It's official: Toshiba announces HD DVD surrender

(Credit: Crave UK)

The two-year war between HD DVD and Blu-ray officially ended Tuesday morning as Toshiba waved the white flag and declared it would stop producing HD DVD products.

The company, which began sales of HD DVD in March 2006 with the HD-A1 player, "decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence," said chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida. The Blu-ray format is now the definitive winner in the war and stands unopposed as the optical media replacement for DVD.

Toshiba's news release goes into a bit more detail: "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."

Three movie studios currently support HD DVD--Universal, Paramount, and DreamWorks Animation--but we expect them to follow suit and announce support of Blu-ray sooner rather than later. Update: All of these studios have indeed followed suit.

With Blu-ray support announced by industry heavyweights Netflix, Wal-mart and Best Buy, speculation ran rampant before the weekend that Toshiba would end the war, and the company deserves credit for pulling out as soon as it did. The two incompatible formats have led to plenty of confusion among prospective buyers of next-generation hardware and software, although some have opined that the war was a good thing--at least it led to price drops.

We've been advising readers against the purchase of HD DVD players since the announcement by Warner Brothers in January that it would exclusively support Blu-ray. That doesn't mean we're telling everyone to rush out and buy a Blu-ray player now; we still believe that most home theater fans would be better served to wait for prices on players to fall. Of course, with the exit of Blu-ray's major competition, those prices may fall later rather than sooner.

[Rick Cavaretti]

It's done.

It's over, done, sealed. Don't aggravate yourself with a discussion of the 'whys'
or 'what could have been.'

[Lord-Vader-198]

ABOUT FRIGGIN TIME!!

This is the day that I have been waiting for since Jan 2007. It was only a matter of time until the they folded camp and it couldn't have come at a better time. Toshiba had a good run but it followed the same path that Beta did. They both were only manufactured by one company and both had the minority of studio support and both FAILED!!!

[Ksal005]

No aggrevation here

I'm glad the war is over but Sony needs to drop their prices or the average family will not cross over. They'll just wait for the next big thing.

I've been waiting and didn't buy either format. Now that I've waited this long, I'll continue to wait until Sony drops their ridiculous prices or I'll just buy an up-convertering DVD and be happy with 1080i.

[Ksal005]

Prices need to drop

Sony now has no incentive to drop their prices. They need to drop them. They are too expensive and too overrated. I never bought BR or HD-DVD. I've waited but now I'm ready to wait even more until Sony drops their prices.

I'm with the other guy. Either Sony drops their prices or I'll get an upconverting DVD player and watch 1080i instead.

[impulse2k1]

So when will I

get my 40 year old virgin and Bourne series on Blu-Ray??

[sommer182]

Bring on the Clearance Sales

Since I am willing to bet that it will be, oh, let's see, NEVER that Sony will have a $100 Blu-Ray machine, I'm going to buy an extra HD-DVD on clearance for a back up and stock up on combo format movies that will play on both HD and standard DVD machines. I'll also continue my purchases of standard def DVD discs. I am not a backer of HD or Blu-Ray, per say. I am a backer of reasonable priced electronics that work as advertised. Blu-Ray has NOT worked as advertised and is FAR to expensive for my (or my wife's) budget. So, I'll probably sit the rest of this format out on the sidelines--unless I can con her into a PS3...hmmmm, and an xBox? Eh, not likely!

[ianim8]

Its not just Sony folks!!

I knew the gripes about pricing would be the next debate but lets all remember its not just Sony at fault. Its across the board. Its still an early format. I remember having to shell out 90 bucks for a VHS tape :P

[HooHaa]

This is not good...

I hate to see Sony win at anything, as they stopped making quality products
years ago. Luckily, I can see BluRay being surpassed by digital downloads before
it becomes as ubiquitous as DVD...

[sommer182]

No, it isn't just Sony, BUT...

No, it is certainly more than Sony. Sharp, Samsung, Panasonic, a movie industry that continues to freak out on piracy issues without actually DOING anything about it (like putting China out of business)...these are all factors. Heck, the fact that Sharp was GIVING AWAY a Blu-Ray machine with every flat panel TV the week after the Warner announcement was a stroke of genius! That inflated the weekly numbers ten-fold! This and other moves were marketing magic that influenced the media into jumping on the bandwagon and putting even more pressure on Toshiba and retail outlets. Leaves me shaking my head. No, it was more than Sony, but they were the ringleaders, and they were NOT going to have another Beta, no matter the cost to us consumers.

[planblove]

To those of you who think Sony won't drop prices..

You guys need to come to your senses. Sony is about to make BILLIONS on licensing fees alone. you really think they'll keep prices where they are? They will make MORE money once the prices come down further and they know this. I fully expect to see Blu-Ray players at or below $300 by the holidays and continue to get cheaper as time goes on - the same as DVD did. The cheapest player is currently at $400, the standalone PC Blu-Ray drive(non recording) is $200 RIGHT NOW. The prices will fall.

[ianim8]

Digital Downloads...tick tock tick tock...

