HD War

At last, Toshiba pulled off the plug and ended the HD format war, but could have Microsoft done something to prevent this ending from happening?
This news will come as a bitter blow to early adopters who shelled out hundreds of dollars for the new beta format. And while Sony and its Blu-ray followers are likely to be pooping the champagne corks, it could have been a completely different story had Microsoft thought more carefully about its console plans.
Sony has outsmarted Toshiba by including a Blu-ray player in the PS3, this has lead to the ultimate demise of the HD DVD.
But had Microsoft chosen HD DVD at the start of the Xbox 360’s construction, the battle for Blu-ray and HD DVD could well have had a completely different ending.

The Blu-ray Disc Association has made an official statement regarding Toshiba's announcement that they would no longer be supporting the HD DVD format. Andy Parsons, Chairman, Blu-ray Disc Association U.S. Promotions Committee commented,

The HD DVD Promotions Group has issued a statement following a pair of news stories Monday that saw two leading brands in the home entertainment industry endorsing Blu-ray.

Below is a snippet of Best Buy's press release:

"Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way. We've listened to our customers, and we are responding. Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format," said Brian Dunn, Best Buy's president and chief operating officer. "Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray products is a strong signal to our customers that we believe Blu-ray is the right format choice for them."

So with this news, who's next?

The world's largest online movie rental service has today announced that they will no longer support the HD DVD format. They explained that they will no longer buy any new HD DVD titles and will phase out the ones already owned by the end of the year. They gave the reason of their decision, explaining that the format is no longer favored by major studios and the majority of consumers. Right on!

Now take this with a grain of salt but 'Home Cinema Choice' is reporting that Curry's, who are owned by DSG, and also own Dixons, PC World, Electro World (Czech, Hungary & Poland), PC City (France) are dropping HD DVD.

This week, HD DVD gained a small lead in software sales, although Sony still beat them by nearly 3-1 (74:26). This may come as a shock to fans of both sides but the reason behind this is quite simple.

Could HD DVD be in any more trouble? Well yes if either Paramount or Universal went neutral but more news comes today, starting with Warren News (on their subscription service) reporting Imation, under the TDK brand, will stop making HD DVD writable (blank) disks.

Over at Digital Bits, they have revealed some interesting pictures of Toshiba HD DVD players on clearance at Walmart.

According to a member on High Def Digest, he works at a Circuit City store in America and the Toshiba HD-A3 and HD-A30 players are marked as clearance items. Now other people are replying in his thread that they are seeing the same thing at their local Circuit City so you can be sure this is widespread!

Source: High Def Digest