Time Warner and LG roll out plans to end high-definition DVD format war

Los Angeles: An electronics company and and a movie studio independently rolled out plans on Thursday to bridge the divide between rival high-definition DVD formats with products that would combine two sets of standards.

Time Warner said it will unveil a new high-definition disc that would hold recordings in the rival HD DVD and Blu-ray formats in separate layers. Warner Bros plans to present the new disc, Total HD, at the annual Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show.

At the same time, South Korea's LG Electronics said on Thursday it would launch a DVD player that supports both Sony's Blu-ray format and HD DVD, which is backed by Toshiba.

Fears of a format war in a nascent industry widely expected to become a multibillion dollar market has slowed consumer acceptance of next-generation DVDs, analysts said.

The consumer electronics and entertainment industries are hoping the high-definition formats, which provide better picture quality and more capacity, will respark the slowing $24-billion-a-year home video market.

But the competing formats have been blamed for hindering sales of high-definition movies and players, with consumers recalling the bruising war between Sony's Betamax videotape and JVC's VHS version.

LG's dual-format high-definition disc player will be introduced in the US in early 2007, the company said in a statement.