The Blu-Ray disc founders has added TDK, a major manufacturer of optical discs, as its newest member.
The Blu-Ray consortium already includes most of the industry’s biggest players —Sony, Philips, Samsung, Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard and Dell. They are competing against the DVD Forum, a group that includes some of the same companies on the Blu-Ray team. The DVD Forum favors an alternative blue-laser technology devised by Japan’s Toshiba and NEC Electronics. It’s called Advanced Optical Disk (AOD).
In what’s shaping up as a battle over huge future patent fees, some fear the next generation DVD contest could be another VHS vs. Betamax battle.