March 16th 2006

'Ultra-Multi' Players Could Make Blu-Ray / HD-DVD Battle Toothless

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The consumer electronics world has woken up to the fact that a head to head between competing next generation optical formats will only harm the market and is shifting towards supporting both standards rather than chosing one over the other.

With HD-DVD only days away from coming to market - the Toshiba HD-DVD players HD-XA1 and HD-A1 will begin shipping to retailers imminently - it seemed that the phoney war of words was over and that the commercial fight would start. However, earlier this week Sony announced the delay of the Playstation3, a bedrock of their plans to get the Blu-Ray drive into millions of homes within a year. The console won't arrive until November, giving HD-DVD a major head start.

While Sony and Toshiba slug it out and attempt to protect the massive research investment that they have put into their respective products, other manufacturers have been taking a more pragmatic view.

LG yesterday confirmed that it had sent a memo to North American retailers announcing plans for an 'Ultra-Multi' player that supports both formats. It is likely that LG will be the first of many. Chipset manufacturers have already revealed the development of multi-compatible components and many manufacturers who had previously come down in favour of one format or the other have recently been backtracking slightly from this position. The new consensus is that the extra cost of making a player 'Ultra-Multi' is so small as to make supporting just one format pointless. If 'Ultra-Multi' players such as the LG are priced competitively then single format machines, as launched by Toshiba and expected from Sony, will seem overpriced. It's a connundrum for the two electronics giants and Toshiba, rushing to market as DVD Recorder World writes, will be the first to face the problem.