Toshiba to pull the plug on HD DVD? (Rumoured to be conceding defeat in format war)

Pocket Lint (Gadget News and Reviews: UK) | 15 February 2008 8:57 GMT | Amy-Mae Elliott

[Paleo Conservative]

NEWS: 15 February 2008 8:57 GMT - A movie news site is reporting that Toshiba is a matter of weeks away from conceding defeat of its HD DVD format in the next-gen high-def disc format war, giving in to Blu-ray's market dominance.

The Hollywood Reporter states: "Toshiba is widely expected to pull the plug on its HD DVD format sometime in the coming weeks, reliable industry sources say, after a rash of retail defections that followed Warner Home Video's announcement in early January that it would support only the rival Blu-ray Disc format after May".

"An announcement is coming soon", the site quotes one source close to the HD DVD camp. "It could be a matter of weeks."

Jodi Sally, VP of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products is quoted as saying: "Given the market developments in the past month, Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players".

This news comes as two more American retailers voiced support for Blu-ray this week, and sales figures appear to steadily support the Blu-ray camp's claims that they are winning this thing.

[Paleo Conservative]

Plextor releases two Blu-ray / HD DVD combo drives

Posted Feb 7th 2008 11:39PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Blu-ray, HD DVD, Media PCs

Although we have hope that the format war is shuddering to a close, it's probably still wise to hedge your bets just a little -- and Plextor's got you covered with two new SATA Blu-ray / HD DVD combo drives. The new PX-B920SA writes to BD-R at 4x speeds, DVDs at 16x, and CD-Rs at 40x, and reads HD DVD, while the lower-end PX-B300SA drops the BD-R capabilities and just writes to DVD and CD. Plextor says both drives will be available at the end of the month, but sadly we don't have any pricing information.

[aft_lizard]

Wal-mart has announced they will be eclusively BD as well. Basically HD DVD is dead in the water now. Oh well I will enjoy my HD DVD’s for now and will gobble up some cheap-o HD’s at the store.

[RedCell]

Betamax anyone?

[Paleo Conservative]

Betamax anyone?

At least betamax was better for making your own video tapes. Once the new version of Blu-ray firmware is released, HDDVD won't have any advantage.

[Red_Devil 232]

Heck they lost it to the name! Blue-Ray vs HD-DVD? Now if Toshiba had called it “Kumquat” or “Aardvark” it would have worked!

[Slapshot68]

“Blue-Ray vs HD-DVD?”

It’s “Blu-ray.”

Blue-ray would’ve been depressing. ;)

[catbertz]

Amazon is running 50% off sale and DeepDiscount has lots for $12.20 at this flashing link

[Vigilanteman]

This isn't a rumor. I have a contact inside the company from a former life. They will be making an announcement sometime within the next week or so.

Over in the home country (Japan), this is already industrywide knowledge.

They are already doing You-Tube parodies. This is one of the better ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWfmRdOmJ0

[mitchbert]

Betamax anyone?

At the consumer level, maybe. Ultimately though, Sony hit a major home run with Betamax when they doubled the tape speed, added component outputs and created the Betacam ENG product. They essentially invented the category and grabbed a 95% market share in Electronic News Gathering.

[tje]

I was in Fry’s (Houston) on Monday and noticed that all the HD-DVD movies were about $10 cheaper than the BD ones..

[ElkGroveDan]

[Sans-Culotte]

Oh well I will enjoy my HD DVD’s for now and will gobble up some cheap-o HD’s at the store.

I, for one, will not be rushing out to buy a BD player. I bought into HD DVD knowing full well they would probably lose the war. But the players are so cheap, it made getting into HD media easy (I even bought a backup player). Once BD players and media become affordable (if they ever do), I will get a BD player. I, too will probably snag the few remaining HD discs I want as they start going on sale. I am not interested in buying into the current BD players. I have enough on HD DVD to keep me busy for awhile.

[Red_Devil 232]

See, I am not hip enough! I always though it was pronounced like the color. Is it pronounced Blugh? :)

[TheRake]

I don’t know a thing about the technology. I just want to know where and who to invest my money with.

[Red_Devil 232]

Frys is a great place wish one was near where I live.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

I’ve seen both these formats. I have to admit. It creeped me out when I watched them. Its like your not even watching a film anymore. Its like your actually on the set as it was filmed.

I know many will find this impressive, but I really enjoy the cinema grainy look to movies when you watch them in theaters. With these formats, all the character of the camera and film is removed. It’s just too sterile looking.

[blam]

That was neat, thanks.

[Paleo Conservative]

I wonder when the original Star Trek series on HDDVD will be steeply discounted?

[E Rocc]

I don’t get why a store would go exclusive, though in Wally World’s case the reason is probably “because they can”.

I figured HD-DVD would be at an advantage because they can be played on X-Box.

-Eric