Winner of the HD-DVD vs BLU-RAY war? BOTH!

NEC Electronics, a Japanese producer of chips, on Tuesday said it has built a dual-format chip capable of playing discs in both the HD DVD and Blu-ray next generation DVD formats
—an announcement that could help put an end to the war between the two …

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Blu-ray and HD DVD Missing Early Projections by Almost 60%

While there has been much focus on the developing battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD, it seems that both formats are underperforming with consumers in the early going. Thus far, only $30M has been spent by consumers on the new formats, $25M on hardware and $5M on software, as reported by Reuters.

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Discovery Atlas: China Revealed coming to HD DVD, Blu-ray and DVD

From engadgethd, the soon-to-be released Discovery Atlas will be released on all three DVD formats, starting with their first episod “Chines Adventure” narrated by James Spadar. The disc is currently available for pre-ordering on the Discovery Website for $19.99 but the discs are also going to be on the shelves of Discovery’s 100+ retail locations sometime late next month.

New technology could nip DVD format war in the bud

From Reuters, Britain-based New Medium Enterprises (NME) said on Tuesday it had solved a technical production problem that makes it possible to produce a cheap multiple-layer DVD disk containing one film in different, competing formats.

The production costs of a multi-layer DVD using the new NME technology are estimated to be around 9 cents, compared with the 6 cents for a standard single-layer play-back DVD. This 50 percent cost increase compares favorably with the current generation of multi-layer recordable DVD disks which cost 3 to 5 times as much to produce than a single layer disk, due to low yields.

By putting the same film on a single disk in the two competing formats, movie studios can save money and consumers do not have to worry if they are buying the right disk for their player, potentially making the outcome of the format war a non-issue for consumers.

Early Adopters Say: Round 1 of Format Wars Goes to HD DVD

Technological specifications and support from electronics, computer and videogame makers will clearly be important factors in deciding the outcome of the latest format war. But we think that user satisfaction with actual products are often overlooked. So HDBlu took a look at what early adopters of high-definition video technology were saying …

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Superman Returns to DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Nov. 28th

From HD Beat, the Superman Returns standard DVD will be available either as a single disc (MSRP $28.98), 2-disc special edition (MSRP $34.99), HD DVD Combo disc (MSRP $39.99), or Blu-ray (MSRP $34.99).

Patent Filed for Disc That Bridges Blu-ray, HD-DVD Format Gap

From The Wall Street Journal, patent application has been filed by three Warner Brothers employees for a disc that would play both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats, as well as the standard DVD format.

The “multilayer dual optical disk” would have one layer of data in the standard CD or DVD format, a second layer able to play one high-capacity format and a third layer for the competing high-capacity format.

Toshiba unveils new HD DVD players

According to Video Business News, Toshiba unveiled a new line of HD DVD players. The second-generation players will come in two models—the entry-level HD-A2 and the higher-end HD-XA2—and offer improved player performance over the current line. The HD-XA2 will debut in December and will output to 1080P, an upgrade from the current models that only go up to 1080i, and wil cost $999, up from the current $799 on the first-gen HD-XA1.

Also, according to Jodi Sally, NPD Group research shows that HD DVD players outsold Blu-ray players during the first six weeks that both players were on the market.

Pioneer BDR-103: HD DVD/Blu-ray Combo Burner to Ship Next Year

From Gizmodo, Pioneer will be releasing a dual-format HD DVD and Blu-ray writer sometime next year. The writing speeds have not been released and it is not known how fast it will write to single or dual-layer Blu-Ray discs. It is also not known whether it will support CD-R/RW.

Microsoft shows off HD DVD drive for Xbox

According to News.com, Kevin Collins, senior program manager at Microsoft, demonstrated the Xbox HD DVD drive, which he said is scheduled to hit store shelves for the upcoming holiday shopping season. Microsoft has chosen to back the HD DVD format over Blu-ray.