Amidst the format war between Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD, international PC vendors speak up, saying it's difficult to determine which format to adopt. There are five types of PC-use blue laser optical drives (both formats employ blue lasers) available in the market, yet vendors haven't figured out what's the best for the market.

According to what DigiTimes gathered from industry sources in Taiwan, the HD-A2 HD-DVD players have proven to be attractive with US$ 99 price tags, but the competing Blu-ray hampers it from being the dominant mainstream format.

Among the types of blue-laser optical drives PC vendors mentioned were those from Sony, Pioneer, BenQ, Asustek, and LG Electronics. Aside from drives that can only read discs, some have BD burning support, others can burn on DVDs alone, while the rest are dual-format that can recognize both Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

Variety apparently isn't good for vendors, because it is difficult to judge which will incur the least market risk according to sources. Another problem would be unexpected price drops, which may promote sales but cause headaches when they happen faster than expected.

Blue laser optical drives' prices are expected to dip in 2008, so vendors are wary. Until one format turns out as the victor, it looks like there will still be trouble in determining whether Blu-ray or HD-DVD should be standard for PCs.