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February 9, 2012
 
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HD DVD is officially dead

by Allison Waldman, posted Feb 19th 2008 11:19AM

hd dvdDo 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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23 Comments

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Owen Uridge

The only problem I have with this is that now the prices for equipment will not drop in price like they should with no competition. I'm glad for a standard, but now I'm going to have to spend money on lube.

February 19 2008 at 8:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
I.A.

Ashamed that you picked the wrong player? These guys show you how to make your HD-DVD player more useful using electrical tape:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH51u_-Kabw

:)

February 19 2008 at 4:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cody

For anyone clearing out their HDDVD collections for a move to BluRay, I'd like to offer to buy you out for $1 per movie.

February 19 2008 at 3:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Edd

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.

February 19 2008 at 2:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Edd's comment
Jake

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.

February 19 2008 at 6:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris Becker

"Taps" is played at funerals.

February 19 2008 at 12:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gordon Werner

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.

February 19 2008 at 12:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Gordon Werner's comment
Lou

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.

February 19 2008 at 2:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tim

"HDTV has lost in its head to head battle with Blu-ray."

HDTV didn't lose, HD-DVD did.

February 19 2008 at 12:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Tim's comment
Joey Geraci

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.

February 19 2008 at 3:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
RR

What does "the sound of Taps being played" mean ?

February 19 2008 at 12:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to RR's comment
Gordon Werner

TAPS ... what the trumpeter plays at a funeral

February 19 2008 at 12:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
RR

>TAPS ... what the trumpeter plays at a funeral

Well how about that. I learned something :) Thanks Gordon.

February 19 2008 at 1:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BartmanDK

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!

February 19 2008 at 11:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to BartmanDK's comment
Gig

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.

February 19 2008 at 12:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BartmanDK

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?

February 19 2008 at 12:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
larry

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.

February 19 2008 at 11:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to larry's comment
puffin

Please explain how Blu-Ray is a higher quality format. HD-DVD was its equal in every aspect other then data compacity.

February 19 2008 at 12:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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