Link: IMDB Studio Briefing 4 January 2007
It appears that the Blu-ray/HD DVD debate may soon come to a close as early as this coming Monday. While this announcement does not mention the Broadcom player mentioned here, it discusses a LG player that could become available as early as first quarter 2007, though it does not mention a price point.
Warner Home Video may have found a solution to the format war between the Sony-developed Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD DVD high-definition video discs: a hybrid disc that it is calling Total HD. Today’s (Thursday) New York Times reported that the one-disc-fits-all development will be announced by Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which opens on Monday. In an interview with the Times, Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group, described the new disc as an elegant way for studios to make their content available more widely “in a way that is not conceding defeat” for whichever format they have been backing. Initially, the Times observed, the new disc would add a fourth DVD version of every available movie or TV show, but Warner is seeking to find a method for incorporating the standard DVD format on Total HD, thereby combining all formats on a single disc. Meanwhile, South Korea’s LG Electronics, said on Wednesday that it plans to unveil a player capable of playing either Blu-ray or HD DVD discs at the CES. The company provided no further details other than that the players will become available during the first quarter of this year.
Also interesting, The Year That Was: 2006 (subtitled ” The single most expensive year to keep up “), a retrospective in the past year of DVD and next gen players as well as TV’s.
