Blockbuster's $8 HD DVD Firesale Is On Now

Even though HD DVD died long ago, Blockbuster is just getting around to ditching the leftovers (over 300 titles) at $8 a pop. I can't believe they would even charge that much. [Blockbuster]

Toshiba HD DVD Players Get Firmware Update

There is nothing wrong with your computer. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. You have not awaken in a crazy, alternate reality where HD DVD won the format war. But Toshiba has unrolled the firmware 4.0 update for its HD DVD players to improve playback issues like a pause bug. We'd make fun of Toshiba mercilessly for the update, but it's actually a classy move to support one's tech even when the market has declared it extinct. Nice work, Toshiba. [Toshiba via CrunchGear]

Cillian Murphy Will Be The Last Thing HD DVD Sees Before It Dies

HD DVD was declared dead a long time ago, and the last film to be released to the US on the format will hit (roughly three to five) shelves tomorrow. Disco Pigs was originally released in 2001 and very appropriately stars Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy as friends who were born in the same hospital, at the same time, and who grew up next to one another. Unfortunately, as they reach adulthood it is apparent that their relationship has become dangerously volatile. It doesn't end well. (Spoiler alert: Cillian Murphy's character is the HD DVD.) [Crave]

LG Kills Blu-ray/HD DVD Hybrid Player

LG will stop swinging both ways with HD formats this fall, when it ceases production on its Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player. (Samsung's is already dead.) I'm just kind of amazed an already dead format manages to keep getting deader. [DVD Town]

HD DVD's Death Hasn't Helped Blu-ray Sales, Which Are So Bad NPD Won't Talk About 'Em

You guys have apparently been listening to our warnings about not jumping into the Blu pool just yet. NPD says that even after HD DVD stopping peeing in it and lied down to die, not only have Blu-ray sales have only jumped a meager two percent (after falling 40 percent from Jan.), but they're so bad, they won't even release the actual numbers. NPD pegs price as one major factor, with the wait for BD-Live players as another. Course, it's more likely the deeply feared DVD problem: For most people, it's still good enough. [Yahoo, NYT]

Xbox 360 HD DVD Player Now $29.99

Some day these Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD players might be worth something to someone. We can't really imagine who—maybe the technology museum of the 22nd century—but someone should want it. And with the limit of 12 per customer, you and your family can even stock up and make a fort out of these. A giant, obsolete fort. [Overstock Dealz via Kotaku]

HD DVD Fallout: Nukes 95 Percent of Toshiba's Profits

"Toshiba Corp. said its profit plummeted 95 percent in the January-March quarter due to costs of its exit from next-generation video HD DVD business." $12 million profit, down from $251.57 million last year. Ouchies. [AP]

Microsoft: Your Xbox 360 HD DVD Player Is Still Awesome

Game Daily had a chat with Microsoft Game Studios VP Shane Kim about the Xbox 360, and one of the topics that came up was the defunct (but cheap!) HD DVD player, which you might still be tempted to eBay for $1.25. But you shouldn't! Kim effuses sentimentally about why you should hang it onto it, which is odd considering how nonchalantly other Microsoft execs have been brushing it off: More »

First Universal Blu-ray Discs Hit July 22, But Where's The Big Lebowski?

Five months after converting to Blu-ray, former HD DVD diehard Universal will finally release its first Blu discs: The Mummy trio on July 22. The Mummy was already on HD DVD, so they're firing off re-releases from the get-go. All told, Universal plans to drop about 40 discs by the end of the year. Appropriately starting with Doomsday, all new flicks will go out on Blu, with a smattering of older movies like Knocked Up. But no sight of the The Big Lebowski in the release, which is the only Universal flick we really care about. Okay, there are some other cool releases coming up, like Heroes: Season 2, The Incredible Hulk (hopefully not shitty) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. More »

