Blu-ray is backed by major film studios

A format war will be sparked across the globe later in the year when rival format HD-DVD also goes on sale.

The two incompatible formats, backed by a range of different hardware companies and film studios, are vying to become the format of choice to replace DVD.

Later this week the BBC News website will be reviewing one of the first Blu-ray players to hit the market, the Samsung BD-P1000.

We want you to let us know your questions you want answered on Blu-ray technology.

Do you have a specific question about high definition DVD technology? Are you confused about the rival formats? Do you have a question about Samsung's player?

Thank you for all the questions you have sent. We will endeavour to answer as many as possible in the review later this week

A question I am interested in - is the time taken to retreive the data from one of these new disks any greater than what it is with current CDs and DVDs?
Steve Cassidy, Hampshire, UK

Presumably, hi-def players will be backwards compatible and play all our old DVDs but will these players allow them to be 'uprated' (rendered at a higher picture quality)? Many current, standard definition machines do this so it would seem perverse if new ones did not.
Timothy Spence, Greenwich, London

If most film companies support Blu-ray and Blu-ray can hold far more data, what is the point of HD-DVD?
Jeff Culshaw, Liverpool, UK

What price can we expect the players to fall to by 2012?
Rob Popay, Fetcham, Leatherhead, UK

I'd like to know why the Samsung player is more than twice the cost in the UK compared to America? �900.00 compared to $740.00
Mike, Torquay, UK

Will either or both or these formats involve the farce that is region coding?
Rich, Turks and Caicos

Is HDTV required to reap the full benefits of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray's HD capabilities? If so, then what does this mean for me and other non-HDTV owners?
CyberKnight, Michigan, USA

What if neither take off, what's next?
Adeeb Ashfaq, Bradford,UK

How many times do movie studios expect us to buy the same movies in different formats?
John Dow, United Kingdom

Will any of these new fantastic formats iron-out the unacceptable inherent and noticable four percent speed-up problem which is currently found on every PAL DVD movie? (incured as a film transfer side -effect) Will we be able to watch films at the correct speed (i.e 24 frames ber second) as the movie director originally intended?
Graham Mcdonald, Addlestone, Surrey

Is the difference from DVD a significant reason to upgrade? The advantages DVD had over VHS were great, e.g. higher quality visuals and audio, menus and extra features, optional audio and subtitle langauges, compact for storage, disks don't wear away etc etc... is it just video quality that makes the new formats better?
Tom Handon, Brighton, UK

Why wasn't there a similar format war with DVD?
Stuart M, London, UK

Is it true that Blu-ray disks are more likely to break then HD-DVD disks?
Mark Canner, Derbyshire, UK

Will there be a significant cost difference between the players and movie releases for the two formats?
Liam Shelley, Birmingham, UK

Would it pass the "Mum" test? i.e. Would my Mum see an obvious and striking difference between a Blu-Ray and a HD-DVD picture? Technophiles may drool over the minutiae but it's consumers at "Mum" level who decide the format winner.
Richard Ross, Egginton, UK

Will this technology be helpful in preventing piracy?
Sameer Rafi, Karachi, Pakistan

I want to know which format will give me better quality video, which of the two have cheaper disc formats and which one is going to be more reliable?
Aiman Saleem, Quetta, Pakistan

How long will normal DVD's remain available? I'm perfectly happy with what I have at the moment, and don't want to be forced in to upgrading just because the films are no longer available in standard DVD format.
Tim Jinkerson, UK

When will the player that supports both formats be available? Dual licensing should not be a problem. Otherwise, the constant tug-o-war will result in half the consumers being out of pocket, just like the old betamax-VHS-philips 2000 wars of the late 70's.
Richard Beaumont, Shipley, West Yorkshire

Is it possible to make a machine that uses both Blu-ray and HD-DVD?
Hefin ap Llewelyn, Neath, Wales

Will the Blu-ray disc which has approx six times the memory of a DVD disc give us six movies or the same movie with improved six times visuals? Since the quality of visual entertainment is poor "content" rather than poor technology, I am not sure I even care what the answer is.
pepper constable, Lymington, Hants

What happens when one dies out and you've got the one that dies out? What do you do then?
Damien Pantony, Southwick, UK

Will either of the new HD formats play the current DVD standard definition format, and home recorded DVDs (-R,+R and so forth)? And if not, are there any plans to produce dual format players which can cope with the current DVD formats.
Stephen J Haywood, Worksop, UK

So which format is better? We all know that Betamax was better than VHS, but that VHS won because it was marketed better. Could we see the same thing happen here?
Jon Boxall, London