The global consortium trying to establish Blu-ray blue laser technology as the standard for next-generation DVDs announced last week that it has set specifications for read-only discs, and that compatible DVD players would hit the market as early as the second half of 2005.
The Blu-ray Disc Founders group, whose members include Sony and Matsushita, is competing with another blue laser-based DVD technology dubbed HD-DVD that is promoted by Toshiba and NEC.
The availability of a read-only format is crucial to attract the support of Hollywood film studios, as sales of packaged DVDs are a strong earnings driver for them.