Sony and Toshiba are in talks to try and settle the oncoming new technology DVD format war that was due to hit the consumers this year according to the BBC.

the technology and movie industries recognise that a format war, like the VHS-Beta battle in the 1980s which saw the death of the Beta video cassette, is undesirable.

“The two groups are in talks to jointly develop a new standard for next-generation DVDs to give the best benefit to consumers,” a Sony source told the Reuters news agency.

These talks seem to be over and above the previous ones which fell through, and both companies have been publicly acknowledging the harm a format war could have, especially with a larger storage format coming round the corner. They need to combine their formats and skills and produce the single next generation DVD.

This is good news for us as this year we were set to have formats for both systems dropped on the market, and with each company commanding the backing of movie studios, we would be seeing new releases on one format and not the other. This is something that would do nothing but harm the studios sales, I can’t see any of us buying into another format war until it was decided.