HD DVD is dead, long live Blu-ray

[dang]

It's official, HD DVD is dead.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/15786/toshiba_officially_kills_off_hd-dvd

It's been a few months a coming, and Warner movies going Blu-ray exclusive was the final nail in the coffin.

What say you?

[Ioman]

I saw this a mile away. It's sad really. Lots of people got invested in this technology and now they are screwed. Keep the player and movies, they might be collectibles some day!

[dang]

Well, one positive thing is that HD DVDs should be cheap to buy in the coming months.

[jtfields]

I don't think Warner was the "nail in the coffin." I think Warner was the bullet. Before that announcement things weren't looking that bad for HD-DVD. If Warner had gone HD-DVD exclusive then I think HD-DVD had as good of chance of winning the war as Blu-Ray. Once they went Blu-Ray it was like a snowball effect...everyone piled on fast and things got worse everyday.

Obviously the final analysis is very complicated but in the end I think the two primary things that killed it were the market penetration that the PS3 gave Blu-Ray and the fact that the cost advantage the studios had in producing HD-DVDs did not translate into cheaper discs for the consumer. Instead of passing the savings on they sold the discs at essentially the same price as Blu-Ray meaning the cost savings meant nothing to the consumer and bigger profit margins to the manufacurers.

I haven't mailed in my rebate for my five free HD-DVD movies yet. I sure hope they still honor it.

[ratchett]

I can say that it is dead. What will happen to the HD DVD format players like the XBOX 360?

[jtfields]

I can say that it is dead. What will happen to the HD DVD format players like the XBOX 360?

Well, there is a chance that as stores start clearing out their HD-DVD inventory you can pick up some good deals on some movies that you can use your player to watch. Other than that not much. For those of us who have the standalone players we basically now just have an expensive DVD player. I will say that my Toshiba HD-DVD player does an excellent job playing regular DVDs using the upconvert feature.

[dang]

The xbox360's hd dvd player was an add-on. If you didn't buy it, there is nothing to worry about. Unless, you want to buy one cheap.