<![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official - Gizmodo Comments]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official - Gizmodo Comments]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Also, check out DeepDiscount.com, they have HD DVDs for $12.20 - not all of them, but a lot, with free shipping.

Scorpeus

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> WTF people!?? Just because the format is dead, doesn't mean the HD-DVD's already purchased, or even the ones still on the shelf are magically going to turn into poo!! I mean damn, for all intensive purposes HD-DVDs are equal to, and in my opinion, better in quality than blue-ray. I'd say if you can get an HD-DVD and 5 HI-RES movies for $85, with 30 or so more titles still on the shelves that are eventually going to be clearance priced, JUMP ON IT! Then once the Blu-Ray prices come down, make the switch. I have the Tosh A2(Sitting beside my Sony Blu-Ray player, in fact) and at the very least, its the best upscaling DVD player that I have seen or used. Yes, HD-DVD is dead, but this is one case where someone can take advantage of the situation. Think people.

MeNotYou

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> R.I.P. HD-DVD

DeeSarco

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Does this mean I am going to have to hear for the next decade how the better format lost again? Is that the consolation prize in every format war? Sure, you lost and your investment is a waste, but we'll let you talk for decades about how it was the better format.

Monty

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I mean like the name "Blu-Ray" sounds more like a laser.

slingblade

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Blu-Ray still sounds lame. But whatever.

slingblade

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Mobius:

Wait until Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto come out this year. I believe Gran Turismo 5 is out early next year. That should put PS3 in the lead over XBOX before the end of the decade.

graham1010

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! NEO HAS ENDED THE WAR! NEO HAS SAVED US ALL!

dogg

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @kydrice: A quick death? I would say this is more like in the end of Lord of the Rings when Boromir is show with a dozen arrows and he keeps on fighting to save the hobbits only to be finally taken down by that giant urukai...you know, except HDDVD wasn't doing anything heroic like saving Elisha Wood.

mcjake

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @izim1: Haha I like that.
@James: It's currently the only HD format. If you think are going to stay SD your crazy. It's like people staying with black and white tv's. Ok not exactly the same but HD is obviously going to replace SD and therefore Blu-Ray will replace DVD.
@Seiven: Agreed but if you think about third world countries or basically any contry there will always be a porr market and I can promise you that that the SD market will still do extreamly well. I mean think about it they still sell black and white tv's... Basically no one buys them but still they're being sold. But I agree I want the conversion to HD to happen soon.
@izim1: He means HDluDVD! :O
@PetiteGal: Everyone's talking about Digital downloads being the only format in a few years. First off everywhere OTHER than America and Asia and Europe would need fast internet. Regardless of how big or important you think your country is if you make content primarily digital you'll cut off A LOT of consumers. In a while though it'd be possible.
@pupaboy2: I wouldn't be so sure. Sure now the PS3 has the primary HD format built in but the X360 never really had HD and it still has done amazingly well!
@Evil_Snow_Man: I wouldn't say the X360 is the best Gaming System it just has the best games.

DJTripleRRR

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @dirk1965: are you okay?

Playstation3

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Any bets on how long it will take before those HD DVD players show up on Woot?

SalParadise

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I have been using a Media Extender on all of my TV's for a few weeks now and I have to say that the only way I will buy a blu ray player is when they figure out an easy way to rip the movies to my hard drive, and even then, I will only buy a pc drive. Turning on your TV and having the choice of any movie in your collection is the cat's ass. I will never buy a standalone player again!

Poomobile

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> The ONLY reason PS3 pulled ahead of Xbox 360 last year is because of blue-ray... THE ONLY REASON!

dirk1965

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Ha! I was into collecting obsolete HD formats Looong before HD-DVD, how many of you know about D-VHS? I have 2 decks and about 20 tapes (Yes, Tapes!) Full 1080i resolution movies, on VHS! Yea, take that all you HD-DVD whiners!

Scorpeus

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Can't the fanboys (on both sides) just shut up for once and be glad that the format war is over? Seriously. Did people whine and argue and complain this much when Betamax lost?

Buran

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Happy birthday! HD-DVD's dead.

What a great birthday present. Hate to say I told you so but I (and many others) called this as soon as Sony announced the BD in the PS3.

DIE HD-DVD FANBOYS! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Um... I mean...

