Next-gen DVD talks suspended indefinitely, say reports

Talks between the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD camps have broken down once more, according to reports in the Japanese press, with the Sony and Toshiba led consortiums indefinitely suspending talks aimed at avoiding a standards war.

Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the latest attempts to agree a unified standard have failed - and both camps have confirmed that they are now well underway in the development of products using their respective DVD formats.

Sony's Blu-Ray discs are more technically advanced and can hold more data, but Toshiba claims that they are expensive to produce compared to HD-DVD discs.

However, Blu-Ray has a certain advantage in that it will be used by the PlayStation 3 from day one, giving it a certain head-start over the HD-DVD standard - which will not be supported by any next-generation console.

One thing that's for certain, however, is that the failure to reach a compromise between the two firms is going to hurt consumers, with many likely to be left with players for a defunct standard a few years down the line.

While game companies will be supporting Blu-Ray due to its presence in PS3, movie studios are split between the formats - with Disney, Fox and (obviously) Sony lined up for Blu-Ray, but Warner and Universal planning to support HD-DVD.