An article in the New York Times reports that Warner Brothers is about to announce a new type of video disc that will have a movie recorded in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats. The new type of disc, called the 'Total HD', is cleverly designed to take the pressure off consumers who are currently undecided on which hardware format to adopt.
Of course this simply muddies the waters of corporate backing for the individual formats. Readers may be aware that Comcast and Walt Disney (plus Sony, of course) are both signed up exclusively to Blu-ray, whereas Universal is committed only to HD-DVD. However the move by Warner to release movies on Total HD neatly sidesteps this commercial battle and simplifies the choice of standalone high-definition for the consumer.
It could get even better for consumers, since the original patent application specified yet a third format on the one Total HD disc, that of standard DVD-Video. Thus consumers could buy a film at normal definition before upgrading their living room player, knowing that the same disc would play at authentic high definition in whatever playback hardware choice they made in the future.
The whole article is worth a good read, as it gives a useful history of the formats' development and competing corporate interests. It highlights the short-sighted moves of both camps which have resulted in the stalling of consumer interest in recorded HD discs in general.
