Just recently, we were reporting that Sony had made it clear that it does not desire a format war to develop in response to the two competing formats for next generation DVD - Blu-ray and HD DVD. Sony said that it felt that it would far rather that there was a single, unified standard for next generation DVD, instead of two incompatible formats battling it out for years. Quite simply, there is little to be gained, and so Sony reached out to rival Toshiba, the masterminds of HD DVD, to see if a compromise could be reached.
"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.
We at Techspot were of course pretty sceptical that any kind of deal or compromise might be reached, but we did applaud Sony for trying. It now seems, however, that Sony's efforts have not been for nothing, and that Toshiba is listening. Perhaps we will get a unified format after all. I certainly hope so, as this would be far better for the consumer.
Apparently Sony and Toshiba are in talks to try to agree on one single standard for the next generation DVD standard.
The Sony's Blu-ray camp has signed up more than 100 supporters, and Toshiba's HD DVD is backed by 83 companies. HD DVD hardware was to be already launched this year. So it is basically last minute. Lets hope it works out.