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Post by dkennedy on Jun 9, 2005 4:53:33 GMT -5
HD DVD write-once discs due in 2006
Published: June 8, 2005, 4:45 PM PDT By Reuters
Hitachi Maxell and a unit of Mitsubishi Chemical said Wednesday they will launch HD DVD-based write-once discs next year, a move marking the latest development in a DVD format battle.
A group led by Toshiba supports a technology called HD DVD for next-generation DVDs, which promise much greater capacity for high-definition movies, while a camp led by Sony backs another format called Blu-ray.
At stake is pole position in the multibillion dollar markets for DVD players, PC drives and optical discs.
Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media said they plan to introduce the new products, which will be the first HD DVD-based write-once discs, early next year in time for the scheduled launch of HD DVD recorders by Toshiba.
Availability of write-once discs is important since they account for 87 percent of recordable disc demand globally among users of current generation DVDs, with rewriteable discs, which can be rewritten multiple times, representing the remainder, Toshiba said.
Sony and some other companies in the competing camp have already launched Blu-ray-based DVD recorders and rewriteable discs, but have not offered write-once discs in the new format.
Following the joint announcement of the new HD DVD discs, Sony said Blu-ray-based write-once discs are expected to become available as early as in the last quarter of 2005.
At the core of both formats are blue lasers, which have a shorter wavelength than the red lasers used in current DVD equipment, allowing discs to store data at the higher densities needed for high-definition movies and television.
Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku said the HD DVD-based write-once discs can be manufactured using existing production equipment, helping curb production costs.
The Blu-ray camp emphasizes the high recording capacity of its discs while promoters of the rival format say HD DVD would mean a less costly transition for the industry because its disc structure is very close to that of current discs.
Story Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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Post by dkennedy on Jun 9, 2005 6:27:08 GMT -5
Toshiba develops high-def DVD
Wednesday, June 8, 2005 Updated at 1:58 PM EDT
Associated Press TOKYO — Japan's Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday that it has developed the technology to mass-produce recordable high-definition DVDs.
The advance is the latest step in a heated global race to establish a world standard for the next-generation of optical disks, which are expected to offer sharper images than current DVDs.
Toshiba said the new technology, developed jointly with Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co. and Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories Inc., will enable the manufacture of single-recording HD-DVD disks with 15-gigabyte storage capacity.
Disc manufacturers, currently producing recordable DVD disks, will only have to make minor modifications to be able to produce the new higher-definition kind, Toshiba said.
Optical disc makers Hitachi Maxell Ltd. and Mitsubishi Kagaku said they would market the new HD-DVD-R discs next spring, when Toshiba plans to launch HD-DVD recorders.
In the battle for a high-definition successor to DVDs, there are two technologies competing to become the world standard.
Toshiba leads a group that backs the HD-DVD format, while Sony Corp. leads a rival group promoting the Blu-ray Disc format.
Blu-ray have more capacity with 50 gigabytes compared to 30 gigabytes for HD-DVD read-only disks, but proponents of HD-DVD say their format is cheaper to make because the production method is similar to current DVDs.
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Post by dkennedy on Jun 10, 2005 6:52:40 GMT -5
Sony says single standard for new DVDs is `unlikely'
June 10, 2005
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Ken Kutaragi, who helped invent Sony Corp's PlayStation game console, said creating a single standard for new DVDs that can store more high-definition movies and pictures than current discs is unlikely.
Sony and Matsunutsa Electric Industrial Co, which lead a group that developed the Blu-ray disc, have been in talks to unify their format with the HD DVD disc promoted by Toshiba Corp and NEC Corp. The competing formats for the new DVDs promise high-definition pictures, better sound quality, more capacity and improved copyright protection than standard DVDs.
The chances of unifying the formats are "almost none," Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, said yesterday at a meeting with reporters in Tokyo. "It's very difficult."
Sony is counting on the support of film studios and game software developers to make Blu-ray the dominant standard, and already has the backing of Walt Disney Co and Electronic Arts Inc. The Tokyo-based company is trying to avoid a repeat of past failures, such as its Betamax format losing out to VHS as the video standard more than two decades ago.
"A unified market can help the company increase its content quickly," said Ken Kamonutsa, who manages the equivalent of US$25 million, including Sony shares, at Tokyo-based DLIBJ Asset Management. "A breakdown in talks would make many things uncertain in that business."
Blu-ray discs have as much as 20 times more storage capacity than the 4.7 gigabytes offered by current DVDs, while HD DVD can store about 10 times more data.
Both sides have highlighted the problems in creating a unified standard for the discs, which use a blue laser to read and record information. Blu-ray's recording layer is located 0.1mm from the surface of the disc, compared with 0.6mm for HD DVD.
"With the dialogue focusing on 0.1 and 0.6, there is no way for the two sides to divide things fairly," Kutaragi said.
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Post by dkennedy on Jun 15, 2005 4:54:59 GMT -5
Japan's Sanyo Electric joins Sony-led Blu-ray Disc group
June 15, 2005
TOKYO (AP) - Japanese consumer electronics maker Sanyo Electric Co. has joined a group of companies led by Sony Corp. to develop recordable high-definition DVD disks, but will also remain allied with a rival group, a report said Tuesday.
Sanyo's decision to help both the Sony-led group and its competitor adds uncertainty to the race to develop a global standard for next-generation optical disks, which are expected to offer sharper images than current DVDs.
Sony leads a group promoting the Blu-ray Disc format, while Japan's Toshiba Corp. leads a rival group that backs the HD-DVD format.
Sanyo quietly joined the Blu-ray Disc side in April, while retaining its ties to the HD-DVD group, the Kyodo news agency quoted the company's officials as saying Tuesday. It plans to have a DVD player compatible with the HD-DVD format on store shelves later this year.
The news follows Toshiba's announcement last week that it is preparing to mass produce recordable high-definition DVDs with a 15-gigabyte storage capacity. Hitachi Maxell Ltd. and Mitsubishi Kagaku plan to market the new discs next spring, when Toshiba is scheduled to launch the new DVD recorders.
Sanyo plans to make a key part of the machines that reads the discs for both formats -- apparently hedging its bet, as the two groups pour resources into a technology that is expected to revolutionize Hollywood movies and consumer electronics.
