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Toshiba moving to new-format DVDs
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Japan's Toshiba Corp.said Wednesday it would introduce notebook computers with HD DVD technology in the last quarter of 2005 in a move to pressure rivals in the battle over formats for next-generation DVDs. Toshiba's move comes after Sony said in September that its next-generation PlayStation console, tentatively called PlayStation 3, would support Blu-ray technology, giving a boost to the competing Blu-ray camp. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray technologies use blue laser light, which, with a shorter wavelength than the red light used in conventional DVD recorders, can handle data at the higher densities needed for high-definition recordings. Toshiba, along with NEC and Sanyo Electric, support HD DVD as the next-generation DVD format. |
Format wars where the competing formats use the same physical form factor and base technology (blue lasers, in this case) aren't very exciting format wars.
Look how heated the SACD/DVD-Audio war was when the formats were announced. For a brief time the competition was pretty intense. Today, both of those formats are available on almost every DVD player sold. I don't see this new "format war" ending any differently. We will eventually have reasonably priced machines that can play (and probably record) HD-DVD and Blu-ray, which will also be fully compatible with SACD, DVD-Audio and DVD-Video (today's version). Given this likely outcome, my response is a mild shrug. Just give us the machines already. |
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