Comments on: It's official: Toshiba announces HD DVD surrender

The consumer electronics giant says it will stop producing HD DVD players, effectively conceding the high-def format war to Blu-ray.

[techtalk]

Nows the time to buy an HD-DVD player!

Seriously - if they drop to <$40 it's totally worth it to me! Not having been an early adopter on this front, i have tons of DVD's that will look great when they're upscaled via a cheap (albeit obsolete) HDDVD player ... and I'm sure as heck not shelling out >$150 for blu-ray +$$$$ for more movies.

Between my current DVD's, rentals on my DVR in highdef via satellite, and eventually downloading content from the web (expect that to be consumer-level big within 18 months) I can't imagine buying blu-ray or any other non-networked player right now except for the purposes of upscaling old media.

[krustykanuck]

The Sony fanboys are so testy

What is the point of their gloating? I have a PS3 but will not be buying Blu-Ray disks anytime soon until they come down in price. I also have the Toshiba HD-30 player with a bunch of free films and soon to be enlarged with half price discs! So the format war didn't mean much to me.

However, I will have a number of low cost hi-def disks to use on my player for the future. And all at an initial cost of a little over $100 (slightly more expensive than a good quality upconverting DVD player).

Are Blu-Ray fanboys just trying to justify their higher cost units? Go ahead and run out and buy as many profile 1.0 and 1.1 players as you need and the same with the blue-ray disks. I'll be keeping my money in the bank thanks... at least until the costs are viable or when the low cost high capacity flash drives come out.

[nyminute1]

they can all kiss my butt for a while!!!!!

i guess i'll just use my hd dvd player for an up converter, until standard dvd's are obsolete, i can live with it, as the picture and sound are fine.

[sigsauer226]

Whats to brag about??

You would think blu-ray won the superbowl. Not that I'm saying I support hd-dvd. But at least thiers are future proof. Except for ps3 but I have no interest in. The only blu-ray players that will come down in price will be 1.0 and 1.1 profiles. When 2.0 comes out, sometime near the end of the year, they'll still probally be in the $500 range. So why rush out and buy a player that is already obselete. So it will still be another year to year1/2 before the 2.0 profile will get into mass production and down to an affordable price. So the war may be over, Hooray, but you'll still have to wait for that affordable 2.0 Blu-ray. You would of thought the second generation blu-rays would of fixed this problem. And for the ps3 fanboys no news on when they firmware update for 2.0 will be released. So this is about how to screw us, the consumers, out of our money. And I'm sure if HDdvd would of won the next generation player would of been in the $500 price range also. They would have to try to recoup thier millions of lost dollars some way. So as I see it no one has won and we the consumers are still losing out.

[sigsauer226]

Don't kid yourself!

DVD will be around for a long time yet. You can get a generic dvd player for $25. Yes $25 dollars, say it believe it or not at the gorcery store. Had to laugh at that one. Also, DVD movies are many times price below $10, (thats if you wait for a year after the movie comes out). DVD will be around alot longer than I'll be.

[lorax1284]

HD-DVD is relatively easy to code for home brew

With it being relatively easy to develop HD-DVD disc content, I think HD-DVD technology might have a life if low-cost regular DVD players were produced that support HDi, the interactivity of HD-DVD players.

Full HD-DVD players have a couple of expensive hardware components: the network connectivity, the dual decoders, the blue laser, the backward compatibility with regular DVD.

If a DVD player ALSO had the HDi support, standard def DVDs could offer users of those players a richer experience and better menuing systems without increasing the disc cost too much:

Imagine a single DVD-DL disc with a new blockbuster movie on it that would play on all existing DVD players, but have a superior experience on HDi equipped players.

No, the HD-DVD / DVD dual format discs were more expensive than the regular DVD discs.

I'm talking about ONLY adding HDi menuing into the mix. Everyone's home-brew DVDs could benefit from HDi. Maybe if it gets popular enough, one day you'd be able to get a Blu-Ray player with HDi.

[Wally Flick]

It's called Bluray Java

[Chiatzu]

Heck of a deal

I saw a Toshiba HD DVD player at some web store for $90. Retail was $300.
And it included five or seven free HD DVD movies with it. Get on it.