A Sanyo spokesman couldn't be reached after the company's headquarters in the western city of Osaka closed for the day. At the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Sanyo shares fell 1 yen to 272 yen ($2.50).
Blu-ray has more capacity, with 50 gigabytes, compared to 30 gigabytes for HD-DVD read-only disks, but proponents of HD-DVD say their format is cheaper to make because the production method is similar to current DVDs.
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Post by dkennedy on Jun 22, 2005 4:32:49 GMT -5
Blu-Ray, HD-DVD Talks Driven by Fear of Holography
June 21, 2005
HD Update, Multichannel News
The latest word from sources in the battling HD-DVD and Blu-Ray next-generation DVD camps is that the on-again, off-again compromise talks between the two forthcoming consumer standards are on again. The talks are commonly perceived as driven by born-again Sony management’s determination to avoid another Beta/VHS-style format war which it lost nearly three decades ago. But two other developments are driving the talks.
In mid-June, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim, Hitachi Maxell, and Hayashibara Biochemical Labs jointly announced development of a prototype HD-DVD-R disk. DVD-R is once-recordable media that the companies claim can be produced at high volume with little modification in today’s DVD-R plants. They plan to begin mass-producing HD-DVD-R disks in Q2, 2006, simultaneous with the launch of HD-DVD hardware.
Said Hisashi Yamada, chief fellow of Toshiba’s Digital Media Network Co., “In 2004 the recordable and rewritable DVD disk market stood at around 1.4 billion disks, and about 90% of those disks were write-once disks. The next generation write-once HD DVD disk will be just as important.”
But will this be the format that most consumers use to record HD video? Blu-Ray’s advantage over HD-DVD had been in simpler disk manufacturing (single-sided vs. the early double-sided HD-DVDs). It also used more advanced but also more expensive blue lasers, vs. red lasers for play-only generations of HD-DVD. But now both standards are to be single-sided and use blue lasers. And both are backed by powerful consortia of manufacturers, though HD-DVD has been endorsed by more content providers.
Just entering production, however, is a radically more powerful disk recording system: holographic storage.
Three companies demonstrated holographic storage at April’s NAB show: the Bell Labs spin-off InPhase Technologies, the Japanese start-up Optware, and Fuji Photo Film. Hitachi and others also claim to be working on it. Holographic storage has been under development for the better part of a decade, with many millions spent. Now, finally, InPhase actually has production models. The company’s first-generation disks hold 300 GB -- enough for an uncompressed prime-time hour of HD content -- with a 160 Mbps transfer rate, faster than most video recording media used today (though slower than the old uncompressed serial digital standard ITU-T 601).
The combination of huge capacity and extremely fast transfers bespeaks high-quality motion pictures and sound, with vast potential uses in content production and home recording alike. If Blu-Ray and HD-DVD battle each other, they may slow down adoption enough to allow prices to come down rapidly to competitive levels for holographic disks. But if a single, unopposed DVD-R standard can come to market quickly it will achieve far lower pricing than holographic disks can reach for many years.
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Post by dkennedy on Jun 27, 2005 16:46:42 GMT -5
Microsoft Moves Into Midst of DVD Format War
June 27, 2005
By Jay Lyman, ECT News Network
As the two sides pushing different standards for the next-generation DVD format continue to send mixed signals on a unified technology, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Toshiba announced today they would be collaborating to create products compatible with the HD DVD format, which is competing against the Sony-backed Blu-ray.
Expected and predicted by some industry observers, the cooperation is an effort to combine the companies' software and hardware capabilities to more rapidly create next-generation DVD technology for consumer devices.
Analysts praised the move, calling it a logical strategy for the increasingly important consumer electronics market. However, they said the partnership -- which will mean the use of HD DVD and the Windows CE operating system in new devices -- will likely have no impact on the continuing fight for standard supremacy of either HD DVD or Blu-ray.
"It makes a lot of sense, and they're doing it for shorter development times and reduced cost," Gartner research vice president Van Baker told TechNewsWorld. "Will it do anything to resolve the issues in the format war? No."
DVD Direction Microsoft and Toshiba said their announced collaboration, an expansion of the two giants' previous partnership, was an effort to speed up availability of new DVD devices for consumers.
The two will investigate development of HD DVD players using Windows CE for application in consumer electronics and computing , they said.
"This agreement demonstrates our desire to share our innovations with other companies in ways that promote the spread of new ideas -- and benefit customers by accelerating the development of exciting new products," said a statement from Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates.
The two companies will also work together on iHD, the DVD Forum's newest format for interactivity, they said.
Divided on Unification The competing DVD standards have been developed and promoted separately, with each side touting technical and support advantages. Both formats have sizable companies -- Toshiba and Sony (NYSE: SNE) and their partners -- squarely behind them, and there are indications the battle will continue along the so-called Beta-VHS path, where different standards for video cassettes resulted in a confused market.
Gartner's Baker said as long as there are competing standards, the battle will continue. While Toshiba has stated that negotiations on a unified format have ended, Sony's president indicated in a recent briefing there was still a chance for a single next-gen DVD disc, according to Baker.
"Sony's holding out hope to do this," he said.
Amid the mixed signals, Baker and other analysts believe the consumer market will not respond well to another format fight, particularly if they are unsure which discs will ultimately be the standard.
"If they don't come to terms, this market's going nowhere in a hurry," Baker said.
Conflict Continues Jupiter Research vice president Michael Gartenberg said it makes sense that Microsoft and its Windows CE will play a role in next-generation devices, including DVD players. However, the analyst also said Microsoft may also back Blu-ray in some way.
"It's really a question of supporting [the HD DVD format] in terms of the right drivers, as opposed to a strategic move," Gartenberg told TechNewsWorld.
The analyst indicated the odds of agreement on a unified format is unlikely, given the posture of the players involved.
"I think what's going to happen is this is not changing in any way, shape or form," he said. "There's going to be a battle, and no one's showing any sign of backing down."
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Post by dkennedy on Jul 4, 2005 16:03:21 GMT -5
War of incompatibility: HD DVD vs. Blu-ray
June 27, 2005
By Alex Pham and Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times
Movie buffs, brace yourselves for another round of Betamax versus VHS.
