Topic: Peace in the HD Disc format war comes at a price

[Reno]

With a number of media outlets reporting that Time Warner will launch a new disc that supports both Blu-ray Disc (BD)) and HD DVD formats, it appears that there could be a rewarding market for peace-makers in the next-generation optical disc standards war.

The new Time Warner Total HD disc will be a multi-layer disc that supports BD on one layer and HD DVD on another layer and the company will announce the product at the CES show in Las Vegas next week, the reports indicate.

The stalemate in the battle over next-generation disc standards has been blamed for limiting growth in the market, and other would-be peace makers are also seeing a market opportunity in bringing the two competing sides together.

Samsung Electronics has planned to offer dual-format recorders that can record and play back BD and HD DVD movies and LG Electronics (LGE) will launch a dual-format player at CES this year. The LGE product is expected to hit the North America market later this quarter.

According to market sources, Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS), a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, is also considering production of dual-format devices.

Other sources pointed out that another reason for the slow take-up of these next-generation devices is their high prices. The sources added that a dual-format device would be more expensive than a single-format device, but those added costs may be the reason that the blue laser market finally takes off.

http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20070105VL200.html