Toshiba To Stop HD DVD Player Production

[MacRumors]

Reuters is relaying reports from Asia that Toshiba will cease production and development of HD DVD players, essentially abandoning the platform.

Toshiba had been the single largest proponent of HD DVD hardware. Earlier this year Warner announced it selected Blu-ray exclusively, which gave Blu-ray an overwhelming majority of studio support. With recent conversions by Netflix and Wal-Mart to Blu-ray-only stock, key elements to the end of the format war are in place: content, hardware, and distribution.

Apple has been a member of the Blu-ray consortium's board of directors since 2005, but has not publicly announced their Blu-ray plans. It is likely that Apple's hesitation about releasing any Blu-ray products has been at least partially due to the ongoing format war.

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[Big-TDI-Guy]

Really?!? I guess it might actually be official, then, eh?

 

[kster]

i for one welcome our new Blu Ray overlords

Universal
Paramount
Dreamworks

the only 3 studios left on HD-DVD

 

[MacTO]

Now I can go ahead and buy a Blu-ray DVD player...

Cheers!

 

[skorpien]

This is good news... This further justifies my PS3 purchase...

 

[CalmEnvy]

Finally, the format war is over. Although I'm a Blu-Ray fan (have 26 movies so far, have had my PS3 for 3 months).

 

[La Porta]

Thank god, finally - BluRay sooner rather than later in Mac Pros now.

 

[kskill]

apple was delaying the new mbp until the format war was over. who else is super stoked to watch blu-rays on a 15" screen?!

 

[berkleeboy210]

apple was delaying the new mbp until the format war was over. i'm super stoked to watch blu-rays on a 15" screen!

This Tuesday, Right? Sorry, Just had to do that.

 

[tothelimit]

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the writing has been on the wall for HD-DVD for a while. It was clearly a matter of time before BluRay was the "official" format war victor. I'm still not sure apple will jump on board fully - perhaps just a BTO option. They seem to be seriously pushing the idea that optical media is a thing of the past.

 

[La Porta]

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the writing has been on the wall for HD-DVD for a while. It was clearly a matter of time before BluRay was the "official" format war victor. I'm still not sure apple will jump on board fully - perhaps just a BTO option. They seem to be seriously pushing the idea that optical media is a thing of the past.

Until we have easy, insanely cheap flash drives for backup that are basically disposable (like DVDs), we need the discs. We can always stream video, back up to time capsule, but in the end we still need media for a true backup.

 

[mcarnes]

They seem to be seriously pushing the idea that optical media is a thing of the past.

True, and it's a real problem, imo. I love Apple, but quality has really taken a hit because of them. iTunes is the reason SACD failed, and blu-ray won't be developed nearly to the point it would have if movie downloads take off. It's a weird irony, because Apple always meant quality, at least to me.

 

[Zwhaler]

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Last night on a Japanese news channel I saw a report on this. I knew Blu ray would win, so I'm glad I bought my PS3 instead of waiting.

 

[Nermal]

"Apple is committed to both emerging high definition DVD standards—Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD." - That was from almost three years ago and we have yet to see support for either format in OS X. One day...

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

Well, I agree with the "experts" in that this format won't be long lived. The next war is Optical Media vs Downloadable Content.

AppleTV vs BluRay.

Lets hope Apple embraces BRD on data storage and backup merit, and not view it as a competitor to Apple TV.

 

[God^Cent]

apple was delaying the new mbp until the format war was over. who else is super stoked to watch blu-rays on a 15" screen?!

I'm not particularly excited about watching blu-ray on a 15" screen, ( its way too small and wouldn't make much of a noticeable difference) But hooking up the mbp to a 42" 1080p tv screen will look amazing, and give me an excuse to save some money and not buy the blu-ray dvd player.

On a side note is this a sign that I should buy stock in any and all things blu-ray?

 

[Nugget]

Although I wished for HD-DVD to "win" I'm really glad that the marketplace confusion has come to an end. We're all better off with this behind us. Downloadable content is a long way off and BluRay is positioned to carry the market for many years.

 

[Stang68]

Now I can finally go out and buy a player! Yay!!! Hi-Def Matrix!

 

[LaDirection]

Although I wished for HD-DVD to "win" I'm really glad that the marketplace confusion has come to an end. We're all better off with this behind us. Downloadable content is a long way off and BluRay is positioned to carry the market for many years.

Why did you wish the inferior format to win??

 

[Nugget]

Why did you wish the inferior format to win??

Because I believe the issue is more nuanced than you appear to think it is (was?).

BluRay was better for capacity.
HD-DVD was better for consumers. Less Sony, less DRM, no region codes, and cheaper prices.

 

[Dany M]

Why did you wish the inferior format to win??

Why do you wish to questions someones opinions?

I am glad that the "war" is over, maybe apple can actually step up.

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

Long way off? I differ on that thought. It'd be here today, as we have the capacity to do so... Thing is, we just need an "ipod" to kick it off. Maybe Apple TV will be it - who knows. But once we have the device in the living room - it'll catch fire quickly, and "hard media" will smolder.

Trust me, I'd rather have hard media myself - but that won't stop it from going away.

 

[La Porta]

Because I believe the issue is more nuanced than you appear to think it is (was?).

BluRay was better for capacity.
HD-DVD was better for consumers. Less Sony, less DRM, no region codes, and cheaper prices.

Why are region codes so bad? Prices always drop so price is never really an issue. More capacity is everything for me at this point.

 

[GreatDrok]

You know, a lot of people are writing HD DVD off now but there are quite a lot of films out on the format that will now be pretty cheap to buy and the quality is just as high as Blu-ray. I bought into HD DVD because it was cheap to buy the player and I figured they would still play even if/when Blu-ray won. Oddly enough, I was a Blu-ray supporter but it was too expensive and restricted when it came down to buying films worth watching. All the good films are Region A and I live in a Region B country where the price of players and discs are prohibitive.

Anyway, just like my LD collection which grew quite a bit once DVD was launched, I think I'll be buying a bunch of HD DVDs in the next few months as shops and Amazon.com clear their stocks. Its not like the discs will self destruct just like my LD collection which still plays fine.

I wonder what will happen to the budget BD/HD DVD combi players that have been announced? Also, I wonder what will happen in countries other than the US where HD DVD has a number of films that are BD exclusive in the US? Ah, whatever, as long as I get a Region A BD player I'm golden

 

[zentraedi]

iTunes is the reason SACD failed, and blu-ray won't be developed nearly to the point it would have if movie downloads take off. It's a weird irony, because Apple always meant quality, at least to me.

Either you have bad memory or are delusional. Both DVD-A and SACD were dead long before the iTunes media store.