High-def DVD format war hots up

Paramount has denied reports that it will abandon Toshiba's HD DVD format in favour of Sony's rival Blu-ray specification.

In recent days, Blu-ray has moved ahead of HD DVD in terms of studio support, with Warner Bros becoming the latest studio to switch its allegiance to Blu-ray. The studio will cease releasing HD DVD discs in May, when their commitment to HD DVD expires.

The war between the next-generation formats has been likened to the VHS versus Betamax format competition of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The two formats are incompatible, but both use a blue-violet laser instead of the red laser used for reading standard DVDs. Blu-ray boasts a slightly higher per-layer maximum storage capacity, and has region coding capability, whereas HD DVD is region free.

Currently, only Paramount and Universal remain as big-studio supporters of HD DVD. Others, such as 20th Century Fox, Sony and Disney, all support Blu-ray.

In a statement, a Paramount spokesperson said today: "Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format."

However, it is understood that Paramount is now able to switch its support because of a clause in its contract with HD DVD that permitted it to withdraw in the event that Warner Bros switched to Blu-ray.