Format War Over, Toshiba To Concede Defeat
If you've been keeping tabs on the format wars, you are probably already aware that HD-DVD has taken several hard hits. Most recently, Netflix and Best Buy announced they would be dropping the HD-DVD market segment, only to be followed in turn by Wal-Mart. I was just yesterday pondering exactly how many nails in HD-DVD's coffin before it has been declared dead.
Well, apparently there are only a scant few days left in the life of HD-DVD as Reuters is reporting this morning, Toshiba will in a short time be conceding defeat to Sony and their Blu-ray format. They will be losing hundreds of millions of dollars as they scrap production of both HD-DVD players and recorders.
I sit and stare sadly at my HD-DVD player and copies of Alpha Dog, Children of Men and King Kong. I know I picked you up for only $119, but I still can't help but feel the burn. So what lies ahead for me and my shunned format? I guess it's either time to hit eBay and sell it all off or hit the stores and buy up every last HD-DVD movie that interests you. While there is nothing to stop someone from enjoying what movies are available on the format, I can't help but feeling like buying more HD-DVDs is just wasting money. At least one good thing will come from all of this. I shouldn't be hearing Michael Bay bitching about format wars anymore.
For those of our readers who opted to go the HD-DVD route, do you plan to hang on to your player and movies or will you shed your now-outdated hardware and consider "the Blu-ray?"
Toshiba to give up on HD-DVD, end format war [Reuters]
TexCub
Posted to Hot Stuff, Movies-DVDs, Video Games on 16 February 2008
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: blu-ray, defeat, format war, hd-dvd, sony, toshiba
I will always have my HD-DVD player for such classics as Transformers, 300 and Batman Begins but one day I will go Blu-Ray
so I can have the latest movies. I also wonder how long till microsoft makes a Blu-Ray player? Part of me is glad it's over tho... R.I.P. HD-DVD
I'm glad I decided to not go with either until it was settled, although I own a PS3 so it wouldn't have mattered much anyway. I knew BR would win out because even early on it had more studio support and better sales.
I'm glad it's over. I'm one of those people who waited and so I can start buying HD content!
Good news for HD adpters are that the movies will probably fall in prices. Bad news for Blurray are that the movies will probably go up in price. Sony has finally got one of their format in the mass market!
This isn't the end necessarily. Toshiba have two options here: ditch the technology entirely; or open the format.
If they open the format, it'll become the de-facto undergroung hi-def format, perhaps driving the uptake further than blu-ray can cope with.
This isn't the end necessarily. Toshiba have two options here: ditch the technology entirely; or open the format.
If they open the format, it'll become the de-facto undergroung hi-def format, perhaps driving the uptake further than blu-ray can cope with.
I have been "purple" for a while now, and while I definitely preferred HD DVD, I'm glad this is finally over.
I will be keeping all my Reds. The general overall quality of the product is just better, and I don't want to replace over a hundred movies. I'll keep buying them til they're unavailable, too.
I bought the HD-DVD player for 360 and about 10-15 movies so I'm a little depressed, since I was backing HD-DVD to win the format war. I'll still pick up the HD-DVDs in the bargain bin, though.
Eventually I'll switch to Blu-ray, but I won't be buying a player - I'll wait until there's something I actually want for the PS3, and buy one of those.
I think in many ways this battle has been forced to end by all the companies that want one side to win already. For example it really wouldn't have hurt Netflix to carry the small amount of HD-DVDs left coming out, but they wanted to force the issue. Which may, in the long run, be better for all of us. Now we get to find out if HD content is even going to take off on disc beyond early adopters and tech geeks, or whether average joe considers buying his discs again to not be worth it. The future may even end up being HD download content.