Broadcom Corp. could help PC and DVD manufacturers sidestep the choice between two high-definition recording standards with a chip that can decode signals recorded in either format.
A new recording standard is needed to accommodate the rapacious storage requirements of high-definition video, but as with the DVD-RW and DVD+RW and VHS-versus-Betamax debates, two different standards backed by industry heavyweights have emerged. Blu-Ray is supported by consumer electronics vendors Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) as well as PC vendors Dell Inc. and Apple HD DVD is backed by Toshiba Corp., NEC Corp., Intel Corp., and Microsoft Corp. Major entertainment companies have announced support for both standards.
Video recorded using one standard will not play on DVD players built using the other standard, which promises to frustrate consumers looking to play DVDs from one movie studio on both their PCs and living-room DVD players. But Broadcom’s technology will allow PCs or DVD players using the chips to play video recorded with either standard, said Jonathan Goldberg, senior product line manager with Broadcom.
“Our chipset will play 100 percent of HD DVD and 100 percent of Blu-Ray, and all the special features that come with that,” Goldberg said.
Yes, Broadcom gets to profit from both of the competing design groups.
It’s a good idea, I hope they make a billion bucks off it.
Why can’t these people realize that if they made their disks as pro-consumer as possible that they would capture the market? If any one of these companies made it so that customers could do what they wanted with the content and the disks that they had purchased, they would gain the public’s respect and the public’s money! I know it’s never that simple, but surely that is the truth. That’s why VHS prevailed over Betamax, and if Sony and all of these other companies still don’t get that, then too bad for them.
Well somebody had to come up with a format conversion device.
Frustrated consumers? Nah, if the formats are released together, and mutually incompatible, the word will go out quickly and no one will buy anything. I think the public is growing weary of changing formats that don’t offer any obvious benefit. Yeah, high-def will require these things, and it will sell us on this basis, but after this? The format wars should be close to being over I think. This kind of technology is just there to usher it in a little more comfortably.
As for the content of disks you only own a license to view it and not anything you like. As for VHS vs Beta … Beta had better picture quality but shorter record times then VHS. People wanted longer record times and were willing to settle for picture degradation. Now VHS no longer supports the 6hr record format. The same thing has happened to radio. en example is what format for AM stereo C-QUAM (Motorola) or Kahn-Hazeltine (Phillips). The market didn’t decide the FCC did (C-QUAM) but nowadays you can’t find an AM stereo station. It could well be that BOTH will lose and a third standard will emerge.
Sometimes I wonder why we must to be regulated by FCC about which AM Stereo we can use. Why not to let all the systems! Let the listeners decide.
As today, we have Tapes, CDs, DVDs, VHS, etc. The people decide/choice which to use.
I think the best AM Stereo system was, is and will be Kahn ISB.
And, at least, I want to ask you DON’T LET IBOC EXISTS! The analog AM radio (mono or stereo) sounds better (if the tuner makers eliminate the stupid 3 kHz LPF!).
God bless you all!