Cebit 07: Toshiba HD-DVD matches Blu-ray capacity

Armour said he believed Toshiba would bring out a drive that supports both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD if the market appeared to want it. He stressed that this was his own opinion and he was not speaking for the company. “But Toshiba is very open minded. If the market is going that way I am sure they will do it.”

He added: “Basically all these companies are interested in is the format. They don’t care about the hardware. So if you get a combination drive you are still going to sell movies in your format.”

Toshiba has developed a slim-line read-write drive but it will be sold first in Japan. Toshiba’s own notebook division will get the first off the production lines but after that some may go to other notebook vendors.

Some of the first to come to Europe will goingto an exterior read/write USB 2.0 drive, Armour said. Toshiba was showing a dummy of the product on its stand.