Stick a fork in HD DVD it's done

by Xav de Matos { Feb 16th 2008 at 3:15PM }

According to Engadget, sources from across the globe are confirming earlier reports that Toshiba would be bowing out of the optical disc format war, but it will happen sooner than we originally heard. Reuters and the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) claim to have inside sources that confirm that Toshiba is officially retiring the HD DVD format as soon as possible and will be shutting down its DVD factories in Aomori Prefecture located in northern Japan. The shutdown will reportedly cost Toshiba hundreds of millions of dollars.

The death spiral of HD DVD seemed to have been kick started in June 2007, when the corporate rental giant Blockbuster said they would only carry Blu-ray within it's retail locations. Then in early January 2008, Warner Bros. confirmed they would drop HD DVD in favor of the Sony backed - but not owned - Blu-ray format. Earlier this week HD DVD was knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked as Netflix and Wal-Mart chose to support Blu in this completely ~~ridiculous~~ interesting format war.

While we wait for official word Stateside from Toshiba it certainly looks like this format war is completely done-zos.

Tags: blu-ray, format-war, hd-dvd

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

FatalisticDread @ Feb 16th 2008 3:19PM

So it goes. Good-bye HD-DVD...I never knew you.

Carnie @ Feb 17th 2008 12:48AM

You should also add blu-ray to that list as digital download distribution is the way....

BananaBoat @ Feb 17th 2008 3:25AM

Almost noone knew them. I thought about buying a player, until I was at Bestbuy with my father one day, and he went "OoO Look, one of those Blu-Ray players!". The Blu-Ray player had an HD-DVD sitting right next to it, playing identical content on a screen that was pretty much identical. I knew that the war was won, and that non-tech people had made up their minds.

Sony
Knows
How
To
Market
Natch.

(PS: Emotion Engine, hahahahahahaha)

Cal @ Feb 17th 2008 1:45PM

Why is HD-DVD's demise being tracked on X360F? Apart from one accessory the 360 has nothing to do with HD-DVD...

Jay @ Feb 17th 2008 2:22PM

@Carnie,

Whatever. Of course, from today we'll see many more convenient claims from people like you that the war was never between red and blue at all but between physical and downloadable media.

Then again, iTunes rendered the CD obsolete years ago, didn't it? So maybe you've gotten something there. And it only takes a few minutes to download a 30GB file.

Oh no! Hang on a minu

Easo @ Feb 17th 2008 4:20PM

Jay

Oh ye of little foresight. Exactly one year from now, Feb .17 2009, all television stations will stop broadcasting on analog signal.
This will open up a very broad range of frequencies for use. Two of the companies bidding for the space are google and microsoft. Both companies plan on using the space as a new type of broadband internet service. This service will be accessible via specialized antenna anywhere in the US. That would mean that no matter who you are or where you are, you would have access to a very fast broadband internet connection.
So with that in mind, we can reasonably assume that digital distribution will be challenging dvd and bluray in the near future.

John McPoop @ Feb 18th 2008 12:03AM

@Easo

A working prototype has yet to be unleashed. Thus far the 2 prototypes have failed to work. Digital Downloads are the future but there is still a litany of problems with that content. DRM issues, ownership issues, mass storage and internet speeds.

If I own a digital copy and let a friend borrow it, sell it or even return it for store credit because it only exist virtually and I wouldn't actually own the data on a physical medium.

mattclarkie @ Feb 16th 2008 3:25PM

I assume that if Toshiba ditches it, everyone does, although they seem to be the only people making the players apart from the LG hell child.

Digital Limit @ Feb 16th 2008 3:28PM

At least it's over, I guess. God damn Blu-gays.

Trashman @ Feb 16th 2008 6:34PM

exactly. its blu-gay. i dont get it. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray both have the almost exact same picture quality. just cause blu-ray has more storage, what makes it better? whoever says that no one ever supported blu-ray just cause its part of sony is dumb. over half of the supporters of blu-ray are sony supporters which i am not in the slightest. HD-DVD will never die in my eyes. screw sony and blu-gay

dunnypop @ Feb 17th 2008 12:30AM

the reason hd-dvd failed is because the market isn't in the need for a new digital format.
the majority of people still use dvd's and don't have hd tv's...

Digital Limit @ Feb 17th 2008 2:26AM

The reason HD DVD failed is because the Xbox 360 didn't come HD DVD capable.

