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Just when you thought there was finally a closure to the video format war, we've heard more news on the Chinese HD DVD specifications from TG Daily. With the world's largest population backing, the defunct Toshiba-led format will undoubtedly have high hopes for a comeback. CH-DVD uses a combination of HD DVD as well as Chinese proprietary video encoding, copy protection, and technologies.

On a separate note, Toshiba is betting its chips on a new DVD Download/DL standard that promises better picture quality and possible access to Web content. The former is widely believed to be based on the Japanese company's SpursEngine 1000 processor, capable of delivering an enhanced video-upscaling performance than existing DVD players. The download element, meanwhile, will bridge Blu-ray's value-added interactivity features with its supposed live Internet connectivity.

(Source: Crave Asia)

Last one out, turn off the lights.

That was essentially the tone of the note that the HD DVD Promotional Group sent to its members Friday. The obituary for the format was short and to the point:

(Credit: Crave UK)

HD DVD Managing Members

March 28, 2008

The HD DVD Promotion Group was dissolved as of March 28, 2008, and the website was closed accordingly.

Please access to DVD Forum for HD DVD formats, and DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation for format books and its license. Regarding the HD DVD products, please contact each selling agency directly.

It was also a bit late. The battle between HD DVD and its nemesis format, Blu-ray, ended as soon as HD DVD's biggest backer, Toshiba, announced it would stop making HD DVD players. That was almost six weeks ago.

So, again, we bid adieu to a failed format. If you're finding it hard to let go, hit up your local Best Buy for some HD DVD titles. We hear they're desperate to get rid of them.

Patience, HD video fans. Those of you hoping that the defeat of HD DVD would usher in a new era of lower-priced Blu-ray players will have to wait at least until the next calendar year.

In comments made to reporters at a New York press gathering Wednesday morning, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said, "I don't think $200 is going to happen this year. Next year $200 could happen. We'll be at a $300 rate this year; $299 will happen this year," according to Gizmodo.

There's been quite a bit of media discussion over whether or not Sony and other Blu-ray supporters will start cutting prices on standalone players in the aftermath of HD DVD's death. Seeing as how the answer is "no" from Sony for now, that decreases the likelihood that Blu-ray will make major inroads with mainstream consumers, as a plurality cite price as the biggest barrier to their purchase of an HD video player.

At the same event, Glasgow also dished on other Sony-related news:

• Even in the face of a downturn in the U.S. economy, Glasgow says Sony's electronics sales are still going swimmingly. He said the company expects to sell 5 million Blu-ray players by the end of 2008. The company unveiled two new models last week.

• Sony has no plans to make digital converter boxes for next year's digital TV switchover, and will leave that to the lower-tier CE companies.

Glasgow will be in San Francisco to chat up West Coast reporters Wednesday night. Check back here for updates and additional comments from him.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

The SACD is a "super" CD, it sounds better, offers multichannel, high-resolution sound, and hybrid SACDs are backwards compatible with CD players. Sony initially pushed SACD as a CD replacement and the market yawned. OK, but you would have thought that audiophiles would have, en mass, supported SACD, especially after so many of them bashed CD for its harsh digital sound. SACDs, at least ones sourced from high quality recordings, really do sound better than CD (but a crappy original recording, remastered to SACD, still sounds crappy). No, just a small segment of the audiophile market embraced SACD, why, I'm still not sure.

So my question is, now with the distraction of the HD DVD/Blu-ray format war finally out of the way, why would the market embrace Blu-ray, which is merely a "super" DVD? Yes, the format can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc, offers 1080i/p resolution, and a host of other features that, for the most part, no one cares about. My videophile pals tell me that Blu-ray's superior picture quality won't be all that visible to most people with 50 inch or smaller displays (especially when their DVDs are upconverted to 1080i/p). Hell, most people are pretty happy with DVDs and already think DVDs are HD.

