GamesIndustry.biz had a chance to speak with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison over his company's plans for 2006, particularly in the case of the PlayStation 3.  Harrison avoided divulging any new information regarding the next-gen console to any great degree (as you probably expected), expressing confidence that SCE was in no hurry to react to Microsoft's Xbox 360 launch last month.  Indeed, Harrison downplays the Xbox 360's claim to bringing high-definition video to consoles, explaining the PS3's native support for 1080p resolution displays as the real HD trump card:

"'The true definition of HD is the three elements of the HD value chain - the display, the content and the hardware to play back that content, and PlayStation and Sony is the only organisation that has all three bits of the value chain together. As you well know the Xbox 360 doesn't play high definition movies and doesn't have true HD functionality - PlayStation 3 is the only format that has 1080-progressive, which is the true definition of HD, so it's really premature to be talking about the HD era. The HD era really only starts when we are on the market.'"

Harrison points to support for high-capacity Blu-ray media as a key factor for allowing 1080p on PS3 to happen, not a surprise considering Sony backs development for the next-gen disc format.  According to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) itself, Blu-ray will be the definite solution in high-definition video.  The group explains that Blu-ray is more "future-proof" than Toshiba's HD-DVD format, supporting the playback of both Blu-ray and standard DVD content on a single disc and player.

"It was even shown that a DVD-9 layer can be laid down onto a Blu-ray disc to make a true hybrid disc. On the upper layer, DVD-9 content (DVD-9 layer is the standard definition version of the movie or video) is stored, and on the lower level Blu-ray content is available. It was pointed out that this is all on one side of the Blu-ray disc, and was completely different than what HD DVD has proposed for a hybrid disc, which makes the end user flip the disc over to play a standard definition or high definition version of the same movie."

Perhaps what will affect actual opinion over Blu-ray when it's finally a widespread format is the DRM we can expect to see for the content stored on the discs.