Market welcomes white flag in DVD format war

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

TOKYO, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) — Investors on Monday welcomed Toshiba's signals that it may abandon the HD DVD format, surrendering to rival Sony's Blu-ray in the battle to set the next standard of high-definition DVDs.

Toshiba Corp. is reviewing its HD DVD business and "a complete withdrawal is one of the options it is considering," an industry source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Blu-ray and HD DVD -- which are incompatible -- can provide cinematic-quality images and multimedia features but the players come at a much steeper price than current-generation DVDs.

But a growing number of Hollywood studios and retailers have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray, which can store more data than HD DVD but was initially seen as more expensive to make. US giant...