Magiksreal

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I want to boycott blu-ray because they paid to win the format war, they weren't chosen for any superiority. Also, I always hated that name. Blue? Screw you guys.

Oy, looks like i have no choice though. I guess I'll wait a year or two for prices to drop like they did for DVD players. It will be at least that long before I can afford an HD TV anyway.

Sean

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I don't understand how people point to the Hi-Def market share being at 10% as something that spells doom for any format. If you haven't realized VHS were still being sold just 3 years ago, that's a huge amount of time after DVD had been out.

True, people may be slow to buy Blu-rays for a long time to come, but slowly the market share will grow untell it surpises DVD. Eventually the only choice will be Hi-Def TV's and Blu-rays (now that it has won), combined with the fact that peoples current DVD collections will play on a Blu-ray player makes the consumers the true victors.

True movie download will be the next competition for a format, but a lot of people won't ever take that route. It's the same reason the online movie renting industry is such a small market share--people like to touch things and window shop. I predict that untell kids that were born when movie downloading was already common it doesn't have a chance to become the standard delivery option. Further, with the huge increase in broadband connections, combined with the snail paced expansion of bandwidth, we can only expect longer downloads and not shorter ones untell the public demands a infenstructure expansion.

It's even more funny when people attack the corporations for jumping ship on one format this late. If it had been done in the begining everyone would be mad because they didn't give the consumers a choice. However, since it was done now everyone is mad that they took to long. I just don't understand how any company can win with consumers--damned if you do and damned if you don't I guess.

One final thought, we must try to remember, as others have already said, we are the exception to the rule--we love technology (proven by you reading this now), most people could care less about the format war other then they don't won't to waste money. So us being devoted to one format (Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD), method (downloading vs. buying disks), system (360 vs. PS3), phone (Palm vs. iPhone), blog (Gizmodo vs. endgadget) or anything else that we as technology lovers value is mute. We are the minority and ultimitly what we buy because we love doesn't have a big enough effect on the market to make a difference of who is the victor. So don't feel bad if you bought the HD-DVD and now are taking crap for choosing the loser, or owning a ps3 cause your beloved system is in last place, people just talk crap because they love technology as much as you--don't let it get personal!

renorydabp

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Worf: but i do have to admit that comparing a 30gb DUAL-LAYER HDDVD to a 25gb SINGLE-LAYER BD and proclaiming based on that "twisted logic"(to say the least) that HDDVD has the space advantage, was pretty funny......

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> HD-DVD: BLARG! I'm ded.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Worf: dude i dunno were you got your "facts" from, but they are SO inaccurate and you seem so strong in the belief that they are right, i dont think it's even worth the time and effort trying to explain to you how wrong you are.

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Nice use of Dynasty Warriors: Gundam...

exkon

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Sony had way more to lose if Blu-Ray lost than Microsoft did. The better part of the billion dollars spent to buy off Fox and Warner was well worth it from Sony's view. (It may not be Sony's format, but they're the biggest partner - they spent more and receive more licensing royalties). If Blu-Ray lost, think what it would do to the PS3 - it would destroy it. Sony would lose many more billions from the loss of the PS3. And when you're the #3 system far behind the Wii and Microsoft (a late comer, at that), Blu-Ray's death would be the end of the PS3.

As for which format is better - well, consider that right now, most Blu-Ray's are still single layer 25GB, able to scale up to 50GB, while most HD-DVDs were 30GB dual layers, able to scale up to 34GB dual layer and 51GB triple layer, so HD-DVD actually had the space advantage. It was part of the reason why Blu-Ray didn't have as many extras as even the DVD versions of the same movie - they didn't have the space! And with space-wasters like PCM audio over TrueHD (lossless compressed audio), it doesn't help Blu-Ray's capacity crunch any.

Oh well. I have both systems, and my DVD purchases still outrank those of HD-DVD or Blu-Ray purchases. Mostly because things like depth-of-view, soft focusing really remove any advantage of high-def. 6 times the resolution, 6 times the number of blurry pixels. Sure a few things need the resolution (Transformers, Pixar Shorts), but the vast majority of movies don't benefit, especially with good upscaling DVD players. (Hint: HD-DVD players make great upscaling DVD players, and now they're cheap, cheap, cheap!).

Oh well, it's sort of expected. The most DRM-encumbered format was bound to win.

