Blu-ray, HD DVD duel a dual-format draw says NEC

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 10:20

Your IT - Home IT

The high definition video format duel between Sony and Toshiba and their respective backers may be solved by dual-format technology from another Japanese technology giant NEC.

• Announcements

Although NEC is a backer of HD DVD, the company has announced that it will produce two new low cost chips by April 2007 that can read both high definition formats. The new chips will reportedly greatly simplifying the manufacture of high definition players that can read both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.

The Blu-ray versus HD DVD war has been raging since 2005 with no clear winner in sight. Each camp boasts big name backers. The Sony-backed Blu-ray is supported by the likes of IT giants HP, Dell and Apple, as well as electronics heavyweights Hitachi, Samsung, LG, Phillips, Matsushita and others. Toshiba's HD DVD has a smaller but also impressive list including Microsoft, NEC, Sanyo and Thompson.

Blu-ray has a larger list of studios behind it but by and large all studios are sitting on the fence and hedging their bets until the technology waters become clearer.

At present, anecdotal evidence, as well as statistics from retailers appear to show that HD DVD has a clear early lead over Blu-ray in the format war, in terms of both player and movie title sales. However, Sony is set to push Blu-ray players into the homes of consumers in a big way through the back door, with the release of the much vaunted PlayStation 3.

If PS3 manages to achieve the sort of sales of its two predecessors, that could mean more than 100 million Blu-ray players going into consumers' homes by default from Sony alone over the next five years. That sort of number is too big for studios to ignore.