Ive kepy my mouth shut about this topic.
Even though Im all for it, do you people honestly think everyone can afford this? Sure we can say the same about BD but come on! Im on the fastest internet I can get in my area, and I still have to wait over night for a tv clip :P
last I checked, no ones been offering a 1080p version of Cars on the internet :P
Give this Digital Downloads a rest till its actually showing signs of consumer viability. Crap, people are just moving from rabbit ears :P

[kennyk3152]

Hi Def war

I think we should all thank the Toshiba Corp. for having the foresight to end this war as quickly as it did. In my estimation the war did nothing to help the consumer. I do feel sorry for the people who bought into the HD-DVD format, only because they are the losers, and for no good reason. I believe that Sony will now be able to bring all of this to a head. Thereby lowering prices and making us all happier in the end.

Kenny K

[jev55]

Way too expensive.......

So let me get this straight.....Older blue ray players that I could possibly
afford don't have ethernet jacks, or support all of the new features, and also
still cost around $300-$400 and are basically obsolete. And the next best
deal is the PS3 which gives me a bunch of other features I don't care
about(already own an Xbox 360, I only play shooters) And I have an HD DVD
player at home that cost $99 and works just fine with every HD DVD movie,
has an ethernet jack for upgrading, and has combo discs that I can play in HD
at my house and take somewhere else and still watch on a regular DVD
player. Why have people been buying Blue Ray players????

[smatofu]

Movie watching experience

>>I do feel sorry for the people who bought into the HD-DVD format, only because they are the losers, and for no good reason.<< Unnecessarily. I bought a HD-DVD player for $100 + 10 movies. I got it because my DVD broke. For me, the difference between HD movie and DVD is pretty small. It doesn't affect quality of the movie a bit: crappy movie is still crappy and a waste of time, even in HD. I got the biggest jump in "movie watching quality" by installing a projector. A projector and big screen outperforms all plasmas and LCDs.

[HOPELESSforHIghDEF]

you guys are talking about disc-less hd downloads?

check out the vudu. i have a regular dsl connection and it is fast enough to download any hd movie. they have the first 45 min of the movie as a cached file then while you are watching it, the rest of the movie downloads. get through the first 45 and the rest of the movie is done.

think of having an hd jukebox. this is the real deal.
http://www.vudu.com/

blu-ray won and prices WILL drop.

[SCAZMarketing]

UNBELIEVABLE - My 88 year old uncle is CRUSHED.

Well, my uncle is a two time loser: In the 80's he went with Sony and in 2007 he went with Microsoft. Kinda a different perspective on the format wars:

http://www.socoolaz.com/article.cfm?articleID=30121

[shawakwak]

Projector and Big Screen out performs plasma?

A projector and big screen outperforms a plasma in one area. Size. And that's it. Projectors: Quality is OK, Colour is OK, Black Levels are OK and overall picture quality is generally poor.

If you want to impress your friends with size buy a projector if you want a great picture buy a Pioneer Plasma.

[hkoby]

VHS AND BETA FLASH BACK !

Same scenerio but opposite out come! Remeber Beta did have better quality but VHS won. Same here HD had better players and lets not forget less to none movies not playing. One thing life teaches is the the better guy doesnt allways win the smartest does. In my opinion Sony won with smart moves the were playing chess why HD was playing checkers. Think about it signing deals with major movie studios to only make Blu - Ray movies. Then other deals with department stores. Quality is exatly the same but if you walked into Bestbuy or Wal-Mart before the announcement u saw mostly Blu-Ray titles not to mention the better displaying of the Blu-Ray. With out the last big movie studio moving it was just a matter of time. So to me it was just the right moves.Anyway i'm glad the wars over PS3 here I come! 2 buy any other player would b stupid! at least right now.Oh yea PS3 is the best because i believe the whole format was built around the PS3. why was it the only 1 with upgrade capabilties. and i ve read the gaming industry is bigger than the movie. so another chess move by SONY!

[BCF1968]

digital downloads? Maybe in 2020

FACT: 1/3 of Americans do NOT have internet

FACT: 1/6 of Americans have dial-up( most not by choice )

That's leaves 50% of the country of out digital downloading.

FACT: Currently 50% of Americans with broadband have speeds of 2 Mbps. Too slow for either HD downloading or streaming.

FACT: Since the US doesnt have a broadband policy ISPs are not motivated to provide broadband to those areas currently not served nor to increase speeds where they face no competition.

FACT: Even in areas where there are broadband speeds fast enough for HD downloading and streaming ( 8 Mbps minimum ). Prices remain much to high for the average consumer to want to fork out the cash for any "benefit"

FACT: HD movie downloads from places like Xbox live and Itnes are RENTALS. Which is fine if you like that. If you want to OWN Hd movies you still need to buy discs. Even if the studio did allow you to own HD downloads no doubt they would be full of restrictions to make them impractical and inconvenient to even want to own.

FACT: HD movie downloads from XBL and Itunes are 720p not 1080p like blu-ray and have bitrates from 4 Mbps( itunes ) to 6 Mbps (XBL) whereas blu-ray is 40 Mbps. Anyone claiming a 720p HD download with a 6 Mbps bitrate is the same thing as a 1080p blu-ray disc that has a 40 Mbps bitrate is ignorant.

FACT: It's a good thing HD downloads aren't 1080P with 40 Mbps bitrates because they would take 3 1/2 hours to download even with a 16 Mbps connection and nearly 6 hours with a 10 Mbps connection.

So physical media will be need an wanted for a LONG time.

[dkarageo]

Hurdle for BD is pricing for 1080p HDTVs