DVD format war begins with arrival of Blu-ray discs, player

GARY GENTILE

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – The DVD format war has begun.

On Tuesday, Sony Pictures released the first seven films in the new Blu-ray format, which is backed primarily by Sony Corp. and a majority of Hollywood studios, including Disney, MGM and Twentieth Century Fox.

The releases, which include "50 First Dates," "Hitch," and "House of Flying Daggers," will play on the new Blu-ray DVD player from Samsung Electronics, which goes on sale next week for $999.

Blu-ray arrives a few months late to the game.

The first shots in the battle over high definition DVDs came in March when Toshiba Corp. began selling a $499 player for their rival – and incompatible – HD DVD format.

Toshiba is a major developer and backer of the format. Like Blu-ray, the HD DVD format promises crisper pictures, better sound and more disc space to accommodate interactive menus, games and other features.

While the HD DVD camp has fewer Hollywood studios, the format's backers include companies with vast film and TV libraries such as Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures.

Those studios have already begun releasing most new home videos, including "The Last Samurai" and "Cinderella Man," in HD DVD.

Both sides had hoped to avoid a prolonged battle for dominance, which analysts say will cause confusion in the marketplace and delay quick adoption of the higher quality video format. But talks to devise a compromise between the two camps broke down last year.

Sony has made Blu-ray a cornerstone of its strategy to turn its Playstation 3 video game console into a networked home entertainment center. The consoles will come equipped with a Blu-ray disc player when they go on sale in November.

Microsoft Corp., which backs the HD DVD format, plans on making a high-def disc drive available for its XBox 360 game console later this year.