Thomson announced its decision, on Thursday, to introduce HD DVD players, HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs in the market sometime next year.

Despite the competition between Blu-Ray and HD DVD formats, Quentin Lilly, President, Thomson Technicolor Home Entertainment Services, said, "Our tradition is based on being a trusted service provider to content owners, independent of format choices".

Both HD DVD and Blu-Ray formats have strong supporters on their sides and with each side claiming to produce the ultimate, high capacity media storage options, the market is bound to get confusing in the near future. Regardless, both options will allow high definition content at higher capacity media discs.

Along with HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs, Thomson also has plans to introduce HD DVD players in the market towards the end of 2005, which will be retailed under RCA brand in the United States and Thomson brand in Europe. Thus far, Thomson does not have plans to introduce a complimentary Blu-Ray DVD player.

Overall, Thomson predicts the market to get highly competitive with new formats and storage options reaching store shelves next year. The company also expects the high definition industry to boom in other parts of the world, such as Europe, rapidly.