Worf

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Well, I won't be going BR yet for one simple reason. I have ONE HDTV in my living room, and I have multiple DVD players, a DVD player on my computer, a portable DVD player, and DVD players at other places where I visit. I like to take my movies and TV show DVDs with me. If I go BR I can only watch them in my living room at home. Not on my portable, or on my laptop, etc... The ONLY reason I would entertain getting a BR player would be for rentals, and I currently don't rent movies. Until BR is as pervasive as DVD they won't really get me. It's not in my best interest yet, and DVD ain't so bad.

worlok

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Amsterdaam - KEEP SMILING: I have a Select-a-vision that would like to have a word with you =D

[en.wikipedia.org]

Sixxtwo

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Tristan_The_Giant: I always love a good quote from The Abyss.

Bye HD-DVD... glad I never got the 360 drive.

kyledwards

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @kydrice: thanks. i forgot to mention the one year head-start for the 360.

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Mobius: actually. the MAJORITY of the 360s numbers comes from the US (MS "home country"). take away the US numbers from the stats and the xbox falls well behind the Wii and PS3. outside of the US the PS3 easily beats the 360 even though the 360 is cheaper. to say "it isnt jack as far as consoles go" is completely inaccurate....

@Seiven: actually the majority of consumers "ignorance" might end up helping the BDA. just like it's easy to pass off overpriced cables on consumers gettting their first big screen TVs, the whole digital switch of 2009 has A LOT of people going out and buying new HDTVs because they simply dont know any better. pushing off hi-def content with it should be just as easy as pushing those $150 cables on people....

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Mobius:
The PS3 has sold 10.5 million and it's released a year behind the 360 what do you expect? They weren't released from a starting line MSFT had a head start and it was cheaper! the PS3 cost double what the 360 was and it's still selling great.

kydrice

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Apologies for double..

Rondogg

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> HD-DVDs 50% off at Amazon

[www.amazon.com]

Thanks Toshiba for allowing me to fill up my HD library on the cheap. No reason for people not to take advantage of this if you have a HD or Combo player.

Rondogg

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> [www.amazon.com]

50% off HD-DVDs at Amazon.

I thank Toshiba for allowing me to fill up my HD library on the cheap, no reason not to take advantage of this for people with HD players.

Rondogg

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @pupaboy2: I'm glad to know they let you use a computer at your group home. The Xbox 360 is still beating the pants off of the PS3. The Xbox 360 has sold 17 million units vs. the PS3's 8 million. Heck, the Wii has sold 20 million. The PS3 isn't winning any races, period. Sure, it's an inexpensive Blu-Ray player, but it isn't jack as far as consoles go.

Mobius

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> HD DVD is dead! Long live DVD!

Mobius

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> anybody looking to donate their old HD-DVD players, listen up. I have a lonely laserdisc player in the attic that would love some company. Your HD-DVD player will love him for the size of his discs.

ba-doom ching!

Amsterdaam

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I chose a ps3 over an xbox360 because

1. Wanted a high-def player, didn't want to pay an extra $150 for the drive...besides the fact hd-dvd was dying
2. i want to stream movies/music to my living room, didn't want to pay an extra $50 for a wireless attachment

I got a ps3 40Gb for $355 ($399 deal with game, returned game)...which doesn't have bc, but thats what my ps2 is for...

The same stuff from an xbox 360 would have been $549.

All my wife sees is $549 vs $355. And, she wouldn't let me buy one until one of the formats lost.


kwicherbichin

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @pupaboy2: I'm sorry... But your an idiot. How many people do you know that were buying the 360 just to buy the HD DVD attachment? Maybe one in a hundred owners? People buy the xbox because it is the best gaming system... People buy the PS because it is a game/high def hybrid...

Xbox is no where near "in the coffin"... Jack @$$

Evil_Snow_Man

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I knew Blu-ray would win from the beginning. It just sounds cooler. Now for prices of burners and media to come down! That's all I want, I don't care about HD movies.

liquidsoapdispenser

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> finally, go blu !

maxcalvino

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @pupaboy2: Not over for consoles YET, But I am glad this will be a great year for the PS3 unless Sony delays all the things we have been waiting for forever...Home, Killzone 2, MGS4, LBP, etc.

Seiven

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I think they should throw the HD DVD and X-Box 360 on the ash heap of history. This news is a nail in the coffin of the X-Box 360. The High Def DVD war and console war is over. SONY is the winner!!!

pupaboy2

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> good riddance.

kingsnake

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Well, so far Blu-Ray has won nothing really, the pie of the HD media market is tiny.

