The Death of HD DVD: Best Buy and Netflix to back Blu-ray Disc

Very interesting. Any ideas why Blu-Ray is receiving so much more support? I know that it can hold more information, but other than that, I don't understand. Plus, with dual-players a very real reality, can't they both exist, similar to -r and +r for blank dvds?

Like as they did with the Playstation 2 (DVD), Sony's trojan horse strategy of propagating media storage formats via game consoles (in this case blu-ray piggybacking via the PS3) might once again be picking up steam, although PS3 is a console which I won't buy for games.

I want HD-DVD to somehow make a comeback, if only to stop Sony from dominating the format wars again.

All credit to Sony for a great marketing strategy. Being able to bundle blu-ray with the game console was a kick in the teeth to both Toshiba HD-DVD format and Microsnot xbox all in one swing of the leg.

Buy one device and get it all. Who's gonna pass that up?

I'm glad I didn't invest in the HD DVD player for my XBOX 360 and an HD DVD collection yet. Still, I was hoping the HD DVD format would win out.

I have an HDTV with Fios. Although I don't get to watch it too much when I'm at school, most of the big college football games are in HD either on espn/espn2, or one of the major networks. There's also NFL Network in HD, among other good channels.

I would like to see both format continue to exist....competition is always better for consumers!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...27196120080216

Toshiba to exit HD DVD, end format war-NHK

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp is planning to stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video, allowing the competing Blu-Ray camp a free run, public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday.

Toshiba is expected to suffer losses amounting to tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders and other steps to exit the business, Japan's NHK said on its website.

I just don't like the idea of one company controlling this much power. Does Sony control the making of Blu-Rays, or are there other companies who can and do make them? If that is the case, then I don't care if they win (sure stinks for those who bought HD-DVD only players though).

Sony will finally win a format war. This time they have indeed done it right.

Sony's success was apparent right after they dropped the prices on all their Hi-Def products, a year ago HD DVD had pretty good support because of the price. But Sony dropped the price of the Playstation 3 (leveling the XBox 360) and their Blu-ray movies. But the strategy that's going to help Sony win is the PS3's internal Blu-ray drive, it is the fastest BD loading player there is, count on it as i have compared the system against many standalone BD players.

If you count just standalone players, there are probably more owners of HD DVD players, but if you add the Playstation 3 the BD market is just unmatched, Sony is trying to use the PS3 to drive the BD market force, the cheapest PS3 now is the 40GB $399 version that comes with the Spiderman 3. XBox is the same price but without an internal HD DVD drive, and to attach one it's going to cost another $150, this is a major downside of Toshiba, i bet someone in Toshiba (or Microsoft for that matter) is getting fired because of it.

BD's technology is also better than HD DVD, such as almost twice the capacity of HD DVD.

Blu-ray has always had more manufactuer supports which helped the technology battle a good war with HD DVD, and now studio support has Warner announced to back exclusively on BD, thus making it occupying about 75% of the HD market.


What drives Wal-Mart, BestBuy, Blockbuster.....etc to be BD exclusivity? In my opinion, the answer is simple: The large population of Playstation 3 owners, not only are they owning one of the most awesome gaming systems out there, they are also realizing that this incredible home theatre hub contains the best Blu-ray player capabilities out there, and with simple firmware updates, it's one machine no standalone BD player can match on the current market (there are always complaints with standalone players not playing a certain movie, but never the case with the PS3). Sony purposely put a combo of the 40GB system with the Spiderman 3 BD to remind the population that it also acts as a Blu-ray player (smart move by Sony). The only downside of the PS3 as oppose to some standalone players is that the PS3 does not play a few of the HD audio formats even with HDMI connection, but it's likely to be fixed with a firmware updates.

The internal Blu-ray drive on the PS3 is the nail in the coffin in this war. Retailers and studios realize that more and more people are buying the system, thus more and more Blu-ray players are out to the masses. As the sale of PS3 builds up so will the Blu-ray discs. Early this year BD:HDVD sales has always been consistently 3:1.

It's just a matter of time when Paramount gets over their contract with HDDVD and heads over the the BD camp. Michael Bay himself has stated that Blu-ray is better and promised Transformers to come out on Blu-ray.

One single dominant format is the way to go, it creates convenience for the buyers for not having to decide which to buy. It is pointless to have two very similar technologies co-exist and splitting studio supports, it creates confusion and unsatifaction to the customers. Such as the case that BD owners are angry Tranformers are not released and HD DVD owners not having the pleasures to view Spierman trilogy, the war creates unsatisfactory customer experiences. However, the war was inevitable, but one format to win the war is also inevitable (just like any war), there will always be a winner. And this time i honestly believe Sony has done the job right on the marketing side of things. To me, this war is already over.

Let's see if this holds true:
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1003

Wow ... Sony won a format war ...

Whatever the case, this cheap trojan horse strategy is not going to win them the videogame console war, and the Xbox360 and the Nintendo Wii will make sure of that.

As for the format wars, high def downloads can't come soon enough so that we are finally done with the continuous disc format upgrades every decade or so.

wtf does that mean for the average buyer/user

my pal has a ps3 on which we can watch bd movies that is 720p and 1080p or 1080i dont rememember. i can still rip my rented bluray disks onto hd cant i?

Actually, Sony DID win a format war in the past - the MiniDisc (MD) vs the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC). And after defeating Philips, what did they do? Instead of maximising the potential of the MD (i.e. as an alternative/ideal medium for MP3, photos, videos and computer file storage) they ditched the format, in favour of chasing after the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - MP3 hard/flash drive storage.

We've reached a point where not many formats are given the chance to run a full and prosperous lifespan - this practically ended with the CD format. This news may be dynamic and exciting for techophiles but not so great for the average consumer's bank account. It's not so much about technological advancement - more about how often these media companies can re-sell the same thing to the consumer time and time again. IMHO, it's all becoming a joke.

So, Sony may have won this format war but don't go wasting too much money on investing in Blu-ray - I'd be very surprised if Sony will still be fully supporting this format 5-10 years from now.