Source: Toshiba to give up on HD DVD

Toshiba plans to give up on its format for high-definition DVDs, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-ray technology backed by Sony, a company source says.

The story "Source: Toshiba to give up on HD DVD" published February 16, 2008 at 9:15 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[wilswong]

Marketing is the problem?

Far from it...from the whole saga one can see that support for a format should be based on what it can be used.

From the word go and going against Sony with their Paramount Pictures Movies and PS3 in the mix it is as good as sayonara.

And judging by the general mistrust towards M$, Toshiba has found the wrong partner to push this thing through. Xbox? Maybe they should ask Wii to support it and then the tables would have turned drastically...then again Wii would be expensive if that's the case.

No...it is not marketing. It is not knowing the battlefield well enough and finding the wrong people to fight along with.

[ralfthedog]

This was an excellent choice on the part of Toshiba.

They will make lots of money, and there customers will have a far better product.

Thank you Toshiba for making the correct decision.

[uman2005]

uh yeah...

Toshiba had a whole lot of options with this. Continue to fight a losing battle by pouring more money into a format that was finished from the beginning or abandon ship losing MILLIONS of dollars in the process. Not too sure about the making lots of money part.

[WMJZ]

It's a shame the inferior product won

Technically the Inferior product won. HD DVD still clearly is a better product, but unfortunately Sony's Billions have jammed an inferior product down our throats. Having a toshiba HD DVD player and comparing with Blue Ray there is no comparison, Sony Paid Warner Brothers 500 Million to go Their way , HD DVD is region free meaning it can be played anywhere, Blue Ray is regional. also I have seen four Blue ray players Crash while playing Movies while the Toshiba has never Crashed or froze.also Blue Ray is not upgragable to their latest vesion 2.0 the Players are not due till summer . there is also in fighting within the Blue Ray camp as to 2.0 3.0 formaatting. the Hd Dvd format has been consistant and rock steady with many firmware upgrades. Sony relys on their Play Station to push their Blue Ray Discs If You want to Game that's fine But if You are a Home Theater Enthusiast like Me a Stand alone is the Answer And I would Bet Dollars to Donughts that in Stand alone Players Toshiba Hd DVD outsold The Blue Ray Players

[brandonh33]

You silly post-HD-DVD fanboy

First of all calm down and try using some more periods in your posts. Secondly I am sick of all this bull comming from these early adopters who keep on claiming that blu-ray was inferior because its clearly not the case and everyone knows it. Blu-ray has twice the memory of hd-dvd and it is expandable to 200gb in the future when needed. Also firmware updates will be avalible via disk if you dont have ethernet. And another little factoid is that blu-ray has always had more studio support. All of these things where given as warnings to people who wanted hd-dvd but some continued to ignore the obvious and buy. Well some would say you got what you had comming to you, and they would be right.

[farmerbob]

What a bunch of idiots!

Lost to the inferior format! Blu-ray has twice the storage capacity than HD and that isn't that the point of High Def and expanded services/features. If I were to get a burner I would one that had the most capacity. So to say that HD-DVD is better is saying that Beta was too. You lose. And rightly so.

Now lose gracefully and go what a Beta movie. that is if you could find any, then.

[WMJZ]

most of us don't burn discs

you obviously want to burn movies. and watch them well alot of us don't burn movies oh and by the way the higher capacity discs are not even available and probsbly will not be now that sony has bought their way into the studios market. you are the idiot

[fredmenace]

well...

If you delved into it a little further, you'd probably see that capacity was really the only advantage Blu Ray had, and that capacity was immaterial for movies (HD DVD has more than enough capacity and bitrate too). HD DVD has many other advantages, including many significantly consumer-friendly advantages over Blu Ray. Blu Ray is also not yet ready for the consumer market, yet was pushed out prematurely (the format is still not even finalized, and players sold now and over the next six months or so will not be compatible with future discs). And HD DVD has structural, persistent price advantages for both the media and players.

I suppose it's good that one format has won, but it won't really provide any advantages soon: 1) if anything, Blu Ray is a step backward in consumer friendliness (DVD was already not the greatest, but Blu Ray is even worse), as opposed to a step forward with HD DVD, and 2) Blu Ray is still not ready for the market, and this means that everyone should wait ANOTHER six months or so before buying a player (unless they get the PS3).

So really, HD DVD losing does not speed up adoption or reduce confusion much, as wise buyers will not buy a Blu Ray player yet anyway, and for those that do, there is going to be a lot of confusion and consumer dissatisfaction with Blu Ray over the next year even without HD DVD on the scene. On the other hand, if Blu Ray had lost, then HD DVD adoption could have occurred very quickly from this point on, and I think consumers would have been very happy with it.