Rye21 @ Feb 18th 2008 10:05AM

Seems fanboys have resorted to downloadable distribution as better than blu ray well I for one like buying a material possesion and having the excitemnt of choosing between the deluxe special edition or the standard edition. DD wont be around for another few years so we will have to make do with dvds and blu ray such a shame.

itsburnsie @ Feb 16th 2008 3:33PM

Xbox 360 blu-ray addon?

Glitch W @ Feb 16th 2008 4:14PM

Ya, but wouldn't it really stink if Sony decided to use this to dominate the console market?

JakubK666 @ Feb 16th 2008 4:27PM

SONY
DOES
NOT
OWN
BLU
RAY
!!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association

PS: Goddamnit! I spent my whole day posting this up on Joystiq.

Glitch W @ Feb 17th 2008 1:10PM

Sorry, I thought they did, I apologize

bigd7387 @ Feb 16th 2008 3:36PM

I've got a PS3 but I still prefer HD-DVD picture quality, additional features and price to whatever I've seen from Blu-ray so far.

Nick @ Feb 17th 2008 4:24AM

Except that HD-DVD didn't offer more features. With the Blu-Ray update, BR disc could offer the same features that were at one point unique to Blu-Ray. And if you think the picture quality was better, then you are creating that belief in your head. Both formats offered identical resolutions. The real reason why this is a big win for the consumer other than not having to pick between formats is that it offers the computer market a much better storage format than DVD.

YoRone22 @ Feb 16th 2008 3:36PM

AWESOME!!!!! Cheap HD DVDs FTW!

russ d @ Feb 16th 2008 8:09PM

I've got some great laserdiscs for cheap if you're interested in dead formats...

YoRone22 @ Feb 16th 2008 8:51PM

Just because HD DVD is dead doesn't mean the player I purchased will explode. Sure I won't be able to get newer movies on HD DVD, but I can still get American Gangster and some other movies I liked. I paid cheap for the Xbox 360 HD DVD player, and got many of my HD DVDs for free or discounted. Now that HD DVD is "dead," I'll be able to get even more for cheap.

James Saunders @ Feb 16th 2008 3:42PM

Personally i don't really care. I prefer DVDs to any of either format. but i guess i'll be buying a blu-ray player when DVDs are obsolete.

FatalisticDread @ Feb 16th 2008 3:43PM

Meh, it's not like the Xbox360 had an HD-DVD player built in. Maybe if MS had crammed an HD-DVD drive into the 360 it would have been an ongoing issue, but seeing as how the 360 can now accept a BD external drive option and the BD format will be the standard for the next round of consoles and we won't have to worry about some assinine add-on or "whoa, it's too expensive" shit that kept this "war" going for way too long (from a gamer's perspective).

Steven @ Feb 16th 2008 4:01PM

Digital Downloads seems to be working better for the 360 anyway.

sabotage187 @ Feb 16th 2008 4:04PM

now the question is, for me anyway, wait for a while to see if the price of blu-ray stand alone players drop or suck it up and get a ps3

The Sound @ Feb 16th 2008 4:32PM

Just suck it up and buy a PS3.

Contrary to popular belief, it does have some good games for it.

And it's a great Blu-ray/multimedia center too.

ZenGaijin @ Feb 16th 2008 5:12PM

OMG its sense when someone talks about the PS3.

I am a 360 owner and I don't own a PS3 but I have always seen the PS3 as a pretty cool piece of hardware they just need to get their shit together before I buy one.

Getting there shit together: In game XMB, unified friends list, Completely PS2 backwards compatible , Dual shock 3 bundled with the system.

I expect all of most of these in the next 3 or 4 months.

Esoterikal @ Feb 16th 2008 9:21PM

Not that I disagree with your requests ZenGaijin, but some of your requests have been abandoned on the 360. Complete backwards compatibility? Bundled DualShock3? Why do they even sell wired 360 controllers? Why is the 360 sold without the hard drive? I own all 3 this generation, and all have strengths and weaknesses, and waiting for a few quibbles to be fixed is hardly a reason to wait on a purchase.

Tom @ Feb 17th 2008 6:03PM

Esoterikal- The 360 doesn't cost a shitload though... and plus the PS3 doesnt have as good of games... and a lot of games are just coming out for the PS2 now anyway so I'll just stick with that

Adam @ Feb 16th 2008 4:13PM

Download blurays from utorrent theres the answer.Teach those greedy studios a lesson and let em lose your purchases.I used to be against pirating but i just downloaded a bluray today and streamed thru my 360 and wooha amazing.

The Sound @ Feb 16th 2008 4:34PM

Sooo, have you got a hdd big enough to store a 25gb movie, special features, surroundsound, all at 1080p?

Not to mention an internet speed fast enough to make it ergonomically efficient?

