HD DVD/Blu-Ray

[Cartman 0]

Possibly, but Blu's main competition now is Regular old DVD, so maybe not.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

The HD DVD camp, still reeling after losing support from Netflix this morning, may feel flattened as Best Buy has announced it will officially promote Blu-ray as the HD format of the future. Starting in early March the store will showcase Blu hardware and software on its shelves and website, and switch from its current neutral stance, to recommending Blu-ray to any customers that ask. While "an assortment of HD DVD products" will remain, a vote of confidence from major retailers, following the majority of studio support, will make it impossible for red to recover.

[AntiLeaf33 0]

Looks like its time for HD DVD to cut their losses and pack it in. They are dead in the water.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Especially considering that Dreamworks, Universal, and I forget who, have a contract which specifically says they can't jump until 2009, or until Toshiba proclaims the HD-DVD format non-viable. It just works out best for everyone involved if they would just do that, but, knowing that, HD-DVD won't be officially dead until 2009.

[MrRant 0]

Actually I think Universal is out of contract and supposedly Paramount has an out in theirs that says if WB jumped, they could be released.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

The Deathblow.

 

 

The format war has turned into a format death watch.

 

Toshiba is widely expected to pull the plug on its HD DVD format sometime in the coming weeks, reliable industry sources say, after a rash of retail defections that followed Warner Home Video's announcement in early January that it would support only the rival Blu-ray Disc format after May.

 

Officially, no decision has been made, insists Jodi Sally, vp of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products. "Based on its technological advancements, we continue to believe HD DVD is the best format for consumers, given the value and consistent quality inherent in our player offerings," she said.

 

But she hinted that something's in the air. "Given the market developments in the past month," she said, "Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players."

 

Immediately after the Warner announcement, the HD DVD North American Promotional Group canceled its Consumer Electronics Show presentation. The following week, data collected by the NPD Group revealed Blu-ray took in 93% of all hardware sales for that week.

 

Toshiba subsequently fired back, drastically cutting its HD DVD player prices by as much as half, effective Jan. 15. But a hoped-for consumer sales surge never materialized; retail point-of-sale data collected by the NPD Group for the week ending Jan. 26 still showed Blu-ray Disc players ahead by a wide margin, 65% to 28%.

 

Software sales have declined as well. The latest Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales data show the top-selling Blu-ray Disc title for the week, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's "Across the Universe," sold more than three times as many copies the week ending Feb. 10 as the top HD DVD seller, Universal Studios Home Entertainment's "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." Blu-ray Disc titles also accounted for 81% of all high-def disc sales for the week, with HD DVD at just 19%.

 

Toshiba had been pitching its discounted HD DVD players toward the standard DVD crowd as well as high-def enthusiasts, noting in its ad message that the new players would make DVDs look a lot better as well. And as a last-ditch effort, the company ran an ad during the Super Bowl -- a 30-second spot that reportedly cost $2.7 million.

 

But in the end, sources say, the substantial loss Toshiba is incurring with each HD DVD player sold -- a figure sources say could be as high as several hundred dollars -- coupled with a series of high-profile retail defections has driven the company to at last concede defeat.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/conten...c4db951ac47ca5d

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Its a great thing Blu-Ray has finally won this format war. This will lead to an increase in sales for the PS3.

[dubq 0]

Yes, then you end up with tons of people with the console, but who have no interest in the games. That's always good business.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

With HD DVD, things are just going from bad, to really bad, to worse, to car-crash-you-can't-stop-looking-at. You can file this one under that latter category, as Wal-Mart has officially announced its intentions to stop stocking HD DVD players and movies by June. According to reports, the retailer came to the decision after Netflix and Best Buy made announcements concerning their position in the HD format war. Susan Chronister of Wal-Mart wrote on the company's blog, "By June Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines, and of course standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players." Susan went on to deliver what we consider a total burn by adding, "if you bought the HD [DVD] player like me, I'd retire it to the bedroom, kid's playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard-def movies, and make space for a BD player." Look, we're not gonna say that this is it for HD DVD, but... uh, it doesn't look real great.

[NoCalMike 0]

So there was a debate on a morning radio talk show I listen to sometimes, well it was more of every caller saying why to get blu-ray and not HD-DVD, but then some guy called in and said both technologies will be obsolete in a year or two because of the hologram/holographic discs that are about "8 months away from being marketed" the guy said they hold 9 terbytes of info and cannot play on blu-ray or hd-dvd machines.....

 

Is this guy just a kook, or what?

[Thoth 0]

So there was a debate on a morning radio talk show I listen to sometimes, well it was more of every caller saying why to get blu-ray and not HD-DVD, but then some guy called in and said both technologies will be obsolete in a year or two because of the hologram/holographic discs that are about "8 months away from being marketed" the guy said they hold 9 terbytes of info and cannot play on blu-ray or hd-dvd machines.....

 

Is this guy just a kook, or what?

 

Way the hell farther than 8 months, and not 9 terabytes. But the disc technology exists and is being tested.

 

If Blu-Ray can hold full movies at the maximum resolution that a TV can show, the only improvements could be the bitrate, and to improve the sound quality. So not a whole lot of point to the discs.

