Toshiba officially bows out of next-gen format war

by Jem Alexander on Feb 19th 2008 10:00AM

While the news was already technically broken on Saturday by NHK, Toshiba has today held a press conference to tell the world that HD-DVD is being dropped. Toshiba will no longer develop, manufacture or market HD-DVD, bringing the shipping of hardware to retailers to a gradual halt by the end of March. The format war ends today with the much-signposted victory for Blu-Ray. This is obviously great news for PS3 owners (as well as would-be PS3 owners who were sitting on the fence about Blu-Ray).

We suspect we'll hear from Universal and Paramount before too long regarding their schedule for Blu-Ray releases. Finally we can expect to see films like Serenity and TV shows like Heroes on our favourite Hi-Def medium. Obviously, we'll keep you up to date with any announcements these studios make. The "war" is finally, officially, over. How does that make you feel?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Tags: blu-ray, format-war, hd-dvd, toshiba

Reader Comments (65)

i just want to know if i can buy Transformers on Blu-Ray now. Rumors are that it is coming but i want a date.

of course it is now that HD-DVD is Officially DEAD , hopefully soon.

maybe I should buy a ps3

could this day get any better wow ps3 reaches 10.5 million units sold universal are bringing their titles blu-ray and toshiba drops hd dvd but guys digital downloads are u kidding me why should i waste my whole broadband on 1 movie do u know a hd movie takes atleast 14 gb?lol rent a blu-ray film for just $5 blu-ray is awesome everyday lots of ppl buy a blu-ray player and yes the future is blu like it or not hd dvd fans u lost we won

Finally one HD format remains.
Maybe now the real challenge will start as Blu Ray starts to make inroads into the DVD market.

Luckily I bought a PS3 because it seemed to offer a good balance of features in one box. My fix of HD films have been rented so far, maybe time to start collecting.

not quite.........

stil have HD Downloads..........

but most people will pick Blu-ray over that because of HDD sizes, BD is more stable than a HDD, and more features.....

I Want Serenity on Blu-Ray now!:D also.. transformers, but not as much=D

Serenity on Blu-Ray would be pure win

This one agrees.

Good to see Toshiba taking a real look at the situation. It's over. Let's move on and enjoy our Blu-ray movies. Sony took a huge gamble molding blu-ray drives into the PS3 and now it's about to pay off.

I know lots of people who bought a PS2 because it was a game system and Dvd player. I expect more of the same for the PS3. I feel bad for those who invested in HD-Dvd though. Business is a gamble. Someone wins, someone loses every time.

About time, now we can all pont & laugh like that kid on Simpsons at people who actually went with HD-DVD. And to think some people thought it would come back or even survive 2008 LMAO

Bring on the Matrix trilogy and the LOTR trilogy also.

LOTR, definitely!

So we can all finally rest knowing that HD-VHS will be on its way soon right?

Actually, D-VHS already came and went before bluray and hd-dvd even hit the scene. It wasn't a terrible format, but the whole "rewinding" thing is so 80's at this point.

Yes the superior format has won. Now once blu-ray technology catches up to what hd-dvd was, we will be in business.

'Bout damn time, this "war" was getting ridiculous...

PS3 sales can only go up from here. Good.

The "war" isn't over...just HD-DVD is no longer in it. If you think Blu-Ray has no competition left, you are wrong, sir.

if you are talking about digital downloads, spare me. i wouldn't wait a week to download something i could easily buy in a few minutes. music, sure i'll give you that. Hi-Def Blu-Ray? gimme a break.

oh of course how could we forget about the mighty VHS comeback HD-VHS LMAO BLu-Ray has no competition not that it ever had any and never will

Good lord but the haters will hate won't they? Hugs and kisses, mgroves....and go buy a Blu-ray player and boost my SNE stock.

Uhm... Compitition, DVD.. It's not beating that any time soon.

yeah, and toyota is in danger because the car industry is under constant threat... the cities of the future will be vertical and self contained and goverments are pushing for mass transit and subways so the smart thing for them to do is help end the mobility war and either stay and dominate the car market or join bombardier and alstom and help creat trains because they ARE the future... just like the internet will eventually kill good ol fashioned mail... eventually we will get to the moon so we should scrap the space station all together and forget about the moon station because its a waste of time, we all know wer going to innevitably colonize mars... yeah i totaly agree with you!

Digital download is a no-go for now. Poor infrastructure for the bandwidth needed to download true HD content. Also, no way to trade, sell, loan, products.

