The battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray for next-generation DVD supremacy ramped up this week, when a Toshiba-led group of companies said it had the technology to mass-produce recordable HD-DVD discs.
Toshiba said the development of a recordable HD-DVD will “relieve concerns of consumers who are considering purchasing our new HD-DVD players due out later this year.”
It may also put a new headache into a coming market once thought to be the likely advantage of Blu-ray, whose greater storage capacity and from-the-beginning recordability was first seen a major plus over HD-DVD until Toshiba began increasing HD-DVD capacity and, now, introducing a recordable element.
Earlier this year, speculation ran rampant that Toshiba and its partners might agree with Sony on a compromise product integrating the two next-gen DVD technologies, until Toshiba denied the speculation emphatically enough—and re-emphasized that it planned to get HD-DVD out to buyers in time for the annual holiday shopping blitz.
Mainstream and adult moviemakers have been hoping a unified format might still develop in the end, avoiding a format war that could mean more expensive development and consumer prices after having to develop their products for both formats.