Two decades after the competing video formats battled for space in American living rooms, a new war is looming between two incompatible types of high-definition video disc scheduled to hit the market later this year.
One, called HD DVD, is the official choice of the group that backs conventional DVDs. The other, called Blu-ray, is spearheaded by more than a dozen big-name consumer-electronics and high-tech companies.
The two camps are still trying to strike a last-minute deal and agree on common technical standards. But with the first devices and discs slated to hit store shelves this Christmas, the window for a compromise is closing fast, people close to situation say. In addition to the money and egos involved, the physical differences in the two disc formats are keeping the two sides far apart.
"The train is going to start leaving the station shortly," said Josh Petersen, director of strategic alliances for Hewlett-Packard Co., which backs Blu-ray. A format war "looks more and more inevitable every day. We're approaching the point of no return."
Major Hollywood studios exacerbate the problem by splitting their support between the two formats, each of which promise to deliver richly detailed pictures and cinema-quality sound. Guided by differing visions for the high-definition future, half of the studios have announced plans to release HD DVD discs, and the other half are expected to back Blu-ray.
Should the format war reach consumers, the battle could be over quickly. Sony Corp. plans to include a Blu-ray drive in its hotly anticipated PlayStation 3 video game console next year, which could put Blu-ray in several million homes in a matter of months.
The worst casualties could be the video enthusiasts who spend close to $1,000 on a new disc player only to have it become quickly obsolete. Analysts say a format war would also slow the transition to high-definition discs, reducing sales for consumer-electronics manufacturers and studios alike.
At stake is a multi-billion dollar market for next-generation DVDs. Since their introduction in 1997, DVD players have become the fastest-selling consumer electronics device of all time and are now in two-thirds of U.S. homes. Americans spent more than $20 billion buying and renting DVDs last year.
But sales of players are starting to slow, prompting technology and entertainment companies to lay the groundwork for a replacement.
The audience for high-definition discs is relatively small today. Viewing the new discs requires a high-definition TV set, and less than 13 million homes in the United States had one by the end of 2004, according to market research firm In-Stat.
That number is rising rapidly, helped in part by the growth in TV programs aired in high definition by broadcasters, cable and satellite TV networks. The main piece missing for these viewers has been a improved version of the DVD that could bring high-definition pictures to home video.
Consumers such as Mike Fujii from Emeryville, Calif., are prepared to spend $1,000 on a new DVD player -- as long as the picture quality is a significant leap over his current DVDs.
"If the difference in picture quality is that great, then yeah, I'll buy one fairly soon," said Fujii, 41, who bought a 52-inch rear projection HDTV two years ago to watch high-definition satellite television broadcasts. "If not, I would just use the DVDs I have now. A thousand dollars is a lot to spend on a player. Right now you can get a DVD player for under $100."
Still, prettier pictures may not be enough to persuade the masses to embrace high-definition discs, said Bob Chapek, president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, a division of Walt Disney Co. "You'd better be chock-full of features" that are not available on DVD, Chapek said.
That is why Disney is backing Blu-ray, which offers at least 25 gigabytes per disc, compared to 15 gigabytes for basic HD DVD discs and 4.7 gigabytes for conventional DVDs.
Executives at Warner Bros., which has announced plans to release HD DVD discs, counter that the Blu-ray group has not been able to answer critical questions about manufacturing costs, their discs' resistance to warping and other reliability issues. They say the HD DVD group has proven its ability to mass-produce double-layer discs and hybrids that combine a conventional DVD on one side with a high-definition movie on the other -- a key product for movie fans who have yet to buy an HDTV.In spite of the format dilemma, many consumer-electronics executives are eager to shift to high-definition discs because profit margins have shrunk dramatically on conventional DVD players and sales have started to drop. According to Strategy Analytics, worldwide sales of DVD players peaked in 2004 at $20.1 billion and are expected to drop this year for the first time by 1 percent to $19.8 billion, falling to $15.3 billion in 2010.
Disc sales and rentals are growing more slowly, too, yet DVD sales and rentals accounted for about 55 percent of the revenue from feature films in the U.S. last year, according to Adams Media Research. While the studios are leery of disturbing that cash cow, they also want to replace DVDs with a format that is less vulnerable to piracy.
The home video market has endured two format wars already, starting with the battle between Sony's Betamax and JVC's VHS in the mid-1970s. The fight lasted a little more than a decade, with the VHS share growing from about 75 percent of the market in 1980 to 95 percent in 1988 despite Betamax's reputation for better picture quality. Sony finally abandoned its Betamax product line in 2002.In the mid-1990s, Sony and Philips Electronics backed a new format for video discs, while Toshiba Corp. and Warner Bros. supported a more radical shift to a higher-capacity approach. Sony and Philips eventually backed a compromise approach based largely on Warner and Toshiba's technology, and the DVD format was announced in December 1995. But a format war broke out anyway when retailer Circuit City Stores Inc., a handful of consumer-electronics manufacturers and a few of the major studios offered -- briefly -- a pay-per-play approach called Divx.
This time around, a split-the-baby compromise is virtually impossible, both sides acknowledge. That's because the core difference lies with a single aspect of the disc -- a thin layer of plastic that sits just above the metal surface on which data is written. An HD DVD disc calls for a 0.6 millimeter coating, while a Blu-ray disc requires 0.1 millimeters.
While that doesn't seem like much, the half-millimeter gap amounts to a technological chasm. HD DVD's thicker coating is the same as current DVDs, which allows manufacturers to use existing disc stamping equipment to make the new discs. That gives HD DVD a significant cost advantage and more predictability about what those costs will be, backers say.
HD DVD players can also rely on some of the same technology as conventional DVDs, making it easier to build players that can handle both generations of disc. That's an important feature, given how many conventional DVDs movie buffs already own, backers say.
Blu-ray's thinner coating requires all new manufacturing equipment, but it's the secret behind the disc's higher capacity. Because the laser travels through a thinner layer of resin, it's able to focus more sharply and write 67 percent more data onto the disc itself.
"Since they're different designs, it's not possible to compromise down the middle," said Brian Zucker, technology strategist at Dell Inc. and a Blu-ray spokesman. "To come up with a mix of the two approaches for that physical layer would not be practical."
