.

When HD DVD was first announced, its disc capacity was 30 gigabytes, up from today's standard 5 gigabyte DVDs.