Warner Home Video which launched the Total HD brand back in January plans to launch its Blu-ray / HD DVD combo discs early 2008 according to the US trade paper Video Business, going by this RegHardware report. This format offers two advantages over single format media: First, the consumer does not need to worry about the disc being compatible with their HD player, but instead just needs to ensure they load the disc the correct way up depending on whether they have a Blu-ray or HD DVD player. The 2nd advantage is that retailers do not need to stock Blu-ray and HD DVD versions of the same movie, thus saving on valuable retail shelf space, at least for WMV titles.
The drawback is the extra cost in replicating both the Blu-ray and HD DVD halves, not to mention the extra stage of gluing the two halves together. As a result, these discs are most likely to cost more than single format disc versions. It is unclear why WHV is waiting until 2008 to begin production of its Total HD discs, although it is possible that they may be waiting to see how well both HD formats do throughout 2007 before making the final decision to go ahead with releasing Total HD discs.
Thanks to GristyMcFisty for letting us know about this news.
