Sony and NEC to combine optical businesses: victory for Blu-ray?

In a move that could have long-reaching consequences for next-gen video and data-storage technologies, Sony and NEC have established a joint venture merging their optical drive businesses. The joint venture was first proposed last November, and is expected to begin business by April 1. While JVs between competitors are not unheard-of, what makes this one particularly unusual is that Sony is, of course, one of the leaders of the Blu-ray group, while NEC sits squarely in the HD DVD camp. The two companies have made no announcements as to what kind of optical drives the new company -- to be known as Sony NEC Optiarc -- will make, but here's one clue: Sony will have a 55% stake in the $1.9 billion company, and it will be managed by one of Sony's execs. Looks to us like Optiarc is going to be a very Blu company, leaving the HD DVD group with one less key supplier of hardware.

[adi @ Feb 27th 2006 11:06AM]

I'm still holding out hope that price + PS3 delays will spell an HD-DVD victory.

[Mack Swift @ Feb 27th 2006 11:10AM]

I really do thinkg that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will fail.
Watching both camps duke it out over data storage, DRM (or as ZDNet calls it CRAP - or Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection), encryption, and how people should enjoy the content they paid for is akin to watching two monkeys fucking a football.

I keep remembering back to the Circuit City Divx fiasco of a few years ago. Remember that load of C.R.A.P. ? It tanked hard and circuit city lost a large amount of money on that.

The same thing will happen here. Look at the PS3. HDMI only outputs there folks; no DVI, no VGA, only content restrictive HDMI. Great job Sony, and most normal Joes who buy will take it home only to discover they can't plug it into their TV.

I bought a 60 inch Toshiba HDTV 2 years ago. My DVDs and various video files look gorgeous on it. I have no intention of buying something new just to satisfy the MPAA's greed machine.

[Brian @ Feb 27th 2006 11:22AM]

Adi, why on earth are you rooting for an HD-DVD victory?? Why in the world would you care? As consumers, we just need ONE of them to win and win soon.

[Guru G @ Feb 27th 2006 11:22AM]

Mack Swift, the ps3 has hdmi port but that does not mean it supports only hdmi. there will components (and perhaps vga) adaptors/cables available. Sony has sold around 200 million consoles, i am sure they know how to get stuff displayed on your tv (and they know that not every one has hd tv yet). what they are doing, which we all should respect, is that they are future proofing the ps3 which makes the ps3 a better investment than the xbox 360.

secondly, optical media perhaps may be die, but it is not going to die so early. online distribution models are still in their infancy and people with high speed internet are still a small percentage of consumers. plus you have problems like, how do you carry around your downloads like a simple disc.

[Me @ Feb 27th 2006 11:23AM]

Screw Sony. Dead tech. What we need is the 20Gb+ memory cards anyway. Give it couple more years. It will be here.

[hmurchison @ Feb 27th 2006 11:36AM]

This means nothing. Have you forgotten Toshiba/Samsung alliance which will have them making optical drives for HD-DVD and perhaps Blu-Ray.

Folks this format war is about money. If you can make money on the backend as a company you're going to do that even if said product ends up in your competitors product.

[adoen @ Feb 27th 2006 11:42AM]

Can anyone give me an invitation to gmail?
My email: picknik_72 at yahoo dot com

Thank you

[kenny @ Feb 27th 2006 12:01PM]

maybe it will not be Blu-Ray or HD...

think possiblly Holographic?

[alc277 @ Feb 27th 2006 12:08PM]

---Request Granted

[zombieflanders @ Feb 27th 2006 12:09PM]

TSST seems to be focused mainly on Blu-Ray, and previous statements by Sony have them putting out the bare minimum, if any, HD-DVD via Optiarc. That's two out of the three major HD-DVD hardware manufacturers hedging their bets. Against higher manufacturing costs, later rollout, and no Vista support, HD-DVD still can't come out on top? As Ace Ventura would say: La-hoo-ha-sers.

[sracer @ Feb 27th 2006 12:13PM]

#4. guru g, you are incorrect. The Blu-Ray spec requires the protected digital HDMI connector. That means either the PS3 will ONLY output HDMI or will have some kind of hybrid, component output for gaming, HDMI for Blu-Ray output. It's a mess.

#3. Brian, I don't want either format to win, but I want Blu-Ray to fail more. Why? Because of Sony's history of doing anything to implement DRM (remember the rootkit!) and push their proprietary formats.

[adi @ Feb 27th 2006 12:14PM]

Brian,

Mostly because I hate Sony and I hate their desire to try and own every technology. Beta, Memory Sticks, BlueRay, their first mp3 players -- it makes me ill and I want to see them punished for it every time.

[Jake @ Feb 27th 2006 12:16PM]

yea this media war is total crap and it is all about money, but then again what isn't. I wish I could say that this will be decided by consumers, but we all know that with large companies taking sides they'll be pushing/forcing us to use their prefered media. It would be nice to see consumers banding together and becoming more informed and choosing the best media but we all know that the best is relitive.

As far as Holographic I bet we won't see that until the manufacturers have milked HD-dvd/blu-ray, then florecent optical media. Why skip forward to something totally new when you can make money selling stuff thats no where near as good and making it obsolete with that technology a few years later?

[Thill @ Feb 27th 2006 12:22PM]

Here is the deal for me. I think that the consumers will decide who the winner is here, and it may not be either of these formats if consumers stick with standard DVD disks.