The two sides could use one camp's disc structure and the other's software, generating royalties for both. But doing so would require one side or the other to give up the core advantages of its format -- either the cost, compatibility and reliability strengths of HD DVD, or the capacity of Blu-ray.
Retailers prefer a single format over two competing technologies.
"Ultimately, we believe one standard is far preferable to multiple standards," said Circuit City spokesman Jim Babb.
"Nobody wants a format war," said Dell's Zucker. "Not the device manufacturers. Not the studios. Not the consumers. Consumers will delay their purchase if there's confusion, and that results in a market stagnation for everyone. The problem is that we all believe we have the solution that's best."
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Post by dkennedy on Jul 4, 2005 16:06:40 GMT -5
Current state of the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD
June 27, 2005
by Seán Byrne, Los Angeles Times
With the recent end to the Blu-ray and HD DVD disc unification talks, it is clear that we are going to have another format war unless some last-minute deal happens. Currently the Blu-ray format appears to be at an advantage due to the PlayStation 3 game console taking on this format. If this console turns out as successful as the PS2, this would mean widespread Blu-ray usage, even if the upcoming Playstation 3 customers have no intention of getting Blu-ray Video players or movies for another while yet.
On the other hand, HD DVD players are aimed to hit the retail stores in time for the Christmas holiday season shopping, while Blu-ray expects their player launch next spring. HD DVD also has the advantage of being able to mass-produce HD DVD discs using existing DVD manufacturing equipment as well as be pressed as a DVD / HD DVD hybrid to offer support for existing DVD players. Blu-ray on the other hand still has still not fully sorted out manufacturing costs, resistance to warping as well as reliability issues.
When it comes to both formats, currently roughly half of the movie studios plan to release content on HD DVD discs, while the other half plan to release content on Blu-ray discs. Unfortunately, as the players are going to be very expensive (~$1,000) to start off with, if one format turns out unsuccessful then those who purchased players for this format would end up losing out. Finally, unlike the introduction of the DVD player where pretty much all TV's could take advantage of DVD's higher quality over VHS, only 13% of households have a HDTV set (as of May), thus even if this is to rise to the expected 22% by the year end, it would mean that only 1/5 of the population could take full advantage of a HD player if they were to upgrade.
"The train is going to start leaving the station shortly," said Josh Peterson, director of strategic alliances for Hewlett-Packard Co., which backs Blu-ray. A format war "looks more and more inevitable every day. We're approaching the point of no return."
Major Hollywood studios exacerbate the problem by splitting their support between the two formats, each of which promises to deliver richly detailed pictures and cinema-quality sound. Both types also will play current DVDs. Guided by differing visions for the high-definition future, half of the studios have announced plans to release HD DVD discs, and the other half are expected to back Blu-ray.
Although HD DVD players are expected to be in stores for the all-important holiday shopping season, the backers of Blu-ray think they have the advantage: Sony Corp. plans to include a Blu-ray drive in its hotly anticipated PlayStation 3 video game console. The game console won't arrive in the U.S. until next year, but the popularity of the PlayStation franchise may inspire buyers to wait for it.
If sales of PlayStation 3 repeat the performance of PlayStation 2, there could be Blu-ray players in several million homes in a matter of months.
If one format quickly becomes obsolete, casualties could include consumers who spend about $1,000 on the losing disc player. Analysts say a format war would also slow the transition to high-definition discs, reducing sales for consumer-electronics manufacturers and studios alike.
If the movie studios plan to keep up their attitude in sticking to one format or the other (but not both), this could easily stop consumers from upgrading if they end up being restricted to what ever movies launch in their format they go for. Then again, chances are that all the movie studios will be forced to adopt both formats if they want to sell their movies to all customers using either Blu-ray or HD DVD.
With more satellite TV channels taking on HDTV and the expected launch of HD DVD by the year end, it will be interesting to see how rapidly consumers will be to upgrade their TVs or if the majority will wait for prices to fall first.
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Post by dkennedy on Jul 11, 2005 5:55:21 GMT -5
As growth slows, Hollywood faces a DVD standoff
JULY 11, 2005
By Ken Belson The New York Times CENTURY CITY, California The Hollywood studio executives who gathered here at an annual home entertainment summit meeting last month were all chuckles and backslaps. In front of several hundred industry managers, analysts and reporters, they talked breezily about hit movies, DVD sales and prospects for the holiday season. Then, with a few minutes left, the moderator asked the question everyone had been waiting for: Can the studios break the deadlock between the rival camps developing the next generation of digital videodiscs, players and recorders? The question was not academic. Hollywood has been unable to decide between two new formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD. Tens of billions of dollars in potential sales hang in the balance. Before anyone could answer, Thomas Lesinski, president of home entertainment at Paramount Pictures, jumped in and said it would be "counterproductive" to discuss the issue while negotiations were going on behind the scenes. Stunned by the response, the audience responded with nervous laughter, and the other executives fell silent. Lesinski's testy reaction was a sign of how touchy the debate over the competing formats has become. To just about everyone's regret, the studios are split over which group to support. Sony's studio and Disney, with 39 percent of the DVD market, back the Blu-ray group, which includes Sony, Panasonic, Hewlett-Packard and others. Warner, Universal and Paramount, with 43 percent of the market, support the HD DVD standard developed by Toshiba and NEC. Fox, MGM, Lion's Gate and others that together have the remaining 18 percent of the market have yet to declare their allegiance. Since the rival discs are largely incompatible, the studios have been unable to persuade the manufacturers to reach a compromise. Players for both are expected to be compatible with the current generation of DVDs, however. Studios, retailers and electronics, computer and video game makers are still gearing up for a format war over the new technology, which promises high-definition video, enhanced audio and numerous interactive features. In the fourth quarter, consumers will start seeing high-definition DVD players and movies in stores. But because there is no foreseeable end to the format fight, retailers and studio chiefs say they expect shoppers to shy away. After all, the equipment could quickly become obsolete, just as the Sony Betamax home machines faded in the 1980s CENTURY CITY, California The Hollywood studio executives who gathered here at an annual home entertainment summit meeting last month were all chuckles and backslaps. In front of several hundred industry managers, analysts and reporters, they talked breezily about hit movies, DVD sales and prospects for the holiday season. Then, with a few minutes left, the moderator asked the question everyone had been waiting for: Can the studios break the deadlock between the rival camps developing the next generation