In his State of the Industry address at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Andersen said the current battle over competing Blu-ray and HD-DVD high-definition DVD formats was posing a serious threat to the stability of the industry.
And while he refrained from endorsing one particular format, he said that the launch of a single high-definition DVD format is crucial to avoiding consumer confusion, which could eventually sabotage both formats altogether.
Often compared to the battle between Betamax and VHS videocassettes nearly 20 years ago, Sony Corp.’s Blu-ray and Toshiba Corp.’s HD-DVD have been on the fast track for the past year aiming to capture the majority of industry support. Both formats promise better picture quality, more-interactive features and stronger anti-piracy protection.
Some electronics makers have been in talks to merge both high-definition formats, but none have succeeded yet. In March, Sony President-elect Ryoji Chubachi caused a stir when he hinted at the possibility of integrating his company’s preferred technology with rival format HD-DVD.
Sony executive, Ken Kutaragi, said earlier in the year that a format war was not in the public interest and that convergence was under consideration.
Andersen and VSDA’s stance is strongly in favor of making sure that whichever format is adopted, that the features, dimensions, packaging and marketing materials are designed to generate widespread consumer and retailer support for the product.
VSDA, which was founded in 1981 and now represents the $24 billion home entertainment industry, also released its "Baseline Criteria for High Definition DVD Format, encouraging the industry to come together and work out an agreement on which format to go with.
Analysts have long predicted that the success of any new DVD format would depend entirely on acceptance from movie studios and entertainment companies.
So far, Blu-ray has won endorsement from The Walt Disney Company, putting it ahead of competitor HD-DVD, given the amount of DVD content the company and its other units like Buena Vista, Miramax Home Entertainment and Touchstone Home Entertainment generate per year. Disney currently represents 17 percent of all DVD sales.
Whereas HD-DVD has been endorsed by four of the leading Hollywood studios: Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and New Line Cinema. HD-DVD also has garnered support from electronics companies NEC and Sanyo Electric. However, Samsung is so far hedging its bets and has given support to both formats.
A recent poll conducted by polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates suggests that consumers overwhelmingly prefer Blu-ray as their format of choice. According to the study, consumers were given a side-by-side comparison of the two formats and 58 percent of the 1,200 consumers surveyed preferred Blu-ray, whereas 26 percent were undecided and only 16 percent preferred HD-DVD.