I also think that the problem for both SACD and Blu-ray is that the new and improved discs looked almost identical to the older format. There's no perceived difference between the physical appearance of a SACD and a CD, or a Blu-ray and DVD disc. When CDs were introduced, the sonic differences between LPs and CDs was obvious, plus the difference in the way the played was likewise unsubtle. CDs also looked way cooler than LPs. The same benefits to the consumer were apparent during the transition from VHS tape to DVD. Consumer didn't have to be "educated," and once prices came down on DVD, the vast majority of VHS holdouts jumped on the DVD bandwagon.

With HD DVD out of the picture, I have no doubt Blu-ray will do better, but it will grow far more slowly than DVD did. Blu-ray will likely remain a niche format, while the market for downloads gains more and more momentum. DVD sales, already past their peak will continue to decline.

Peace in our time

They're all born with the best of intentions, but only the strong survive.

Formats come and go. Some are barely noticed, and some die a slow, painful death. So now we can all breathe a sigh of relief that the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD was comparatively brief--unless you're on the losing side, stuck with a slowpoke player and a collection of HD DVD discs. I've already heard from some angry HD DVD supporters. War is tough.

If you're over 35, you probably remember the Betamax vs. VHS wars, which raged from 1975 to the late 1980s, when Sony finally surrendered and started marketing VHS machines.

Like the HD DVD-Blu-ray debacle, manufacturers divided into two camps: Beta had Sony, Toshiba, Sanyo, NEC, Aiwa, and Pioneer. An impressive lineup, but JVC, Matsushita (Panasonic), Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Sharp, and Akai sided with VHS. Even when everyone said Beta was dead as a doornail in the early 1990s (long before the introduction of DVD), the format soldiered on in Japan until 2002.

Pioneer still makes Laserdisc players like this DVL-919

(Credit: Pioneer Electronics)

Some formats wither and die on their own--the Laserdisc wasn't competing against anything but a lack of interest. The LD was a 12-inch optical analog disc alternative to Beta and VHS. It looked like an LP-size CD. Yes, it was a better, higher-quality format than tape, and it still garnered only a small yet fanatical market base among videophiles.

The LD fared better than RCA's crippled-from-the-start CED (Capacitance Electronic Disc) that came out in 1981. Marketed as "SelectaVision," the grooved, LP-like discs were fragile, and they never stood a chance against VHS tape. Still, RCA stuck to its guns for five long years before snuffing the CED in 1986. Ten years later, the Laserdisc was on its last legs when the DVD finally killed it off--the software, that is. Pioneer still sells new DVD-LD players. How's that for customer support?

DVD was unchallenged but for a brief skirmish with Divx (Digital Video Express, not to be confused with DivX). Divx was a DVD rental variant, but cheaper (a disc sold for about $5) and could be viewed only for 48 hours after its first use. Divx players could play DVDs, but standard DVD players couldn't play Divx discs. Disney, Twentieth Century Fox Film, and Paramount Pictures released their movies in the Divx format.

The Audiophiliac poses with an 8-track cartridge.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

Audio has had its own share of format wars, but it also had some remarkably stable formats. The LP has been around for 50-plus years, and you can still play the oldest LPs on a brand-new turntable.

It's starting to look like the LP will outlast the CD. But CDs are a long-running success and likewise universally playable, and most surviving cassettes are serviceable.

Analog tape formats like reel-to-reel, 8-track, and 4-track cartridges still have tiny outposts of devout followers, but the Elcaset came and went so fast, I never even heard it. Digital-tape formats like DAT and the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) barely made a dent in the public's awareness.

So how will the HD DVD fare in the format history time line? What do you think: a mere blip or an interesting diversion?

We have a winner.

Well, that's it. Toshiba appears to be pulling the plug on HD DVD. Toshiba has not commented publicly, but a report on Japan's NHK says Toshiba has made the decision to withdraw from next generation high-definition DVD production.

This news certainly doesn't come as surprise to anyone remotely following HD DVD's format war with rival Blu-ray. HD DVD had suffered a string of defections, with Warner, Netflix, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart all recently pledging their alliance to Blu-ray.

The NHK report says existing HD DVD products will remain on the market for a while, but Toshiba will stop further development of HD DVD. The report also estimates that Toshiba will take a hit to the tune of "hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars" and will close factories in northern Japan.

