HD-DVD Format Gets Hollywood Support

In what has been a brutal battle between Toshiba and Sony over which DVD format will be the future, three Hollywood studios announced support for HD-DVD.

“An announcement by Warner Bros. (TWX ), Universal (GE ), and Paramount about their adoption of this format by the end of 2005 is in the works, BusinessWeek Online has learned. Disney (DIS ) is also said to be in talks with Toshiba, although Eisner & Co. aren’t close to a deal. Warner Bros., Universal, and Disney declined comment, and a Paramount spokesman didn’t return phone calls.

Toshiba acknowledged that it has “been receiving a positive response from several studios” but that it “is not in a position to comment on behalf of the studios.”"

Our guess is that despite losing the format war with Toshiba, Sony will most likely push ahead with their Blu-Ray technology, especially now that they have purchased MGM Studios. What will this mean for consumers? Only time will tell – but it might be a good idea to wait for a DVD player that supports both formats. This reminds us of the SACD and DVD-Audio format war, except that both of those formats lost with little titles available for either.

Read more at BusinessWeek Online