BLU-RAY, HD or HOLO-DVD and HOW I WILL WIN THE DVD FORMAT WARS

If you're a geek-head like me, you've been following (at least, loosely) the format war that just might come to rival VHS Vs. Betamax. This time 'round it's HD-DVD Vs. Blu-Ray DVD. "HD" standing for High Definition and "Blu-Ray" referencing the blue laser beam the technology uses to write and read more data than a standard red laser. However, before you pick sides remember that formats always march forward. Sure, we had to wait over a decade for VHS to see any real competition but it looks like a competitor to the HD or Blu-Ray will be showing up a lot sooner than that.

Enter the holographic disc. No, it doesn't provide a 3-d floating image like something out of Star Wars. Here's an explanation from [http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=69424&cat_id=581|an article] at TechTree.com that will help you understand where the name comes from:

Normal DVDs including Gen-Next formats - Blu-ray and HD-DVD, record data by measuring microscopic ridges on the surface of a spinning disc, and exploit shorter wavelengths of light to cram more information onto the surface.

However the holographic storage system uses light from a single laser split into two beams; the signal beam and the reference beam. The hologram is formed at the intersection point of these two beams, in the recording medium. By varying the reference beam angle, wavelength, or media position, several different holograms can be recorded in the same volume of material.

OK, so maybe that didn't help...

Let's see if I can explain it any better. Think of it like this: A holodisc would use a single laser, split into two to read two different books, creating a third, larger book in the middle. I think that's how it works, anyway.

Regardless, this is just going to add more frustration and confusion to our shopping.

Personally, I'm planning on abandoning all discs when it comes to my video collection. While I don't have TheWife's official "OK" yet, she tends to yield to my expertise when it comes to this stuff.

First, I buy a Mac mini with a DVD burner and the largest HD I can get with it. This should run me no more than $600. Then, I buy two [http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10695|500gb Brick external drives] from LaCie.com (that works out to a terabyte of HD space) each runs $400. Then, I grab a [http://www.eskapelabs.com/myTVPVR.html|myTV PVR] USB 2.0 video capture device from Eskapelabs.com which will run me about $150.

From there I will capture all of my video collection in either DivX or mp4 format onto just one of the LaCie drives (hey, 500 gigs will store a lot of mp4s). I may even simply keep everything in iPod-ready mp4 and deal with the VHSness of the picture quality on my 27 inch Sony TV. This will allow for even more videos to be stored. I will then use the myTV PVR software to record my favorite shows (like [http://dailyshow.com|the Daily Show], [http://colbertnation.com|the Colbert Report], and [http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/boondocks/|Boondocks]) directly to mp4 format. From there, I can burn my favorites to data DVD if my friends want to see anything I've recorded.

For safety's sake, I will install Deju Vu from PropagandaProd.com and tell it to back up everything on the one LaCie Brick drive onto the other LaCie Brick drive. On top of that, I'll go with some serious surge supression to protect both Brick drives--I'd hate to turn them into more literal bricks.

So, that's the plan. I figure the entire thing will run me about $1600 all told. Well, probably more with tax.

Regardless, at that point, I'll clear off nearly all of the book cases I'm using for videos right now (a substantial amount of space that stretches across two rooms) and will never really have to upgrade to a new format ever again. Sure, file formats will advance, but to deal with those, all I need to do is download new codecs. Eventually, if I want to be able to burn stuff for friends, I'll need to add a new burner drive, but that can be done easily and much more cheaply than adding a whole new standalone deck and replacing or redubbing my entire video collection.

So, that's my plan. I'll let you know when I finally start to put the damn thing together...