Elsewhere this weekend, Sony and its Blu-ray buddies are going to make like VHS and party like it's 1989.

Source | Via

UPDATE: Reuters now points to an unnamed company source who says, yep, we're done. An official announcement from Toshiba could come next week.

Already starting the week off on a bad note, HD DVD's day just keeps getting worse.

Starting next month Best Buy says it will prominently display Blu-ray players and discs in its stores and recommend the format over rival HD DVD, according to a Reuters report.

"Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray products," Brian Dunn, Best Buy's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement Monday.

It's not an exclusive arrangement since Best Buy says it will still continue to offer HD DVD. But having Best Buy's valuable endorsement in the form of Sunday circulars, front-and-center store kiosks, and staff recommendation seems to be the icing on the cake for a Blu-ray victory in the format war, and potentially the death rattle for HD DVD.

Earlier Monday, online movie rental service Netflix announced it would phase out its offering of HD DVD discs by the end of the year. Netflix's position likely will have less of an immediate impact on the format battle since its business depends on people who have already made a decision on which format they support. In other words, Netflix availability isn't the reason most consumers will lay down $400 for a video player.

But Best Buy is different. It's the nation's largest consumer electronics store, and in a situation where consumer education is one of the biggest battles, much of the actual fighting of the format war needs to be won at the sales level. When someone looking to upgrade to HD video goes in to a store and asks their friendly sales associate which format they recommend, the answer is going to have a serious impact.

Update, 4 PM PT: The HD DVD Promotional Group responded with a statement that's strikingly similar to the one issued earlier in the day: "We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail."

If Warner Bros.' decision to go exclusively with Blu-ray Disc was an industry-rattling earthquake, Monday's news that Netflix would begin to phase out HD DVD rentals is an inevitable aftershock: much smaller impact, potentially damaging, and still leaves everyone feeling unsettled.

By the end of the year Netflix will no longer offer HD DVD movies to customers, opting to exclusively stock Blu-ray Discs in its online rental service. In the company's announcement, Netflix said it made the decision based on Blu-ray's recent momentum--Universal and Paramount are the only remaining major Hollywood studios with agreements to release titles exclusively on HD DVD.

For HD DVD backers like Toshiba, Microsoft, and the studios, Netflix is probably yet another sad loss, but it won't have the demoralizing repercussions the Warner decision did.

But for the average consumer, in reality, not much changes. That's because the overwhelming majority of DVD renters don't rent high-definition discs. In fact, most of Netflix's own customers don't rent high-def discs. But those who did were renting Blu-ray more than HD DVD, hence Netflix's decision.

Sure, Netflix is one less place to rent HD DVD, but finding copies of the beleaguered disc format is not impossible--Blockbuster stores don't offer HD DVDs to rent, but its online rental service still stocks both formats.

In all, the announcement doesn't do much to make the muddled format picture any less murky for consumers right now. High-definition video players and discs are still too pricey for most buyers, and the quality improvement over DVD isn't as apparent to anyone but the hardcore videophile crowd. Plus, standard DVD players that can convert discs to high-def resolution get the job done reasonably well. Until any of that changes, high-definition video will be stuck in neutral no matter which studio or rental service makes an offer of exclusivity.

Update: The HD DVD Promotional Group's response: "We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward."

For further discussion, hear the guys at CNET's The 404 talk about it on Monday's podcast.

(Credit: Cargo Cosmetics)

HD DVD, just in case you didn't get the word, you're toast. The cosmetics industry says so, and would like to blow you a high-definition kiss goodbye. Mwah.

Well, sort of. Cargo Cosmetics has launched a new line called Blu_ray, designed for makeup artists who need to adapt to high-definition cameras. Design blog Notcot notes that it's marketed toward filming, photography, bridal makeup jobs, and other occurrences where high technology means that the camera really doesn't lie--those HD cameras can highlight any flaw.

In case you were wondering, it's able to skirt copyright regulations by calling itself Blu_ray rather than Blu-ray.