New DVD Format Approved
Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. said Friday that the DVD Forum, an international association of electronics makers and movie studios, has approved the two Japanese companies' standard for next-generation DVDs.
The move gives Toshiba and NEC a leg up on a rival standard based on the Blu-ray disc format, which has a larger recording capacity, advocated by Sony Corp. , Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes the Panasonic brand, and Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands.
But the approval does not rule out development of Blu-ray disc products. Sony, Panasonic and Philips are also members of the DVD Forum.
Next-generation DVDs will be able to record five times the amount of information of current DVDs. A DVD today can record about two hours of conventional analog TV programming while the next-generation digital video disc format can record more than two hours of digital TV programming. The Blu-ray format discs can handle more than three hours of digital programming.
Toshiba and NEC say their format called HD DVD can be priced lower at about 300,000 yen ($2,700), or about 20 percent cheaper than a comparable Blu-ray model because the assembly lines for current DVDs can be adapted to make the next-generation discs. That cannot be done for Blu-ray discs.
