TechSmec.com

Blu-ray / HD-DVD - Sony and Toshiba Trade Rumours

April 25th, 2005

Techsmec.com’s sister site at DVDRecorderWorld.com (well, more of a distant couson if we’re honest) has been reporting at length on the flurry of activity last week around the Blu-ray / HD-DVD issue.

They’ve striped out the chaff and given their final verdict on the matter, although no inside knowledge is claimed.

There is a definite pattern emerging to the reports that Sony and Toshiba were considering a truce or indeed, were already locked in discussions about producing a hybrid format.

First we see the rumour - and we’ve been as guilty as any of reporting them - that a compromise format is on the cards. We even speculated what form that compromise format might take. Then comes the denial from Sony and complete silence from Toshiba.

Then we see the counter-rumour, followed by a denial from Sony and silence from Toshiba.

The one constant in all of this is that the rumours originate from off-the-cuff comments from Sony spokespeople, about ‘protecting the consumer’ or ‘it being in everyone’s interest to have a single format’.

And there you have it - a single format. At no point has anyone from either company suggested that a hybrid solution was on the cards, only that a single disc-type must prevail if the industry, and users, aren’t to be damaged.

The war is still very much on, and just because the two camps are desperately trying to persuade the other to down weapons and defect, it does not mean that peace is about to break out. If both stand firm we will be in for a rerun of VHS/Betamax and commercial success will decide the result.

Source: DVDRecorderWorld.com

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