As others pointed out, the real uphill battle is still ahead of them with trying to take out DVD and I think they may be surprised how much harder that will be.

As for prices going to come down now further. I doubt it. Sony made it clear from the start they wanted to presere the margin for CE's and the Studios won't lower the prices either because they don't really GAIN anything by lowering their margins on HDM.

Ah well, I'll snap up an A-30 now that they will be going on firesale and see what I can pick up in HD DVDs during that time as well. That'll probably the last time we can buy HDM for cheap :/

Snowrunner

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @fsusmithc2: bitter much?

Skemo

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> *pours a 40 on the curb for hd-dvd*

undeadmachine

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Well, Blu-Ray wins...for now...just wait another couple of years when better and faster download technology is developed.

Also, I thought Toshiba wasn't going to announce until next week, so I had to make changes to my weekly survey...oh well...

(weekly survey: [www.prospere-magazine.com] )

PetiteGal

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @ChiboFR: The sad part is is that Blu-ray still can't do all of the awesome stuff that HD-DVD could. Like the picture in picture directors commentary and there was a game built (a crappy one but at least it could do it) into the HD-DVD of 300. Blu-ray offers nothing other the high-def and a larger (but not needed capacity)to the supposed next gen and that is hardly a jump in technology. I do own both and my player and my hd-dvd's will last I don't mind having both for now.

serious.tigrrr

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> "To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!"
(insert picture of HD_DVD booth babe here)

wanago

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @bbfreak: yeah, I have been pointing that out the whole time...Hell there are people who still have dial up...NO WAY will it be Digital downloads that kills off Blu Ray it will be the majority of society that don't even have a HDTV yet. Look at the number of PS3s sold...now ask how many of them watch Blu Ray movies on it...now ask which of them have a TV larger than 32"

On the Official Sony forums I talk to people all the time that have 27" TVs not even 16:9.

now convince these people to not rent, but BUY Blu Ray movies...they don't even have the hardware to see the difference in DVD and Blu Ray.

Seiven

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @izim1: oops typed too fast...I was typing Neither and was correcting it to both combined and mis typed...sorry

Seiven

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Kricket: Will you settle for a paper weight? I'm a genius!

bbfreak

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> What the hell why isn't it posting for me

Brodieman

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I'm wondering if anyone who is saying "Put your HD player next to your Betamax player," realizes that Sony made Betamax and if they realize that they don't have the the overal better format. This was a format war about money not product. Toshiba couldn't compete with what sony was paying. Take for instance the Time Warner business. Toshiba was able to offer a measly, and I can't believe I'm calling this measly, 100 million to Time Warner compared with Sony's 500 million. Toshiba just couldn't compete with that. I wonder two things regarding this. I wonder if they had to offer that much more to Time Warner to sway them to pick the unstable format and If Sony would have been better investing that money into the players to make them oh I don't know stable?

Brodieman

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Oh, and of the people who do have HDTV's, who's to say they're actually watching HDTV?
[www.tvpredictions.com]

Say what you will about DVD, but the fact of the matter is that its going to be very tough for Blu-Ray to overcome.

bbfreak

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> alrite all you hackers - find out how to turn my hd-dvd player into a $100 streaming media player!

Kricket

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I'm just annoyed because this dragged out as long as it did. The rapid demise brought on by a few major studios and retailers jumping off the fence could have happened a long time ago.

It's hardly laudable to congratulate an industry that engaged in a format war that ultimately hurt the consumer. Regardless of which side won this battle, I don't think anyone can really say that either format improved as a result of the competition. Perhaps while in development, but the same could be said about the armies of Europe before WWI.

dataguy

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> ok guys. circuitciyt.com has an "HDA2" for $86. is that a good deal or should i wait longer?....

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> You know it's funny that a few people are saying put you're HD DVD player next to your Betamax player and I don't know if they realize that Betamax was sony's mistake. I also wonder if they realize that HD DVD was a better format and this was more of a war of who can pay off the most companies. Look at the Time Warner business. Toshiba was able to offer a, and i can't believe i'm calling this measly but, measly 100 million compared to Sony's 500 million. Toshiba wasn't able to compete with that kind of money.