of digital videodiscs, players and recorders? The question was not academic. Hollywood has been unable to decide between two new formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD. Tens of billions of dollars in potential sales hang in the balance. Before anyone could answer, Thomas Lesinski, president of home entertainment at Paramount Pictures, jumped in and said it would be "counterproductive" to discuss the issue while negotiations were going on behind the scenes. Stunned by the response, the audience responded with nervous laughter, and the other executives fell silent. Lesinski's testy reaction was a sign of how touchy the debate over the competing formats has become. To just about everyone's regret, the studios are split over which group to support. Sony's studio and Disney, with 39 percent of the DVD market, back the Blu-ray group, which includes Sony, Panasonic, Hewlett-Packard and others. Warner, Universal and Paramount, with 43 percent of the market, support the HD DVD standard developed by Toshiba and NEC. Fox, MGM, Lion's Gate and others that together have the remaining 18 percent of the market have yet to declare their allegiance. Since the rival discs are largely incompatible, the studios have been unable to persuade the manufacturers to reach a compromise. Players for both are expected to be compatible with the current generation of DVDs, however. Studios, retailers and electronics, computer and video game makers are still gearing up for a format war over the new technology, which promises high-definition video, enhanced audio and numerous interactive features. In the fourth quarter, consumers will start seeing high-definition DVD players and movies in stores. But because there is no foreseeable end to the format fight, retailers and studio chiefs say they expect shoppers to shy away. After all, the equipment could quickly become obsolete, just as the Sony Betamax home machines faded in the 1980s after losing out to the VHS format. With no great pleasure, Lesinski said in an interview that if the rivals released competing discs and players, each would probably generate half as much revenue as only one new format would. "Both sides have so much vested in their technology that no one wants to blink, given the potential upside," Lesinski said. Paramount, along with Warner and Universal, will release 89 movies this year in the HD DVD format. The three studios have backed the HD format because the technology is essentially an upgrade of existing DVD technology, so it requires less investment and time to produce. Toshiba says it can make the discs now for just a few pennies more than today's discs. Yet, as Blu-ray advocates love to point out, their discs are capable of offering better-quality video because they hold more data, about 50 gigabytes versus 30 gigabytes for a double-layer disc. (Current DVDs hold less than five gigabytes.) Blu-ray also gives the studios and game makers more room for interactive features. These goodies, they say, will make it more attractive to consumers, who will have to pay about $1,000 for the first machines. "Some of these things chew up a lot of capacity," said Bob Chapek, an executive with Buena Vista, a unit of Disney. But to get all that, the Blu-ray companies are creating production techniques that are taking a lot more money and time. Though Sony, Panasonic and others now sell Blu-ray recorders and rewriteable discs in Japan, they are still testing the read-only discs that the Hollywood studios need. The issues of cost and time to market would not matter much if sales of the current generation of discs, players and recorders were booming. But there are plenty of signs that they are not. The studios know that the percentage of U.S. homes with a DVD player is nearing the saturation point, 80 percent, and that the latest converts typically buy fewer discs. While sales of discs are expected to rise 13 percent this year in the United States, the days of 30 percent to 40 percent annual growth are just a memory. High-definition DVDs give them something new to sell. CENTURY CITY, California The Hollywood studio executives who gathered here at an annual home entertainment summit meeting last month were all chuckles and backslaps. In front of several hundred industry managers, analysts and reporters, they talked breezily about hit movies, DVD sales and prospects for the holiday season. Then, with a few minutes left, the moderator asked the question everyone had been waiting for: Can the studios break the deadlock between the rival camps developing the next generation of digital videodiscs, players and recorders? The question was not academic. Hollywood has been unable to decide between two new formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD. Tens of billions of dollars in potential sales hang in the balance. Before anyone could answer, Thomas Lesinski, president of home entertainment at Paramount Pictures, jumped in and said it would be "counterproductive" to discuss the issue while negotiations were going on behind the scenes. Stunned by the response, the audience responded with nervous laughter, and the other executives fell silent. Lesinski's testy reaction was a sign of how touchy the debate over the competing formats has become. To just about everyone's regret, the studios are split over which group to support. Sony's studio and Disney, with 39 percent of the DVD market, back the Blu-ray group, which includes Sony, Panasonic, Hewlett-Packard and others. Warner, Universal and Paramount, with 43 percent of the market, support the HD DVD standard developed by Toshiba and NEC. Fox, MGM, Lion's Gate and others that together have the remaining 18 percent of the market have yet to declare their allegiance. Since the rival discs are largely incompatible, the studios have been unable to persuade the manufacturers to reach a compromise. Players for both are expected to be compatible with the current generation of DVDs, however. Studios, retailers and electronics, computer and video game makers are still gearing up for a format war over the new technology, which promises high-definition video, enhanced audio and numerous interactive features. In the fourth quarter, consumers will start seeing high-definition DVD players and movies in stores. But because there is no foreseeable end to the format fight, retailers and studio chiefs say they expect shoppers to shy away. After all, the equipment could quickly become obsolete, just as the Sony Betamax home machines faded in the 1980s after losing out to the VHS format. With no great pleasure, Lesinski said in an interview that if the rivals released competing discs and players, each would probably generate half as much revenue as only one new format would. "Both sides have so much vested in their technology that no one wants to blink, given the potential upside," Lesinski said. Paramount, along with Warner and Universal, will release 89 movies this year in the HD DVD format. The three studios have backed the HD format because the technology is essentially an upgrade of existing DVD technology, so it requires less investment and time to produce. Toshiba says it can make the discs now for just a few pennies more than today's discs. Yet, as Blu-ray advocates love to point out, their discs are capable of offering better-quality video because they hold more data, about 50 gigabytes versus 30 gigabytes for a double-layer disc. (Current DVDs hold less than five gigabytes.) Blu-ray also gives the studios and game makers more room for interactive features. These goodies, they say, will make it more attractive to consumers, who will have to pay about $1,000 for the first machines. "Some of these things chew up a lot of capacity," said Bob Chapek, an executive with Buena Vista, a unit of Disney. But to get all that, the Blu-ray companies are creating production techniques that are taking a lot more money and time. Though Sony, Panasonic and others now sell Blu-ray recorders and rewriteable discs in Japan, they are still testing