Amazon Handing Out $50 to HD DVD Victims

Following up Best Buy's $50 pledge to HD DVD victims, Amazon is also doling out a $50 credit to anyone who bought Toshiba's folly before Feb. 23, 2008. Naturally, they're encouraging you to use it on a shiny new Blu-ray player, but you could use it to take advantage of their HD DVD fire sale. Unfortunately, they're not doing trade-ins, so this is all you're gonna get. Check out the email below for all the fine print. More »

Wal-Mart Refunding HD DVD Players Bought On or After Nov. 1

Wal-Mart is a little late to the HD DVD pity party, finally deciding to offer tokens to suckers who threw in with the dead format. Until April 30, they'll refund any HD DVD player bought after Nov. 1, as long as you've got the original receipt, though you don't need the original packaging. More »

Dealzmodo? Best Buy Dumping All HD DVD Flicks for $10, TV Sets 70 Percent Off

TGDaily is reporting that selected Best Buys—like one in Dublin, Calfornia—are so eager to clear out their HD DVD stock they're a step away from building a huge bonfire: All HD DVDs are just $9.99, with TV series on HD DVD walking away at a steep 70 percent discount. But your YMMV. More »

It May Be Too Late for Combo Blu-ray/HD DVD Drives

Plextor has just announced a couple of new Blu-ray drives that also read HD DVDs, clearly designed for the poor saps who made the wrong choice in the format war. At first it might seem like an OK choice for people with a HD DVD collection quickly growing obsolete, but for $500 for a read-only drive or $600 for a burner, maybe a better idea would be to just get a straight-up Blu-ray drive and consider your HD DVD losses an early adopter tax. [Product Page via Electronista]

Best Buy Pledges $50 For Each HD DVD Buyer; Trade-Ins, Too

Apparently, the cost of Best Buy declaring Blu-ray the winner is $10 million—at least, that's how much it plans to give away when it issues a $50 gift card to everyone who bought an HD DVD player or HD DVD Xbox drive before February 23. (So, BB sold at least 200,000 HD DVD players in 2006 and 2007?) And it's not even something you have to fight for: If you are in the Reward Zone program, bought it with a Performance Service Plan or just made the transaction on BestBuy.com, the company will send you a card by May 1. If you paid cash at a store, though, you'll have to dig out that receipt. The company, like its competitor Circuit City, is also offering trade-ins for players and discs, regardless of where you bought them, through BB's online trade-in center. Make the jump for extra details. More »

Toshiba HD DVD Loses Less than Expected

Seems like the rumors on Toshiba's $1 billion loses on HD DVD were greatly exaggerated by a mere $342 million: the operating loss for HD DVD will be just $653 million. And still, they are turning a profit, although reduced 31% from previous forecasts. [Bloomberg]

Batman Begins First HD DVD Movie Rereleased as Blu-ray?

Batman Begins will be released in Blu-ray July 8th, making it the first (or one of the first) movies we can recall being rereleased from HD DVD to the not dead format. The disc'll come in a standard and special edition format that includes storyboards, a comic book and $7.50 in movie credit towards Dark Knight, which hits theaters on July 11th. To Warner: Good job picking a movie to flip. [Home Media Magazine via High Def Digest]

Don't Miss the Format War's Bloody Aftermath

We popped this feature last night, but wanted to remind you so you didn't miss some key explanations: More »

Xbox Blu-ray Drive Rumors Finally Fatally Smashed

Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, told Reuters that Microsoft isn't exploring any kind of Blu-ray add-on for the Xbox 360.

Microsoft, which has stopped making an HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, would continue to invest in its Xbox Live online service that already lets users rent hundreds of movies, including ones in high-definition.