Brodieman

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> About damn time now I can buy a HiDef player.

Hyruu

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @BostonPimpDaddy:
PS3 does a really nice job upconverting DVDs to 1080p. But it also depends on your HD screen. My 50" Panasonic display plays nicely with the PS3 :)


Sora57

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Well it's great to see Blu-Ray win. In the end, no one wins with this format war. Definitely not the consumers. And, in the end, the studios are on their way to make the same mistakes the music industry did with CDs and downloadable music.

Actually, would anyone really want to spend their money on any Blu-Ray 1.0 or 1.1 players available today knowing they are not upward compatible, except maybe the PS3? With the 2.0 players planned for sometime this year, it really creates a gap between now-and-then.

Myself, I will happily continue to use the Toshiba XA2, which by the way may have been the best HD player of any format on the market to-date. Yes, I purchased the losing format, but will continue to use it, and its wonderful HQV Reon chip, to upconvert the endless available DVDs, while buying HD-DVDs at fire-sale prices.

Did anyone say downloadable HD content?

kaaterskillfalls

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Seiven: Well you do realize that the people who have the TV's to appreciate HD Movies are still a minority as far as the United States goes. DVD is the winner of the format war until further notice, just saying.

bbfreak

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> truth be told.. i'm about to go see if i cant find me a super-cheap HDDVD player and some movies

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Seiven: "that NEITHER format COMBINED...." lol WTF? which is it?

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @kydrice:

I agree. Once Warner jumped ship, the end came much quicker than I thought it would

Sora57

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Those of you on this blog who had the intelligence to bet on the new beta a.k.a. HD DVD, please stand up and take your lumps!

Noobs-R-Us

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Does anyone else find it ironic this happened on the same day Castro steps down in Cuba? I think he had invested in HD-DVD and was so heartbroken, he couldn't go on running that country... (note: I'm joking).

NightElfMohawk

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I just hope now that the BS is over we can replace DVDs with Blu Ray...SD without upconversion looks like crap on any HDTV larger than 27"

We need to adopt HD Movies ASAP or be stuck with crappy quality

Seiven

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @izim1: WTf? I am not a fanboy of either format...In fact I have both...I am an early adopter that is pissed off that NEITHER format COMBINED has garnered more than 10% of the total market.

Seiven

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @quagmire0: just the young kids believe that "overpaid" crap. you want me to tell you how much i paid for my kids Atari system, or the cell phones and CD players i had in the 80s, again? what these things cost today (both HDDVD and BD) along with PCs and other devices, are CHUMP CHANGE compared to what things cost back in the days....

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Seiven: i love the HDDVD fanboys who think if you went with blu-ray you "just weren't thinking for yourself"...

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> For all those 'proud' Blu-ray owners dancing on the corpse of HD-DVD - you still overpaid. :D

quagmire0

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @BostonPimpDaddy: i think it has already been established from the other HDDVD articles that you're an HDDVD backer who went "downloads are the next format" after HDDVD started loosing ground. but i think i'll humor you this morning:
"reality check": sony is NOT the "main backers" of BD. pioneer has an equally huge investment in the BDA. they developed it jointly with both their technologies being just as necessary to blu-ray. the only reason Sony is mainly associated with BD is because they are easily the most notable of the 2 companies and are easy to hate. and the next time you decide to quote wikipedia.org try to finish reading all of it. the BDA WAS nine at first but now it is MANY more.
as for the licensing money: even if you were right and there were only nine and sony had like a 75% stake in it, they STILL probably wouldnt get as much (%-wise) as Toshiba has been getting on every DVD sold up to now as the sole creaters of the DVD.
that being said: why does it matter anyways?

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @taoprophet420: too true...WTF? why did consumers allow the studios to determine the winner instead of putting their money where their mouth was and buying one or the other? Instead they rolled over like little bitches and took what the studios fed them.

If all consumers bought one or the other instead of "sitting this one out till a winner is decided" the result may have been different...or we may have had a MUCH shorter format war. This is the way people vote too..."well I don't want to waste my vote, so I am going to see who the media tells me is the best candidate and vote for them."

DAMNIT SHEEPLE THINK FOR YOURSELF!

Seiven

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @BostonPimpDaddy: I can't really defend you on the fact that Sony doesn't really own Blu-ray technology, but I will agree that they hold the majority of power in the format. As for your question about how the PS3 holds up against the HD-A20, they both upscale perfectly and from my experience with the 2 players, they are about equal in the upconverting area.

