Backing away from reports released a day earlier, Toshiba denied in a May 11 statement that a decision has been made on a unified next-generation DVD format—then unwrapped a new, deeper storage version of its HD-DVD format disc that some say eliminates the major advantage of rival Blu-ray.
"Toshiba believes a single format for next-generation DVD is most beneficial for consumers, and we are actively participating in talks towards format unification," the Toshiba statement averred. "At this point, however, nothing has been decided, and absolutely no decision has been made for unification on any basis. The indication that a unification agreement on the basis of a 0.1mm disc system is imminent is unfounded and erroneous."
Sony and Toshiba began talking about a possible unified next-gen DVD format in late April. Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai reported earlier this week that what began as simple discussion turned into final talks toward a product that would combine the Blu-ray disc structure and Toshiba software for efficient data transfer and copyright protection.
Hollywood studios are divided on support for the two competing formats, but many mainstream studios as well as several adult content producers have said a unified format would be the best thing for the future of content producers, distributors, and consumers.
"We hope they resolve it so there is one format," Video Software Dealers Association Vice President for Marketing and Industry Relations Carrie Dietrich says. "But we don't know anything beyond what was written up," she adds, referring to the latest Toshiba statement and the earlier reports.
Toshiba said it wasn’t backing away from talking about a unified format. "We recognize that the key factors for a unified format are large capacity, reasonable cost, and backward compatibility with DVD that maximizes consumer benefit," the company statement noted before announcing a new, higher-capacity disc in its HD-DVD next-gen format at Media-Tech 2005 in Las Vegas.
The new Toshiba HD-DVD disc is said to be capable of a 45GB data range, closer to the 50GB range offered by Sony's Blu-ray disc. Toshiba also has developed a hybrid, two-side disc with HD-DVD on one side and current standard DVD on the other side, which enables users to play existing content on the standard machine until he can afford an HD-DVD machine.
