HD DVD Officially Dies – Blu-ray Wins the High Definition Movie Format War

After weeks of speculation, Toshiba has finally announced that it is now the time to pull the plug on the HD DVD format:

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

This is an incredibly sad day for me. Although I should be happy that we finally have a winner, I was hoping HD DVD would be the successor to DVD and not Blu-ray. Blu-ray has a superb video and audio quality just like HD DVD, however it is still an evolving specification. This leaves me with either purchasing a PlayStation 3 at the end of the year or wait and see if Microsoft will release an add on drive like they did with the HD DVD format. With Microsoft’s possible option though, I would have to make sure it is upgradable just like the PS3 version (but I would have thought it would be).

Goodbye old friend. Although I knew you for only a short time, in that space of bliss, we sat down together, we enjoyed the dazzling delights of high definition and connected to an interactive online world, but it just wasn’t to be.

THANK JAMES WITH A COFFEE!
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