COMPANY TOWN : Warner, Toshiba Win Support for Video Standard : Film: Alliance is expected to announce agreements with major consumer electronics companies and movie studios.

In a coup that may put an early end to the war brewing over a new generation of home video players, Time Warner Inc. and Toshiba Corp. have lined up several film studios and nearly all of the major consumer electronics companies in their quest to beat out Sony Corp. and Philips in setting a standard for digital videodisc machines.

Sources close to the participating companies said Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Hitachi Ltd., Pioneer Electronics Corp. and Thomson will announce their support for the Toshiba-Time Warner standard at a Beverly Hills news conference this morning. Agreements with JVC and Mitsubishi Electric are said to be imminent.

Matsushita-owned MCA/Universal and MGM--and possibly Twentieth Century Fox as well--are expected to quickly throw their weight behind Toshiba-Time Warner, with the influential Walt Disney Studios likely to follow soon.

The digital videodiscs, which look like audio compact discs, are designed as a replacement for videocassettes, and the rivalry over the format has been compared to the VHS-Betamax feud of the early 1980s. The new discs are also likely to become an important medium for computer data storage and could eventually replace the CD-ROM discs now gaining popularity.

Sony and Philips invented the compact disc, and they boast that their videodisc format is compatible with audio disc players and can be manufactured without a costly changeover in tooling at manufacturing plants. But it holds only 135 minutes of video. The Toshiba-Time Warner format uses a double-sided disc that can hold 270 minutes of video, giving filmmakers far more flexibility for long movies, foreign-language audio and other special features.

Both groups say their systems--which may be available by year’s end--will offer much better picture quality than VCRs, though they will not be able to record. Initial prices are expected to be in the $600 range.

Retailers, studios and consumer electronics manufacturers are anxious to see a winner emerge before the standards battle reaches the consumer market. The VHS-Betamax wars--and the more recent duel between two new digital audio formats, mini disc and digital compact cassette--are experiences that few in the industry want to repeat.

“I think (videodisc) is a wonderful thing that will reduce the cost of movies and could really be terrific,” said Russ Solomon, president of Tower Records & Video. “But if they’re going to play around and try and have two formats, don’t expect us to put up any money. We’ll sell them on consignment.”

The competition has been especially closely watched by Hollywood’s film studios, which hope the new discs will enable them to sell far more movies at retail. Studio executives have been intensively wooed by the rival teams, each of which needs the movie companies to make its respective standard fly.

Sony Corp. of America President Michael P. Schulhof has spent the last month touting the proposed technology standard his firm unveiled with Philips in December, first at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and then at the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City, where Barry Diller, Steven Spielberg and Michael Jackson were among those given private showings.

Now Sony, the loser of the VCR battle with its Betamax, must decide whether or not to duke it out for domination of the next-generation video standard. Its acquisition of Columbia Pictures was intended in part to assure victory in electronics battles such as this, but ownership of a major studio may not be enough in this case.

“The question for Sony now is whether they just say they want to be a player with the winning format or whether they dig in their heels and say they can’t give up the royalties involved with being the patent owner,” said Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research, a media technology consulting firm in Carmel Valley, Calif. “The latter course seems a risky one.”

In light of the massive losses Sony has recently absorbed on its movie operations, analysts said the company may be in an accommodating frame of mind.

A Sony spokesman said Monday that the firm intends to continue to push the format it has developed with Philips. “Sony will continue to propose its standard to the industry,” he said.

“We believe the Sony-Philips specifications for the digital videodisc offer the best combinations of the key benefits,” he said.

But he added: “Once we have information from other parties, we’ll review it.”

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Harmon reported from Los Angeles, Helm from Tokyo.