Matsushita: Blu-Ray, HD-DVD Will Never Merge

Will these guys ever get it together? Honestly, each format has enough of a benefit that they could work together and still make a fortune.

The companies backing competing formats for next-generation DVD technology will never again talk about forming a unified standard, an executive at Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said on Friday, leaving it to the consumer to choose the winning side.

“We are not talking and we will not talk,” Kazuhiro Tsuga, an executive officer at Matsushita, the world’s largest consumer electronics maker, told Reuters in an interview. “The market will decide the winner.”

Matsushita, best known for its Panasonic brand, is a leading supporter of Blu-ray, one of two competing formats for the next-generation DVD. The other format, called HD-DVD, is backed by a group led by Toshiba Corp.

At the core of both formats are blue lasers, which have a shorter wavelength than the red lasers used in current DVD equipment, enabling discs to store data at the higher densities needed for high-definition movies and TV.

The two sides held talks last year in the hopes of avoiding a prolonged format battle similar to the one between Betamax and VHS videotapes in the 1980s, knowing that it could discourage consumers from shifting to the advanced discs and stifle the industry’s growth…. Source: PC Mag

[tags]hd-dvd,blu-ray,matsushita,vhs videotapes[/tags]