Engineers Decide Format War Not Confusing Enough: Develop Blu-ray/HD DVD/DVD Triple-Standard Disc

CE Pro

Throughout this ongoing Blu-ray/HD
DVD format war, we've been teased with the
prospect of dual-format players from Pioneer, Ricoh, Samsung and LG.
But rather than the
dual-format player route, two engineers from Warner are working on a triple-standard disc that has a
Blu-ray layer, HD DVD layer and a standard DVD on the other side, according to
NewScientistTech.

The discs would cost more to make, but the idea is that
studios would not have to release their movies on only one format.

I was discussing this with a contact from a large Japanese manufacturer, and expressed my opinion that Sony would never, ever get on board. Here's his response:

If the studios start releasing in a format that doesn't give
a damn about what machine it gets played on then Sony can go a sulk in the
corner. :-) Releasing in 2 or three formats with the resultant
inventory/distribution costs is a killer, retails stay stupidly high. If the
retails stay high or even go up then the DVD copy bastards have an even easier go
of it. Besides, how many retailers have the the space to stock and display 2
or more formats of the same movie? :-(

Yes, he's a grown man who uses smilies in business correspondence, but he's sharp as a tack, and I value his insight more often than not.

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