Toshiba, NEC Rally Support for `HD-DVD’

Although Blu-Ray is the only "approved" high-definition recordable DVD format approved by the DVD Forum, upstarts Toshiba and NEC are still trying to lobby for the DVD Forum's blessing for its alternative HD-DVD format. Toshiba and NEC claim that their system is much more cost-effective for both manufacturers and consumers than Blu-Ray, as the same manufacturing facilities can be used that currently make standard DVD products; Blu-Ray requires new manufacturing facilities for both hardware and software. With Blu-Ray products expected to start appearing on store shelves sometime late in 2004 and HD-DVD expected to hit sometime in 2005, are we in for another format war? For more details on this, check out the report from TWICE.