@Vagabum: You have a long long way before your download theory kicks into action. I say at least 8 years.

imTheKing

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Didn't Yoda and Obi-Wan go into hiding at the end of the Format Wars ?

elvindeath

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> .
The new format war may be over, but this does not mean that the new format will be successful. Blu-ray still may fail. Sure, it's on every PS3 and maybe one day xbox 360, but that doesn't mean that this will be the new format.

James

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> someday I'll tell my grandchildren about how I fought in the format wars.

izim1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> FINALLY it's over.

Now for the prices of Blu-ray to go down. I'm not touching it when it's still so costly

IrisMR

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @ChiboFR:
@Hosalabad:
It's comments like these that really confirm my belief that humanity is screwed.

I think this internet thing might be over your heads guys. Just turn off the computer and go back to your coloring books. I think that's more your speed.

I guess all of you PS3 owners must be letting out a huge collective sigh of relief right about now. Had HD-DVD won out, your PS3 wouldn't be of much use at all. It certainly isn't that useful for games.

Oops... A little bit of commentard rubbed off on me from reading those earlier comments. My sincerest apologies.



fsusmithc2

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> {sigh}.

Rhainor

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> PS3 has a better scaler than HD-A20... HD-XA2 is the only player that can come close.(Yes I have tested this)

But as for the reimbursement of HD-DVD players purchased Toshiba has no plans to do so.

As for the purchase of an HD-DVD player, not a bad idea at 50% off, you can purchase the movies for around $12 online right now. So you can build up a decent library of movies not currently available on Blu-Ray.

Last but definitely not least, are you really surprised that a technology Toshiba backed lost? Toshiba does not mean quality in the minds of the average consumer... They mean cheap, and disposable. I work retail, and that is the perception of the customer. Rarely does someone come in saying, "Hey, I heard that Toshiba looks great." Because they have read reviews that speak to the contrary. Nothing against Toshiba, but their niche in the market is the low end... Not the high....

budabellyx

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Just my $.02 real quick: for those who don't think Sony will make a quick buck....after the HD stuff is cleaned out of Best Buy, we all know the boys in blue will be touting the PS3 as "Games + Hi Def Movies"...and there will NOT be an alternative (unless the fabled X360 + BD comes out).

As for "upscaling DVDs" on a PS3 as opposed to an HD-A20: in all honesty, you, me, and the rest of the guys and gals on Gizmodo care. Johnny on the street doesn't know the difference, and probably doesn't care.

I'm just sayin'...

Jsembower

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @TT: the letterbox/pillarbox is my mistake. I take it back. just realized what stupid thing I was doing sorry.

TT

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> "We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,"

Aww, how thoughtful of them. Here I was, thinking they just figured they'd loose.

Wandel

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> If you bought a HD DVD player, HAHA! It will look nice on the shelf by your Betamax player.

Hosalabad

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> The way I look at it, I'm going to be able to buy 100's of HD-DVD's for very cheap while you blu-ray junkies will be paying triple the price. Sure I'll eventually have ALL of the HD-DVD's available but I will have saved 1000's of dollars vs buying a $1000 blu-ray player and paying $30-$100 for blu-ray disks. Bash HD-DVD all you want I saved money and you didn't.

MrSmoofy

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @BostonPimpDaddy:
so, actually, it may be a small deal to most people but I liked the navigation on bluray a lot better than HDDVD. I am not sure if navigation is just not as good on all HDDVDs or it is my players model. Thats why I mentioned what I am using in case someone replied to me saying "well which player do you have" haha.
but the navigation menus are much sharper and responsive (quick) on my setup.

another annoying thing about the HD-A20 is setting the player on letterbox and when I watched the special features on say DUNE or V for Vendetta, it is pillar boxed INSIDE the letter box so I end up with pillar letter box. sorry, hope I am explaining well.

yes, I would say DVDs probably look better on my HD-A20. also, I think the surround sound is a bit superior. but this has to do with the player, not the format.

so back to your original question, I wasnt meaning to compare the players but simply explain I may have a bias toward BR due to my player or setup.

