Has Blu-ray won? Toshiba stops producing HD DVD players/recorders

" We'll continue to monitor the situation for readers.

Blu-ray and DVD news

By James Plath
First published Feb 16, 2008

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It's all still second-hand--make that third-hand--but the IDG News Service has published a story quoting the Japanese public broadcast station NHK confirming that Toshiba has stopped production of its HD DVD players and recorders.

A full story appears in PC World.

It's been a tough six weeks for HD DVD. In what seemed like rapid succession, announcement after announcement went against the format:

1/5: Warner Bros. announced exclusive Blu-ray support
1/28: Gartner announced "HD DVD´s price cuts only prolong agony"
1/29: Woolworths, a leading U.K. retailer, announced it would offer exclusive in-store support for Blu-ray beginning in March
1/30: Sonic announced that it will focus its R&D resources on Blu-ray and will conclude sales of its HD DVD authoring product line
1/30: National Geographic announced it will no longer release titles in the HD DVD format
2/11: Netflix announced that, citing a clear signal from the industry, it will only carry Blu-ray Discs and will phase out HD-DVD
2/11: Best Buy announced it will recommend Blu-Ray as the Customer´s Digital Format Choice
2/15: Wal-Mart announced that by June 2008, Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs stores will carry Blu-ray only

Nothing seems to be going right for HD DVD this month. Sephora just released its spring catalog featuring a new line of make-up especially designed for the new HD media. And the name of the line from cosmetics giant Cargo? The Blu-ray Collection.

We'll continue to monitor the situation and try to get some horse's mouth statements for our readers.

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Discuss

gvortex7

Feb 16, 2008 - CST 7:30 PM

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It certainly appears that way.

dl23

Feb 16, 2008 - CST 11:03 PM

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All these people who can't figure out why retailers would quit selling HD-DVD players - it's really simple - when they cut support, you're not going to be able to give these things away. You don't want something in stock that costs $150 you can sell for $100. Anyone who has a lot of HD-DVD players in inventory right now is going to get hurt.

I'm not happy about the situation, but I can certainly understand why the retailers would quit stocking them under the circumstances.

wii-lite

Feb 16, 2008 - CST 11:07 PM

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Quote:Sephora just released its spring catalog featuring a new line of make-up especially designed for the new HD media. And the name of the line from cosmetics giant Cargo? The Blu-ray Collection.

LOL, I'm sorry for bringing this up but the member in the forums who was dubbing Blu-ray as "Blu-gay" is going to have a field day with this article.

High-Def_Movie

Feb 16, 2008 - CST 11:23 PM

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Result the same as my expectation.People who had a normal thinking ability might have expected this result. HDDVD.org and the HD DVD believer of anti Sony (game addict who doesn't see the movie) goes mad.

[Post edited by High-Def_Movie on Feb 16, 2008 - CST 11:27 PM]

JPSofCA

Feb 17, 2008 - CST 9:59 AM

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Regardless of whether or not HD DVD sticks around, I think Blu-ray has to sell movies to actually "win". How are they doing on disc sales, not as opposed to HD DVD, but based on how many players are in homes? Are people spending $30 movies?

As for HD DVD, I never did buy an over-priced combo disc either. Why did they think that was a good thing?

ReaggieP

Feb 17, 2008 - CST 10:19 AM

says... is pumped, waiting for the Popcorn to show up in the mail!

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SUPER HD DVD!!!... Naa just kidding

genbar dardren

Feb 18, 2008 - CST 12:02 AM

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Truly is a shame that Toshiba may abandon HD-DVD. It would be interesting if Toshiba decides to go all the way into upscaling DVD players, if right now their HD-DVD players upscale SD-DVD to HD with excelent results, imagine if they perfect such technology in future SD-DVD players, no doubt would be a hell of a twist in this story, from which Toshiba can emerge victorious easily, since it would be very atractive for the vast mayority of consumers, that are content with SD-DVD, and not interested not willing to invest in a Blu-Ray player, that haven't planned yet to purchase a LCD/Plasma TV so they can play Blu-Ray movies, neither wish to replace SD-DVD titles on their movie colections.

mr_p-ness

Feb 18, 2008 - CST 8:03 AM

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genbar dardren
thats a nice fantasy
but if they dont have a hd tv whats the point? blu-ray--hd-dud--upscaled? all pointless without a hd tv.
and why can you not admit,that a upscaled movie pales in comparison to a correctly encoded blue-ray or hd-dud movie

well i suppose if you dont have HOPE then you really do have nothing

genbar dardren

Feb 18, 2008 - CST 2:05 PM

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mr_p-ness, my point is that most consumers rather buy LCD/Plasma TV to enhance their experience of viewing DTV and SD-DVD movies, but if they don't plan to get one until prices are lower, they can still view DTV and SD-DVD on their CTR TVs, yet would prefer getting a upscaler DVD player that would help them improve viewing the SD-DVD movies on their collections, rather than buying a new Blu-Ray player and double dipping/replacing their collections with Blu-Ray movies.

Does a upscaled SD-DVD movie pales in comparison to a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD movie?... After live comparisons of several titles on SD upscaled and HD, such as Ratatouille, Bourne Ultimatum, 007 Casino Royale, Transformers, Blade Runner Final Cut, just to mention a few, I couldn't notice a substancial difference from upscaled SD-DVD to HD-DVD/Blu-Ray.

I have came to realice that it all depends mainly on the quality of the transfer, if the movie on SD-DVD came from a digital master, or it was properly restored and/or remastered from the original negative, no doubt you will get superb results that look amazing upscaled on LCD/Plasma TVs.