A format war describes competition between mutually incompatible proprietary formats, usually for data storage devices and recording formats for electronic media, often forcing content publishers to "take sides" by supporting one format or the other. It usually results from a failure of two or more entities to agree on a technical standard for delivery of the same content. Perhaps the most famous example was the videotape format war of the late 1970s and early 1980s, between the rival VHS and Betamax videotape formats. Many different consumer electronic devices can store data. ... A cylinder, head, and sector of a hard drive. ... A screenshot of a web page. ... For other uses, see Content (disambiguation). ... Standardization or standardisation, in the context related to technologies and industries, is the process of establishing a technical standard among competing entities in a market, where this will bring benefits without hurting competition. ... The videotape format war was a period of an intense format war of rival incompatible models of video cassette recorders in the 1970s and early 1980s. ... Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed Top view of VHS cassette with front casing removed The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard. ... Sonys Betamax is the 12. ...

Although technical superiority is usually a factor in determining which format "wins", other factors can have a greater, deciding influence. As an example, though LaserDisc offered near-DVD-quality resolution in the 1970s, most consumers still chose the videotape standards which only offered 60% the resolution, but provided the ability to record television programs. Not to be confused with disk laser, a type of solid-state laser in a flat configuration. ...

Here are some notable examples of format wars, organized according to when the battle for consumer adoption first started:

1910s

• Early recording media formats: cylinder records versus disk records. In 1877 Thomas Edison invented sound recording technology using a tin cylinder record, and soon thereafter mass-marketed the wax "Edison cylinder". In 1886 Berliner invented disk records. By the late 1890s cylinders and disks were widespread. Cylinders were more expensive to manufacture, but any cylinder player could make recordings. Disks saved space and were cheaper, but due to the constant angular velocity (CAV) of their rotation, the sound quality varied noticeably from the long outer edge to the short inner portion nearest the center; and disk record players could not make recordings. Edison, a stickler for sound quality, refused to produce the disks until the late teens, when Berliner's patent expired.

The earliest method of recording and reproducing sound was on cylinder phonograph recordings. ... The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour (1967) as a 33 â…“ LP vinyl record A gramophone record (also phonograph record, or simply record) is an analogue sound recording medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove. ... Edison redirects here. ... Emile Berliner with disc record gramophone. ... Constant Angular Velocity (CAV) refers to how information is written to or read from a rotating data disk. ... For other uses, see Patent (disambiguation). ...

1920s

• 78 rpm gramophone record formats: lateral versus vertical "hill-and-dale" groove cutting. When Edison finally introduced his "diamond disc" (using a diamond instead of a steel needle), it was cut hill-and dale, meaning that the groove modulated on the vertical axis (as it had on all cylinders), and unlike the other disk manufacturers which cut their disks laterally, meaning that the groove modulated on the horizontal axis. In 1929 Thomas Edison bowed out of the record industry altogether, ceasing all production of his disks, and also cylinders which he had also manufactured up to that point. In addition, there were several more minor "format wars" between the various brands using various speeds ranging from 72 to 96 rpm. The Edison disks rotated at about 80 rpm. In 1958, the stereophonic record was introduced which uses perpendicular modulations for each channel, providing backward compatibility to the lateral-cut monaural recording.^{[citation needed]}

rpm or RPM may mean: revolutions per minute RPM Package Manager (originally called Red Hat Package Manager) RPM (movie) RPM (band), a Brazilian rock band RPM (magazine), a former Canadian music industry magazine In firearms, Rounds Per Minute: how many shots an automatic weapon can fire in one minute On...

1940s

• Vinyl record formats: Columbia Records' 12-inch (30 cm) Long Play (LP) 33⅓ rpm microgroove record versus RCA Victor's 7-inch (17.5 cm) / 45 rpm Extended Play (EP) during the years 1948–1950. Ended in a compromise because each format found a separate marketing niche, and record players were redesigned to use either type. Both formats nearly disappeared with the rise of the Compact Disc, though vinyl records are still used by niche audiences such as disk jockeys and audiophiles. Also, many newer albums have seen special limited edition releases on LP format.

