We here at TechJapan have been keeping a close eye on how the entire HD DVD vs Blu-Ray battle unfolds, and the latest punch thrown comes from Onkyo. The company has joined the HD DVD Promotion Group. Like many companies joining either party, though, they have explicitly stated that this is not an exclusive deal -- the possibility of them joining the other promotional group still exists.

Onkyo Corporation announced on the 28th that they have joined the "HD DVD Promotion Group," a group promoting HD DVD as the next generation optical disc standard. Consisting of four primary members (NEC, Toshiba, etc.), the HD DVD Promotion Group has three levels, where the other two are "general member" and "associate member." Onkyo will be joining as a general member.

Onkyo explained the move by saying, "moving towards the establishment of a home theater space with higher quality audio and video, we will be driving home theater products using the HD DVD standard." As to the sorts of products and release dates of said products, the company said "we'll let you know in September."

Furthermore, regarding the promotion from the "Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA)," the company said that "we haven't joined yet, but are still continuing contact. It's not as though we're going to choose one or the other; we'll look into it depending on our needs and the merit in the future."

Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20050328/onkyo2.htm

Press Release:
http://www2.onkyo.com/jp/what/news.nsf/view/HD_DVD?OpenDocument