Will Blu-ray, HD DVD be united by 2008?

Chipmakers such as Broadcom, NEC and STMicroelectronics are preparing components that will allow consumer electronics manufacturers to come out with players and PCs that will play both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.

And these universal players may come out sometime in 2007, according to a story in EE Times. While the report was a little vague about when in 2007 these players might come out, at least one exec was bullish on the presence of these machines in 2008.

Christos Lagomichos, general manager of the Home Entertainment Group at STMicroelectronics, told EE Times that "a significant volume of high-definition-capable optical-disk players in 2008 will be universal players."

Technically, a combo player isn't that difficult, according to many. The problem has been the politics. The creators of the separate formats stand to earn millions in royalties if their format wins out. LG and Pioneer gave up the idea of coming out with a dual-format player in the relatively near future.

The format war, however, has caused consumers to shy away from buying products based on either standard. As a result, those companies that aren't in the leadership group for either format are already saying they will revisit the concept of universal players in the future. Hitachi says it's interested in coming back to the idea of a combo player in the future and NEC announced its dual-format chips earlier in the year.

Customer dissatisfaction could be a stronger motive than politics.

It's just a matter of time" before disk drives compatible with both formats hit the market, said Shigeo Niitsu, vice president responsible for system-on chip LSIs for PC peripherals and audio/video digital systems at NEC Electronics told EE Times. "PC companies like HP are looking for drives that are compatible with both formats. Technically speaking, LSIs for such drives are ready."