[DLeeWebb]

Toshiba to give up on HD-DVD, concede to Sony Blu-Ray

By MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:12 AM ET Feb 17, 2008
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - Toshiba Corp. is likely to concede to Sony Corp. in the battle to determine the future of DVD-format technology, people familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal.

Toshiba may this week give up on its HD-DVD video format, leaving Sony's (SNE: news, board) competing Blu-ray technology as the standard, reported.

Last month, the Warner Bros. division of the New York entertainment giant Time Warner Inc. (TWX: news, board) decided to support only Blu-ray. That reduced the choices of movies for consumers who bought HD-DVD-format equipment, the paper reported.

On Friday, Wal-Mart, (WMT: news, board) the world's No. 1 retailer, dealt the latest in a series of retailing blows to the HD-DVD format. The Bentonville, Ark., company said it would sell only DVDs and hardware formatted to the Blu-ray standard.

Netflix, (NFLX: news, board) the Los Gatos, Calif., video-rental provider, and Best Buy Co., (BBY: news, board) the Richfield, Minn., electronics retailer, also have said they would side with Blu-Ray.

 

[Lazarus Short]

Damn these new formats!

I am only happy that my DVD collection is still quite small.

Laz

 

[stuge(original)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus Short /img/forum/go_quote.gif Damn these new formats! I am only happy that my DVD collection is still quite small. Laz

Yes ,METOO still sticking to DVD's .

Whatever ,Until Blu ray and HD DVD becomes damn cheap ,I don't think they are going to appeal masses.Till then DVD is the Best

 

[Kirosia]

Toshiba pulling the plug on HD DVD already? - Yup it's over. - Engadget

I would say so.

 

[Wmcmanus]

In a word: yes.

 

[Lazarus Short]

Since my previous post, I have been thinking about Toshiba - well, off and on for days. I had sold one of my Toshiba DVDP's to a coworker, and he reported that after a few days it would no longer read a disc. I thought to give him the back up unit [same model] and decided to try it out first. It read only 1 of 3 DVD's I put in it. I am already using another model of Toshiba DVDP as my CD transport, so it looks like I may be stuck with using half-dead Toshiba DVDP's as transports until the end of time, being now stuck with three of them.

People used to gush about Toshiba DVD players on this very site. What happened?

Laz

 

[ken36]

It won't be dead until it's dead. Personally, I think HD-DVD is terminal.

 

[oicdn]

It's probably dying because it doesn't sound as cool to say you have a "HD-DVD" as it does to say you have a "Bluray disc".

I don't know the differences between the two aside from one not playing in the others player, but if you were to ask any non-enthusiast/technical person, and just a typical consumer, they would probably think an HD-DVD is the same as a DVD "just high definition, thus more expensive" and probably don't even know you can't put it in your DVD player. Could and probably way off base...

 

[MfiveM]

I think in the next few months it will go away for good. I really do not see it making a massive comeback. To be honest I like blu-ray better in terms of movie selection and players available but a few months ago I really thought HD-DVD was going to win.

 

[cosmotron]

When this war began, I was pretty sure that HD-DVD would be the winner. This is because I figured that since most people know what a DVD is and what HD is, then it would win solely on brand recognition.

But, now that it has turned out this way, I'm pretty sure the only reason it has lost, is because no console came with the ability to play them by default. Sure the 360 can play them if you buy an attachment, but, the PS3 came with this option. I don't think many people have gone out to buy standalone HD movie players...

 

[mark!]

IT'S DONE!

 

[OverlordXenu]

It's dead. I always knew blu-ray would win, because it had the PS3 behind it and is technically a superior format. (More space, faster read times, and I think the movies are encoded at a higher bitrate than HD DVD, but I may be wrong on that last point.)

 

[jpelg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OverlordXenu /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's dead. I always knew blu-ray would win, because it had the PS3 behind it and is technically a superior format. (More space, faster read times, and I think the movies are encoded at a higher bitrate than HD DVD, but I may be wrong on that last point.)

While I agree on the point, "technical superiority" has almost never made the difference in determining the winner between competing technologies, unfortunately.

See "Beta", "Minidisc", "ATRAC", "SACD/DVD-A", "OS/2", "Amiga", etc....

It's more often about 1.) marketing, and 2.) partnerships. In the end, most people will eat whatever is shoved down their throats.

Given that Sony's name is on many of the above-cited failed (in the sense of widespread public use/acceptance) technologies, I'm surprised at BR's success!

 

[virometal]

Well, I'm going to pat my own back because I called it almost a year ago. Blu had too many built in advantages. The Paramount switch stretched it out a little longer than I expected, but now it's over.

Long live Blu. This camper is hoping for more audio discs with lossless surround sound tracks.

Blu-ray includes has a specific audio disc (no video menus for interface) profile with 3.0. It may be a pipe dream. However, I'll hope that with more market penetration, maybe we'll see profile 3.0 equipped players come to fruition.

 

[Dorito123]

Lazarus, you update the firmware? Makes a big difference.