Dave Horvath
11 Jan 2007 8:39
Film production company Warner Bros. had announed they have come up with an answer to the war waging between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Their answer was TotalHD. A disk capable of holding information for both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats. Billed as a bridge between the next-gen format gap, they were able to get retail giants such as Best Buy and Circuit City to carry movies burned onto this dual-format disk. The pretense was that consumers wouldn't have to remain confused about which format to choose, now they've got a viable option for either format.
Warner Bros. grasped their hands together in celebration that they just may have come up with a peace offering for the format war and stated, "It behooved us to figure out a way to transition (consumers) from standard definition to high definition DVDs." They went on to say that they do not care how the transition happens, so long as it does. There are others however, in the industry that don't share the same enthusiasm as Warner Bros.
Critics and other industry leaders say that this doesn't solve anything and only adds a third next generation media format to further confuse consumers as to which is the best option to buy. They went on to cite poor sales numbers in next-gen devices due to gunshy consumers not wanting to adopt a soon-to-be defunct media format. WB does not believe this will pose a problem. A spokesman stated that this format war is much like the video game market where consumers expect different formats and their solution takes away the fear from the consumer that they might buy the wrong format.
Source:
Reuters