Stan's List

Blu-ray Disc (BD), one of two new HD video disc formats, will debut on June 20 when Sony releases eight titles plus a ninth on June 27 and seven more in July. Samsung’s BD-P1000 Blu-ray disc player is scheduled to hit the market on June 25 as the first such player on the U.S. market. Sony will also release a BD-compatible Vaio PC. Pioneer has already released a computer drive that will read the BD discs, the BDR-101A.

Blu-ray discs hold up to 25GB/50GB of data.

Apple Computer supports the BD format but has not yet announced any products using it–stay tuned. More …

Forbes.com is reporting the possibility of a merger between industry heavyweights AMD and ATI. This is largely based on a ‘prediction on recent checks in the PC food chain’ by industry analyst Apjit Walia. A move like this might give AMD some leverage over Intel, who has been slashing prices lately to compete with a major surge in AMD popularity in both the home and server markets. More …

CDR Info reports that double-layer HD-DVD-R (quite a mouthful) is due to hit the shelves in the third quarter of this year.

The move represents a first strike on the part of the HD-DVD consortium. Apple has put its eggs into the Blu-Ray basket, along with main developer Sony, among others, including most Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers. PC companies have largely opted for HD-DVD, which uses Microsoft’s .wmv format for video and the AAC subset of QuickTime for audio.