A gramophone record, (also phonograph record - often simply record) is an analog sound recording medium: a flat disc rotating at a constant angular velocity, with inscribed spiral grooves in which a stylus or needle rides. ... Columbia Records is the oldest brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888, and was the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. ... Sony BMG Music Entertainment is the result of a 50/50 joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment (part of Sony) and BMG Entertainment (part of Bertelsmann AG) completed in August 2004. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... CD redirects here. ... Disc jockey at a nightclub. ... An audiophile, from Latin audire[1] to hear and Greek philos[2] loving, can be generally defined as a person dedicated to achieving high fidelity in the recording and playback of music . ...

1960s

• Portable audio formats: 8-track and four-track cartridges vs. Compact Cassette. While notably successful into the mid-to-late 1970s, the 8-track eventually lost due to technical limitations, including variable audio quality and lack of fine control.

• Color TV broadcast formats: PAL and SECAM. In 1965, the European countries failed to agree on one common format for broadcasting color TV. Even though they all agreed on the 625-line 50 half-frames/sec format (making the British 405-line and the French 819-line formats obsolete), they failed to agree on how to encode the color. Germany developed the PAL system, which became the standard in most of Western Europe. France, however, developed its own SECAM system, involving Soviet scientists in the development, and it was consequently adopted in the Eastern bloc. In the long run, PAL has been more popular (several SECAM countries, especially in Eastern Europe, switched to PAL), and most "SECAM" devices are PAL devices that support SECAM. Key to this is the fact that SECAM video is not easy to edit and cannot be mixed; much SECAM production is done in PAL, component video, or digital video before being output to an analog SECAM signal.

• FM radio broadcast formats: The Crosby system and the GE/Zenith system. The Crosby system was technically superior, especially in transmitting clear stereo signals, due to its use of an FM subcarrier for stereo sound rather than the AM subcarrier employed by GE/Zenith. Many radios built in this period allowed the user to select Crosby or GE/Zenith listening modes. FM stations that wanted to take advantage of additional revenue opportunities afforded by store broadcasting successfully lobbied the FCC to adopt the GE/Zenith system in 1961.

The 8-track cartridge or Stereo 8 is a magnetic tape technology for audio storage, popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. ... The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. ... Color is an important part of the visual arts. ... See TV (disambiguation) for other uses and Television (band) for the rock band European networks National In much of Europe television broadcasting has historically been state dominated, rather than commercially organised, although commercial stations have grown in number recently. ... Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. ... For other uses, see PAL (disambiguation). ... SECAM, also written SÉCAM (Séquentiel couleur à mémoire, French for Sequential Color with Memory), is an analog color television system first used in France. ... The 405-line monochrome analogue television broadcasting system was the first electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting. ... Historically the term high-definition television was first used to refer to television standards developed in the 1930s to replace early experimental systems with as few as 12 lines. ... For other uses, see PAL (disambiguation). ... SECAM, also written SÉCAM (Séquentiel couleur à mémoire, French for Sequential Color with Memory), is an analog color television system first used in France. ... CCCP redirects here. ... A map of the Eastern Bloc 1948-1989. ... Three cables, each with RCA plugs at both ends, are often used to carry analog component video Component video is a video signal that has been split into two or more components. ... Digital video is a type of video recording system that works by using a digital, rather than analog, of the video signal. ... The Crosby system was an FM stereophonic broadcasting standard, developed by Murray G. Crosby, that used an FM subcarrier for higher fidelity. ... A subcarrier is a separate analog or digital signal carried on a main radio transmission, which carries extra information such as voice or data. ...

1970s

• Various Quadraphonic encoding methods: CD-4, SQ, QS-Matrix, and others. The expense (and speaker placement troubles) of quadraphonic, coupled with the competing formats requiring various demodulators and decoders led to an early demise of quadraphonic, though 8-track tape experienced a temporary boost from the introduction of the Q8 form of 8-track cartridge. Quadraphonic sound returned in the 1990s substantially updated as surround sound but incompatible with old hardware.

• VHS vs. Betamax vs. Video 2000, the Video Tape Format War. The war started in 1976 and by 1980, VHS controlled 70% of the North American market. By 1984, forty companies utilized the VHS format in comparison with Beta's twelve.

• Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) vs. LaserDisc (LD) vs. VHD, non-recordable video disc formats. All of these ultimately failed (although LD found a small market with videophiles), since consumers preferred the recordable videotape, thus making VHS standard in consumers' homes (see videotape format war).

• Vinyl record vs. Compact Cassette - The popular 33-1/3 record dominated most of the 20th century, from the 1940s to the 1980s until newer technologies supplanted it. Its main rival, the compact cassette, was slow in growth but with the advent of boomboxes and Walkmans in the 70s and early 80s, cassettes eventually outsold vinyl records in the 1980s. Cassettes provided convenient portability, mobile operation, playback free of scratches or skips, and technical improvements such as Dolby B and Type II chrome cassettes allowed store-bought recordings to achieve playback closer to CD quality than any consumer media previously available. (See also Vinyl record vs. CD.)

4 channels quadraphonic label Quadraphonic sound uses four channels in which speakers are positioned at all four corners of the listening space, reproducing signals that are independent of each other. ... Multichannel audio is the name for a variety of techniques for expanding and enriching the sound of audio playback by recording additional sound channels that can be reproduced on additional speakers. ... Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed Top view of VHS cassette with front casing removed The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard. ... Sonys Betamax is the 12. ... Video 2000 (or V2000; also known as Video Compact Cassette, or VCC) was a consumer VCR system and videotape standard developed by Philips and Grundig to compete with JVCs VHS and Sonys Betamax video technologies. ... The videotape format war was a period of an intense format war of rival incompatible models of video cassette recorders in the 1970s and early 1980s. ... The Capacitance Electronic Disc (or CED) was a video playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV using a special analog needle and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records. ... Not to be confused with disk laser, a type of solid-state laser in a flat configuration. ... VHD is a videodisc format which was marketed predominantly in Japan by JVC. VHD stands for Video High Density, and there was also an audio-only variant called, not surprisingly, AHD. // Technology VHD discs are 25cm in diameter, though the user never sees them as they are stored in caddies... Videodisc (or video disc) is a general term for a laser- or stylus-readable random-access circular disc that contains both audio and video signals recorded in an analog form. ... A gramophone record, (also phonograph record - often simply record) is an analog sound recording medium: a flat disc rotating at a constant angular velocity, with inscribed spiral grooves in which a stylus or needle rides. ... The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. ... For the box set by No Doubt, see Boom Box (No Doubt box set). ... Sony Walkman Official Logo (2000 — present) Various products of the Walkman line Walkman is a popular Sony brand used to market its portable audio and video players. ... Dolby NR is a noise reduction system developed by Dolby Laboratories for use in analogue magnetic tape recording. ... A gramophone record, (also phonograph record - often simply record) is an analog sound recording medium: a flat disc rotating at a constant angular velocity, with inscribed spiral grooves in which a stylus or needle rides. ...

1980s

• AM stereo was capable of fidelity almost as good as FM but was doomed in the USA by competing formats during the 1980s with Motorola's C-QUAM competing vigorously with three other incompatible formats including those by Magnavox, Kahn/Haseltine, and Harris. It is still widely used in Japan, Canada, and Australia, but only sees sporadic use in the United States despite the fact most AM radios support stereo capability.

• Home computers usually with very similar overall capabilities, sometimes even within the same microprocessor, during this period often had incompatible peripherals such as joy sticks or printers, incompatible compact cassette formats for data recording, and later even incompatible diskette formats. Vast incompatibilities could exist even within a company's product line, sacrificing backwards compatibility. Even where an operating system standard such as CP/M had been selected, incompatible disk formats made interchange of data between computers of different manufacturers difficult.

• Video8 vs. VHS-C and later Hi8 vs. S-VHS-C tape formats (see camcorder). This is an extension of the VHS vs. Betamax format war, but here neither format "won" widespread acceptance. Video8 had the advantage in terms of recording time (4 hours versus 2 hours maximum), but consumers also liked VHS-C since it could easily play in their home VCRs, thus the two formats essentially split the camcorder market in half. As of 2007, JVC still makes VHS-C and S-VHS-C camcorders; Sony announced its last Hi8 camcorder- the TRV238.

