14 DAY TRIAL // NEC has announced that it is already shipping the hybrid chips and Blu-Ray/HD-DVD players should appear in early 2007. "The chips go on sale for 10,000 yen ($84), roughly the same price as NEC Electronics' chips which read only Blu-ray or only HD DVD formats," reports Reuters. NEC developed two chips: ?PC3360 is the smaller one and would be integrated in portable players, while ?PD63410 will be integrated in normal players.
It looks like the two rival formats will soon be reconciled. But NEC completed only the silicon chips; there are no optical pick-up lanes that can read both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs, yet. The announced dual-players will still use two separate lenses for each medium and this means that the costs of production raise. A NEC spokesperson admitted that more than half of the cost of a dual player is given by the integration of the hybrid chip and an optical pick-up lens.
NEC probably didn't know about the development of the hybrid HD-DVD/Blu-Ray discs, which were proposed by two Warner employees and are made up of two superimposed layers for each format. But it seems that this won't be a problem for NEC. It could even transform into a partnership, as NEC should deliver hybrid pick-up lenses at the same time the hybrid discs are thought to appear. Anyhow, the two rival formats won't be causing a chaos anymore and consumers will be saved once again.