Paramount Pictures To Support Blu-ray

Paramount Home Entertainment is the latest company to back the Blu-ray Disc format as the next-generation DVD standard. Paramount said it will join a growing list of media and technology companies endorsing Blu-ray that includes Sony, Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Dell Inc.

Paramount will still market all its DVD movies in the competing HD DVD format so consumers can have a choice, company officials said. Backers of HD DVD include Intel, Microsoft, Toshiba, Universal Studios and others. Paramount decided to support the Blu-ray format after an analysis of the cost and copy protection solutions available, according to a prepared statement. Paramount also said it was attracted by Blu-ray’s storage capacity, which is five times that of current DVDs.

“We have been intrigued by the broad support of Blu-ray, especially the key advantage of including Blu-ray in PlayStation 3,” said Thomas Lesinski, president of Paramount Pictures, Worldwide Home Entertainment. Paramount will begin releasing its content in the Blu-ray format in North America, Japan and Europe when the hardware is available to support it.