Well, it's just about done. We told you the other day that Toshiba would most likely concede to Blu-ray this week, and they have officially done just that. With the manufacturer and distributor of HD-DVD consumer products out of the way, one assumes Blu-ray will reign supreme within the next couple of months. For those that have already invested in Toshiba's HD-DVD products, they will still offer support and continue to stock parts for the next eight years. There's no word as of yet whether Paramount and other Hollywood HD-DVD supporters will turn, though we should expect announcements in the very near future.
Keep in mind I don't know all the technical differences between the two formats (sorry folks, I'm limited in that area), but at first glance -- and from a marketing standpoint -- I totally thought HD-DVD would eventually win this war. My friend and I always said that consumers would go with the name they most easily related to. If they had an HD TV, they would buy an HD-DVD player. It just seemed right. But I guess the flashier name won out. On a personal note, I'm happy I opted to side with Blu-ray this past Christmas, because now I'm not out all that money. Had you picked a side yet? And how do you HD-DVD supporters feel about all this?
For the complete Toshiba press release, head on over to our sister site Engadget.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-19-2008 @ 12:04PM
Josh said...
HD-DVD confused a lot of people with its name. My father thought that they were just DVDs in HD that could be played on a regular DVD player. The whole Combo concept hurt more than it helped too.
But the real issue was until August, only Universal was exclusive to HD-DVD. I think studio support won out on this one.
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2-19-2008 @ 12:42PM
Hector Martinez said...
Wait, so you and your friend "knew" HD-DVD would win, but you opted for a Blu Ray player. Nice.
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2-19-2008 @ 1:07PM
Erik Davis said...
No, we "thought" HD-DVD would win, but I wanted to get a PS3 for X-Mas, and at that time Blu-ray looked like the frontrunner, so I opted to go with them.
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2-19-2008 @ 1:09PM
CJ said...
Blu-Ray is better, HD-DVD uses tech similar to the old DVD format, where Blu-ray hold more info and uses newer tech which made it, in theory, cost more initially.
Thats how I understood it anyways.
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2-19-2008 @ 7:52PM
Ryan Beesley said...
And that's how misinformed the public is. BRD is closer to that of CD than it is DVD.
What I don't understand is other studio's willingness to support BRD. Total $ in sales was a win for the BRD camp, but if you look at sales per player, HD-DVD was a clear winner. Also, when you consider that this gives Sony a monopoly from top to bottom, it's like giving them a knife and asking that they don't cut too deeply. I think this is something consumers are going to regret in the coming years. Really, you have Warner Brothers to blame for the turn of events.
BRD is going to be more expensive for independant studios and it is bad for the consumer with needless DRM, manditory AACS, and region restrictions. When I'm not able to use my media, how I want, I'm going to go look for other ways. This is only going to encourage widespread adoption of bittorrent and similar technologies.
2-20-2008 @ 11:41AM
EatingPie said...
I wasn't going to post, but Ryan is giving misinformation.
Blu-Ray has consistently outsold HD-DVD for ... 6 months? 8 months? Since the format war started, the total of Blu-Ray sales are greater than that of HD-DVD. And looking at weekly sales specifically, as time went on, Blu-Ray was selling more and more compared to HD-DVD. Even before Warner's announcement (70-30 prior to warner).
On the Sony "monopoly" -- Sony was the main developer, but there are over 200 members of the Blu-Ray Disc Association, and MANY (sorry no numbers) patent holders on Blu-Ray. It's no longer a "Sony Monopoly."
OTOH, Toshiba was basically the only company making HD-DVD players -- THEY had a monopoly, but that's seldom mentioned due to anti-Sony sentiment.
Yes, you read that right. TOSHIBA was the monopoly in this -- and played dirty pool to get HD-DVD accepted by the DVD group.
On the "more expensive" for independent studios -- Scenarist, which was used primarily by Indies, went Blu-Ray exclusive a few weeks back. So the "cheap" incy software ditched HD-DVD.
And mandatory AACS -- this is the epitome of misinformation. BOTH formats used the exact same "Mandatory AACS" copy protection. The SAME. Sony added an additional layer called BD+, because THE STUDIOS WANTED IT. But AACS was the same on both. You would have had the exact same restrictions on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
The better format won in this case. Be happy. And in my experience, in general my Blu-Rays blow away the image quality of my HD-DVDs by far (not to say there are good and bad in both formats, but I'm talking in general).
-Pie
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2-20-2008 @ 12:16PM
Brien said...
i think i'll just stick with my $15 LD-DVDs.
another $15 for better picture just isn't worth it.
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2-21-2008 @ 6:24PM
Brian said...
If you don't care about a better picture, I sort of wonder why you even bothered with HD to begin with