Sony and Toshiba in Talks to Develop a Unified Blue Ray DVD Format

According to The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sony and Toshiba are in talks to make a unified, third major blue ray DVD format, thus ending the rivalry between HD DVD and Blu-Ray DVD formats.

This is major news for consumers, which would benefit from the ease of having just one major blue ray, next generation DVD format to choose from, unlike in traditional DVD recorders that use red light laser, where there are no less than three major formats (DVD+R, DVD-R, and DVD-RAM).

Sony, which developed the Blu-ray DVD format, and Toshiba, which developed HD DVD, have, according to Yomiuri Shimbun, begun talks about developing a format that would combine the strong points of both formats.

The costly DVD standard format wars for the next generation DVD recorders have already been ongoing for three years.

The talks could mean that the blue ray DVD recorders, anticipated to be wide-launched in time for Christmas this year, would have just one format to choose from, lessening the potential confusion and guesswork as to what format is better than the other.

The talks, according to reports, were started after Walt Disney Co. requested the manufacturers to consider an effort to unify the two formats.


From Sony Toshiba Blu Ray Format page to Broadband Guide index