Week 7 Beat Journal

Caleb Hawley
Beat Journal week seven
NMC 301

Blu-Ray or HD DVD

Never in all of my days did I expect so much media buzz over a personal movie watching platform. It definitely was covered on about as many media formats as possible from the newspaper, to online print, to NPR and to blogs. Crazy stuff. I like DVD’s but, wow I guess I am out of the loop. I had no idea the global home entertainment market was $42 billion.

The most common occurrence between all of the different media is the discussion of whether it will be Blu-Ray DVD players or HD DVD players as the common media format to replace standard DVD’s. According to the four sources Blu-Ray has all but won. In doing so, it has prompted more media change.

Microsoft’s X-Box 360 when released a few months ago came equipped with an HD DVD player option. Now with Blu-Ray taking the upper hand, Microsoft has now developed a media center Blu-Ray player accessory. I bring this up because X-Box to me can be thrown into this theme of “new media.” The video game console has all the makings of a computer and attached to a television screen which is essentially a monitor and there you have it a personal computer. For the media guru who plays a lot of video games he or she can now get all their news they want from X-Box Live, watch videos, play music or podcasts. I think the Blu-Ray player is just another piece building on new media.

I really thought having so many different media formats reporting this news it really gave you an understanding of what is going on in the movie and home entertainment industry, especially the blog site. This had numerous angles from different sources, which all seemed to be relatively credible with some type of backing. Having more than a once source information machine I think is what really improved the coverage of this news. This is something that maybe could not have been possible in years prior to new media practices of such things like blogs and internet radio.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19141319; Wal-Mart

http://blogs.computerworld.com/has_blu_ray_won_hd_dvd_r_i_p_and_souvenir_potpourri_2; Has blu-ray won?

http://www.4rfv.co.uk/industrynews.asp?id=71848; Blu-Ray Edges Towards Victory As Toshiba Reviews HD DVD Format.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/technology/05disc.html?scp=1&sq=blu-ray&st=nyt; Warner Backs Blu-Ray, Tilting DVD Battle