Toshiba sees both HD formats co-existing

"Like petrol versus diesel at the pumps"

21 November 2007 10:40 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Toshiba has likened the high-def format war to buying petrol at a service station in the latest spat over who will win the battle for the high-def living room.

"The HD DVD Blu-ray battle is like petrol versus diesel at the pumps", Mike Eves, retail marketing executive, consumer products division for Toshiba told Pocket-lint. "Both will probably exist together rather than a single format wining out."

The news comes just days after Sony CEO Howard Stringer complained of a stalemate between the two formats.

"We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides", Stringer said, referring to the big news from this summer when Paramount and DreamWorks went HD DVD-only.

However Toshiba's Eves wouldn't be drawn into whether or not a dual player from the likes of Samsung and LG are a good thing. But that didn't stop one spokesman from Toshiba agreeing that he wouldn't want two boxes under his TV.

Instead he implied that consumers have got used to getting exclusives from games companies for their consoles, so why not for movies?

The comments came as Universal showed off the new interactive features for "Bourne Ultimatum", available in the UK from 10th December, which will give consumers the chance to get additional content to the movie from the web direct on their TV.

"What's great is that we will be able to add new content via the web-enabled discs even after you've bought the HD DVD, be that new trailers or extra content", said Steve Collins, head of marketing for HD DVD at Universal Studios.

"It's something we never had with DVD. Better still it will be available to all HD DVD player owners as this has been a prerequisite from the beginning."

Other features for Bourne will include extra information such as GPS maps, information about the guns used, and additional information all while the movie is playing.

Universal also promised HD DVD releases of Elizabeth: The Golden age, The Kingdom, and American Gangster by Ridley Scott in Q1 next year, with other titled such as Incredible Hulk and Wanted coming later in the year.