TT

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Sony probably 'thinks' they are going to get a surge of blue ray purchasers. I'm sure not going to rush out and buy one until they fix their problems and drastically drop the price to the range the HD-DVDs were. Sony = Bastards!

dirk1965

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> SON OF A BITCH, damn it! I feel as foolish as those poor Betamaxees. Ugh.

alexmg2420

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @TT: How can you compare the PS3 to a HD-A20? One is a gaming console with capability to play optical movies, while the other only plays movies. Obviously the PS3 is the better choice. But which plays movies better? How does the PS3 upconvert DVDs? The HD-A20 upconverts nicely.

BostonPimpDaddy

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> By the way, to all those people yelling "BR is not owned by Sony!", reality check, Sony has a HUGE investment and are the MAIN backers to it. The majority of the licensing $ will go to Sony. There may be a consortium of 9 companies but Sony is #1 in that 9.

BostonPimpDaddy

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @taoprophet420:
I have always thought the better system/format loses too. Since Beta lost to VHS and then Atari 5200 lost to Colecovision and so on I thought this. GameCube was my favorite system last gen etc.
This is why I thought blu-ray would lose for sure. I actually really like my bluray player(PS3) better than my HDDVD machine(HD-A20).

But, I totally feel your pain!

just don't get too cocky again Sony!

TT

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> great pic! but yeah, thank god its ova!!! gimme transformers already!!!!!

zanzibarlegend

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Where are the analysts now? "Format war will continue for years!"

Ha!

Not even March of '08 and tis over! I'm glad my PS3 purchase was for not.

Cheers BD

edblor

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I'm glad the format war is over, but I'm not crazy about Sony winning. Yeah, they make some good stuff, but they try to shove proprietary stuff (like memory sticks, etc.) down your throat, and their customer service sucks.

cameraz

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> It's still hard to believe the war ended so quickly. On Jan. 1, (just seven seeks ago), it appeared that the war might drag on for another year or more.

Galley

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> The HD DVD 360 add on, as well as the other HD DVD players, make for really excellent upconverting. I'll be fine with netflix and any movies I really want to keep I will buy the dvd, loaded with all the extras. I'm not purchasing any blu ray players or br movies, they are too expensive and there so set standard profile yet. Region encoding really sucks too.

BostonPimpDaddy

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> It died to fast. . . how long did it take for the DVD to come out over there?

--Tito--

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> HD-DVD was never offered here in Eastern Europe. We haven't had the opportunity to choose the wrong format. Any ideas why it was never introduced here?

Kormy

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Well, I hope that we could at least put the outdated HD-DVD player in an archive so we don't lose it forever. In the beginning I thought it was gonna win because it was an upgrade to a DVD, but they didn't market it the way they did with the DVD and in the end they lost because of it. I didn't like the idea of blue ray because I thought it would fail like its "all power full and really successful" UMD. Well, I have a feeling there will be a second coming like Jesus soon, not 3 days but soon after the initial shut down.

--Tito--

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Well they are actually in the blu-ray market even though they lost they still won cause they make the cell processor which makes me think that they were the engineers of their own defeat

Kamenwati

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> .

FLskydiver

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I guess my HD-DVD spending spree wasn't enough to turn the tide. Ah, well, my votes never matter either.

FLskydiver

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Tristan_The_Giant: Abyss FTW!

FLskydiver

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> It will be interesting to see the effect of the demise of HD DVD on the sales of the PS3. What was the trojan horse of the HD format war could be the trojan horse of the next generation console war.

laiten

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Vagabum:
Yeah once you finish re-wiring half the planet for true broadband and can find a decent sized SSD for less than a Kia we'll talk about me giving up ownership rights...


PSN: kingpsyz

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> HD DVD is now chilling with BetaMax in format war heaven. I still believe the best format lost each war :(

taoprophet420

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Retailers should market their remaining HD DVD players as high end DVD upscalers and sell them on the cheap...sure, they'll incur losses, but it's better to sell the stock that way than try to convince some schmuck to buy the HD DVD player as a true high-def format when there will only be maybe 500 movies ever available in that format.

I can, at best, only tolerate movies in standard def DVD now that I've been playing Blu-ray discs for the past month. It's hard going back to SD once you're HD-spoiled.

Barion

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> I like discs, frankly. I dont' want to use HDD space for that stuff, and then have it all die or require a big HDD to HDD transfer later. Discs are nice.

