Sony, Toshiba Presidents to Talk

May 18, 2005 By Ian Bell

The two Presidents will meet to try to break a stalemate in talks over a unified format for next-generation DVD technology, but will it do any good?

“Sony and Toshiba, leading rival camps, have waged a three-year battle to have their new technology standards adopted by the industry.

The winner will have pole position in the multi-billion-dollar markets for DVD players, PC drives and optical discs.

The high-level talks offer new hope for negotiations that appeared to have reached an impasse.

Officials from Toshiba, which backs a new DVD technology called HD-DVD, and Sony and Matsushita, which support a rival standard known as Blu-ray, began meeting earlier this year to try and establish a format incorporating technology from both sides.

The negotiations have been leaning toward unifying the formats based on the Blu-ray disc structure. ”

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James at 10:38pm 18th May 2005 I have a feeling that both companies just want to "save face" so to speak and neither will admit the other technology is better. IMO Blu-Ray is a technology because it can hold more information, but if there is little support from Hollywood, then it might not matter. With the Playstation 3 being announced and supporting Blu-Ray, things might change and we might see more support come Sony's way. In either case, one needs to win so the debate can be put to rest and consumers know what to buy.