The Diva

Well NSL gave into to Blu-ray just tonight!

Spidey 3 came free with the thing, of all movies that ..that..miasma of a movie...Oh well, at least it was not Steel Magnolias

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Mikael

Looks like this is it:

Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war: source

Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:40am EST
By Mayumi Negishi and Kentaro Hamada

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high definition DVDs, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), a company source said on Saturday.

The move will likely put an end to a battle that has gone on for several years between consortiums led by Toshiba and Sony vying to set the standard for the next-generation DVD and compatible video equipment.

The format war, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, has confused consumers unsure of which DVD or player to buy, slowing the development what is expected to be a multibillion dollar high definition DVD industry.

Toshiba's cause has suffered several setbacks in recent weeks including Friday's announcement by U.S. retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) that it would abandon the HD DVD format and only stock its shelves with Blu-ray movies.

A source at Toshiba confirmed an earlier report by public broadcaster NHK that it was getting ready to pull the plug.

"We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business," said the source, who asked not to be identified. He added that an official announcement could come as early as next week.

No one answered the phone at Toshiba's public relations office in Tokyo.

NHK said Toshiba would suffer losses running to tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders and other steps to withdraw from the business.

Hollywood studios had initially split their alliances between the two camps, meaning only certain films would play on any one DVD machine.

The balance of power tipped decisively toward the Sony camp in January after Time Warner Inc's (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Warner Bros studio said it would only release high-definition DVDs in Blu-ray format. With that, studios behind some three-quarters of DVDs are backing Blu-ray, although some release in both formats.

Toshiba responded by slashing prices of HD DVD players, but the loss of retail support has hurt.

In addition to Wal-Mart, consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and online video rental company Netflix Inc (NFLX.O: Quote, Profile, Research) also recently signed up to the Blu-ray camp.

The exclusive backing of Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) was also put in doubt when the software giant said in January that it could consider supporting Blu-ray technology for its Xbox 360 video game machine, which currently works only with HD DVD.

Sony has spent large sums of money to promote Blu-ray in tandem with its flat screen TVs and its PlayStation 3 game console, which can play Blu-ray movies.

The Toshiba source said the experience would not be a total loss for the sprawling conglomerate, whose products range from refrigerators to power plants, which would learn valuable lessons.

"Marketing was a weak point for Toshiba. We learned a lot from HD DVD. Strengthening marketing will continue to be an issue for us going forward," the source said.

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi, Kentaro Hamada and Nathan Layne, editing by Mike Peacock)


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Centurion

Yes, the war is officially over and my enemy nr1 has won

Mikael

LOL your enemy?

Centurion

Yupp. I don't like Sony. Even if Bluray is the winner my future bluray player will be from Toshiba, Philips for Panasonic.

Mikael

Really? Why don't you like Sony?

The Diva

Yeah Lu...I'm curious too..

did SONY wrong you in another life or something?


anyways, we've been watching Blue-ray movies for a month now, through the PS-3 ( YES SONY PS 3), and the picture and sound is amazing.

Also, non Blue-DVD's look much much better!

Centurion

Because Sony thinks they are better than everyone else. I hate their very undiplomatic practises. The whole world was united with HD-DVD as the successor for DVD(hence the name*)...........until Sony slamed their fist in the table and said that they were going to give birth to their own format by the name bluray.

They did the same thing back when DVD was high tech, they created their own path with Betamax but lost.

Their MP3players which only plays Sony's format ATRAC, failed for 3-4 years until Sony took the thumb out of their asses and began selling MP3players which can actually play the format without the user having to convert all their songs to ATRAC.

What else do we have.......hmm Mini Dics and UMD off course. Like you see Sony are format whores and do everything they can to ruin it for the consumers. Now they are probably very happy that Toshiba and all those people with HD-DVD players and media have products which will be useless in 2-3 years.

The Diva

Oh so it's a pet peeve. I thought they were siding with psychos or something

Betamax? isn't that magnetic tape technology from the 80's? You mean they also had a Betamax DVD???

Mikael

This is incorrect. Sony developed DVR blue (later renamed Blu-ray) in 1999 and first prototypes were presented in October 2000. In February 2002 Blu-ray Disc Association was formed by Sony, Philips, Hitachi, Pioneer, Matsushita, LG, Samsung, Sharp and Thomson.

The DVD Forum which was chaired by Toshiba decided that they wanted their own blue-laser HD disc in April 2002. In August 2002 Toshiba and NEC announced their competing standard Advanced Optical Disc. AVD was renamed HD DVD in 2003.
Well, I do agree that Sony likes to develop new standards, in some cases to an excessive extent but for their defence I must say they are usually superior from technological POV. Betamax was more advanced than VHS but they didn't get the film industry on their side. ATRAC, MiniDisc and UMD were probably developed in the music/entertainment industry in mind to prevent large-scale piracy.
Sure Sony has made mistakes more than once but they aren't any more arrogant than many other major companies. They are not even close to the arrogance level of Microsoft for example.

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