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Loading ...Ding Dong, One Disc Is Dead
khenry
The late news at the end of this week was the fact that Toshiba has thrown in the towel with HD-DVD support. That leaves early adopters with a machine that will upscale their DVD collection and play a certain selection of films which will ironically rise in price as collectibles via eBay, if cinephiles decide that early HD transfers look better.
Ultimately (and perhaps sadly), now the players will probably die out and the format will be relegated to smaller computer media if it survives at all. After the recordable DVD format wars, perhaps we should be glad that this only took three years to sort out, given that it’s the last really big solid format push that the public was willing to tolerate before downloadable movies become standardised. Microsoft isn’t worried, it has big bad Xbox Live as a solid digital distribution platform of five years’ standing.
History might be kind to Toshiba in the long term in spite of its present losses, it has now discovered that you can innovate all you like, it doesn’t mean you’ll always come up with a better lightbulb or a DVD Recorder with a hard disk inside. After all, Sony had to swallow its pride, endorse its rival JVC’s format but then ended up with a reputation for some of the best quality VCRs, making better profits to cover the outlay on royalties. Then it repositioned its losing Betamax consumer format into broadcast gold. Now all Sony has to do is either sort out the Profile version issue and watch the royalties roll in, or make sure there’s another price cut to the PS3 within the next six months, and the format’s future is assured.
UPDATE: I said history would be kind to Toshiba, but the stock market liked the announcement of an interim review before giving the format the official chop and granted an immediate bounce to its share price.
UPDATE 2: Following Toshiba’s announcement, Reuters received word that the platform neutral or HD-DVD supporters had also given up and pledged the switch to Blu-Ray. Wal-Mart’s June target for exclusivity also marks the UK’s 10th anniversary of DVD exploding onto the scene. Judging from the transition from VHS to DVD it’s more likely that dwindling margins will kill the format before the wish for greater picture quality if history repeats itself.
Very interesting. I wander what all the DVD titles currently in HD-DVD format will do? I’m on the verge of getting a combo player for my PC but if in 6 months time HD-DVD’s will be extinct, all having ported over to BD it seems like a better idea to wait and see. I think overall both sides are losing out big time because of the war. As soon as a single format is identified as the winner, the PR engine will kick in and HD will become far more popular. The death of HD-DVD will also mean the death of DVD!
I dont agree, Blu will not replace DVD (SD) for a long while. The players AND the discs are still way too expensive for mainstream public. Joe Average is not going to opt for £300+ player and £20+ a movie when he can have an Asda special £20 player and movies as cheap as £3. I suppose eventually DVD’s will go away but not for quite some time.
In the long run I can see downloadable content ultimately winning out. I already have a movie store in my front room with BT Vision and HD movie store in Xbox Live. Who needs discs 
Yup, I agree with Phil - DVD players are the competition against Blu Ray. You can get an upscaling DVD player for £60 or so, complete with HDMI output, and they do a really good job with all your current discs. Most Blu-Ray machines seem to be above £200, so there’s a big price difference there. Plus, now that HD-DVD is gone, surely the Blu-Ray guys are going to be tempted to increase their prices…(or at least not bring them down)
why is nobody mentionnig the fact you need a HDTV to use a bluray… the comparison between VHS and DVD is totally different to Bluray and DVD because they still work on the same telly. it’ll be a while before everyone buys a fancy HD telly to go with the blurays (and isn’t it true it has to be of a certain size before it’s worth getting? ie a 15″ hd telly from across the room is no different to a 15″ normal tv?)