AlbertPacino
Skilled
Talks among backers of the HD DVD and the Blu-ray Disc formats have been seeking a unified format, something player makers favor. Industry sources close to the HD DVD group said the press report might be based on leaks from Blu-ray backers.
The report said Toshiba would propose a "unified" format to other HD DVD supporters, but the company denied it would make make such a proposal.
Instead, Toshiba plans to announce a higher capacity HD DVD-ROM disk on Wednesday (May 11) at Media-Tech Expo 2005 in Las Vegas as a way to reinforce the format. The format has been criticized for having relatively small capacity compared to Blu-ray disks.
Though the outcome of unification talks remains unclear, a logical solution for a unified format would be a 0.1-mm cover layer, said Reiji Asakura, an analyst who tracks audio-video technology. Next-generation formats generally use new technologies, but 0.6-mm bonded disk technology for next-generation DVDs runs counter to this trend, Asakura said.
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