[Cartman 0]

Yes, then you end up with tons of people with the console, but who have no interest in the games. That's always good business.

Yea i'm sure none of them have any interest in playing games like Uncharted, GTA4, Gran Turismo 5, Devil May Cry 4, Resistance 1 and 2, Final Fantasy, Unreal Tournament, Metal Gear, Various Sports games, etc.

[Thoth 0]

Yes, then you end up with tons of people with the console, but who have no interest in the games. That's always good business.

Yea i'm sure none of them have any interest in playing games like Uncharted, GTA4, Gran Turismo 5, Devil May Cry 4, Resistance 1 and 2, Final Fantasy, Unreal Tournament, Metal Gear, Various Sports games, etc.

 

I would buy a next gen system, for purposes of playing King of Fighters XII, if I didn't already have one.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

RIP HD DVD

 

Toshiba wont be making anymore HD DVD hardware.

[dubq 0]

Yes, then you end up with tons of people with the console, but who have no interest in the games. That's always good business.

Yea i'm sure none of them have any interest in playing games like Uncharted, GTA4, Gran Turismo 5, Devil May Cry 4, Resistance 1 and 2, Final Fantasy, Unreal Tournament, Metal Gear, Various Sports games, etc.

 

It's not unheard of. I actually know LOTS of people who bought a PS2 when it came out because it was also a DVD player. Not one of them ever bought a game for the system.

[Craig Th 0]

It's official, HD-DVD is dead.

 

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

 

TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

 

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

 

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

 

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

 

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

 

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

 

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

 

 

 

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Yes, then you end up with tons of people with the console, but who have no interest in the games. That's always good business

 

as long as Sony makes more money by appealing to more consumers than just gamers, then yes it is.

[Youth N Asia 0]

That was a pretty short run for HD DVD. I'm still a while away from upgrading from regular ass DVD myself though

[the max 0]

Yes, then you end up with tons of people with the console, but who have no interest in the games. That's always good business.

Yea i'm sure none of them have any interest in playing games like Uncharted, GTA4, Gran Turismo 5, Devil May Cry 4, Resistance 1 and 2, Final Fantasy, Unreal Tournament, Metal Gear, Various Sports games, etc.

 

*raises hand*

 

I have no interest in any of those games, but would pick up the PS3 if I had the money. It's still probably the best deal on a Blu-Ray player out there.

[Craig Th 0]

The great thing with the PS3 is that you can watch AVIs and MP4s on it. It saves me a shit load of money instead of having to burn DVDs all the time.

 

Sony should push that more. Then again, I am watching stuff I shouldn't have been downloading in the first place.

[Anakin Flair 0]

I was wondering why the X-Box 360 HD-DVD player was cut down to $129, with 5 free movies....

[Guest Vitamin X]

The best part about that is that there are Blu-Ray based Xbox360's coming out as early as May of this year.

 

Looks like Microsoft was ready for that, and that makes the X360 keep on going.

[Cartman 0]

The best part about that is that there are Blu-Ray based Xbox360's coming out as early as May of this year.

 

Looks like Microsoft was ready for that, and that makes the X360 keep on going.

Link? All I have seen is rumors and speculation about that.

[Guest Vitamin X]

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Console/J7L7H2R4?page=1

 

I guess it still sounds like a rumor, but one that's more likely to be true than not.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

I think HD-DVD may win out thanks to the casual consumer. Take an average person who doesn't know shit about shit. They see HD-DVD and they think "Thats just a DVD in HD", and then they see Blue Ray and think "What the fuck is that? Is that a game or something?"

 

I like that theory, but I'm not sure it'll hold up altogether. It might help out HD DVD at the beginning, but there was a time when no one knew what a DVD was either and people refused to buy them.

True. Also HD DVD may also appeal to the general public a little more due to price as well. I don't really care who wins (I'm going to wait for 1 to die off before I ever think of buy a High Def DVD player/TV) but right now I would give HD DVD an edge because it just may be easier to push that on the general public.

 

 

Probably five customers since Sunday have mentioned/discussed this with me; alas, I sold a plasma to a guy this week who told me he 'wanted just a tv, no bluetooth player or anything'.

 

Conversely, a guy was looking at cell phones, and asked me what this 'BluRay' feature that came built into it was.

 

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I think its funny that stores saddled with HD-DVD players they cant sell are now advertising them as Upconverting DVD players. They'll probably sell like crazy now.

 

 

 

 

[Craig Th 0]

Pretty smart idea. A good way to get them off the shelves.

 

PC Richards, a small chain in this area, has Blu-Ray Players advertised on their website as: Sony Blu-Ray 1080p HD DVD Player or Sharp Blu-Ray 1080p HD DVD Player.

 

Talk about a company not knowing their shit.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

I don't know if that should count as ignorance (not that I'm letting them off the hook). How many commercial for Blu Ray have we heard as "Now available on DVD and Blu Ray HD?"

[NoCalMike 0]

Well the war is over, so let the price drop on blu-ray discs BEGIN.........<crickets>

[dubq 0]

I've actually seen a lot of them settling around $26.99 up here for the time being. HMV has a lot of 2 for $50 deals on as well. I'm still not forking out the cash for a player, though. Upconverting is just fine with me for the time being, I guess.