[tom.o]

Will SONY clinch defeat from the jaws of victory?

Sony won the battle; but, is the war over? The other opponent is the consumer. Other than the techno geeks who have to have the latest, there are others who may still look at this as another attempt by Sony to create a demand for disapearing products. Many DVD viewers will be just as happy to view existing DVDs upscaled.

In many corporations reading and learning Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" in mandatory. Is Toshiba defeated or strategizing?

Winston Churchill said "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it". Is that BluRay 1.0 going to sitting on a shelf next to the BetaMax, Mini-Disc and SACD? Do the Charlie Brown's of the world believe that Lucy (Sony) won't pull the football this time?

[Wally Flick]

Are any of you serious?

HD-DVD is D-E-A-D Dead! The inventor, and primary patent holder of the technology is calling it quits, No more players, no more development, it?s not going into hibernation, there will be no movies (past mid-year) available for it, it?s not going to be resurrected like some movie Mozilla with the users updating the software and providing new content. Get over it.

Your only choices are, stay with SD DVD (up scaled or not), wait out the many years till true HD, 1080p multi-channel surround, downloads become viable, subscribe to a Hi-Def satellite or cable service, or purchase a Bluray player and enjoy tasty, jaw dropping, true high definition movie entertainment now.

Four reasonable choices, waiting for HD-DVD to make some sort of working man?s/basement resurgence based on your personal dislike of Sony is just not reasonable. It?s not going to happen.

[bob1xxxx]

Uh actually I have,

and on a lcd flat 720p flat pannal under 40" you can't really seen or hear the differance between a quality upscaler and blue ray. I'll agree if you get 50"+ 1080p 120mz and really nice surroud sound system (ie $6000 to $10000 range) Yeah then you'll see the difference, but you'll need to spend a arm and a leg to really see the differance and for some like me who want new hdtv for the bedroom blueray makes no sense(I'm getting ethier 32"or 37" lcd). Also on factor all you Blue ray fan boys gloss over is Blue ray's iffy performance with standard dvd's. Again for someone like me with a large library of sd dvd's I'll still need two media players a upscaler dvd player (for the dvd's the blue ray refuses to play) and the overpriced blue ray. So for the average Joe blue ray offers no real advanatages and costs a hell of alot more. It the price of blue ray that will kill it like laser disk, personally I dont think blue rays going to be sd dvd replacement unless sony starts serious price slashing or licensing lower cost manufactorers to produce blue ray players. Sorry blue ray fan boy right now for 80% of the buying public blue rays a bad deal

[samr46]

Makes No Difference to Me

Bought an HD DVD about two months ago and will not be buying blu-ray for foreseeable future. Also cancelled my netflix account, it was lousy anyway. Never made it easy to find hottest new releases. I'm back to Blockbuster and regular DVDs if that's all that's available. Best way to deal with crap like this is just don't buy. That?s what hurts these guys the most.

[Jemdude]

I won't be getting one in the near future.

Blu-ray is still very expensive. I still don't even have a HDTV yet. So I'll stick to my regular DVD's in the meantime.

[edynamic]

You can't keep an HD DVD fanatic down...

What are some of you on? Seriously...

How did you become HD DVD, anti-Sony martyrs? You're living in some sort of Toshiba fantasy land, where the dark shadow of the evil emperor Sony, dares not to tread.

Keep taking the meds... the rest of us will get on with real life.

*you sados*

[hoopbh]

why Sony now

Well I don't see Sony having any need to lower prices any time soon now that they are the only ones making the high end DVD. I don't plan on buying a Blue Ray player any time soon. i think that it is bad for the consumer.

[Wally Flick]

So Right edynamic!

Right now, at bestbuy.com you can purchase a blu-ray player from the following CE manufacturers: Sony, Denon, LG, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic and Pioneer

[apertex2912]

So, what's next?

I always hoped that movies would be available on SD cards or something
similar. It is way too easy to scratch a dvd. We live too far out for high speed
internet, and satellite is too expensive. Just want something easy to store and
not get scratched.

