It Official!! Toshiba Kills HD-DVD Format!

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/hd-dvd-death-ma.html

HD-DVD Death Made Official. Downloads To Kill Blu-Ray Next.

By Rob Beschizza - February 16, 2008 | 7:12:06 PMCategories: High Def

Toshiba put HD-DVD out of its misery today. Reuters confirmed this afternoon that it will cease manufacturing HD-DVD equipment, following earlier reports from Japan's NHK public broadcasting network.

This leaves Blu-Ray as the presumptive victor in the irrelevant optical disk format war. It now must face up to the real competition: the continuing success of DVD and the growing popularity of downloads, both on the internet and on-demand cable TV.

The end comes only a day after Wal-Mart announced it would no longer carry HD-DVD stuff. This will go a long way to confirming the view, long-held by cynics, that the mega-retailer always held the executioner's axe to begin with, and was merely waiting until it was clear which format's camp had the most densely-stuffed brown envelopes to throw at Hollywood.

Other related links - http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL1627196120080216

I laugh at the people who actually think downloads will win. Not everyone has Verizon FiOS and recently ISPs have started throttling people and have considered charging per GB. Not to forget actually owning the physical disc which you can sell later.X360PS3AMD05

Totally right. The main issue is that movie downloads are starting at HD quality, to keep up with the latest disk technology. Unfortunately, very few places in the world are ready for HD over broadband, because most places physically cannot offer more than about 5Mb/s per customer as broadband becomes more popular. Broadband has hit the biggest physical barrier since it was introduced, namely the combination of copper telephone cables reaching capacity and unprecedented demand from new customers, and this will prevent HD downloads from becoming even slightly popular. Maybe in 5 years time it will start to look possible, but for many years to come, optical disks, namely Blu-Ray, will be dominant. The desire for physical movie ownership may not be too much of an issue though; just look at how portable music players have nearly killed the audio CD.

blu ray still has to beat standard dvd, which won't be for years and by that time digital distribution will bw ready.shoeman12

Well it doesn't need to beat it as such, it will probably happily sell alongside DVD as an option for HD adopters to have a higher quality experience. It took DVD less than 6 years to begin to outsell VHS, after which VHS rapidly died, and was completely gone by 2003. If Blu-Ray does something similar, it will probably be one of the last physical formats that movies will be released on as downloads of movies becomes more popular than it in say, 2012-13. That's not to say it will end then; it may continue on for many years after that if no replacement comes along. And why would there be a replacement? What is missing from HD-DVD or Blu-Ray movies that couldn't be enhanced upon without Super-HD TV's being released?

(I'm talking about movies here; Blu-Ray would probably be replaced by something else for data usage on PC's, but for movies, it's unlikely)

I laugh at the people who actually think downloads will win. Not everyone has Verizon FiOS and recently ISPs have started throttling people and have considered charging per GB. Not to forget actually owning the physical disc which you can sell later.X360PS3AMD05

Agreed, at least in the short term. Internet service just isn't fast enough in general for HD downloads to take off. There's still a good portion of America that still doesn't even have broadband service.

[QUOTE="X360PS3AMD05"]I laugh at the people who actually think downloads will win. Not everyone has Verizon FiOS and recently ISPs have started throttling people and have considered charging per GB. Not to forget actually owning the physical disc which you can sell later.CJL182

Agreed, at least in the short term. Internet service just isn't fast enough in general for HD downloads to take off. There's still a good portion of America that still doesn't even have broadband service.

I just bought an A3 HD-DVD player from amazon a few weeks ago for $120, I love it, besides the fact I'll have a nice little collction of Hd movies for cheap, its also one of the best upcoverting DVD players on the market, I feel it was a good buy regardless.

I will evetually buy a Blu-Ray, but not untill they go down in price, regular DVD with a good upscaling dvd player look pretty damn good

The announcement has not been made yet. Its still speculation. And honest to god, after watching my first Blu-Ray this weekend (with the PS3 I just bought), HD-DVD is the superior format..hands down. I hate saying that Blu is taking the win though.boostud

[QUOTE="shoeman12"]blu ray still has to beat standard dvd, which won't be for years and by that time digital distribution will bw ready.cjek

Well it doesn't need to beat it as such, it will probably happily sell alongside DVD as an option for HD adopters to have a higher quality experience. It took DVD less than 6 years to begin to outsell VHS, after which VHS rapidly died, and was completely gone by 2003. If Blu-Ray does something similar, it will probably be one of the last physical formats that movies will be released on as downloads of movies becomes more popular than it in say, 2012-13. That's not to say it will end then; it may continue on for many years after that if no replacement comes along. And why would there be a replacement? What is missing from HD-DVD or Blu-Ray movies that couldn't be enhanced upon without Super-HD TV's being released?

(I'm talking about movies here; Blu-Ray would probably be replaced by something else for data usage on PC's, but for movies, it's unlikely)

So, can we expect Transformers to be in Blu-ray now?Solid_Snake_7

So when can we expect the HD DVD firesales? feryl06

Lets just say that when I said the sales numbers on HD-DVD players were far closer to 750,000 than "millions" I had no idea how close I was exactly.

Well at least we should be glad the format war ended before too many people bought into it.

The announcement has not been made yet. Its still speculation. And honest to god, after watching my first Blu-Ray this weekend (with the PS3 I just bought), HD-DVD is the superior format..hands down. I hate saying that Blu is taking the win though.boostud

umm...yes it has been. Here's the official press release from Toshiba: http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2008_02/pr1903.htm . HD-DVD is officially dead.

Good that it's finally over. BUT there is a far more important question now. Will the general public (not the 5% of 1up-ers, elitists, and tech junkies) accept a new HD format as the standard over DVD, which has only recently (within the past cluster of years) become the standard?TimeToPartyHard

Related question: now that there's a clear winner, will the movie studios move it along by phasing out DVD releases, particularly for the hottest titles, and encourage people to make the jump by making it the only choice?HuusAsking

Not for some time, the HD disc market is still relatively small, as it grows you'll see DVD versions being released later or not at all but it won't be an issue if people don't want to buy in for a couple of years. Theres too much profit still to be had in DVD, Blu-ray is their plan to keep growing the market.

so now can we expect the price cut on blu ray players :Dpremanna

Been happening for awhile, there should be a 1.1 standalone coming in the middle of the year for under $300. Still I suggest unless people want to change their player somewhere down the line they wait until 2.0 (late 2008) or get a PS3.