Peace may be elusive in next-gen DVD war

Gadgeteers may have been ready to go all Neville Chamberlain this week and declare "peace for our time" over Sony's new willingness to negotiate on next-generation DVD formats.

Not so fast. Several publications noted in second-day stories that it will take a lot of work to find a middle ground between Sony's Blu-ray format and Toshiba's HD DVD.

The Wall Street Journal notes (subscription required) that time is likely to be a critical factor, as hardware makers and movie studios want to get HD DVD products on the market in time for the 2005 holiday season.

PC Pro see significant engineering hurdles, as well, because the two formats store information on very different locations on the disc.