Toshiba abandons HD-DVD, Sony's Blu-ray Wins

**Broken** · 02-19-2008, 05:48 AM

Yesterday, Reuters reported that a source said that "Toshiba was in the final stages of planning to exit the HD DVD business". A source tells us that exit plans for HD DVD were already in the works. The only question, was how to gracefully shutdown while liquidating existing product. Now that retailers and rental joints have turned their back publicly on the format, there's nothing graceful about the shutdown plans. There's little face to save on the consumer side.

An announcement could come as early as Tuesday, and will be most certainly made by the end of the week, our source indicated. At the top of Toshiba's list is how to maintain investor confidence in the face of factory shutdowns that will cost the company and some partners dearly.

****UPDATE****
The official announcement was made today.

Toshiba quits HD DVD business

Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders, handing a victory to rival Blu-ray disc technology in the format battle for next-generation video.

full story
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R.I.P. HD-DVD

Source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...not-weeks.html

**gonzo54** · 02-19-2008, 07:59 AM

Thank god for that at least, it was just another way of getting the poor sucker in the street to cough up his hard earned cash again. Why do we need another format like hd or blu-ray anyway ordinary dvd's have done us proud over the last few years.
The biggest problem is everyone has jumped on the band wagon at the same time, while expecting everyone to rush out and buy an HD . T.V the first thing as they have to do is drastically bring down the cost of the TV's first , no good having the dvd without a TV to watch it on. Then we are changing to digital another con and a way to hike up the prices again for us poor suckers in the street. If it runs why repair it, fair enough if certain people want to by HD or go digital fair enough and they are prepared to pay the price so be it, but to be forced by the large TV manufacturers is outragous.

**gan.nez** · 02-19-2008, 10:43 AM

that hd-dvd wouldn' last long was clear since the beginning; now they finally realized that;

**Viking88** · 02-19-2008, 11:33 AM

I feel sorry for the persons that haven't been updated on the format war and recently bought a under priced hd-dvd player thinking they were making a bargain, when they actually where buying a dying format.

My step dad actually thought about buying a hd-dvd player before I informed him that he had to be stupid to do so, he hadn't even heard about blu-ray.

Hope M$ comes with an external blu-ray player!

**peat moss** · 02-19-2008, 11:43 AM

Wal-Mart put a fork in it .

"Wal-Mart Stores announced on Friday morning that it, too, has chosen a side in the battle for high-definition video supremacy: by June, it will stock only Blu-ray Disc players."

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-987...tml?tag=st.rbp

**premanna** · 02-19-2008, 02:58 PM

Thank god didn't buy a xbox 360 external hd player for 110 $ thinking it was a good deal

**ksylian** · 02-20-2008, 12:57 PM

very bad news for HD DVD player owners

good for undecided customers. one format means easy decision

**WhiteWizard20** · 02-21-2008, 12:44 AM

I thought that HD DVDs would be a big hit but fail in the end. With Blue-Ray winning the war, maybe the PS3s will sell more? I'm glad I didn't purchase the HD DVD player for my 360. It will soon be time to stroll in the electronics section for a Blue-Ray DVD player. I wonder when they will have affordable Blue-Ray DVD Burners/Blank discs? Hopefully the next thing Apple will come up with is a MacBook Pro with Blue-Ray DVD Burners.