HD DVD Surrenders

Well, in case you didn’t know already, today was the day that Toshiba threw in the towel on the format war, handing victory to Sony and the Blu-Ray alliance.

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.”

That the move has come so swiftly was Toshiba is not altogether unexpected. 2008 has not been a good year for the HD DVD format, having suffered several high profile blows in the run up to todays announcement. Microsoft are now left flying the flag but surely they too will follow suit, it can ony be a matter of time before they announce a Blu-ray addon for the Xbox 360 and, once the dust has settled, we’ll be wondering what all the fuss was about.

HD DVD Group respond to latest blow

Refusing to wave the white flag of surrender, the HD-DVD group has issued a statement following Netflix’s decision to ditch HD-DVDs as well as Best Buy’s recommendation of Blu-Ray to its customers.

“We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it’s unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail.”

Hardly a convincing reposte, but not a lot else they can say really.

Another nail in the coffin for HD-DVD

The last six weeks have meant bad news for the HD-DVD camp in the ongoing war between it and rival High definition format Blu-ray. Read more

Blockbuster to back Bluray

Blockbuster have caused a bit a stir in the the war between the rival High Definition formats, HD DVD and Bluray by announcing that they will exclusively stock Bluray titles, leaving HD DVD out in the cold. Blockbuster claim this is a commercial decision, stating that consumers have consistently chosen Bluray over HD DVD in the 250 stores where both have been available. The limited choice of titles on HD DVD is also thought to be a factor. The HD DVD camp have come out fighting claiming that the move is short sighted on the part of Blockbuster, reasoning that the popularity of Blu-ray in 2007 has been down to the release of such titles as Casino Royale and, um Spider-man, exclusively on Blu-ray. Time will tell whether this is the first nail in the coffin of HD DVD or whether Bill Gates will just open his own chain of HD DVD stores.