the read-only discs that the Hollywood studios need. The issues of cost and time to market would not matter much if sales of the current generation of discs, players and recorders were booming. But there are plenty of signs that they are not. The studios know that the percentage of U.S. homes with a DVD player is nearing the saturation point, 80 percent, and that the latest converts typically buy fewer discs. While sales of discs are expected to rise 13 percent this year in the United States, the days of 30 percent to 40 percent annual growth are just a memory. High-definition DVDs give them something new to sell. CENTURY CITY, California The Hollywood studio executives who gathered here at an annual home entertainment summit meeting last month were all chuckles and backslaps. In front of several hundred industry managers, analysts and reporters, they talked breezily about hit movies, DVD sales and prospects for the holiday season. Then, with a few minutes left, the moderator asked the question everyone had been waiting for: Can the studios break the deadlock between the rival camps developing the next generation of digital videodiscs, players and recorders? The question was not academic. Hollywood has been unable to decide between two new formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD. Tens of billions of dollars in potential sales hang in the balance. Before anyone could answer, Thomas Lesinski, president of home entertainment at Paramount Pictures, jumped in and said it would be "counterproductive" to discuss the issue while negotiations were going on behind the scenes. Stunned by the response, the audience responded with nervous laughter, and the other executives fell silent. Lesinski's testy reaction was a sign of how touchy the debate over the competing formats has become. To just about everyone's regret, the studios are split over which group to support. Sony's studio and Disney, with 39 percent of the DVD market, back the Blu-ray group, which includes Sony, Panasonic, Hewlett-Packard and others. Warner, Universal and Paramount, with 43 percent of the market, support the HD DVD standard developed by Toshiba and NEC. Fox, MGM, Lion's Gate and others that together have the remaining 18 percent of the market have yet to declare their allegiance. Since the rival discs are largely incompatible, the studios have been unable to persuade the manufacturers to reach a compromise. Players for both are expected to be compatible with the current generation of DVDs, however. Studios, retailers and electronics, computer and video game makers are still gearing up for a format war over the new technology, which promises high-definition video, enhanced audio and numerous interactive features. In the fourth quarter, consumers will start seeing high-definition DVD players and movies in stores. But because there is no foreseeable end to the format fight, retailers and studio chiefs say they expect shoppers to shy away. After all, the equipment could quickly become obsolete, just as the Sony Betamax home machines faded in the 1980s after losing out to the VHS format. With no great pleasure, Lesinski said in an interview that if the rivals released competing discs and players, each would probably generate half as much revenue as only one new format would. "Both sides have so much vested in their technology that no one wants to blink, given the potential upside," Lesinski said. Paramount, along with Warner and Universal, will release 89 movies this year in the HD DVD format. The three studios have backed the HD format because the technology is essentially an upgrade of existing DVD technology, so it requires less investment and time to produce. Toshiba says it can make the discs now for just a few pennies more than today's discs. Yet, as Blu-ray advocates love to point out, their discs are capable of offering better-quality video because they hold more data, about 50 gigabytes versus 30 gigabytes for a double-layer disc. (Current DVDs hold less than five gigabytes.) Blu-ray also gives the studios and game makers more room for interactive features. These goodies, they say, will make it more attractive to consumers, who will have to pay about $1,000 for the first machines. "Some of these things chew up a lot of capacity," said Bob Chapek, an executive with Buena Vista, a unit of Disney. But to get all that, the Blu-ray companies are creating production techniques that are taking a lot more money and time. Though Sony, Panasonic and others now sell Blu-ray recorders and rewriteable discs in Japan, they are still testing the read-only discs that the Hollywood studios need. The issues of cost and time to market would not matter much if sales of the current generation of discs, players and recorders were booming. But there are plenty of signs that they are not. The studios know that the percentage of U.S. homes with a DVD player is nearing the saturation point, 80 percent, and that the latest converts typically buy fewer discs. While sales of discs are expected to rise 13 percent this year in the United States, the days of 30 percent to 40 percent annual growth are just a memory. High-definition DVDs give them something new to sell.
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Post by dkennedy on Aug 10, 2005 11:17:01 GMT -5
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD camps clash over security features
August 10, 2005
By Rob Fahey, gameindustry.biz
War of words over complex anti-piracy measures - despite both using similar tech
The consortiums backing rival next-generation DVD formats Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have moved to taking pot-shots at each other over security features - despite the fact that both systems are adopting near-identical technologies.
The argument kicked off when the Blu-Ray Disc Association - an organisation which led by companies including Sony, which will use Blu-Ray in the PlayStation 3 - announced that it's to use a range of measures to prevent piracy of BD-ROM discs.
Among those measures is something called the Advanced Access Content System (AACS), which is also being used by HD-DVD and provides a content management system that apparently "enables new consumer usage models around network functionality and internet connectivity".
On top of that, Blu-Ray has a new step called the "ROM Mark", a hidden watermark on Blu-Ray discs which can only be mastered by licensed content creators and therefore cannot - in theory - be duplicated by pirates, and a system called BD+ which allows content providers to update their encryption dynamically to deal with hacks to players, thus avoiding the scenario with DVD where encrypted content could be ripped easily once the encryption had been broken once.
Movie studio 20th Century Fox announced its support for the Blu-Ray format in the wake of the announcements about security - causing consternation at the rival HD-DVD camp, led by Toshiba, which quickly issued a statement on the matter.
"The content protection of HD DVD provides an equivalent level of security as the system advocated by Fox for Blu-Ray," the HD DVD consortium said in a statement. "We also believe the Blu-Ray disc format and proposed copy protection system may result in playability and reliability issues for the consumer."
"HD DVD provides robust, renewable and standardised content protection coupled with proven reliability, cost effectiveness and flexibility which is why many major film studios have announced support for the HD DVD format," the statement concluded.
With efforts at mediation between the two camps seemingly now completely dead in the water, it looks inevitable that both Blu-Ray and HD DVD are going to hit the market in the near future - leading to a kind of standard battle last seen when VHS and Betamax faced off.
However, a number of outside factors make this show-down more complex - notably the fact that Sony's PlayStation 3 will sport a Blu-Ray drive, essentially guaranteeing an early installed base of millions of players for that format.
