The decisive battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD is at hand, says a prominent Panasonic exec.
Blu-ray manufacturers are going to start cutting prices and go out on a promotional binge this Christmas, Matsushita Electric Industrial's Kazuhiro Tsuga said during a briefing with reporters at Ceatec, a large tech trade show that started here on Tuesday.
Tsuga is an executive officer at Matsushita, which is best known for its Panasonic brand name, and he oversees networking efforts, home electronics technologies and overseas labs.
By the end of Christmas or the end of the first quarter, the writing will be on the wall and the format war in earnest may last only another year, he predicted.
"The BD (Blu-ray disc) companies will try to do our best to promote Blu-ray," he said. "The studios want us to put money in to promote it."
He added: "By the end of the year, you will see good products with very good promotion."
The Blu-ray coalition is also working on ways to cut the price of slim Blu-ray drives and recorders to allow the technology to infiltrate notebooks and PCs.
Meanwhile, Panasonic has new Blu-ray players on the way. The three models will handle 18 hours of full-HD programs on a dual-layer disc and will go on sale 1 November in Japan.
Matsushita's Tsuga isn't a fan of combo players that conjoin Blu-ray and HD DVD features. Last year, he called the idea "stupid, stupid". He pretty much repeated the comment this year and said that Matsushita still has no plans for such a device.
He also downplayed Paramount Pictures' commitment to release movies on HD DVD exclusively, saying it only lasts for 18 months, and argues that studios are going with HD DVD "because big money came" to them. (Microsoft, Toshiba and Intel are the main backers of HD DVD.)
Like this article? Click below to send it to your mobile for free!
Dean
04/10/2007 11:29 AM
Seems to me that combo players are the wave of the future. If Samsung's DB-UP5000 lives up to it's hype, there'd be no reason to buy *any other* player. Admitedly, that's a big "if" :-)
Report offensive content
Hoody
04/10/2007 02:43 PM
None of us want to get burnt by another VHS-Beta format war again. This is why in the end, unless combo drives are released for a reasonable price, people will be unwilling to settle for a format knowing that their hardware could become obsolete quickly. The only winner will be the DVD disc manufacturers if combo players aren't released soon...
Report offensive content
Smoolander
04/10/2007 04:13 PM
Seems to me the only winner is "apathy" - of Australian's attitude towards either format. I don't know anyone who is currently looking for nor caring about blu-ray or HD-DVD. Let the rest of the world pick a winner and Australia will follow.
Report offensive content