From the Dow Jones Newswire:

An industry group including Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Tuesday it expects DVD player/recorders compatible with the “Blu-ray” read-only disc format to hit the market in the second half of 2005, signaling the possibility of a more intense battle next year over the high-definition successor to the current generation of DVDs. So far, the group Blu-ray Disc Founders, made up of 13 global technology firms, has only established a recordable disc format for Blu-ray technology — one of two rival next-generation DVD formats. Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. are also promoting HD (high-definition) DVDs — a new optical disc format that they jointly developed. A Toshiba executive said last month the company plans to launch two home-use HD DVD devices next year — a DVD player and a DVD player/recorder equipped with a hard-disc drive.

Let’s hope this is a short battle with a clear winner. I want a HD DVD player SOON and I don’t want to end up with an orphaned format!