There's also a question mark over how many consumers, many of whom have only recently acquired DVD players and replaced their VHS collections with DVDs, are going to be interested in moving to yet another new format - although the companies involved are hoping that the adoption of HDTV, which isn't supported by the existing DVD standard, will help to speed up the process.
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Post by dkennedy on Aug 12, 2005 8:10:43 GMT -5
The Clicker: Remember when format wars were about us?
August 11, 2005
By Peter Rojas, engadget
Blu-ray + HD DVDEvery Thursday Stephen Speicher contributes The Clicker, a weekly column on entertainment and technology:
Laser beams, cryptography, modifiable weapons – we must be talking about war, right? Yup, well… at least a format war, and nothing gets one going in the morning like a good format war.
While the war between the two next-generation disc formats, Blu-ray and HD-DVD rages on and consumers sit in their all-too-familiar paralyzed purchasing state, the time seems right to ponder what these wars and the future of these wars mean to consumers.
After all, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks for HD-DVD and Blu-ray. On Friday July 29th, Fox announced that it would be backing Blu-ray. In doing so they would be joining Disney and, of course, Sony in the Blu-ray camp. Thus, the major players are split down the middle with Universal, Warner, and Paramount on the other side in the HD-DVD camp. Then, on August 9th, Blu-ray finally announced its plans for keeping its content secure. As expected, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has, like HD-DVD, chosen Advanced Access Content System (AASC). However, BDA will also be adding two additional defenses: BD+ and ROM Mark.
Sounds like a typical format war, right?
This war, however, is different from many others. In the format wars of the past, the victory came to he who could give the customer the most; or, at least that was ostensibly the goal. For instance, Betamax was largely touted to have better video quality. VHS, on the other hand, was quick to deliver longer running tapes. If memory serves me correctly, the presence of porn might have also played an, uh, hand in VHS’s victory (but pornography’s affect on technology decisions is fodder for a whole different column). In any case, the market (more or less) chose its technology.
Likewise, the DVD format wars had the consumer in mind. DVD-RAM, +, -. +-RW, etc – they all had pros and cons. Don’t get me wrong; patents and licensing fees played a prominent part in the play. However, at the end of the day, the parties involved were careful to frame the debates to appear to have the consumer in mind. For instance, DVD-RAM backers would advertise their durability and their better handling of random access. At the same time DVD-R and DVD+R backers were quick to point out that their technologies were compatible with existing players.
So why is this war different from all other wars? Andrew Setos, president of engineering for the Fox Entertainment Group, put it best when he officially declared that the customer was no longer their main concern saying, “Our announcement last Friday that we would be, in fact, publishing on Blu-Ray disc was a result of content protection, and no other issues,” Setos went on to say that included in “no other issues” was the higher cost of Blu-ray disc production. That’s right – HD-DVD and their use of AACS was not enough for the good people at Fox. They needed, nay, demanded more copy protection — the cost be d**ned. Toshiba and their HD-DVD ilk shot back, claiming their copy protection was tough too. Isn’t it great to hear two groups fighting over who can best lock down content?
Perhaps the scariest aspect of Blu-ray’s latest salvo is the use of BD+. Similar in concept to DirecTV’s piracy countermeasures, BD+ is Blu-ray’s method of responding to hacked machines. BD+ allows Blu-ray to both a) change the security system on a device and b) lock out hacked machines.
For instance, let’s assume that a device is hacked (a fair assumption). BD+ would allow Blu-ray to essentially render the hacked devices useless. OK – that’s a concept we’ve heard before. Key revocation is nothing new.
The difference is that BD+ can also be used to get the disabled machines back up and running (back in a protected state of course). At this point you might be wondering why that’s bad. It’s a fair question. After all, it’s designed to help you. The problem is that it might just be the added comfort Blu-ray needs to pull the trigger and disable the device in the first place.
Conventional wisdom has always been that companies wouldn’t have the chutzpah to actually revoke devices. The outcry would be too great. The collateral damage would be massive. BD+ helps assuage the fears. In theory, BD+ should be able to target only hacked devices (and not vulnerable devices). However, it’s rarely that easy. Any mistaken revocations of valid devices would have consumers up in arms. Furthermore, anyone who has lived through one of DirecTV’s massive card swaps is aware that these measure-countermeasure games only last so long before the countermeasures are exhausted and the game is over (winner: hackers). It’s a temporary solution to a long term “problem.”
Somewhere along the line technology companies lost sight of who their customers were. They seem to have forgotten who purchases all those players. So worried were they that content companies would license their catalogs to the “other” company that they forgot who was paying the bills. They forgot who would be buying their products. The result appears to be two companies fighting to offer their customers less and less functionality; two competing technologies, in an effort to distinguish themselves from what were very similar products, have decided to forgo the “let’s pool our licensing fees and all win” route. Instead they’ve decided to wage a “I can best capitulate to the whims of the content providers” war.
At best, these capitulations merely raise the cost of development and production of the next generation players. At worst, they represent a usability nightmare.
If you have comments or suggestions for future columns, drop an email to theclicker@theevilempire.com
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Post by dkennedy on Aug 15, 2005 4:45:59 GMT -5
HD-DVD tech milestone reached
August 15, 2005
By Macworld Daily News staff
Four manufacturers have developed HD DVD-R disc technology that can be produced in quantity using standard DVD-R production lines.
Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim, two of Japan's leading manufacturers of optical disc media, have separately tested and verified the manufacturability of the write-once discs, which use a new organic dye specifically developed for blue-laser applications, and confirmed the prospect of volume production.
The new dye was jointly-developed by Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories, a key manufacturer of dyes for DVD-Recordable discs, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim and Toshiba.
Commercial production in 2006
Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim will commercialize HD DVD-R discs in spring next year, at the same time as the launch of HD DVD recorders and PCs with built-in HD DVD drives by hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba.
This is a major step for HD DVD-R and required the development of a new photosensitive organic dye, capable of working with blue lasers.
"By combining our cumulative know-how in high-density optical disc technology with the breakthrough of the new dye, we have tested and proven the manufacturability of HD DVD-R discs," said Norio Ota, executive officer and general manager of the Development and Technology Division at Hitachi Maxell. "We will prepare for mass production of HD DVD-R on our current lines."