• Compact Cassette vs. CD - Although 1980s-era portable CD players challenged cassettes, early players had problems with skipping due to vibrations & shock, which was unsatisfactory to the consumer and allowed cassettes to continue to dominate. It was not until the 1990s that advancing "skip-free" technology finally allowed CD sales to eclipse cassettes both at home and "on the go". Consumers preferred the CD's convenience, superior sound, and seemingly indestructible format (no more scratched records or tangled tapes). CDs are still the main method of pre-recorded distribution in the 2000s, although downloadable audio files are slowly eroding that dominance.

AM stereo is any of a number of mutually-incompatible techniques for broadcasting two_channel audio in the mediumwave band in a manner that is compatible with receivers designed for standard amplitude modulation. ... The abbreviations FM, Fm, and fm may refer to: Electrical engineering Frequency modulation (FM) and its most common applications: FM broadcasting, used primarily to broadcast music and speech at VHF frequencies FM synthesis, a sound-generation technique popularized by early digital synthesizers Science Femtometre (fm), an SI measure of length... The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... Motorola Inc. ... C-QUAM is the method of AM stereo broadcasting used in Canada, the United States and most other countries. ... Magnavox (Latin for great voice) is an electronics company founded by Edwin Pridham and Peter L. Jensen. ... Harris Corporation NYSE: HRS is an international communications equipment company that produces wireless equipment, electronic systems, and both terrestrial and spaceborne antennas for use in the government, defense, and commercial sectors. ... The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ... A microprocessor is a programmable digital electronic component that incorporates the functions of a central processing unit (CPU) on a single semiconducting integrated circuit (IC). ... The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. ... Product lining is the marketing strategy of offering for sale several related products. ... In technology (especially computing), backward compatibility has several related but differing meanings: A system is backward compatible if it is compatible with earlier versions of itself, or sometimes other earlier systems, particularly systems it intends to supplant. ... CP/M is an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ... A 8mm Camcorder The 8mm Video Format (official name: Video8) is a type of video cassette recorder and video tape. ... VHS-C is the compact VHS format used for portable video recorders. ... A 8mm Camcorder The 8mm Video Format (official name: Video8) is a type of video cassette recorder and video tape. ... VHS-C is the compact VHS format used for portable video recorders. ... Sony DV Handycam A camcorder is a portable electronic device for recording video images and audio onto an internal storage device. ... The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. ... CD may stand for: Compact Disc Canadian Forces Decoration Cash Dispenser (at least used in Japan) CD LPMud Driver Centrum-Demokraterne (Centre Democrats of Denmark) Certificate of Deposit ÄŒeské Dráhy (Czech Railways) Chad (NATO country code) Chalmers Datorförening (computer club of the Chalmers University of Technology) a 1960s...

1990s

• Digital Audio Tape (DAT) by Sony vs. Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) by Philips vs. MiniDisc (MD) by Sony, won by none (although DAT gained total dominance in the professional audio and data worlds). Since recordable CDs were not generally available for decades, these formats were an attempt to bring decent audio quality to the market held by compact cassettes. Restrictions by record companies fearful of perfect digital copies led to very restrictive recording. Ultimately the consumers chose neither format, preferring to stick with analog Compact Cassettes for home audio recording.

• X2 vs K56flex – In the race to achieve faster telephone line modem speeds from the then-standard 9.6 kbit/s, many companies developed proprietary formats such as V32.terbo (19.2 kbit/s) or TrailBlazer (23.0 kbit/s) or V.FAST (28.8 kbit/s), hoping to gain an edge on the competition. The X2 and K56flex formats were a continuation of that ongoing battle for market dominance until the V.90 standard (based on K56flex, but not identical) was developed in 1999. For some time, online providers needed to maintain two modem banks to provide dial-up access for both technologies. (See "modem" for a complete history.)

