Do you hear that? That's the sound of "Taps" being played for HDTV players and recorders. Toshiba has announced that, "it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders." Yes, it's true. Just like Beta was phased out in favor of VHS, HDTV has lost in its head to head battle with Blu-ray. As of March 2008, the manufacture of the hardware will cease, and production of HD DVD disk drives for PCs and games as well. The only exception, said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation are laptops. "[Toshiba] continues to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives."Where does that leave those lucky consumers who've invested in HD DVD and its recorders? Up a tree, in many ways. Toshiba spokesmen say the company will continue to sell recording media on line, but don't expect a slew of HD DVD software in the future. Blu-ray will be king, you can bet on that. For those of us who haven't gone HD, Toshiba reiterates in their corporate release that they will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-19-2008 @ 11:31AM
Oreo said...
I hate Sony. Now that they won they will seek revenge because they lost the last format war.
And frankly Blu-Ray is pointless, there is nothing special about it. It has a lame name and can't really hold that much more information.
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2-19-2008 @ 12:22PM
dt3 said...
im as anti blu-ray/sony as the next guy (probably more) but to say that the disc doesnt hold that much more is just being stupid, or "being oreo" as some around here like to call it
2-19-2008 @ 12:52PM
Oreo said...
It should be well know that HD-DVDs now can hold just about as much space because of the way they are made.
Blu-Ray games the PS3 go "We are 20GB bigger!", but those 20GB are useless music files because of how hard it is to make things for Blu-ray.
So yes in the long run Blu-Ray will be much more expensive, harder to produce, has a stupid name (DVD, the HD DVD is much better), run by an evil company and all for the fact it might be able to hold a little bit more.
Of course to me this how "fight" is a joke. 75-80% of the country doesn't have an HD TV, and is fine with DVDs.
2-19-2008 @ 11:50AM
puffin said...
Unfortunately HD-DVD was the more consumer friendly option of the two. Lower price point, lower manufacturing cost, and hardware specs were set. Blu-Ray players are almost twice as much; costs are higher for the manufactures to produce players and disks; and the whole Blu-Ray tech is still essentially in beta (ie. not finalized / standardized).
Now we can wait another year or two for Sony and the BluRay association to drop the price of their players down to the level HD-DVD was 6 months ago. In essence the war was won but the reality for consumers is the technology for mass consumption was pushed further into future.
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2-19-2008 @ 11:55AM
No1Dad said...
"and the whole Blu-Ray tech is still essentially in beta (ie. not finalized / standardized)"
By the time it is, we'll already be migrating on to the next big thing.
2-19-2008 @ 11:54AM
larry said...
Blu-Ray disks have 66% more storage capacity than HD-DVD's. I would say that's substantial.
And Blu-Ray winning over HD-DVD is more like if Beta had one out over VHS. As I remember, Beta was actually the higher quality of the two.
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2-19-2008 @ 12:41PM
puffin said...
Please explain how Blu-Ray is a higher quality format. HD-DVD was its equal in every aspect other then data compacity.
2-19-2008 @ 11:58AM
BartmanDK said...
Well you know the only way the HD-dvd camp could have won this was if Xbox360 would have had a HD drive IN it from day 1 and instead some extra thing you needed to buy! Im a PS fan and im enjoying my PS3 so im pretty happy about this!
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2-19-2008 @ 12:23PM
GigG said...
You won't be when Sony releases another profile or build of the BR standard with no way to upgrade to it short of purchasing a new player.
2-19-2008 @ 12:29PM
BartmanDK said...
No offence but i think youre wrong.. The PS3 have already had one Blu-ray profile update, so why dont you think there will be anymore of those?
2-19-2008 @ 12:26PM
Derek said...
What does "the sound of Taps being played" mean ?
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2-19-2008 @ 12:41PM
Gordon Werner said...
TAPS ... what the trumpeter plays at a funeral
2-19-2008 @ 1:02PM
Derek said...
>TAPS ... what the trumpeter plays at a funeral
Well how about that. I learned something :) Thanks Gordon.
2-19-2008 @ 12:27PM
Tim said...
"HDTV has lost in its head to head battle with Blu-ray."
HDTV didn't lose, HD-DVD did.
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2-19-2008 @ 3:57PM
Joey Geraci said...
Freudian slip, but the original text was far more in line with reality. HDTV has already lost, and consumers have lost today with the death of HD DVD. Sony could care less about consumers than any other consumer electronics company ever. They will hurt the consumer at every opportunity they get.
2-19-2008 @ 12:43PM
Gordon Werner said...
The low cost of the HD-DVD player had nothing to do with the cost of production and everything to do with a marketing plan to win the most converts.
The cost difference between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is negligible at the consumer level.
The good thing is that the confusion in the marketplace is now gone so we can all move on.
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2-19-2008 @ 2:39PM
Lou said...
maybe the cost of the disks. but the cost of a blu-ray (god what a stupid name!) player is subtancially higher than a HD-DVD player. Even before Toshiba started slashing prices.
I agree with the poster who said that by the time Sony stops patting itself on the back, there will be a new format.
2-19-2008 @ 12:43PM
cbecker said...
"Taps" is played at funerals.
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2-19-2008 @ 2:42PM
dan said...
I'm glad (for consumers) that a pointless format battle has been won (altho I was generally on HD-DVDs sid), but do we need another format?
In a year's time a 500gb, fairly shockproof hard-drive should cost no more than £50 and 20/40/80gb pen drives will probably be given away with magazines.
This Divx fanboy ran out of use for optical drives back in 05.
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2-19-2008 @ 6:55PM
Jake said...
Amen brother! I haven't bought a movie on DVD in over two years. I just rent 'em and rip 'em. Much like Mp3's, video files will eventually replace discs all together.