No late word at press time about ongoing talks between Sony (touting Blu-ray) and Toshiba (pushing HD DVD) over a possible compromise on their two new and incompatible standards for HD-worthy DVD. There were some recent chatter that Panasonic had joined the talks, which would be viewed as a good sign. (Actually

At its annual meeting in Las Vegas in late July, the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) issued a statement calling on the two parties involved in rolling out the incompatible formats of HD DVD and Blu-ray to work, instead, on a single next-generation standard for DVD that will not cause confusion and uncertainty

The triumph of Blu-ray as the lone next-gen standard for HD discs, among other things, puts to rest any notion that primary backer Sony was about to repeat some of its own dubious history.

While the battle between the two incompatible DVD formats of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc appears to be producing a stalemate of sorts, not to mention miniscule sales of both sides' players, some may be curious as to what each format's prime backers--Toshiba and Sony, respectively--may have up their corporate sleeves for next week's CES show in Las Vegas.

Sony and Toshiba may be the chief advocates for two very different, incompatible next-gen DVD formats, but they probably agree on more HD-centric issues than not. Both firms, along with Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), NEC Corp., Samsung and chipmaker SiBeam this week said they have begun working as a specia

Sony and Toshiba understand that a drawn-out fight would confuse consumers and hinder the industry's development

The new subformat increases storage capacity

While the battle between the two incompatible DVD formats of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc appears to be producing a stalemate of sorts, not to mention miniscule sales of both sides' players, some may be curious as to what each format's prime backers--Toshiba and Sony, respectively--may have up their corporate sleeves for ne