• Digital video formats: DVD versus DIVX (not to be confused with DivX). DIVX was similar to DVD but included pay per view features. DIVX players could play DVDs, but standard DVD players couldn't play DIVX disks. Several Hollywood studios (Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Paramount Pictures) initially released their movies exclusively in the DIVX format.^[1]

• Memory cards, a four-way contest: CompactFlash vs. Memory Stick vs. MultiMediaCard / Secure Digital card vs. SmartMedia. The format war became a five-way contest with the introduction of xD-Picture Card in the next decade, although by then SmartMedia was falling into disuse. This ongoing contest is complicated by the existence of multiple variants of the various formats. Some of these, such as miniSD, are compatible with their parent formats, while current generations of Memory Sticks break compatibility with the original format.

• Hi-fi digital audio discs: DVD-Audio versus SACD. These two formats are likely to coexist due to newer players that handle both formats with equal ease (although most such devices are exclusively PCM-based and do not truly support SACD's PDM system), though neither caught on with the market, many feel this was specifically due to the format war that DVD-video avoided. The fastest-growing music formats today are heavily lossy compressed formats.

Digital audio tape can also refer to a compact cassette with digital storage. ... Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) was a short-lived magnetic tape sound recording format introduced by Philips and Matsushita in late 1992. ... Philips HQ in Amsterdam Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics N.V.), usually known as Philips, (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG) is one of the largest electronics companies in the world, founded and headquartered in the Netherlands. ... See also IBMs VM operating system family, where minidisk refers to a logical unit of storage. ... US Roboticss 56K modem protocol for upload under V.34+ at 33. ... K56flex (originally called the K56Plus) was a modem chipset from Rockwell and Lucent that gave users the possibility of receiving data on ordinary phone lines at 56 kbit/s as opposed to the previous maximum of 33. ... For other uses, see Modem (disambiguation). ... DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format. ... This article is about the video codec. ... This article is about the video codec. ... Disney redirects here. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... Four major types of memory cards (from left to right: CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Secure Digital, and xD. A memory card or flash memory card is a solid-state electronic flash memory data storage device used with digital cameras, handheld and Mobile computers, telephones, music players, video game consoles, and other... A 32 MB High Speed CompactFlash Type I card CompactFlash (CF) was originally developed as a type of data storage device used in portable electronic devices. ... A 2GB Sony High Speed Memory Stick PRO Duo with MagicGate support. ... A 32 MB MultiMediaCard MultiMediaCard A 128 MB RS-MMC card and an adapter An RS-MMC card with adapter attached The MultiMediaCard (MMC) is a flash memory memory card standard. ... A SanDisk Multi Card Reader, with a 2 GB SD Card inserted. ... A 128MB SmartMedia flash memory card. ... The xD-Picture Card is a type of flash memory card, used mainly in digital cameras. ... The miniSD Card is a removable and portable memory device intended for use in cell phones/mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players and many other gadgets. ... High Fidelity is also the title of a book by Nick Hornby and a film directed by Stephen Frears, based upon Hornbys book. ... DVD-Audio also known as DVDA is a digital format for delivering very high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. The first discs entered the marketplace in 2000. ... Super Audio CD (SACD) is a read-only optical audio disc format aimed at providing much higher fidelity digital audio reproduction than the Red Book audio CD. Introduced in 2000, it was developed by Sony and Philips Electronics, the same companies that created the Compact Disc. ... PCM redirects here. ... Pulse-density modulation, or PDM, is a form of modulation used to represent an analog signal in the digital domain. ... Original Image (lossless PNG, 60. ...

2000s

• Recordable DVD formats: DVD+R versus DVD-R, and originally DVD-RAM. Ultimately this has been resolved, as most new DVD recorders support both formats designated with DVD±R.

• Digital audio data compression formats: MP3 versus Ogg Vorbis versus Advanced Audio Coding versus Windows Media Audio. As with digital video, the competing formats can be played on the same equipment (with the exception of some mobile players). Each format has found its own niche— while MP3 is the de facto standard for audio encoding, AAC is favored by commercial music distributors, and Vorbis has found its strongest use among game developers and the like who have need for a high-quality audio codec but do not want to pay the licensing fees attached to other codecs.

