This Is Where We Came In

Battling Video Standards, The Sequel to the Sequel:

TOKYO -- Japanese electronic maker Toshiba has given up on negotiations with a rival camp led by Sony Corp. to agree on a unified format for next-generation DVDs, a media report said late Tuesday.

Toshiba Corp. leads a group of companies that support the HD DVD format and has been in talks with a Sony-led bloc, which backs the Blu-ray format.

"It is regrettable but unavoidable that two formats will remain (on the market)," Kyodo News agency quoted an unnamed Toshiba official as saying.

Officials were unavailable for immediate comment late Tuesday.

The two blocs developed their DVD formats separately, but growing concern about confusion among consumers over the different formats prompted Sony and Toshiba to start negotiations on a unified format earlier this year.

Kyodo said, however, that two rival formats were certain to continue as Toshiba's move follows a decision by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. from the Sony camp to also abandon the negotiations.

Sony's Blu-ray disks have a more sophisticated format and play back 25 GB of data compared with HD DVD's 15, but are more expensive to produce.