And even though I don't believe the studios will go whole-hog into HD downloads very soon, our studies show that if anyone can pull together a decent library of so-called HD content, it's Team Xbox. [Reuters]

Toshiba Takes $1 Billion Hit on HD DVD (Still Turns a Profit)

The Nikkei business daily is reporting that Toshiba will take a $986 million hit this year for its ill-fought HD DVD campaign, though somehow the manufacturing supergiant will manage to post a roughly $2.5 billion profit nonetheless, down from a projected $2.9 billion or so. The estimated cost of HD DVD for the company this year was supposed to be closer to half a billion, but the halt in production means costly line changes and "other charges." Toshiba itself isn't saying a word yet, but damn if there ain't truth to this. [Reuters; Bill Image Source]

Xbox 360 + Blu-ray Drive Rumor Fueled By Steve Ballmer

If the Sony exec saying there've been talks with Microsoft about making a Blu-ray Xbox 360 add-on wasn't enough to make you believe that a drive is coming, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer just said "Toshiba has moved on. We've moved on, and we'll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense." [Games Industry]

Samsung Killing Second-Gen BP-U5500 Dual Format Player Before It Sees the Light of Day

Samsung just cancelled their $599 second-gen dual format Blu-ray/HD DVD player, the BP-U5500, which was due out soonish. Looks like LG gets the dual player market for HD DVD flotsam all to its self. We bet they're thrilled. [PC World]

Circuit City's HD DVD for Blu-Ray Trade-In Confirmed By Sources, Readers

Readers of Gizmodo and Digg have been able to confirm Circuit City's not-so-secret-anymore HD DVD for Blu-Ray player trade-in offer a Circuit City employee told us about yesterday morning. One report from a Giz reader says that he used the offer to get a new PlayStation 3. In addition to this, we just got all the dirt in the internal memo, aptly titled "HD DVD - The End," which allegedly was posted in an internal Circuit City forum: More »

Circuit City Trading In HD DVD for Blu-Ray Players, Says Employee

According to a Circuit City employee in Chicago, the consumer electronics chain is trading in HD DVD players bought into their stores "within 3 months of the announcement," as opposed to their 30-day return policy. According to the internal memo announcing the demise of the format, they will either give customers a Blu-ray player—paying the price difference, if any—or a gift card. The trade-in, however, will not be widely promoted and it will be only made available if the customer asks for it. Have any of you tried this?

Universal's Appropriately Final HD DVD Release: Atonement

After Paramount's remaining HD DVD schedule (to be generous) came out, we hit up Universal to see what their roadmap looked like. Unfortunately, it looks to be just as barren. Here's the response we got:

We have Atonement available on HD DVD March 18th—we have not announced anything additional.

More »

Paramount Kills Entire HD DVD Release Schedule, But No Blu Flicks 'Til Summer

There won't be a soft transition to Blu-ray for Paramount—they're dropping their whole HD DVD release slate right this second. Their last two movies on the dead format hit Tuesday, even though we won't see Blu titles from them until this summer—that's months of lost $$$. More »

Dreamworks Still Tied to HD DVD's Corpse By Toshiba Contract

Okay, so one big studio actually hasn't made the jump to Blu yet: Dreamworks, which was paid $100 million to join HD DVD back in August. As we had pieced together in our closed-door analysis, they can't break rank until Toshiba lets them. Says Dreamworks chief: "It really is in their court at this point to really declare what the next step will be. We're poised either way to jump..." More »

Dealzmodo: Amazon HD DVD Firesale, 50% Off Most Titles

Not surprisingly, Amazon is looking to dump a whole mess of HD DVD titles to clear out more space for Blu-ray. Rather than dump the whole lot in the desert, they are passing the savings on to you in the form of a 50% discount on most titles. Get em' before they are gone for good. [Amazon Thanks Devon!]

HD DVD's Animatronic Secret Weapon Not Enough to Defeat Blu-ray

As if 1080p video, full-resolution audio, net connectivity and multi-tuner signal decoding wasn't enough, Toshiba's HD DVD team had even cooked up a system of embedded animatronic control before the format was put out of its misery. In this video left over from CES 2008, this little mechanical jazz band playing the Duke Ellington classic "Take the A Train" is controlled by, that's right, an HD DVD disc. Here's how: More »

Xbox 360 HD DVD Officially $50, Still Discontinued

Even though the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on is discontinued, you didn't expect Microsoft to just give them away, did you? You did? Well then, this $49.99 liquidation price tag should be extra surprising to you. [Xbox - Thanks Daft Punk!]