• Digital video data compression formats: Windows Media Video versus RealVideo versus DivX versus QuickTime. While in theory, all formats work equally well on most major operating systems like Microsoft Windows, which makes the stakes for the consumer considerably lower, support for WMV, based on ASF, is not usually included by default with free software operating systems and players due to legal issues (with that said, end-user installable software packages are readily available to address these shortcomings, although they exist in somewhat of a legal grey area: see MPlayer). According to the popular site Doom9, DivX video codec boasts the highest quality versus compression rate of those already mentioned, while it is beaten by XviD, which is bested by x264.

• High-definition optical disc formats: Blu-ray Disc versus HD DVD. The first HD DVD player was released in March 2006, with the first Blu-ray player following in June 2006. In addition to the standalone players for each format, Sony's PlayStation 3 is a Blu-Ray player and its games use that format as well. Microsoft's Xbox 360 is a DVD player, and also offers consumers an optional HD DVD external player, but the games continue to use the standard DVD format.

• Ultra-wideband networking technology — in early 2006, an IEEE standards working group disbanded because two factions could not agree on a single standard for a successor to Wi-Fi. (WiMedia Alliance, IEEE 802.15, WirelessHD)

This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... A DVD+R disc The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... You can recognize a DVD-RAM immediately because visually there are lots of little rectangles distributed on the surface of the data carrier. ... Digital audio comprises audio signals stored in a digital format. ... For other uses, see MP3 (disambiguation). ... This page is about the audio compression codec. ... MPEG-4 AAC DRM encoding as used in the iTunes Store Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. ... Windows Media Audio (WMA) is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. ... A codec is a device or program capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal. ... Digital video is a type of video recording system that works by using a digital, rather than analog, of the video signal. ... Source coding redirects here. ... Windows Media Video (WMV) is a generic name for the set of video codec technologies developed by Microsoft. ... RealVideo is a proprietary video format developed by RealNetworks. ... This article is about the video codec. ... QuickTime is a multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc. ... An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... Windows redirects here. ... Look up asf in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Free software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things. ... This article is about the open source media player. ... This page may meet Wikipedia’s criteria for speedy deletion. ... Xvid (formerly XviD) is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard. ... x264 is a free software library for encoding H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video streams. ... This article is about high-definition video technology. ... “Optical media” redirects here. ... In 2006, the release of two next-generation optical disc formats attempted to improve upon and eventually replace the DVD standard. ... March 2006 : ← - January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase announces that the 2006 Fiji general elections will be held in the second week of May 2006 from the 6th to the 13th. ... June 2006 : ← - January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Extraordinary renditions. ... The PlayStation 3 , trademarked PLAYSTATION®3,[3] commonly abbreviated PS3) is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment; successor to the PlayStation 2. ... It has been suggested that Xbox 360 Elite be merged into this article or section. ... Ultra-wideband (also UWB, and ultra-wide-band, ultra-wide band, etc. ... The WiMedia Alliance is a not-for-profit open industry association that promotes and enables the rapid adoption, regulation, standardization and multi-vendor interoperability of ultra-wideband (UWB) worldwide. ... IEEE 802. ... WirelessHD is an industry-led effort to define a specification for the next generation wireless digital network interface specification for wireless high-definition signal transmission for consumer electronics products. ...

References

1. ^ Paramount jumps on DVD wagon; Fox, DreamWorks still out.

See also

• Total Hi Def
• Videotape format war
• War of Currents (Alternating Current vs. Direct Current [late 19th century] )

Total Hi Def Disc, also called a Total HD or THD, is an optical disc that includes both rival high-definition optical disc formats, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. [1] It was officially announced January 8, 2007 at Warner Bros / Warner Home Videos press conference held at CES... The videotape format war was a period of an intense format war of rival incompatible models of video cassette recorders in the 1970s and early 1980s. ... // In the War of Currents era (sometimes, War of the Currents or Battle of Currents) in the late 1880s, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edisons promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over the alternating current (AC) advocated by Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. ...

External links

• BBC News article: Hybrid answers to DVD format wars
• BBC News article: Next-generation DVD battle begins
• CNet Oct 1 2005: HD DVD vs. Blu-ray - 2 Camps
• CNet Oct 11 2006: NEC unveils chip to bridge Blu-ray/HD DVD divide