The Far Side of Tech

This article over at The Inquirer (as always, in their delightfully Yankee-indecipherable prose) makes the case that Toshiba’s recent announcement to include HD-DVD drives in their laptops spells trouble for Blu-ray. As I’ve written recently, the HD-DVD platform is in a spot of trouble, and this obviously seems to be Toshiba’s answer to Sony’s Blu-ray/PS3 integration. The Inq seems to think this could turn the tide in the format war for HD-DVD, but sadly I’m not as convinced.

While I’d love to see HD-DVD bring an end to this idiotic format war (I vastly prefer their special features integration, as well as the possibility of hybrid HD-DVD/DVD discs), I don’t think that this move will bring anything more than a mere numbers victory for Toshiba. The Inquirer points out that Toshiba sold around 9.2 million laptops in 2006, and Sony has shipped around 5.5 million PS3’s according to March ‘07 numbers (although they appear to have sold only 3 million of those). It’s clear that if Toshiba manages to pull this off, they will have the upper-hand in the hardware rat-race by the end of 2008.

Number wins are all well and good, but will that actually mean anything for the HD-DVD platform? Functionally, the inclusion of HD-DVD drives in laptops is not nearly as useful as having Blu-ray in the PS3. People like to watch movies (especially high-definition movies) on their TVs, and while it’s possible to configure your laptop to output to an HDTV, the process isn’t entirely foolproof. Then you have to worry about making sure you get digital audio outputted to your surround sound system, assuming your laptop even has that capability at all.

Basically, the process isn’t as entirely seamless as it is with the PS3. Sony’s console is already connected to your HDTV and surround sound system. There’s little difference in using it to play a game or watching a Blu-ray film. While I loathe the inclusion of Blu-ray in the PS3, it does seem that Sony’s Trojan horse tactics served the Blu-ray platform well in this respect. It’s not hard to imagine people amassing a library of Blu-ray titles to watch on their PS3, it is considerably harder to think that Toshiba laptop owners will find a good reason to build up an HD-DVD collection.

Not only are laptops the completely wrong hardware vehicle for HD video, the audience isn’t ideal either. Think about it: Who really watches movies on their laptops? For the most part, it’s college students. Many don’t own TVs, and in this day and age, who really needs one? They have access to all their entertainment needs in a tidy little box. But while college students are laptop equipped and tech savvy, they aren’t the best audience for HD-DVD to tap into for market dominance.

College students are rightfully credited with being the driving force behind MP3, Divx, and and all sorts of other “free” digital formats. Paying extra for an unproven movie format, the benefits of which are tough to notice on a 15″ widescreen compared to downloads and cheap DVDs, is simply not in their DNA.

Sadly, it doesn’t look like this move is going to win the HD format war for Toshiba and HD-DVD. If anything, it will just prolong this idiotic battle for several more years…

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