WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- The war of the videotapes is now corporate history as VHS triumphed over Betamax in the early 1980s, but there is now a new battle for companies to wager, namely in the field of DVDs.
There had been hopes that Japanese electronics giants Sony and Toshiba would cooperate in coming up with a common standard for the audiovisual discs, but on Wednesday the head of Toshiba made it clear that collaboration between the two companies will not be happening any time soon.
"There's no plan for (resuming) such talks at this moment" with Sony, said Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida to reporters in Tokyo.
Currently, Toshiba uses the HD, or high definition, format of DVDs, while Sony is supporting the Blu-ray discs, and the two formats are incompatible with one another. At the same time, each company is steaming ahead with plans to develop hardware that makes full use of their particular format of the DVD. Toshiba will be producing HD DVDs by December ahead of the Christmas shopping deadline, while Sony will be launching its PlayStation 3 videogames on the Blu-ray format.
Moreover, the battle of the DVD formats goes beyond the two companies that are developing them. Toshiba's product is being backed by NEC and Sanyo, while Sony is being supported by Matsushita, the manufacturer of the Panasonic label as well as Apple Computer, Dell, Philips and Samsung. In addition, entertainment companies are finding themselves backing one or the other, with Paramount, Universal Pictures, which is part of General Electric, and Time Warner siding with Toshiba's HD format, while MGM, Disney and Sony's own Sony Pictures are promoting the Blu-ray disc.
Analysts argue, however, that there are more similarities than differences between the two forms of the DVD each company is offering, as both Blu-ray and HD promise crisper images and clearer sounds by using high-capacity discs. There are, however, some differences including data capacity, with 15 gigabytes for HD and 25 gigabytes for Blu-ray, compared to the 4.7 gigabyte capacity in current DVDs. Meanwhile, the Blu-ray is thinner than the HD, at 0.1 mm, while the HD is the same as the existing DVD measuring 0.6 mm in its recorded layer.
In the videotape war of two decades ago, Sony ultimately lost against JVC as Betamax never took off the way VHS did, but some industry analysts said they see Sony having an edge over Toshiba in the current battle, not least because demand for Sony's latest PlayStation console next spring is expected to be strong. In addition, some argued that Sony's backing from Hollywood was stronger than that of Toshiba, making it more compelling for the entertainment industry to commit to Blu-ray than to HD.
For now, though, it appears that neither company is benefiting from the continued uncertainty about the DVD business. Indeed, there is growing concern that consumers will simply hold off from buying either type of DVDs until one format triumphs over the other before they commit to any one system.
As a result, in closing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday, share prices in both companies took a hit. Toshiba shares fell 4 yen, or 0.91 percent, to end at 436, while Sony's share price tumbled 50 yen, or 1.34 percent, to close at 3,690.
