He became president of Toshiba Friday. He wants negotiations with Sony and Matsushita start again. Toshiba also developing new HD TV technology with Canon, sees big replacement profits as world moving towards DTV.

Radek

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-06-28T004253Z_01_N27325282_RTRIDST_0_TECH-TECH-TOSHIBA-MICROSOFT-DC.XML

Toshiba now joins with Micro$oft in HD DVD war.

Whats wrong with distributing high definition content on a regular DVD? A regular DVD can hold 30 minutes of high definition video and thats better than waiting for the price of a Blu-Ray DVD burner to come down.

Lawrence of Arabia would be on 9 disks, then special features would probably bring it up to 12+. That's why HD on DVDs wouldn't work (though with new codecs, you can actually fit a decent chunk--way more than the 30 minutes you quoted--on a DVD.)

Still...it's not enough. Blu Ray is the better technology but I think HD DVD is ahead at this point. It's close, though. This is going to be a pain for the consumer, whatever wins.

Tommy,

He's right, any movie would be on multiple discs, and impractical. Toshiba's plan would get them to us sooner with lower capacity, but enough for now, with blue laser. Sony plan would take much longer to get done, and would cost much more for the time being.

My opinion has been to take the cheaper quicker path, because by the time Sony's format is completed, supported and not too costly, there will be a better technology that will be available and will supersede it. Things are just moving tooooo fast at this time!

Mike

Sony's technology available was long before Toshiba's and has sold in Japan for long time. It's been delayed by U.S. movie studios, which also responsible are for inferior Toshiba technology to be favoured.

Radek