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With the advent of a new generation of high density discs to replace DVDs, it is easy for consumers to be confused about which format to upgrade to. The two competing formats, Blu-Ray and HD DVD, both offer a significant upgrade in video and audio quality; but as standalone players for both formats can retail for several hundreds of pounds, it is understandable that consumers do not want to end up buying the new Betamax.

In terms of technical performance both formats are similar, and show little discernible difference to the average consumer. A dual-layer Blu-Ray disc offers 50GB of storage space, compared to 30GB on a dual-layer HD DVD disc, but as of yet, only 40% of Blu-Ray releases are dual-layer, with the remaining 60% being single-layer discs utilizing 25GB of storage space. Still, even when comparing a 50GB Blu-Ray disc with a 30GB HD DVD, the difference to consumers will be minimal. Both formats support the MPEG-2, VC-1, and H.264 formats for video compression, and Dolby Digital, PCM, and DTS for audio compression. As a result, this battle of formats is going to be waged mainly via the titles available and the price and quality of players.

Initially, both formats were supported by all of the major studios, but as different studios have different stakes in the two formats, major studios started to drop formats. For example, Sony, owner of Columbia and TriStar Pictures, is one of the major developers of the Blu-Ray format, and has decided to drop HD DVD for its releases. Thus, Spiderman 3 is only available for Blu-Ray, something which will surely irk Spidey-loving HD DVD adopters. Releases on both formats tend to be priced similarly, a little more than their standard DVD counterparts.

When it comes to the players, a lot has happened, even in the past year. The first generation of standalone players for the two formats, released last year by Toshiba, Samsung and Panasonic, were seen as pricey and more aimed at early adopters than the general public, and have already been discontinued.

The latest generation of players have generally been seen as more value for money, but the smart money says to look elsewhere for now. Sony decided to include Blu-Ray playing capability for the Playstation 3 Console, which was undoubtedly a wise business move. It means the 5 million current PS3 owners already have a Blu-Ray player and gives those unsure which format to switch to an incentive to buy a PS3 as a low-risk option - even if Blu-Ray does go the way of the Betamax, they still have a state-of-the-art gaming console. In a similar tactic, consumers can now buy an HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360, which can also connect to a high-end PC via a USB connection.

As for now, Blu-Ray has the edge in the format war. Figures by Nielsen VideoScan, Gfk and the Nikkei, show that Blu-Ray is outselling HD DVDs at a ratio of 2 to 1 in the US and Europe and a ratio of 9 to 1 in Japan. This does not mean the battle is over just yet - a lot can still happen, particularly if Nintendo should decide to throw their hat in the ring by announcing an external player for either format for the Wii (a drive for normal DVDs will be released next year).

Hopefully at the end of the format war, the ultimate benefactor will be customers and not the corporations, but until then alternatives to standalone players can provide an affordable way to enjoy the best video and audio quality available for home viewing.

Andrew Regan is an online, freelance author from Scotland. He is a keen rugby player and enjoys traveling.

http://www.game.co.uk/PS3

Lots of graphics programs provide the opportunity to work in an RGB (Red, Green, Blue) or CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) color space. To understand each set of colors we need to understand how they are used and why they are used.

RGB Color Spaces
When working with RGB you are literally working with light. Recalling from school when you shine white light through a prism you get different color spectrums. The most basic colors are Red, Green and Blue. The colors are measured my intensity on a scale of 0-255 for all three colors (255 or 16 million colors). If you have no color (R=0, G=0, B=0) you get black, if you have 100% of all three colors (R=255, G=255, B=255) you get white.

CMYK Color Spaces
When working with CMYK you are working with pigment and that is why its used for printing. Pretty much all color printers (inkjets, laser printers, dye-sub printers, and even full color offset and web presses) use CMYK. Some printers come with more than one shade of Cyan and/Magenta in order to achieve more color combinations but they are all basically CMYK printers. All CMYK colors are based on the paper being printed on being white. CMYK is measured in percentages from 0% to 100% for all 4 colors. If you have no color (C=0%, M=0%, Y=0%, K=0%) you are left with white (the blank paper.) To make Black you can either use 100% Black and 0% of all the other colors (know as standard black) or you can use a combination of all the colors to give you a darker black known as Rich Black. The most common ratio of colors to get rich back was popularized by Adobe Photoshop which uses this ink mixture when converting RGB black to CMYK (C=63%, M=52%, Y=51%, K=100%.)

When to use RGB or CMYK
Knowing when to use RGB and when to use CMYK can save you lots of time and headache and the rule is very simple. If your purpose is to display images and colors on a computer monitor (slide shows, web pages, movies, power point presentations, emailing flyers, scanning pictures) use RGB. If you are going to be printing images and colors they need to be in CMYK (although printers can convert the images for you you may incur additional charges or unexpected results since there are many colors in RGB that cannot be replicated in CMYK.

Whats the problem?
The main challenge with the two color spaces is in the printing. RGB colors that are bright and vibrant are normally much duller when printed in CMYK (after all since RGB is light itself you are never going to get a brighter image on paper.) The toughest colors to reproduce for CMYK is blue and red. On the screen RGB blue looks bright and very blue, on paper however you end up with navy blue instead. If you ever printed out a webpage with blue links on it you know exactly what Im talking about.

Is there a solution to the RGB to CMYK problem?
Yes. The solution to the problem is to to always work in CMYK when printing. If you are using print design software (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, PageMaker, Quark, FreeHand, etc.) then you can select CMYK before you get started and you will not have to worry about a thing. If you are using a program that was not designed for printing (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, etc.) then you will never have the option of changing to CMYK because the software was not designed for printing. It pays to have the right software.

Article provided by Sac Digital Printing. Sac Digital provides full color printing on business cards, postcards, brochures, flyers, letterhead and door hangers. For more information on printing visit http://sacdigital.com