ON THE HOME VIEWING FRONT NEXT-GENERATION DVD FORMATS FACE OFF.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

WEST HOLLYWOOD - With shades of the 1980s showdown between VHS and Betamax, proponents of dueling high-definition DVD brands squared off Tuesday to tout their respective optical disc technologies in front of a rapt audience of home entertainment industry leaders.

The growing heated battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, which are both vying to become the next-generation technology to take the industry by storm, took center stage at the third annual Home Entertainment Summit at the Wyndham Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood.

The presentations pitted home industry titans Warren Lieberfarb and Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment President Benjamin Feingold.

``Hollywood has a decision to make, and the decision is now,'' said Lieberfarb, the former Warner Home Video president who is championing HD-DVD. ``The choices are getting real clear.''

Lieberfarb is now an industry consultant and spoke on behalf of Toshiba, which has developed HD-DVD with NEC. He used the occasion not only to tout his product but also to take shots at rival Blu-Ray, which he derisively called ``vaporware'' and maintained is not manufacturable.

Lieberfarb also said that HD-DVD is a more efficient technology that could be ready for market by 2005.

Feingold countered by calling HD-DVD ``interim technology'' which is not advanced enough to carry the industry through the next 10 years.

Blu-Ray proponents tout more capacity and features than HD-DVD and countered Lieberfarb's claims during a detailed presentation that included a demonstration of Blu-Ray. The technology has more than a dozen major backers including Columbia-TriStar parent company Sony Corp., Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sharp, Panasonic, Hitachi and TDK.

The heads of home video divisions of the major studios, all of whom were present for the conference hosted by Video Store magazine, declined to say which format they favor at this point.

``Warner remains firmly on the fence,'' said Warner Home Video President Jim Cardwell, adding that his studio would probably embrace ``whichever one is most likely to succeed. We don't want to back a loser.''

But Cardwell said any kind of format war would be ``suicidal'' for the industry. In the war between VHS and Betamax, the two competing standards were released into the marketplace at the same time. It was essentially left up to consumers to decide the winner between the superior quality Betamax or the less expensive VHS format. It was VHS that eventually won, leaving Betamax buyers with an ultimately useless format.

MGM Home Entertainment President David Bishop urged some kind of truce this time around.

``I encourage the parties to get together,'' he said. ``We can't go to market with two formats. ... It will be the death knell.''

The executives all agreed that the new technology should debut in 2006 or 2007 and said among the most important elements are cost and copyright protection.

Bob Chapek, president of Disney's Buena Vista Home Video, used the analogy of two powerful trains approaching each other in a high-stakes game of chicken.

Asked Chapek: ``Will the two trains recognize each other? Will they stop before it's too late? Is there an option whereby both trains accomplish their objectives without a disastrous collision?''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com