Next, if you mean DVD, you are still wrong. DVD is not in competition with Blu-ray. DVD is the winning format for those without HD televisions. Blu-ray is now the winning format for those with HD televisions. Now that I have a HD tv I rarely purchase a movie in SD, even if it is a comedy. The "war" will be won when HD television sales increase.

Apparently some of you don't understand what the term "competition" means. Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD, that's a fact, but it still has to contend with digital downloads, DVD, streaming content, PPV, Netflix, Joost, etc etc. In the very small, small market of high-def disc formats, yes Blu-Ray is all that exists. But even if everyone who owns an HDTV right now bought a Blu-Ray player, that's still not very many people.

I'm not even knocking Blu-Ray, or saying that it will lose to something else or ANYTHING LIKE THAT. I'm just saying...the "war" is far from over and Blu-Ray is not 'automatically' the "next DVD."

Matrix? Lord of the Rings? Transformers? Psha - Where is my, "Hotrod," and "Blades of Glory?"

and when PS Home is released wii and the 360 will give up the fight...

Obviously spoken by someone who has not tried Home as of yet. if you had you wouldn't make such a dumb comment.

Let the poor man dream, will you?

As far as Matrix and LotR, i guess they'll be out sooner coz WB and New Line Cinema jumped to the BD wagon a while ago.. so dont hold your breath for too long.. but expect it coz they are all coming, some sooner than others!

Where's my Battlestar Galactica?!

Makes me feel good that my investing in the PS3 resulted in a victorious win for the HD format that was embedded within the PS3.

As others, I can't wait for Serenity, Heroes, and Transformers to come out on Blu-ray.

Actually D-VHS already exists... Check it HD on VHS - 1920x1080 or 1280x720 running up to 28MB/S
Introduced in 1998... and yes, it was a sucky idea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-VHS

Blu-Ray... now that was a good idea!

"Obviously spoken by someone who has not tried Home as of yet. if you had you wouldn't make such a dumb comment. "

you arnt a fanboy..... its a joke you fucken moron!

A little angry today aren't we? Just pointing out that Home is a disappointment as of now. Either way, you need to take some lithium. (See how I did that without swearing and calling you names?)

Hurray. Maybe Criterion can start releasing their great transfers on BD-ROM. Maybe a good remaster of Hard Boiled and The Killer (the DVDs, Laserdiscs, and Stranglehold versions suck).

Pwned!

HD was never a BAD format, it was just by far the lesser of the two, and only idiots would choose it over Blu-Ray.

And now that Toshiba's officially backed out of the fight, their players and movies will be dirt-cheap, and I'll have no guilt buying them, because there's not much you can do to bring a dead format back to life.

Going to pick up the first $50 player and $10 disc I find :D

I feel like an Allied soldier pillaging German treasures after D-Day.

Dud is DEAD!!!!

Yeah tot he guy that said he could go to the store and buy it in minutes "a movie"

I got a 20mbps download speed via fios i can download blurays via utorrent for free.

hmm 8 hours 12gb download free movie without taking up shelf space and streaming to 360 or 30 dollars out my pocket for a quick fix of a movie im gonna get sick of anyways?

hmmmm

ill go with downloads.

Your stealing movies? And your proud enough of that fact? Otherwise I call BS on your thread.

I also want to know if they will update the movie with more then the standard 5.1 like a high-res audio track. I know that the hd-dvd has it's own limitations.

There are some movies that support 6.1 and 7.1, even on DVD format.

Now since the Official announcement was made by Toshiba, I'm wondering if they gave notice to those sucke- errr companies (Uni~, Para~, Dream~...) well ahead in time so they can themselves dig out (of which most willingly did dug into) of the hole the HD-DuD now sits in? Or will we hear screams of panic as they scramble about like decapitated chickens trying to save face and quickly tell the world that they all had B-Disc in the back-room just now to be set out to the populations soon forth. Anyway, B-Disc! Get off your arse and finalize the damn disc to 2.whatever.!!

Actually, Paramount should have Blu movies sitting in warehouses ready to go. Don't forget that they went to DuD on the eve of releasing Blades of Glory, cancelling shipments and forcing retailers to cancel pre-orders. They certainly didn't have a big Blu bonfire dance party with those disks, that would have been further insanity.

Of course, the issue there is what becomes of their 18 month exclusiviity contract?

"A little angry today aren't we? Just pointing out that Home is a disappointment as of now. Either way, you need to take some lithium. (See how I did that without swearing and calling you names?)"

why cant i reply to replies? IE suck?

as for you mofo, i aint angry, i just like calling people names...

You = Genius on show for the masses. /sarcasm

LAST POST!!!

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Toshiba officially bows out of next-gen format war

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