Pioneer today refuted a report claiming that the Japanese company would end development of conventional DVD recorders and seek a tie-up with Matsushita Electric Industrial, saying that the development of DVD recorders will continue in the future. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said on Sunday, that Pioneer will end development of conventional DVD recorders and seek a tie-up with Matsushita in next-generation models in a bid to turn the loss-making business around.

Pioneer is the world's fourth-largest player in the DVD recorder market after Matsushita, Philips Electronics and Sony Corp., and has been losing money due to fierce price competition and heavy development costs.

According to Sunday's report, after finishing work on models still under development, Pioneer would stop all development of current-generation DVD recorders and consider buying DVD recorders from other makers for sale under its own brand.

The newspaper said Pioneer would continue development of next-generation DVD recorders using Blu-ray technology, and would propose an alliance with Matsushita that would include Pioneer procuring chips and software from its larger rival.

Today, Pioneer denied the any kind of cooperation with Matsushita since Pioneer has been working with other partners to develop hardware parts and technologies related to DVD recorders.