It’s Over
It’s Over
Ok it might not be official yet but it looks like the HD format war is effectively over. Following my previous post on the Toshiba HD-EP30 and praising Toshiba for releasing a budget priced HD DVD player and making the next gen format available to the masses it seems they are admitting defeat and pulling the plug on the format.
The loss of the so called format war for HD DVD has been talked about since January when Warner Brothers, Hollywood’s largest distributor of DVDs switched their support from HD DVD to rival format Blu-ray. On Friday there was another nail in the coffin when the U.S giant Wal-Mart announced that they would stop selling HD DVD and exclusively support the Blu-ray format. The announcement by Wal-Mart came in a week when major electronics seller Best Buy and online video rental giant Netflix declared their allegiance to Blu-ray.
NHK, a Japanese broadcaster reports that although Toshiba is expected to continue selling HD DVD players at stores for the time being, it will cease production of all HD DVD-compatible equipment and will close its HD DVD factories in Northern Japan. Losses could reach tens of billions of yen (several hundred millions dollars) if the company decides on the pullout, it said. No comment was available from Toshiba on Saturday. The HD DVD camp also includes Microsoft, Intel, Universal Home Studios, and Paramount Home Entertainment.
The format war between the Toshiba-backed HD DVD and Sony Corp’s Blu-Ray, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, has slowed the development of what is expected to be a multibillion dollar high-definition DVD industry. The loser of the battle will become a mere footnote in consumer electronics history, much the way Betamax was forgotten after VHS became the technology of choice for home video players, according to industry analysts.
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Have you abandoned this blog? I hope not because there are so few home theater blogs.
Good luck.
jb