DVD battle a fight to the death
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THE fight over what&#39;s going to replace your DVDs has heated up as three major movie studios announce support for one of two competing next-generation formats.
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HD DVD isn't dead, at least not quite. That leaves many options and potentially expensive mistakes for consumers.
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Several movie studios choose a side in the battle of DVD formats.
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A patent application has been filed for  a disc that would play two competing high-definition DVD  formats which, if successful, could help appease a battle that  has divided Hollywood and confounded consumers.
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Will the competing next-generation optical disc standards ever meet in the same device? Not for now, it seems.
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A new type of premium DVD player has emerged, converting a disc's images to greater resolution to take advantage of high-definition TV sets. A comparison of offerings from five makers.
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Hollywoodâs squabble over which of two technologies will replace standard DVDs skewed in the direction of Sony Corporation on Friday, with Warner Brothers casting the deciding vote.
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Electronic Arts, Vivendi Universal Games choose a side in the battle of next-gen DVD formats.
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Hollywood players pick sides in the competition between the HD DVD and Blu-ray standards.
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The decision by&#160;Warner Bros. to drop HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc&#160;for high-definition movies has set the electronics industry abuzz. Announced on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show, the move put a single question in the minds of thousands of industry-insiders heading to the show in Las Vegas: Could the high-definition format wars be over?Since both formats launched they have been locked in a battle that pitted some of the industry&#39;s biggest consumer electronics companies against each other. Backing Blu-ray Disc has been Sony, Panasonic and Samsung, while HD DVD&#39;s main supporters have been Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel.The battle also divided Hollywood and left consumers with a difficult choice: their favorite movies were likely split between the two formats and there was a risk the player they bought would become irrelevant. As a result consumers kept away from the formats and sales have been sluggish.Warner&#39;s decision will give Blu-ray Disc an advantage in terms of content. With the move, five of the big seven Hollywood studios now back Blu-ray Disc with only two, Paramount and Universal, backing HD DVD.The Warner announcement certainly put the HD DVD Promotion Group&#39;s CES plans in disarray. Within hours of the announcement, the group cancelled its scheduled Sunday-evening news conference and subsequent media interviews at CES.&quot;They&#39;re definitely regrouping and considering their options at the moment, this could be extremely important,&quot; said Tom Coughlin, a storage analyst at Coughlin Associates. &quot;This could be the beginning of a major pivotal turning point in the high-def format war, which if we could define the format which is going to win would be extremely important for the industry because this would free up consumers to start making decisions on the purchase of their systems.&quot;Better sales would help consumer electronics manufacturers increase production and that would in turn lead to lower prices, said Coughlin. Those lower prices would then lead to better sales and that would help the entire industry, he said.Warner touched on the format battle&#39;s impact on the consumer electronics industry in a statement announcing its move.&quot;A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,&quot; said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner&#39;s home entertainment group in a statement.Whether or not the fight is really over remains to be seen.Toshiba said it was &quot;quite surprised&quot; by the announcement from Warner &quot;despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD.&quot;&quot;We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer,&quot; Toshiba said in a statement.For some, the Warner decision marks the end of the format battle.&quot;I think the war is over. HD DVD has lost. It really is game-over for Toshiba and the other vendors,&quot; said Robin Harris, an analyst with Data Mobility Group. &quot;The basic issue is not technology. It&#39;s about distribution, it&#39;s about marketing, it&#39;s about content and Blu-ray has been winning the content war for sometime. I don&#39;t know why [Toshiba] keeps pouring money into it, it&#39;s time to stop.&quot;Harris credited Sony&#39;s inclusion of Blu-ray Disc in the PlayStation 3 with being one of the instrumental moves in winning the fight for Blu-ray Disc.&quot;I think Sony&#39;s brilliant move and one of the few they have made in this effort is putting Blu-ray into PS3,&quot; he said. &quot;Even though PS3 hasn&#39;t sold so well in the console wars, in terms of being a platform for Blu-ray distribution it&#39;s been a success for them and I think that&#39;s what really put Blu-ray over the top.&quot;The praise comes as Sony has finally started to see PlayStation 3 sales pick-up after a year of sluggish sales. Ironically the company has been often criticized by analysts and the media for the inclusion of Blu-ray Disc in the device as that contributed to a high price that put many consumers off buying the high-def games console.&#160;
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com December 29, 2004, 1:40 PM PT. A new Blu-ray and DVD hybrid disc could bring some relief to consumers weary of the format war, but will it be enough for the increasingly fractured market?
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Company is the latest to choose sides in the next-generation DVD format battle.
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Consumers looking to upgrade their home theaters can now choose between two types of high-definition DVD players &#151; the confusing result of a long-running format war involving Hollywood studios and technology companies.
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The backers of Blu-ray discs predict victory in the format wars with HD DVD after Warner Bros backed them.
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Let the format wars begin ... again. As if Beta versus VHS wasn&#39;t bad enough, and if you just couldn&#39;t get enough of DVD versus Circuit City&#39;s DivX format, you&#39;re sure to love HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray.
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Players and discs using a new high-def format will appear soon--but will consumers make room for yet another combatant in the HD format wars?
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LOS ANGELES  - It was the battle of the high-def disc titans, and the pirates won.