Another one bites the dust! TDK no longer making blank HD DVDs, and more

Posted February 2nd, 2008 by Simon W - whoelse

HD War

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. TDK are one of the biggest brands of rewritable media and this is a severe blow to HD DVD. There may be little HD DVD re-writers available, but now it appears that will always be the case.

This new follows Home Media Magazine's weekly nxtbook where inside on page 3, they have posted the Blu-ray vs HD DVD software ratios for week ending January 27th and there appears to be a trend forming despite dramatic price cuts on the Toshiba HD DVD players. First it was 85:15, then 83:17, and now 82:18 (4.56:1). There seems to be no stopping Blu-ray, with its lead hovering in the early to mid 80s. And again, it was an all Blu-ray top 10.

Other news this week was the announcement that Sonic Solutions and National Geographic are also going Blu exclusive. Sonic Solutions are a professional and consumer media authoring company, and the HD DVD studios have used their software in the past. You cant help but wonder, do TDK and Sonic know something we dont...

Thanks to zombieflanders