Sony’s Disc Poised for Victory

If you listen closely, you might hear champagne corks popping in Park Ridge at Sony Corporation of America.

That’s because it appears that Sony’s Blu-ray format is the likely winner of a long battle that not only pitted Sony against rival Toshiba, but confused consumers and frustrated retailers around the world.

Toshiba, whose America Consumer Products division is located in Wayne, has been fighting for its own DVD player format called HD-DVD, but indications are it may be tossing in the towel.

Toshiba Corp. said Monday that no decision has been made but said it had started a review of its HD DVD strategy. A company official, speaking on condition of anonymity because she isn’t authorized to speak on the matter, said that a board meeting could be held as soon as today, where a decision is likely.

Toshiba shares rose on the news that it might be backing out of what could end up being a losing business.

The industry split, which is analogous to the Betamax versus VHS format war years ago, has stalled sales of the two types of incompatible DVD players that display crisper high-resolution movies. Consumers have mostly waited on the sidelines for one format to dominate as the two sides argued for their format’s benefits. HD DVD players were cheaper, Toshiba said, while the Sony supporters claimed their discs could store more content, which was an appealing aspect to movie makers.

Toshiba estimates that 1 million people around the world have already bought HD DVD players.

As of last November, the Blu-Ray Disc Association estimated 2.7 million Blu-ray players have been sold, which includes Sony Playstation 3, which had Blu-ray built in.

"We weren’t really surprised since Sony had lost the Betamax versus VHS battle and I had my doubts they’d lose again," said Rich D’Ambrise, director of technical services for Maxell Corporation of America, based in Fair Lawn.

D’Ambrise’s company, which makes the physical discs that the new high-definition movies are stored on, hedged its bets and manufactured both formats.

"The consumer wins here and we’re happy for our customers and our retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy — it’s better for everyone that we don’t have these lines of division," said D’Ambrise, a close watcher of the format war.

The final blows to Toshiba appeared to have come last month when Warner Bros. said it would back the Blu-ray format. Warner, which accounts for 20 percent of all U.S. DVD sales, was the last big Hollywood studio to publish in both high-definition formats. With Warner now on its side, the Blu-ray contingent counted at least six big Hollywood studios committed to releasing movies on DVD in the Blu-ray format only.

"With Warner going Blu-ray only, HD DVD’s lifetime is now numbered in days, weeks at the most," Michael Greeson, president and principal analyst for The Diffusion Group, said in a release shortly after the Warner announcement. "Blu-ray will spin this announcement in such a way that consumers will have a very hard time rationalizing an HD DVD purchase."

Warner joined Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox. That left only Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures and General Electric Co.’s Universal Pictures as exclusive supporters of HD DVD. Microsoft also backed HD DVD but that didn’t give Toshiba enough traction.

"They [Toshiba] really had the deck stacked against them," said D’Ambrise, who added that Sony outspent Toshiba in its lobbying efforts to gain industry support for its format.

Last week, Best Buy said it would sell only Blu-ray Discs and hardware and on Friday retailing giant Wal-Mart announced the same. Netflix Inc. also said it would no longer carry movie rentals in the HD DVD format.

HD DVD was touted as being cheaper because it was similar to previous video technology, while the Blu-ray Disc boasted bigger recording capacity. Both formats play on high-definition TVs. Consumers looking for a bargain on Blu-ray players may have to wait a bit longer — some manufacturer’s models, notably Panasonic and Samsung, can be found in the $230-and-up range.

As for whether Sony was celebrating yet, spokesman Greg Belloni declined to comment.