There's division in the ranks of the DVD Forum, whose steering committee will meet in New York next week to vote on a next-generation optical-disk format. The winning format is expected to give manufacturers control over the technology that underlies upcoming DVD systems. Sixty companies took part in the forum's technical working group to develop the high-definition (HD-DVD) format, and some of them are also members of the opposing Blu-ray Disc ROM (BD-ROM) camp. Blu-ray was developed by 10 powerful consumer electronics companies, including Sony, Philips, Hitachi, Sharp and Samsung. All 10 are members of the DVD Forum's steering committee. Efforts to control the next-generation format have split the consumer electronics industry in two, and the stakes are high. Whichever format the market eventually embraces is expected to give consumer electronics manufacturers control over the technology that underlies upcoming DVD systems, and to protect them from the price deterioration now being seen in DVD players manufactured largely by Chinese OEMs. Next-generation systems promise to deliver a high-definition movie on a single disk, and are expected to build momentum for HDTV set sales. Full story at EETimes.