Panasonic Blu-Ray Player



Toshiba HD-DVD Player

As many know, there are two competing disc formats with the desire to be the standard in the next generation of media entertainment. Sony with thier Blu-Ray format and Toshiba with HD-DVD. The entertainment industry is very devided with various movie studios and video game publishers backing different formats. In the end it has done nothing but cause confusiion for consumers who are not sure whether it will be Blu-Ray or HD-DVD that will be sticking around for the long term. Three inventors may have found the solution by creating a disc that can be read by HD-DVD players, Blu-Ray player as well as standard DVD players. The trick is in placing the data for the various formats at different depths within disc creating “levels” to be read by each type of player. The patent for the technology was just recently filed so it may be some time before we see the multi-format disc but with the cripling effect these format wars are causing the entertainment industry, it is likely we will see such a disc sooner rather than later.

Evorgleb: With every new generation of technology Sony tries to own the used format. Beta Max, MiniDisc and the Memory Stick were all Sony formats that didnt really catch on like they hoped. They should just give it up and save everyone the stress.