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Sony Says Open to Avoiding DVD Format War

malebolgia   on 13 April 2005 - 14:56 · 20 comments & 2458 views

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Sony Corp said on Wednesday it was open to discussions to create a single standard for the next generation of DVD discs, a move which could head off the looming threat of a major format war among the world's biggest technology companies. "From the point of view to provide the best service to the consumer one format is better than two. We're open to discussions," Yukinori Kawauchi, general manager in charge of the next DVD format at Sony's Video Group, said in an interview.

But he added that specific proposals had yet to be tabled. "There's no visible progress to do that (create a single standard)," Kawauchi told Reuters at an event organized by Sony. The electronics industry is facing a battle between the so-called Blu-ray optical discs and HD DVD discs, two different new DVD formats which offer higher capacity than current DVDs.

News source: Reuters


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#1 mikmo on 13 Apr 2005 - 15:01
wow, indication of some common sense. very wise!
#2 Jstphish on 13 Apr 2005 - 15:02
Hopefully everybody will be able to come to a compromise.
#3 burning_jonny on 13 Apr 2005 - 15:17
I smell BluHD...
#4 Colin-uk on 13 Apr 2005 - 15:44
or HDRay
(1 reply) #5 Danrarbc641 on 13 Apr 2005 - 15:46
I'm open to their discussions, as long as they include "hey, our format is superior in every way, just give up on HD-DVD and give people the best format we can"

:p


j/k

I'm sure there's something positive about HD-DVD, right? Besides lower manufacturing costs in the short term.
#5.1 sphbecker on 13 Apr 2005 - 18:33
Actually a short-term price advantage, faster market entrance (yet to be seen) and name recognition is about all HD-DVD has going for it. BluRay from a technical point of view seems to be far better.

If they don't agree on a single standard then I am going to wait until I can buy a HD-DVD/BluRay combo player, because I'm not going to buy two separate players just to be able to watch all the movies.
#6 bangbang023 on 13 Apr 2005 - 15:52
This was posted a while back in the forums. It makes sense, though, since Sony has had a bad history of failing with proprietary formats.
#7 shao on 13 Apr 2005 - 15:53
even better. Now it's only one DRM solution to 'work around' :-)
#8 robpears on 13 Apr 2005 - 15:53
Blu-ray!!!!
(1 reply) #9 Jack31081 on 13 Apr 2005 - 15:57
aww, and i was hoping for lots of Blu-Ray/HD-DVD flame wars in the future.

oh well.

/M$ sucks!
#9.1 Ideas Man on 14 Apr 2005 - 02:44
QUOTE
/M$ sucks!


Oh, well done. Very childish
(2 replies) #10 Lasker on 13 Apr 2005 - 16:39
HD DVD, rocks!! Apple is also supporting to bring to the market this format!
#10.1 thenay on 13 Apr 2005 - 18:12
Actually Apple prefers Blu-Ray but said will support both for its OS
#10.2 sphbecker on 13 Apr 2005 - 18:30
That is correct, Apple is supporting Blu-Ray, but that is a pretty recent switch. They had been supporting HD-DVD up until about 6 weeks ago.
#11 dp123 on 13 Apr 2005 - 18:41
"They had been supporting HD-DVD up until about 6 weeks ago."

No, they weren't. Both BlueRay and HD-DVD are HD formats... Apple supports HD, but they never supported HD-DVD. They never flip-flopped. They joined Blu-Ray 4 weeks ago.
#12 eilegz on 14 Apr 2005 - 03:34
lets hope that theres only one standard in the future just like the good ol cd eras
#13 TheSarge on 14 Apr 2005 - 06:33
Well, perhaps Sony can show the industry some leadership here.
Good move on their part.
#14 Romanikan on 14 Apr 2005 - 13:09
This ought to be interesting when it comes time to start producing PS3s.
#15 berk1a on 14 Apr 2005 - 21:52
Ah.... the stings of BetaMax still linger...
#16 laz on 15 Apr 2005 - 05:15
First it was nit-picky between DVD+R and DVD-R, and now there are whole new formats?

Wow, DVD technology is moving fast...

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