Brian Lam

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> If you bought or buy an HD DVD player for cheap u can still play DVD's on it and prob will have some really low priced movies to buy for it so its not a total loss. I mean honestly are DVD's so bad?

taoprophet420

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Vagabum: When will people stop throwing out the same old argument against physical media? You download something, you're going to lose it. But, then again, you can only lose it if you have the thousands of hours, unlimited resources to pay that power bill, and a non-intrusive ISP (I'm looking at you, Comcast) that will actually allow you to theoretically have the capability of downloading video in 1080p/i.

So until that day, kindly shut up and go away.

dvicklund

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Vagabum: In your dream. Most of us don't have the bandwidth nor the patience to download 50GB films.

Evo

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @--Tito--: That was a non story, as far as we were concerned. I'm going to delete that comment, but for the record, Tito just dropped ina link about Toshiba saying no to Blu ray. Duh.

Brian Lam

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Tristan_The_Giant:

Bravo. Bravo. Bravo!

freakshow1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> No news from Universal or Paramount.

freakshow1

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @--Tito--: Not necessarily that, because if the work goes into setting up individual accounts for it, you could keep purchase records backed up so in the event of corrupt, deleted, or lost downloads that the distributer could keep a mark on the individuals account showing that the person on the other end has indeed payed for the movie.

But that doesn't change the fact that I'd still rather have a physical copy of any kind of media.

Part-Time-Viking

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Goddammit, you bitch! You never backed away from anything in your life! Now fight!
[slaps Toshiba]
Fight!
[slaps Toshiba again]
Fight! Right now! Do it! Fight goddammit! Fight! Fight! Fiiiiight!

Tristan_The_Giant

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @HoseHead: Probably next year when DVD's are crying in a corner saying "please stop you've gone far enough!".

--Tito--

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Part-Time-Viking: Yea, because virtual things can be delteed easily and hard to get back.

--Tito--

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> so when will toshiba begin producing blu-ray players?

HoseHead

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Vagabum: Frankly my friend, a good portion of the market are not ready (and for good reason) to go for a download only industry. So you can go ahead and say this, but it'll be years before anything like that even gains a threat against Sony's victory here.

I for one prefer to own physical media, movies, games, and CD's.

Yes, I still buy CD's.

Part-Time-Viking

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @Vagabum:

Blu-ray has a bigger hill to climb than HD-DVD. They have the bloody mountain that is standard DVD's. You think they just want to be the HD alternative to DVD's? Hell no, they want to replace DVD's in the future.

It's going to be a million times harder than killing HD-DVD and it means we'll still see competitive pricing on hardware and software for some time to come

LittleBigPlaneteer

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Now that this format war is over, it's time people start adopting download technologies such as Tivo and AppleTV or streaming tech (Netflix and TV Networks) for their content needs so we can beat that format owning grin off of Sony's corporate face.

Vagabum

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> @mor10: I was wondering that as well, will Toshiba reimburse retailers or issue a recall, or will chains like Best Buy and others who still have quite a stock of HD DVD product be stuck with it and have to figure out how to get rid of it?

Part-Time-Viking

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Wow and it all started with WB backing Blu-Ray after that announcement it was nothing but fatal deathblows to HD-DVD one after another. What a quick death!

kydrice

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> It's concerning that several retail chains are still selling what is now officially a dead format. In reality they are now preying on unwitting customers to offset some of their poor investments. I can already see the Thursday flyers for BestBuy and FutureShop here in Canada: "HD-DVD players 50% off! Comes with 10 HD-DVD movies" etc etc. I hope those who still can are returning their recently purchased players so they don't get stuck with them.

mor10

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Man, i'm happy i've waited, i almost bought the HD DVD addon for my 360....if they start dumping them for very low prices i might pick one up just to add it to the game collection :)

dreamc

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> *Dramatic woman at end of movie*
It's finally over...

Teh Emo Penguin

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Cheers!

Part-Time-Viking

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> RIP HD-DVD
i feel sorry for all the people who bought HD-DVD players thinking that it was the next gen in video formats but they were wrong

Long Live Blu-Ray

ChiboFR

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Michael Bay just exploded in his pants!

i BaldEagle

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> In the beginning I had my bets resting on HD DVD.
I was sadly mistaken :'(

R.I.P

Odders3000

]]> <![CDATA[Toshiba Kills HD DVD, Official]]> Rest in peace HD DVD :(

We hardly knew you...

Polybius

]]>