Have fun with that.

xenocidic @ Feb 17th 2008 9:03AM

do you even know what ergonomically means?

Paul @ Feb 17th 2008 5:26PM

uhh The Sound have you ever heard of deleting the movie once you are done watching it???.....not to mention you can get huge hard drive for cheap now days. just look around on the internet a little bit.....

Raheem @ Feb 16th 2008 4:18PM

Can we please start a petition for MS to get rid of MS Points and just sell us content in normal currency? Why can't the marketplace be more like iTunes in that sense?

dr dmoney @ Feb 16th 2008 4:25PM

I second that. It will show you how much money you need to pay. It you have an American account it will be in dollars and in other countries it will be there standard currency...

Justin @ Feb 16th 2008 8:24PM

Or...like the PSN?

Darkharmony @ Feb 17th 2008 2:26AM

Can't disagree on this one. Nothing like having 150 left over points and wanting a 800 pt arcade game. Having to buy 1000 points and then proceeding to be left with 350 pts which again is fairly useless.

Raheem @ Feb 17th 2008 6:20AM

Never seen it Justin, but sure if that is similar to what I'm describing.

dr dmoney @ Feb 16th 2008 4:23PM

I am so glad I never bought an HD-DVD player. I wanted to watch movies in HD so bad. I am glad I held off to make my choice. I am going to eventually pick up a PS3 to use as my Blue-Ray player, unless M$ builds an add on in the near future.

Brian Fantana @ Feb 17th 2008 12:08PM

If you are just going to get a PS3 for Blu Ray, don't. Buy a stand alone player if that's all you want. The PS3 is built with the cheapest and lowest quality BD drive they can make. Just look at the PS2, DVD looked pretty bad on it compared to a stand alone player. Same is true with the 360 HD-DVD add on, a stand alone player looked better.

SharpShooter @ Feb 17th 2008 10:57PM

Actually the ps3 is the best blu-ray player by quite a bit. For one, it's the one of the cheapest and can update it's profiles.

Here's some reviews for the PS3 solely as a blu-ray player.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/sony-ps3-best-bd-player-out-there-225490.php

http://kotaku.com/340668/ps3-is-still-the-blu+ray-player-to-buy

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9667998-1.html

Would only let me put 3 urls T_T

Adam @ Feb 16th 2008 4:50PM

@The Sound

You can get 1080p bluray rips at about 12 gb files.Then you can stream em right thru 360 the quality is breathtaking and its free.I have a 500gb hdd and im sure the majority of pc owners have over 100gb hdds.12gb is nothing for a download with todays connections i have 20mbps down and 5mbps up.The point is lets do the math here.

Decent bluray player arounf 400 to 600 dollars.Movies 30 a piece etc.

A big 500gb hard drive about 125 dollars in some places and free movies so do the math its that simple.Fuck sony and fuck there format free downloads ftw.

Viridium @ Feb 16th 2008 5:12PM

It's only "free" because you're an a-hole.

mojojojo @ Feb 16th 2008 5:22PM

maybe get a ps3 and stop all that sad stuff you do?

Gurjeet @ Feb 16th 2008 6:19PM

So if you were to download Blu-Ray rips, how would you get them onto your 360?

Raheem @ Feb 16th 2008 7:27PM

Come on guys let's not castrate Adam, this is what it should be like! Free and downloadable. Everything. Always. Including my lunch.

The Sound @ Feb 16th 2008 10:43PM

If you're paying $30 for a movie, you're a f*cking moron, but I already knew that.

Ok, so you've got a 500gb hdd, that's great. Guess what? You're one of the very few people in the U.S (and if you don't live here) in the world, that actually have connection speeds that fast. My 50mbps/15mbps speed costs close to $100, and it's still in the 'trial phase', and not everyone has access to it.

Then what happens when you run out of space on your HDD, or it fails? Have to buy a new one, and re-download all your files. Nice.

Oh, and I honestly doubt you're really getting a so called 'Blu-ray' movie off a torrent. Blu-ray was never cracked (to my knowledge) like HD-DVD was.

Oh, and another thing, Sony doesn't own Blu-ray, and I'm not aware of Sony getting any royalties from companies for using Blu-ray.

railven @ Feb 17th 2008 12:49AM

@Sound

Blu-Ray has been cracked, a few months ago:
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/11641.cfm

And yes, Sony does own Blu-Ray in a joint venture with Phillips. Sony collects royalties with every BD-Drive, BD-disc, and BD-Logo stamped:
http://www.planetanalog.com/features/OEG20010615S0046