“Efforts by Japanese electronics companies to agree on a common standard for the next-generation DVDs have so far failed, a top industry official said on Thursday, heightening chances consumers will be forced to choose between incompatible formats. Kunio Nakamura, president of Matsushita Electric Industry, said talks ‘have essentially resulted in a piece of blank paper.’ Matsushita, which makes the Panasonic brand, is with Sony in leading a group of firms to promote the Blu-ray standard of the next generation DVDs, while Toshiba and NEC have pushed the rival HD DVD standard,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
“Toshiba’s negotiator also said this week that talks had proved difficult on setting a standard for the new DVDs, which are set for mass-market release later this year. The next-generation DVDs are billed as offering cinematic quality images and opening up new possibilities of interactive entertainment. After three years of fighting, the two sides agreed last month to study compatibility to prevent a scenario in which Sony discs do not work on Toshiba players or vice versa,” AFP reports.
“Matsushita said the gap between the two camps has remained wide… Among the Hollywood studios, Walt Disney and Sony Pictures Entertainment back Blu-ray, while HD DVD supporters include Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers Studios,” AFP reports. “Supporters of the Blu-ray technology also include Apple Computer, Dell, Hewlett Packard and Samsung Electronics.”
Full article here.
See the list of Blu-ray supporting companies here.
MacDailyNews Take: Will they be able to get their acts together or not? If history is any guide, probably not.