Even after HD DVD’s demise, Blu-ray still isn’t catching on, the PS3 excepted. Maybe the real format war was between DVD and Blu-ray all along? A recent survey, carried out by ABI Research, found that more than half the respondents have no intention of buying a Blu-ray player. About a quarter said they had plans to buy one, but not till next year. And why are consumers so reluctant to… → Read More
My brother told me that HD DVD died a few months ago because I hadn’t heard or read anything about the format war, but Blu-ray still ain’t doing so hot. And by “doing so hot,” I mean selling any better than it did when it was still entrenched in the utterly pointless war. From January to February, Blu-ray sales plummeted some 40 percent, only to get a slight bump from… → Read More
Microsoft has just discontinued their HD DVD players for the XBox 360. Microsoft chose… poorly. As a result of recent decisions made by Toshiba, Hollywood studios, and retailers, Microsoft plans to withdraw from HD DVD. Xbox will no longer manufacture new HD DVD players for the Xbox 360, but we will continue to provide standard product and warranty support for all Xbox 360 HD DVD Players in… → Read More
[photopress:sonybrrrrr.jpg,full,center] Hold your horses, sports fans. Don’t go declaring Blu-ray the winner of anything just yet, despite the fact that Toshiba original story titlethrew in the towel this week. Sony and the rest of the Blu-ray camp still has one more foe they need to tackle—perception. The perception that regular DVD is “good enough” and that Blu-ray is too… → Read More
It’s in our inbox, so that’s good enough for us to call it. At 12:14AM PST, HD DVD is no longer supported by Toshiba, effectively killing the format. The release says that Toshiba will focus instead on “championing consumer access to HD content”. No more players, no more disks, no more HD DVD. So now we can all buy our PS3s and wait for the day when Transformers shows up on… → Read More
[photopress:toshout.jpg,full,center] Toshbia will officially ditch the HD DVD format in the coming weeks, says an article in today’s Hollywood Reporter. “Reliable industry sources” say that Toshiba has suffered “substantial” (not a word to use lightly) loses on its HD DVD players. Combine that with all the fallout from Warner’s decision to go Blu (and… → Read More
[photopress:tf3.jpg,full,center] Just a friendly “told you so” from Michael Bay to all y’all. Bay, whose movies have brought perpetual peace to Earth, was a vocal proponent of the Blu-ray format, so much so that he threatened to walk out of Transformers 2 if Transformers was only released on HD DVD, a statement he later retracted. Said Bay, “Am I thrilled? It really… → Read More
[photopress:hdgr.jpg,full,center] What’s the HD DVD Promotions Group’s response to Netflix’s decision to exclusively stock Blu-ray and BestBuy’s decision to “recommend” Blu-ray? … it’s unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least… → Read More
Add National Geographic to the growing list of studio going exclusively Blu-ray. Starting with its next release, “Sharkwater,” (that’s the trailer up there) the comapny will ditch its practice of supporting both HD DVD and Blu-ray. It’s only released one such movie so far, “Relentless Enemies,” so it’s not a seismic shift in the landscape or anything. → Read More
[photopress:msfttalks.jpg.jpg,full,center] AP image Intrigue! It looks like Microsoft was hedging its high-def disc bets with the revelation that it was in talks with the Blu-ray folks “all along.” Even though it currently backs HD DVD, the truth of the matter is that the Xbox 360′s high-def disc playback is largely a matter of built-in software. The implication is that with the… → Read More
[photopress:poorsales.jpg,full,center] Toshiba and Co. may huff and puff about not being dead now, but the first sales numbers in the post-Warner world don’t look good for HD DVD. The week of Jan. 12 saw Blu-ray capture 90 percent of the market. Hence the massive price cuts by Toshiba on HD DVD hardware on Jan. 13. And to make sure we’ve crossed all the Ts here, the relevant NPD guy… → Read More
“Paramount’s current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,” Brenda Ciccone, a spokeswoman for Paramount. Paramount Denies Report It Will Drop Toshiba’s HD DVD (Update2) [Bloomberg] → Read More
[photopress:vhddvd.jpg,full,center] HD DVD? What’s that? Universal has ended its HD DVD exclusivity arrangement and Paramount’s HD DVD contract has an escape clause. Should Paramount exercise that clause, and there’s no reason not to at this point, Blu-ray would have thoroughly won this silly “format war.” Now we can get back to the important business of arguing over… → Read More
[photopress:apNERL07_Gadget_Show_00K9H.jpg,full,center] Thanks, AP Warner’s decision to exclusively back Blu-ray definitely hurts pirates and could, in the long run, hurt regular consumers, too. By all indications, right now, Blu-ray has the momentum to “win” the format war, especially if the reports suggesting Paramount will switch to it turn out to be true. That would leave… → Read More
HD DVD’s booth at CES was a sad, sad sight to see. You could tell by the demeanor of everyone working the booth. They knew. Blu-ray’s booth was less than 20 yards away and they were rocking out and people were milling around trying to watch demos, take pictures with Captain Jack Sparrow and the Spartans from 300. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in HD DVD’s camp, but how are… → Read More
