Now that both formats have their first devices on the table let's see where the format war stands by comparing both feature sets. We'll include Capacity, Interactive Features, Content Protection and everyone's favorite - Managed Copy as our categories. We won't include movie selection because neither has the Star Wars or Lord of the Rings Trilogies.

Capacity

HD DVD: 15 Gigabytes single layer.

Blu-ray: 25 Gigabytes single layer.

Winner: Blu-ray, but not by much. Many people see Blu-ray as the superior choice because of the relatively tiny numeric advantage. But put it into perspective with the capacity of a future storage medium. A possible successor to the new disk media has already been developed, it's called Holographic Versatile Disk developed by InPhase and to being manufactured by Maxell and Hitachi. To give you an idea how unimpressive the storage difference between HD DVD and Blu-ray are: A single HVD will be a 1.6 Terabyte rewritable storage medium.

Interactive features

HD DVD: iHD interactive standards were created by Microsoft in conjunction with Disney and the DVD Forum. iHD will be support interactivity with your Windows PC when Windows Vista is rolled out. It's not exactly clear how or even if it's going to be used in practice.

Blu-ray: The BD-Java standard is a special version of Sun Microsystem's Java. Again, who knows what it'll do exactly but potential for these are vast. But in terms of a straight movie player, do we really want to interact with our Blockbuster rental? Are studios liable to add the expense of interactive features to movies?

Winner: HD DVD in a slight edge here just because more people use Windows. The standard is directly supported by Microsoft so it's likely to have a major inroad to compatibility with Vista. But realy. How much of this interactivity are we really going to see when either medium arrives? When DVD first came out we heard about all the interactive euphoria then too. To us jaded DVD veterans we have little use for animated menu systems when we just want to watch a movie. Many of the promised DVD features are not much more than an annoyance. Studios aren't likely to spend extra money developing substantial interactive features and if they did; would we the unwashed movie watching public be buying?

Content Protection

HD DVD: Will use the AACS (Advanced Access Copyright System) DRM (Digital Rights Management) scheme. This is going to be the complete solution for copy protecting all digital high definition entertainment. Welcome, to the new, real world.

Everyone will get used to AACS, it'll be integrated into any future connection standard (such as HDMI or DisplayPort) computer operating system, video card or anything that wants to transmit, store or playback any entertainment content created by the major studios.

Blu-ray: Will also use AACS. However Blu-ray gets extra points with the studios for being a good little format by making it even harder for hackers. Two added layers of content protection are BD+ and ROM Mark. Forget Blu-ray's greater storage capacity, this is why more movies going to BD than HD DVD.

Managed Copy

HD DVD: First to impose Mandatory Managed Copy (MMC). MMC is one of those tricks of AACS that will fully control any copies you make across your network. HD DVD was the first to support this feature which will allow you to move your HD DVD movie to your home server and other computers or a mobile device. MMC could incorporate a pay-per-copy system or it could arrive on the streets in a system that allows you to buy a "premium" version of a movie with unlimited copies through MMC or the "just one" copy version. How MMC will be used is up to the studio releasing the disk.

Blu-ray: Wasn't going to support MMC until HP drew a line in the sand and demanded both MMC and iHD for its continued support of the Blu-ray standard. That Blu-ray initially didn't support MMC is what gave BD a major push by the recording studios who don't want any part of copying their intellectual property. But with a majority of the studios behind Blu-ray, the Blu-ray specification relented and gave HP MMC. It's still a pay-per-copy system, it's unclear exactly how it will be implemented but it's up to the studio and the disk exactly how MMC will be applied.

Winner: Neither. That's right, neither side wins here because neither Toshiba's HD-A1 nor Samsung's BD-P1000 will support Managed Copy in any form. Your prize for being an early adopter is a device stripped of the full feature set of the format you've chosen. AACS, the content protection DRM (digital rights management) scheme hadn't completed the standard in to time for it to be included in the early players. Instead the first round of next gen disk players will an Interim AACS developed specifically for the early devices.

Richard Doherty, spokesperson of the AACS Licensing Association says: "We expected the first early players to be basic players and we didn't want to slow down the roll out of those devices."