Sony and Toshiba: talking about single HD standard for DVD

Sony and Toshiba are to get together to discuss the possibility of reaching an agreement over a single-standard for high definition DVD. Currently Sony is promoting its Blu-ray format as the next generation of optical storage, while Toshiba is one of the developers of HD-DVD.

Although has not been too keen in the past to reach agreements over standards, preferring its own proprietry technologies like Betamax and ATRAC to VHS and MP3, the appointment of new CEO, Howard Stringer seems to have signalled a change of strategy. Stringer is a former head of Sony America and has strong ties with the movie business in Hollywod.

It's not clear how any agreement would work or whether it would favour one format over the other or be a combination of the two. Blu-ray has a higher storage capacity than HD-DVD, but HD-DVD offers better backwards compatibilty with existing DVDs and is cheaper to manufacture due to its similarities with DVD.

If agreement is to reached, it will have to be soon. The first HD-DVD players are due to ship at the end of 2005 with Blu-ray players following in early 2006. Blockbuster movies The Bourne Supremacy and Ocean's Twelve are due for release in high definition versions in time for the holiday season at the end of the year.