Broadcom Corp. today unveiled a new chip system that it says will permit electronics companies to produce a disc playing device that can play both upcoming high-def DVD formats. In fact, EDN reports that the company claims the new players could be ready as early as next year. Consumer reluctance to buy either a BluRay or HD-DVD player has strongly been influenced by fear of picking a format which will be rendered obsolete a year or two from now.
Indeed several months into the fight there still remains no clear winner with disc adoption of both formats slow due to various reasons.
Toshiba's HD-DVD format seems to have the edge at present thanks to earlier penetration, a larger selection of films, players already under $500 and in early reviews distinctly more praise for the picture quality of its movies due to its use of a better codec.
Later this month a $199 player will be released for the current millions of XBox 360 owners which will penetrate the format into more homes than any of the stand-alone players have done so far on the market. Most major on-line retail outlets are sold out already.
However Sony's Blu-Ray format has caught up in some respects - its latest wave of titles have swapped over to the same codec, rendering picture quality equal to HD-DVD solving that dilemma.
Price remains high but the Panasonic player of the format has so far drawn strong praise from many quarters, despite its high price tag.
For many months it was expected that the format would win the war easily thanks to the release of the PS3 next week in the US which would incorporate the player into the unit. However, the cost of the machine and a major shortage of the units themselves have proven a large stumbling block and has significantly eaten into that advantage.
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