The high definition disc format war was avoidable, former Warner president claims

[Sir Terrence]

Mr Lieberfarb thinks that many of us who know the history of the negotiation of both the DVD and the HD DVD/blu-ray camp are very stupid.

Both camps are cartel by its very defination, so just calling one side a cartel is one sided crap.

When two competing specification for the DVD forum were up for vote, for the sake of cooperation and creating a single standard, Sony relented to toshiba the royalties for disc structure which were immense.

When a compromise was in progress for HD DVD and blu-ray, Toshiba wanted to the BDA to alter the disc structure to their design. It was rejected and rightly so. Sony gave up the royalties on DVD, but were not about to do that on blu-ray. By the time Toshiba came to the compromise table, they really had no leverage.

Mr. Lieberfarb is not a voice of objectivity. What he omits in his comments is how the DVD forum first rejected the HD DVD proposal and Toshiba had to get a rule change to even bring it back for a second vote, and again change the rules so it would pass. This plainly shows how little support HD DVD had.