SSDs vs. Optical Media

You may wonder where round one is. I will be answering you. If you love history then you know that everything is presented in a chronological order. And to be more specific, round one started when flashes surpassed the 700MB mark and started to threaten the CD-RW media. The arrival of DVD-RW changed nothing since flash devices kept the same pace. At the moment, a 4GB stick is pretty affordable and almost anyone carries one with him instead of using 5.25" DVD disks.

The coming of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray puts the war on halt since both the formats came with higher capacities than the current USB sticks. The HD formats could have won the battle, but they were too busy fighting themselves. And then SSDs appeared.

There are so many articles about what SSDs are and what they can do, so I won't bother you with any info. However, I will say this much: not only will the SSDs kick the classical hard drives out of the PC, but they might also burry the optical storage. With already-available capacities up to 128GB and with even larger models on the way, BR and HD-DVD are almost obsolete.

Maybe that won't happen for another 2 or 3 years, but the SSDs are here and nothing can fight them. Not even the Chinese, although I have to say that these people are pretty inventive when it comes to making budget products and brands.

China and Taiwan showcased their own versions of a HD disk called EVD/HD-FVD (forward versatile disk). The FVD disks for example have 1-3 layers and capacities ranging from 5.4-15GB according to the number of layers. The videos look comparable to those found on HD-DVDs and can be rendered in 720p/1080i modes. Although I love that they have managed to offer HD quality on DVD-like disks (the formats use Red laser instead of the more expensive blue one), I will say this again: optical media is at its end.