Warner Reportedly Will Debut Compromise DVD Format Next Week

BURBANK, Calif. -- An eagerly anticipated truce in the high-definition DVD format war may soon be declared, according to news reports yesterday. Warner Home Video here reportedly will introduce the Total HD disc, which will work in either Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD players, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. In a New York Times story, Barry Meyer, chairman and chief executive officer of Warner Brothers, said the company concluded that neither HD DVD nor Blu-ray were going to disappear from the market like Betamax many years ago, so they came up with the new format. "We felt that the most significant constituency for us to satisfy was the consumer first, and the retailer second," Meyer is quoted as saying. "The retailer wants to sell hardware and doesn't want to be forced into stocking two formats for everything. This is ideal for them."