In today's modern market place, there are lots of formats for optical digital media storage, ranging from the venerable CD-ROM, and "super secret compression algorithms" to HD-DVD and BluRay, including the inevitable DVD-R and HD-DVD-RW formats.
Digital optical media formats have their specifications set by working groups, which are made up of engineers representing various manufacturers who intend to build and sell the hardware, and usually each manufacturer has some sort of technology they've developed that they want included in the specification.
By making sure that their preferred technology is in the specification, they get a small royalty paid on every single device sold, and with the sales of the devices running in the hundreds of millions of units per year, every royalty - even a small one - adds up to real money.
As a result, it's possible to get format wars, much like there was at the dawn of the video cassette recorder, with VHS and BetaMax.
In fact, the only major media format that didn't have a format war in recent memory is the CD-ROM, which had its specification hammered down by Sony, who owned most of the patents involved.
When DVDs first came out, and the possibility of recording home movies came about, the format for recordable DVD media came into being - it was called the DVD-R.
Trying to extend that format into read-write capabilities led to two camps, and two formats - the DVD-RW and the DVD+RW; the difference between the two specifications literally came down to whose controller chip would be used, in terms of end user performance there's no appreciable difference, aside from the fact that some devices had difficulty playing back media made with one or the other of the two formats.
Because of its greater backwards compatibility with standard DVD-ROM drives, DVD-RW eventually took a lead, but not the commanding one; Phillips was the first manufacturer to make a DVD device that could read and write both of the RW formats, and their hardware specification became the standard used by the computer field.
This format war is about to play out again.
High Definition TV requires a lot more information than can be packed into one DVD, so a high definition DVD drive and media format needs to be hammered out; both of these devices use shorter wavelength lasers, to inscribe smaller dots in the recording media, mostly in the blue-green wavelengths of visible light.
These two formats, called HD-DVD and BluRay, are just entering the market now, and their impact is stunning.
Which one will succeed in the market place?In all likelihood, the company that will succeed will be the one (like Panasonic) that makes a device that can read both formats.
When it comes to ease of production, HD-DVDs are cheaper for film studios to press, as they're an extension of existing CD-pressing techniques, while BluRay offers more storage space, and a longer shelf life - but is put out by Sony, which charges a larger royalty.
In the market place, it will probably be the adult entertainment industry that picks the winner, as they'll be the first significant volume publishers; they're already leaning towards HD-DVD for their format of choice, and there's already a working group working on HD-DVD-RW...
which will likely have another format war erupt, knowing how things have worked in the past.