[zmrt69]

Less Competition = Bad for Consumers

I think the real losers in Toshiba's decision to no longer participate in this market niche are you and me the consumer. With more or less a monopoly on this portion of the market Sony will probably feel free to institute greater controls for preventing consumer choice.

I have always been intrigued with new Sony products that appear on the surface to be very kool. Then after purchasing them and putting them to the test via normal use, one finds that Sony has designed into the product nice little features to ensure that it works well with other Sony equipment, but not so much with other manufacturers.

So, I for one like the idea of having competition in the marketplace to curb these sort of draconian measures from becoming to popular with any one manufacturer.

[Wally Flick]

Competition Continues

This post is written from the point of view that Sony is the only company making Blu-ray players. A position that was much more true for HD-DVD where the large majority of players were re-badged Toshiba machines.

Sony, Denon, LG, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic and Pioneer all manufacture Blu-ray players. There will be plenty of competition now there is a unified target/format.

I would agree that the ?war? helped get the best possible solution Blu-ray upped it?s game quite a bit since the announcement of the original spec to stay with HD-DVD. The format competition had become detrimental to everyone, it?s time to move forward and open the release flood gates.

[RRosal]

Funny you should mention this

As everything you just said about Sony could be said about Microsoft as well, or Apple, or Nintendo...see where this is going?

[hoopbh]

Bad for the conumer

You are correct in saying that Sony will have no need to to do things that will get us to buy there products. I will not even thing about buying Blue Ray until the prices come way down which I do not see happening any time soon. I do not even like the Blue Ray movies I have seen they all seen to have Blue tint to them. I always thought that the HD picture was better.

[ianim8]

blu is you...

yes you are correct. when inserting a BD movie into a BD player you will see a blue tint.
I for one prefer that over the red tint.
I guess we wont have to worry about that anymore.
Haha this is my attempt at being stupid.
oh btw, MS just killed their HD-DUD add-on...
smartest thing theyve done since Windows XP SP2 :)

[Brian Carl]

Well its over

No competition means that everyone will still own Blu-Ray now. Yup, when there is no completion it means instant success. I mean laser disks had no competition and were expecnive, but hell everyone bought them.

[robertgknight]

Blu-Ray will never surpass standard dvd because...

practically all blu-ray dvd's are NOT anamorphically enhanced as their standard definition cousins. In other words, the widescreen picture from a blu-ray disc does not fill the screen the same way the widescreen picture of an anamorphically enhanced standard definition disc does, instead (in the vast majority of cases) you are going to get black bars top and bottom of the screen which in my experience ruins whatever benefit you get from a better hi-defintion picture simply because there is less of it.

At least most of the hd discs I own were of the ratio the picture filled the screen. However, CNET has not been prudent in explaining the specs behing this mess and warning consumers of this technological step backward. I suggest writing editors and posting in forums so that consumers will stop buying blu-ray until the studios start putting more effort into the production of blu-ray discs to give the same value (and better) of standard definition dvd's.

[herbertchris]

Blu Ray doesn't need to be anamorphic

I don't think you understand what "anamorphic" means in the context of DVDs. Because Blu Rays are designed from the ground up for 16:9 HDTV, they don't need to be anamorphic.

If you're seeing back bars, it's because the film was shot in an aspect ratio wider than 16:9 -- that's a choice that the filmmakers made and it has nothing to do with Blu Ray or your TV.

[gdmellott]

Patent law needs a tweak, as I see it.

I suggest that we change the patent law so its period of protection is variable, according to the profits generated by the sale of the product. That way things that are expensive to develope can see their eventual reward, even if the user base is small. [http://Consider medicine for children cancers and the likes.|http://Consider medicine for children cancers and the likes.]
It may even go to the point where some things don't lose their patent right at all, when the item is not producing at a profit. This may help in the developement of some things that are built from a collection of already functioning ideas; as the process will still get patented even though there is no potential profitable way to use it by those who discover it. It may also give another legal leg to stand on when addressing oppressive regimes, who would use patented ideas for oppresive purposes.
SINCERELY, GDM.