Sad to say... HD DVD is dead.

[quotea614058b91]
The nation's top retailer will phase out its HD DVD support by early summer.
That's the official word this morning from Wal-Mart, first announced on the company's gadget blog, CheckOut.com.

According to Wal-Mart execs, the company will begin emphasizing Blu-ray in both brick-and-mortar stores and online over the next thirty days, with plans to completely phase out HD DVD movie and hardware sales by June 2008. The company will continue to sell DVDs and standard-definition hardware.

Today's announcement from the retailer comes on the heels of news earlier this week that both Netflix and Best Buy had endorsed Blu-ray.
[/quotea614058b91]

The only way I can see HD DVD to continue is to not focus on the film industry but to focus on recordable media for PCs (HD DVD-R [DL/TL]).

But whether the HD PRG is willing to go that route is still up in the air (one can only hope), and I get the feeling that there will in fact be an announcement by Toshiba that its pulling the plug on HD DVD.

Keep an eye out for a fire sale... You'll at least be able to snag up all the HD DVD movies that appeal to you for a rock-bottom price. Your HD DVD player will not be obsolete either (the Toshiba HD DVD players will always upconvert your DVDs and they do a damn good job at it).

Personally, I have no intentions on buying a BD player anytime soon. I'm content with upconverting DVDs and obtaining my HD content from other sources.

Yup, glad I didn't decide what to buy yet =] I'm fine with DVD for now.

Why is that sad? Now everyone can start purchasing Bluray without having to worry if it will exist in 5 years...

It will be quite a while before you see a BD player with comparable features drop down in price to what an HD DVD player sold for... and with the whole BD profile scheme, no one is certain if you will be able to upgrade the 'profile' on your player (unless you own a PS3) in order to play your new movie.

http//arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080211-samsung-sued-over-defective-first-gen-blu-ray-players.html

[quote1573050870]As we pointed out in our coverage of the 2.0 spec, there's no upgrade path for older players due to the changed hardware requirements—a simple firmware update will not suffice. (If you want the most future-proof Blu-ray player available, we suggest the PS3.)[/quote1573050870]

Plus, I enjoyed the fact that all HD DVDs were region-free and had all its interactive functionality ready from day one. (BD doesn't have comparable interactive functionality yet).

I have a PS3, so this is fine with me....

http//www.engadget.com/2008/02/16/toshiba-pulling-the-plug-on-hd-dvd-already/[]http//www.engadget.com/2008/02/16/toshiba-pulling-the-plug-on-hd-dvd-already/
Toshiba is shutting down production.

I've seen Blu-Ray burners on sale for $360 or so but no deals on HD-DVD writers. I doubt many people will want to go with HD-DVD for recordable media either if there are no standalone players for it anymore.

I figured that was going to hapen based on quality. If you put an HD and a BlueRay DVD side by side there is an obvious difference.

They both use VC-1 (although BR used MPEG2 at first, which sucked) so the quality should be the same.

Sony gambled the fate of PS3 big time on BR and it seems like they won.

im very sad to see this go. I will be buying up HD-DVDs like crazy as they get marked down.

I'm like you, h3x. No plans to buy any disc-based HD player any time soon.

I will pick up an HD-DVD player and a grip of HD dvds probably.

However, I am glad this 'war' is over as now I can buy a PS3 with a calm mind.

(

nice jean jacket huckabee

I'm glad I talked my boyfriend into waiting to buy either, I knew one of them would phase out eventually.

Man i want a blu-ray but so darn expensive

[quote7b12b8f2db="zdub08"]nice jean jacket huckabee[/quote7b12b8f2db]

What's he doing? Playing the guitar? lol

My HD player and 8-10 movies or so will be going up on eBay pretty soon I expect. I need to move quick if I want to get lianythingli for it. I'm just glad I got it for <$100 and most of the movies were freebies or cheap. I only paid full price for one.

A PS3 is in my near future. Figures... I predicted BR would beat out HD over a year ago, and people thought I was nuts. It's just a technically better spec, and with Java support it is just as capable as HD of programming and interactivity (which isn't something I typically use or care about in movies anyway). But I couldn't help but jump on the 2nd gen player discount last fall. Given what I paid, it's not a huge loss. Now I'll get a PS3 and have one of the best BR players as well filling out my collection of next-gen gaming consoles.

[quote46150ea3be="dmorris68"]My HD player and 8-10 movies or so will be going up on eBay pretty soon I expect. I need to move quick if I want to get lianythingli for it. I'm just glad I got it for <$100 and most of the movies were freebies or cheap. I only paid full price for one.

A PS3 is in my near future. Figures... I predicted BR would beat out HD over a year ago, and people thought I was nuts. It's just a technically better spec, and with Java support it is just as capable as HD of programming and interactivity (which isn't something I typically use or care about in movies anyway). But I couldn't help but jump on the 2nd gen player discount last fall. Given what I paid, it's not a huge loss. Now I'll get a PS3 and have one of the best BR players as well filling out my collection of next-gen gaming consoles.[/quote46150ea3be]

yea i remember i was being called a fanboy because i was saying blue ray was going to win. Things would have been very different if the HD players were in 360s or ps3 use a dvd player not a BD drive.

when you compare blu-ray to hd-dvd. Blu-ray wins, I saw it back then, and finally people see it now. I hate format wars and am glad it is over. Save myself and millions of other consumers heartache.. or more.

[quote24fb3dc0bf="dmorris68"]My HD player and 8-10 movies or so will be going up on eBay pretty soon I expect. I need to move quick if I want to get lianythingli for it. I'm just glad I got it for <$100 and most of the movies were freebies or cheap. I only paid full price for one.

A PS3 is in my near future. Figures... I predicted BR would beat out HD over a year ago, and people thought I was nuts. It's just a technically better spec, and with Java support it is just as capable as HD of programming and interactivity (which isn't something I typically use or care about in movies anyway). But I couldn't help but jump on the 2nd gen player discount last fall. Given what I paid, it's not a huge loss. Now I'll get a PS3 and have one of the best BR players as well filling out my collection of next-gen gaming consoles.[/quote24fb3dc0bf]

Im in the same boat as you. Sorry for pimping the link for the cheap hd -dvd player. I guess know we know why it was so damn cheap to buy in the first place. ;)

I also think its time for me to get the PS3 setup. I am currentlyusing the A2 as an upconverting player. I only have transformers in HD and I've come to hate that movie.

I sincerely f'd up by getting the HD-DVD player. I feel so betamaxed its not even funny

I'm glad I abstained and kept myself clean. P

Could it be revived if put into new gaming system?

Doubt it.

I purchased the ad-30 a week ago for $150. It comes with 2 dvds and 5 mail in, so not bad..thats like a free dvd upconverted and 7 movies at around $21 a piece. My plan was/is to purchase the marked down hd dvds and enjoy good looking movies for cheap until I can afford a blue ray player.

[quote15b423a4a7]Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses
Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

Tokyo—Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.[/quote15b423a4a7]

http//www.toshiba.co.jp/about/ir/en/news/20080219_03.htm

... and on this note I would like to take the time to say that if you want to sell off your HD DVD collection

Drop me a line. )

Well, good thing I didn't make a move yet.

same here im pretty glad that my brother just got that ps3 too.

and the price slashing begins... I just picked up a slick deal, Planet Earth for $30!