Toshiba next-gen recorder slated for year's end

Industry groups are supporting different formats, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD, to replace DVD as an industry standard. Toshiba, NEC and Sanyo are among those promoting HD DVD and Sony, Hewlett-Packard and Dell are supporting Blu-ray.

"HD DVD has not won yet, but I'm 100 percent confident that HD DVD is better than Blu-ray," said Yoshihide Fujii, chief executive of Toshiba Digital Media Network Company.

Analysts had assumed Blu-ray had the momentum in the manufacturing and entertainment industries because of the support of PC makers Dell and HP, which were influential in the progress of the DVD+RW adoption. Recently, however, the HD DVD format gained crucial industry support from several studios, including Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema.

The Blu-ray camp also recently got support from Disney, as well as from Sony's entertainment properties.

Toshiba executives also announced Wednesday that TVs based on Toshiba's SED (surface-conduction electron emitter display) technology would be available by the first quarter of next year. The electronics maker is joining Royal Philips Electronics, LG Electronics and Samsung in releasing slim-model cathode ray tube-based televisions. The slim models will be 30 percent thinner than CRT sets currently on the market.

The electronics maker will also be coming out with hard drive-based camcorders with storage capacities of 30GB or 60GB, as well as units based on Toshiba's 0.85-inch hard drives with 4GB and 6GB capacities this year.