A smattering of format war news from the past few days…
Most of the time retailers announce what products they will carry – so it is a little unusual that Wal*Mart has gone out of their way to say they will not be carrying the $199 Venturer SHD7000 HD DVD player. Picked up from Gizmodo.
CNet News.com has an article on the reported pay-off to Paramount and Dreamworks Animation to go HD DVD exclusive, in which Disney claims to have not received any payments to back Blu-ray.
Electronic News reports that the next Intel Centrino, codenamed Montevina, will have native support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD when it launches in 2Q08.
Screen Digest released a study that predicts that both Blu-ray and HD DVD will remain viable formats and will end up co-existing in the market.
Sharp and Pioneer are linking up to advance Blu-ray and other consumer technologies, according to TWICE magazine. Sharp is investing in Pioneer to the tune of $357.3 million to acquire 30 million shares on December 20th. That will give Sharp a 14.28% stake in Pioneer, making them the largest shareholder. In return, Sharp is selling .9% of its shares, 10 million, to Pioneer for $172.3 million. For Blu-ray, Sharp wll focus on the blue-violet laser diodes and Pioneer with focus on the drives. Picked up from Blu-ray.com
According to Forbes.com, representatives from both the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD camps will go head to head on a panel at the 2007 HDTV Conference on October 10-11, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. Picked up from EngadgetHD.