Technological advance and mutual gain
Hidemi Yoshida, chief technology officer of Mitsubishi Kagaku Media said, "We expect to see the same substantial growth in demand for HD DVD-R. We will prepare for mass production to support the forthcoming launch of HD DVD products."
"I am delighted that the four companies, through their joint work, have proven the manufacturability of an HD DVD-R disc. HD DVD's basic feature of sharing the same disc structure as DVD made a large contribution to this success, and offers more and compelling evidence of our design policy's validity," said Hisashi Yamada, chief fellow of Toshiba's Digital Media Network Company.
"In 2004 the recordable and rewritable DVD disc market stood at around 1.4 billion discs, and about 90 percent of those discs were write-once discs. The next generation write-once HD DVD disc will be just as important, and I am sure that proving an efficient mass production technology for HD DVD-R discs will provide a big boost for a smooth transition from DVD to HD DVD."
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Post by dkennedy on Aug 19, 2005 7:17:34 GMT -5
Blu-Ray army gets two more recruits
Music and film join the group
August 19, 2005
By Iain Thomson, vnunet.com
Two new media groups have committed to producing future content on Blu-Ray discs, rather than the competing HD DVD standard.
Universal Music Group (UMG) and Lions Gate Home Entertainment have both joined the Blu-Ray Association. The move will be a blow to the HD DVD camp since Universal is the world's largest music company and Lions Gate holds the video rights to popular films such as Terminator 2, Dirty Dancing and Rambo.
"Blu-Ray's storage capacity, along with the level of copyright protection the format offers, the demonstrated manufacturability, and acceptable cost proposition, made it the perfect choice for Lions Gate at this time," said Steve Beeks, president of Lions Gate Entertainment.
"Through Blu-Ray, consumers will experience our library of movies with sound and picture quality beyond anything they could have ever imagined."
The news brings the number of companies in the Blu-Ray Association to 140, although many of those have also committed to putting out content in the HD DVD standard.
"The delivery of both high-definition video and multi-channel audio technologies is becoming increasingly important," stated Larry Kenswil, president of eLabs, UMG's new media and technologies division.
"We recognise that Blu-Ray Disc has the capacity, functionality and interactivity both artists and music fans demand. We intend to work closely with the BDA (Blu-Ray Disc Association) in order to represent the unique requirements of the music industry in the format creation process."
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Post by dkennedy on Aug 23, 2005 7:46:59 GMT -5
Sony and Toshiba don't agree on DVD format
August 23, 2005
by Hiroko Tabuchi, Associated Press Writer
Japanese electronics giants Sony and Toshiba have failed to agree on a unified format for next-generation DVDs, according to a newspaper report Tuesday.
Talks have been suspended indefinitely between a group of companies led by Sony Corp., which supports the Blu-ray format, and the Toshiba Corp.-led bloc, which backs the HD DVD format, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported.
Spokesmen from both firms refused to verify the report, each saying they have not ruled out the possibility of further talks. However, both said that the development of products containing their respective DVD formats was already underway.
"Next-generation optical disks that are robust enough to stay relevant for more than 10 years are required to take advantage of high-definition video and high-quality audio, and the 0.1 mm (Blu-ray) disk structure is advantageous in this regard," said Taro Takamine, a Sony spokesman. 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.
The two blocs developed their DVD formats separately, but growing concern about confusion among consumers over the different formats prompted Sony and Toshiba to start negotiations on a unified format earlier this year.
Takamine said while Sony remains open to discussion with the Toshiba bloc, the firm's goal is to agree on a single -- not unified, or jointly developed -- format.
"We have no intention on settling on a compromised format that only plays back 20 GB, for example," Takamine said.
Toshiba spokesman Junko Furuta also acknowledged that a unified format did not look likely for the time being.
"We have doubts as to whether the Blu-ray format is a viable technology in terms of production cost," she said. "We're also not convinced that consumers would need to store so much data on disks, especially now that internal harddrives are more popular."
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 popular game console PlayStation 3, which will play Blu-ray disks, is due out in spring 2006.
Major entertainment companies are also split in their support of the two formats. Walt Disney and 20th Century Fox support the Blu-ray format, while Toshiba has won the backing of companies like Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures.
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Post by dkennedy on Sept 2, 2005 4:01:33 GMT -5
Toshiba may delay HD DVD player launch into 2006
September 1, 2005
Reuters News TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp. said on Thursday it may delay the year-end launch of its next-generation HD DVD players, potentially undermining its advantage as the first supplier to put such machines on the market.
The company added, however, any change in the launch schedule would be intended to maximise potential demand for the new products and that Toshiba remains committed to the HD DVD format as the next-generation DVD technology.
Toshiba and Sony Corp., leading rival camps, have waged a three-year battle to have their different standards adopted for the new DVDs, which promise much greater capacity for high-definition movies.
Toshiba, along with NEC Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co., has been promoting HD DVD, while Sony and Matsunutsa Electric Industrial Co., the maker of Panasonic brand products, have been developing a technology known as Blu-ray.
Toshiba has said it planned to launch HD DVD players in the fourth quarter of 2005 in Japan and the United States, while Sony plans to put a Blu-ray disc drive in its new PlayStation game console next year.
"We are now in talks with Hollywood studios and large-scale retailers to seek the most effective timing of the launch and best way to launch," a Toshiba spokeswoman said.
"We originally aimed for the year-end launch in the United States. But we have not really decided on that."
There is also a possibility that the products' launch in Japan may not come until after December, the spokeswoman said.
At stake in the format battle is pole position in the multibillion dollar markets for DVD players, PC drivers and optical discs.
The two sides tried to forge a common format earlier this year, without success, to avoid confusion and inconvenience of the kind that occurred as a result of the VHS-Beta battle over videocassette formats two decades ago.
Sony and some other companies in the Blu-ray camp have already offered next-generation DVD recorders based on their format.
But Sony said its existing Blu-ray recorders, launched before specifications for read-only discs were set, are not equipped to play pre-packaged movie discs.
Shares in Toshiba closed up 0.92 percent at 440 yen, outperforming the Tokyo stock market's electric machinery index, which rose 0.6 percent.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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