By Peter Svensson
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - The DVD stands out as one of the most rapidly adopted consumer technologies ever, but in the electronics industry it's akin to an aging king in Shakespearean drama - rivals are lurking, knives drawn.

Just as consumers are beginning to get comfortable with their DVD players, electronics manufacturers are set to introduce next-generation discs that store more - and would be harder to copy.

A dozen companies, headed by Sony Corp., are pushing a disc called the Blu-ray.

INFOGRAPHIC

Click here to view an informational graphic describing the next-generation DVDs.

The other main contender, the High Definition DVD, is promoted by Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. But it has an important endorsement from an industry group and is also expected to get Microsoft Corp.'s support as the software giant seeks a toehold for its multimedia format in the consumer electronics arena.

Movie studios generally aren't commenting on the new formats. And the rival industry groups aren't saying exactly when they expect to have players on the market. Both, however, consider the DVD ripe for replacement next year.

For consumers, the benefit of a new format would be better image quality. Sales of high-definition TV sets have finally started to take off, but current DVDs don't have the resolution to get the most out of HDTV sets.

For the industry, a new format could mean an escape from the low-margin market DVD players have become. From costing more than $500 when introduced in 1997, players are now available for less than $50.

The new discs, which look much like DVDs, would be read by players with newly developed blue lasers, which can pick out finer detail than the red lasers used to play DVDs and CDs. This lets the new discs store three to five times as much data as a DVD, enough for high-definition movies with surround sound.

Manufacturers from both groups plan to also build red lasers into their new players, allowing them to read current DVDs.

The Blu-ray disc has the most storage capacity, up to 50 gigabytes. However, it achieves that capacity by using a structure quite different from DVDs. This means that the companies that make prerecorded DVDs would have to invest in new equipment, which is sure to give Hollywood pause as it ponders which format to back.

The Blu-ray has the widest support among electronics manufacturers.

Toshiba's HD-DVD, meanwhile, stores up to 30 gigabytes, but can close the quality gap with the Blu-ray by using more efficient compression software than the MPEG-2 standard already used in DVDs and planned for the Blu-ray. The HD-DVD has been endorsed by the DVD Forum, the industry group that created the DVD.

Geoffrey Kleinman, who runs review site DVDtalk.com, doesn't think consumers are clamoring for something better than the DVD.

"A high-quality progressive-scan DVD player properly connected to high definition TV looks fantastic," he says.

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On the Net

• www.blu-raydisc-official.org

• www.dvdforum.org