It's been said many times...this time it's official from Toshiba... HD DVD is Dead

[JE3146]

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2008_02/pr1903.htm

TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.
"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."
Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.
Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.
This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.
Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

[rx2010]

I don't have a link but apparently Target and Wal mart aren't going to stock HD DVD's anymore either

[Virginia Gent]

I'm actually a little disappointed it's over so soon. I was really enjoying the Blu-ray BOGO sales.

[ScottishSmoker]

I figured that was going to happen...it seemed as though all Best Buys and Targets have been ramping up their Blu-Ray stock for a while now...I even ordered a new computer and apparently even they are coming with BluRay drives now...

[ShawnP]

Glad I waited to see who won before buying a player.

I didn't think Blue-Ray would have won when this started though.



Blue-Ray here I come.

Shawn

[ttours]

The pressure continues to mount on the consumer as to what to buy and when to buy it.

Hooray for Craig's List.

tt

[Mystophales]

Well Sony will have at least something to try and sell that debacle they call a PS3. Anyone else think it looks like a George Foreman grill when it is sitting horizontal?

I was really hoping HD would win simply because the only difference between the two is that BluRay has larger capacity. Do you really need 43 hours of behind the scenes footage on how they made the Trees walk in Lord of the Rings?

[SmokeyJoe]

What's this? So my LaserDisc collection is no good?

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by SmokeyJoe

What's this? So my LaserDisc collection is no good?

I will trade you for my 8-Track collection!

[JE3146]

Originally Posted by Mystophales

Well Sony will have at least something to try and sell that debacle they call a PS3. Anyone else think it looks like a George Foreman grill when it is sitting horizontal?

I was really hoping HD would win simply because the only difference between the two is that BluRay has larger capacity. Do you really need 43 hours of behind the scenes footage on how they made the Trees walk in Lord of the Rings?

Blu-ray's large capacity offers a significant step above HD DVD mainly in terms of lossless audio.

3 hour movies such as King Kong were made to look exceptional on HD DVD. Even with minimal extras, all they could fit on it was a DD+ audio track.

If there hadn't been a capacity barrier of 30GB. Lossless audio, such as TrueHD or even LPCM would have been included.

50GB doesn't just accommodate extras.

Not to mention nobody knows what the future entails, and to have a "good enough" 30GB barrier now means theres no headroom for improvement later.

While Dolby Digital may be good enough for some. Others prefer to have the best available. Which is essentially what these HD formats are about to begin with.




And why would you consider the PS3 to be a debacle? It won them the format war. Not to mention some of the greatest games of the year were exclusive to the PS3 last year. (Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted...) More to come this year with exclusives like R:ROM (offering 8 player co-op and 64 person online play... free /w dedicated servers, not paid for like xbox live using non dedicated servers), MGS4 and GT5 to name a couple. Not to mention PSHome.

And just an FYI. I own 360 and a PS3.

[LasciviousXXX]

Goddamnit...... that's all I have to say on this situation.

[EvanS]

Originally Posted by LasciviousXXX

Goddamnit...... that's all I have to say on this situation.

I'm with you

[kalvinchris]

Damn, I'm glad I waited.

[Silound]

Originally Posted by icehog3

I will trade you for my 8-Track collection!

I raise you one massive collection of very old very very cherished classic rock LP's

Last count I was up over 3,000.

[RevSmoke]

You know, this affects me about like the issues they're having with the new Ferrari.

Don't have one yet...

...probably wasn't going to get one in the next couple years anyway.