DVD Peace Talks Break Down
Bad news for those looking for a unified HD-DVD format. According to Wired News, Sony and Toshiba couldn’t come to an agreement and have put off their “peace talks” indfefintely. This could mean a huge pain in all of our asses, at least if we want to view discs in High Definition. If the industry cannot band together behind one format, we might need two DVD players in every HD house, or half of all HD-DVDs printed may be unviewable.
The article is short, so here it is:
Wired News Report
09:31 AM Aug. 23, 2005 PT
Sony and Toshiba have failed to agree on a unified format for next-generation DVDs.
Talks have been suspended indefinitely between a group of companies led by Sony (SNE), which supports the Blu-ray format, and the Toshiba-led bloc, which backs the HD-DVD format. Sony’s Blu-ray disks have a more sophisticated format and play back 25 GB of data compared with HD-DVD’s 15, but are more expensive to produce.
Toshiba spokesman Junko Furuta acknowledged that a unified format did not look likely for the time being. Furuta also said the more sophisticated Blu-ray disks would be harder to adopt for use in laptop computers, as well as in car-navigation systems, also popular in Japan.
Both sides are already developing products that feature the respective DVD formats. Toshiba plans to roll out HD-DVD players by the end of this year, while Sony’s game console PlayStation 3, which will play Blu-ray disks, is due out in spring 2006.
Maybe its all just a ploy to sell more Play Station 3 units? Who knows? Maybe these guys?
January 14th, 2007 at 7:12 am
I have just seen at the CES show in Vegas that LG have decided to opt for offering both HD and Blue Ray on one DVD playback machine, although with a hefty price tag of $1200 dollars RRP could it be a wise move or will we still have a favourite choosen by consumers such as the case with VHS and Betamax many years back. The next few years will be interesting to see how it follows.