Warner Brothers to back Blu-ray as well as HD DVD

A JAPANESE PAPER said Friday that Warner Brothers is likely to join other Hollywood studios and sit on the fence by backing both Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD formats.

That report, in the Asahi Shimbun blurs the lines for both Sony and Toshiba, which have both failed to come up with a unified format which would satisfy consumers, and therefore keep Hollywood studios happy too.

It now appears that the decision by Microsoft and Intel to throw their weight behind the Toshiba HD DVD format rather than the Sony Blu-ray format, or both, could have been a strategic mistake.

Hollywood is not used to being dictated to by johnny come lately tech firms like Intel and Microsoft, and it seems would prefer the two DVD camps to use their heads rather than their hearts and develop a unified format.

Intel last week made a desperate effort to act as an arbitrator in the dispute but is unlikely to be seen as impartial by the Sony camp, the Toshiba camp or more importantly by Hollywood.

While every punter in these sort of steeplechases can make a bad bet and back the wrong horse, it's likely that the Sony and Toshiba camps will be swayed by the clever game the Hollywood studios are playing.

Intel and Microsoft don't need to lose face, however. Their wisest bet for both firms would be for them to stop butting in and let the big boys in La La Land use their weight in the consumer market to decide the outcome of the format wars.

Unfortunately, both Microsoft and Intel see themselves as pioneers in the consumer electronics market, whereas the world+dog knows that in these sphere they are callow youths. Digital Home indeed. µ