On paper, Blu-Ray looks like a winner, but not by too much vs HD-DVD. HD-DVD has some key advantages like:
- The name. Sure people who surf Engadget know what Blu-Ray means, but that does not mean the majority of baby boomers do. HD-DVD is very recognizeable and an unknolwdgeable buyer may go with this not understading that BR plays standard DVD's as well as the BR format.
- Price. HD-DVD players will be considerably cheaper than BR players initially. Toshiba's entry level player is $499. While still not "cheap" this is a much better looking number than a $1200 BR player.
- Manufacturing. Making BR disks means that manufacturuers will need to buy much more expensive production equipment vs HD-DVD. To me, this may make HD-DVD disks more readibly available (initially) and cheaper.

Me, I tend to buy the newest gadgets, but I am going to wait this one out a little while. No way am I going to buy an expensice BR player only to find it obsolete within a year or two... Too bad they could not have agreed on one standard so the consumer does not get stuck holding the bag.. That and the fact that DRM is starting to get ridiculous. I am very tempted to stick with DVD's for a few more years to stick it to the movie studios..

[Pit @ Feb 27th 2006 12:24PM]

Against higher manufacturing costs, later rollout, and no Vista support, HD-DVD still can't come out on top?

[Pit @ Feb 27th 2006 12:28PM]

Me, I tend to buy the newest gadgets, but I am going to wait this one out a little while. No way am I going to buy an expensice BR player only to find it obsolete within a year or two...

[Alex @ Feb 27th 2006 12:38PM]

I recently upgraded a lot of equipment and now have an LCD TV with 1 HDMI input, a projector that has 1 HDMI input, and a receiver with 2 HDMI inputs. However, it isn't clear if any of these devices support the latest and greatest HDCP. I wouldn't be surprised if when the PS3 comes out, I will plug its HDMI cable in (to a wide variety of things) only to get error dialog boxes accusing me of trying to steal content.

DRM is CRAP

[Thomas @ Feb 27th 2006 1:23PM]

I really want to see Blu Ray make it only cuz it does appear to already have a future of expantion in mind as far as the discs go.. HD DVD is already maxing the size when it launches, smaller than BluRays space..

But really everyone blaming Sony and even MS for DRM is getting outa hand.. The whole reason they are implementing higher standards in Copy Protection is cuz of Hollywood and the Music industry itself... Ya know all those Co. and Peeps that have a huge bank account already and still want more..

[Count Porkula @ Feb 27th 2006 1:58PM]

#18. I guess Sony Studios and Sony Music is not part of Hollywood and the Music Industry??? Sony is directly responsible for a large portion of all this DRM non-sense, RIAA lawsuits, etc. I don't have one single Sony product in my house and I never will.

[Akkarin @ Feb 27th 2006 2:04PM]

HD-DVD looks the better for the industry, much cheaper transistion for everyone involved. I personally prefer the idea of HD-DVD winning.
Also if anyone wants too invite me too g-mail please do
akkarin (at) tbiworks (dot) com

[Thill @ Feb 27th 2006 2:16PM]

#18. Ummm. HD-DVD can hold up to 30GB last time I checked. Blu-Ray 54GB. While BR has the advantage, I think that 30GB is pretty adequate... You make it sound obsolete out the box.. Also, remember that more content for movies and games equals more development, cost, and production timelines. I think 30GB will be more than adequate. Where the 54GB comes in handy is in storage for media on PC's.

[Surur @ Feb 27th 2006 3:39PM]

This has implications for the PS3. This means Sony doesn't just make their drive in house, and NEC will be expecting to be re-imbursed for all of those Blu-ray drives they produce. Its at least 45% the same as any other wholesale device they have to purchase in. While Sony may be happy to swallow a loss, NEC wont be.

Surur

[Echo_ @ Feb 27th 2006 4:36PM]

blu ray wins because of its higher limit

remember those hd movies take up a lotta space

and to number two your t.v. must suck if it shows dvds in hgih quality that are very low resolution

[E71 @ Feb 27th 2006 5:19PM]

BOOYAH!

Sorry, I just had to say it.

[Bolaji @ Feb 27th 2006 5:52PM]

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[jason w @ Feb 27th 2006 6:38PM]

"15. Against higher manufacturing costs, later rollout, and no Vista support, HD-DVD still can't come out on top? Pit 0 "
Pit are you serious? HDDVD is supported by vista, bluray isnt. HDDVD will be out on a few weeks no word on Bluray. HDDVD cost less than bluray and less for the consumer. SO serious. Am i missing the joke or what?

[Jason W @ Feb 27th 2006 6:42PM]

You know what. I read that wrong. Sorry.

[zombieflanders @ Feb 27th 2006 7:14PM]

The point (mine, originally), is that Blu-Ray has higher manufacturing costs, comes out later, and has no built-in Vista support, yet HD-DVD still can't win against Blu-Ray in most polls, let alone dominate. They've even got Microsoft employees all over major boards slamming Blu-Ray, lying if they have to. The VP of Microsoft Digital Media himself has been leading this charge over at hobbyist boards like AVSForum. Sadly enough, Microsoft and Toshiba have managed to turn internet boards for enthusiast/hobbyist types into just more flamewars and industry-supported scaremongering.

[Paulmichael @ Feb 27th 2006 8:11PM]

Well, I've always been a SCEA fan, so I say go BluRay! I would just love to see what that much space can do for DVDs and, more importantly for me, games.

[o rly @ Feb 27th 2006 11:20PM]

oh noes! what about Lite-On?

[littleandy @ Feb 28th 2006 3:17AM]

I hope that both will fail. As other people here already said: DRM is CRAP!

[Simon @ Mar 1st 2006 9:02AM]

Maybe sony and NEC want to make a player that will play both bluray and hdd. This would be a market winner surely as people are afraid of buying into a format that could lose the next format war.

It does make sense, NEC are huge and a big HDD player, Sony are huge and a Big Bluray player. Both would want to secure themselves in a next gen market, so working together makes sense.

If only they did this before deciding on the specs!!!