Fears that peace talks in the next generation DVD format war had come to nothing may be unfounded, thanks to the new Toshiba president, Atsutoshi Nishida, who only took office on Friday. Nishida wants to unify the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats, and has dismissed press reports that talks between Sony and Toshiba had fallen apart.

Nishida stated that the problem of having two next-generation DVD formats should not be ignored because of the near-sighted policies of both sides and offered an olive branch to Sony by saying that the companies "should deepen technological studies so as to realise a unification as the best format".
It’s not all a new love affair between Sony and Toshiba, though, make no mistake. Nishida blames Sony for the numerous breakdowns there have been in the talks, and has also claimed that Sony's refusal to accept a compromise format based on anything other than Blu-Ray technology makes things extremely difficult.

So, is there going to be a unified format? Well, at the moment, the answer is still probably no. It is much more likely that both formats will launch, with one failing miserably. It’s just my opinion here, but if I were a betting man, I would bet that HD DVD, the Toshiba technology, will crumble into dust before too long. But we have been surprised before, so only time will tell.