The companies of the HD DVD Promotional Group today issued a statement in response to the decision by Warner Home Video to exclusively back the Blu-ray format: While Warner’s decision is a setback for HD DVD, the consumer has benefited from HD DVD’s commitment to quality and affordability – a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format. We believe widespread… → Read More
A scam, apparently What does Transformers (and Pearl Harbor…) director Michael Bay think about the HD DVD/Blu-ray format war? Oh, you know, that it’s all Microsoft’s doing: Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads…. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100… → Read More
Yet another “HD DVD wins, Blu-ray stinks” article made the rounds this weekend, only it’s from a guy whose opinion actually means something (I think). Don Lindich, whose “Digital Made Easy” books—I don’t know—make digital easy, says HD DVD is the better value right now. An abundance of cheap players, increased studio support, Wal-Mart support, ease… → Read More
One snake is Blu-ray, the other is HD DVD The big movie studios would love nothing more than to have the Blu-ray HD DVD war over and done with already. But to my untrained eye, we seem to be in a bit of a holding pattern as far as declaring a winner is concerned. So let the dirty, dirty indies do it. A short piece on Variety explains how indie movie studios, strapped for cash, are only able to put… → Read More
Not that this statistic is any indication of the how the format war is going, but it’s staggering nonetheless. Netflixers browse Blu-ray titles 1.8 times more than HD DVD, but the HD DVD browsers are 4.4 times more likely to make that their default. The actual figures equate to 2.4:1 in favor of HD DVD then Blu-ray. Except this doesn’t mean a whole lot considering the fact that of the 14… → Read More
The great—I suppose—war rages on between Blu-ray and HD DVD. So today I was browsing Facebook when I noticed one of those polls that show up in your news feed—HD-DVD or Blu-ray? You knew the poll would be screwy when went out of its way to misspell HD DVD. There’s no hyphen there, pollmeisters. Out of the 1,000 recorded responses, HD-DVD won, 64 percent to Blu-ray’s… → Read More
If you’re playing at home, you know that Target, the world’s biggest retailer named Target, backed Sony’s Blu-ray disc format last week (well, sorta), causing wannabe pundits to proclaim for the 900th time that Blu-ray is the winner of the current format war. (The winner is whoever wins the race to be affordable to the Average Joe.) The HD DVD camp certainly doesn’t think… → Read More
The HD DVD camp is getting a boost from the figures that Microsoft released on its ‘biggest-selling’ add-on in the U.S. 155,000 units of the HD DVD drive have been sold since launch and while this doesn’t significantly make a dent in the numbers Blu-ray has put up, it does help their cause in a few different ways. A significant number of Blu-ray playing machines that have been sold aren’t… → Read More
The DVD-format war isn’t likely to end anytime soon with both sides pulling tricks one after the other. Blu-ray may be leading retail sales and Blockbuster’s endorsement of Sony’s next-gen technology might trick you into thinking they’re leading, but they’re not. Toshiba is counteracting this claim by pointing out that even Blockbuster admits the war isn’t over, yet. Luckily for… → Read More
Used to be that HP was a member of the HD DVD forum, meaning that even thinking about Blu-ray was a no-no. How time files when consumers are confused and/or don’t know which horse to original story titleback. Two new HP computers, the Pavilion Media Center m8010y and the Pavilion d4890y, will be able to read and write Blu-ray discs as well as read HD DVD discs. (Plus regular ol’ DVDs… → Read More
The war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is officially back on. Toshiba has announced that over 100,000 HD-DVD players have been sold in the US. Oddly enough, Toshiba’s numbers don’t include the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive add-on, which is one of the most popular selling HD-DVD players on the market. This means that Blu-Ray is slipping behind and better start coming up with some new marketing… → Read More
NEC announced today that it has begun shipments on a dual-format chip that can playback both Blu-ray and HD DVD. Although there is not yet an optical lens capable of reading both formats, the release of this chip could signal an end to the format war. The chips will be available for roughly the same price as the current single-format chips, so it shouldn’t, at least, raise prices too… → Read More
Pioneer announced at IFA that it will be releasing a drive capable of reading both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. The BDR-103 will utilize Ricoh’s smart blue laser diode that can recognize what type of disc has been inserted. There have been a few of these drives that have been announced in the past. None of them have gelled, so here’s hoping that the BDR-103 actually makes it to market. If… → Read More
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