Padre

Toshiba pulling the plug on HD DVD already? - Yup it's over. - Engadget

Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war: source - Yahoo! News

Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war: source | Technology | Reuters

digitalj

yeah it's good because it now means I'll eventually be able to get any HD Movie on Blu-ray and not need to buy another machine as I already have a PS3.

Some Movies I would like are only on HD-DVD currently, and I don't support HD-DVD, I support Blu-ray.

digitalj

Looks like the Announcement will be made by Toshiba tomorrow:

Toshiba refuses to confirm HD-DVD death - www.mcvuk.com

Padre

i support films, not formats...
They chose to have this war becuase toshiba followed MS, the studios left Toshi because of MS.
Torrents are already rampant with reverse engineered HD DVD into BD and by forcing this kind of format war, force people to do things they usualy wouldnt do.

sml_nail

Actually thats not entirely true. Sony who was unhappy they weren't getting enough of the licensing money from the DVD Forum decided to go and create their own format in regards to HD. Given that Sony owns several movie studios they had them onboard supporting their format and just had to sway one or two others such as Warner or Universal in order to obtain majority movie studio support.
In the end with better marketing, the PS3 and whatever else Bluray backers did ended up being able to obtain the support of Warner much to the detriment of HD-DVD. I doubt it had very little to do with the studios being anti Microsoft.

Sure Microsoft had their own agenda recommending HD-DVD since the interactivity on the format was using their HDi technology where as Sony uses Java but both backers of the formats were not in it for the good of the consumer more for lining their own pockets.

Just wish Bluray would get rid of region coding all together now and lower the prices of the titles. The death of HD-DVD has shown how much interest there is in reasonably priced HD movies.

Padre

Im not gonna start another format war thread.. tehres enough of those littered around the net, but I will respond to this

"Actually thats not entirely true. Sony who was unhappy they weren't getting enough of the licensing money from the DVD Forum decided to go and create their own format in regards to HD."

Actually bluRay (aka XDCam disc) has been around and in use in the broadcast world now for about 4 years. They had the technology long ago and it was only confomed for Sony broadcast gear. In the consumebr workd, there are different issues to consider. Licensing had nothing to do with their decision to go HD, considering the fact that Sony own over 1500 MPG patents as it is. What you see on DVD TODAY is owned by THEM. This is no different to an extension of existing technologies

" Given that Sony owns several movie studios they had them onboard supporting their format and just had to sway one or two others such as Warner or Universal in order to obtain majority movie studio support. "

Actualy BDA offered the BD format to every studio. They didnt pitch it like HD DVD did and they didnt try to sell it as the next big thing. They showed its existance, put the price on the table and left it at that. It as MS who tried to muscle into the HD Consumer world so as to inject their own codec (VC1) into the consumer homes. The only way they could do this was to align themselves with one of the manufacturers. MS commitment to XBox360 forced them to move to Toshiba. By 2005, Toshiba were ready to pull out of thsi format war, however MS pumped some cash and it was on.
This was teh only way MS could inject their codec and their DRM into consumer homes. The funny thing is, VC1 is now a codec valid within BD AND HD DVD, so theyre cried for attention were answered without the need to commit to one format

"In the end with better marketing, the PS3 and whatever else Bluray backers did ended up being able to obtain the support of Warner much to the detriment of HD-DVD. "
Actually Warner only tok up the offer which was made to them years ago. It just so happened to be just before CES, so it made big news.
The issue however is that it was th studios who decided to pick one or the other format, while the smart ones chose both.
Sony had no part in the BD war per se, it was certain studios anti sony sentiments, in addition to MS's injection of fund to those studios for using the HD DVD format.
While al this was happening, teh consumer was happy playing their PS3 while numbers were being stacked up against HD DVD.

Sony and Toshi have always been close, hell Toshi just took over Sonys Cell chip factory. Toshi, DID want to trash HD DVD in 2005

"I doubt it had very little to do with the studios being anti Microsoft."

Thats your opinion of course, but noone will ever know unless tehy were in those boardrooms when these decisions were made

"Sure Microsoft had their own agenda recommending HD-DVD since the interactivity on the format was using their HDi technology where as Sony uses Java but both backers of the formats were not in it for the good of the consumer more for lining their own pockets."

No, MS were in it because they wanted their codec within a consumer world. As it stands, it was in an IT world.
MS wanted licensing rights to the consumer used codec, much the way Sony have now with DVD and will continue to have with BD.

It wasnt a marketing war per se. It was in internal struggle for licensing dominance. Sony already had it, MS wanted it. the only way MS could get anywhre near that, was if it tied itself to hd dvd, which they did. They did because they had no other choice as Sony rejected MS licensed HDi, where as BD java is open source

"Just wish Bluray would get rid of region coding all together now and lower the prices of the titles. The death of HD-DVD has shown how much interest there is in reasonably priced HD movies."
Duno bout region coding, coz I havent bought from OS yet. As for prices, i certainly agree. Since the fire sales, and seeing how low some prices have gone, i considered buying into HD DVD just for the bargains compared to their BD brothers, but in all honesty, its really not worth it in the long term.

machine

Hi,

Why buy any HD or Blu-ray as neither have not yet reached being fully compliant.

They are only 1.0 or 1.1 and to be fully compliant they need to be 2.0 to display and use all the features offered by Hd and Blu-ray.

Blu-ray might be worth buying when fully compliant and the movies have dropped to less than $14.95.

Why buy now and find out that the fully compliant players are to be released in 6 months time, you'll be disappointed that you didn't wait.

machine

Padre

What do yoiu mean by "compliant"
Are you refering to data and bitrates or disc manufacture compliancy?

Every issue faced for BD and HD DVD to date has been fixed with a firmware update.

As for being an early adopter, i like my movies. I like to get lost in them.. its prolly coz i have such a miserable life... lol

But Why wait if i dont have to?

eastlake

The best thing about the end of HD DVD means we go back to ONE standard, lets learn from the experience of VHS vs BETA and not repeat the same mistakes.

Ultimately having the one standard is better for the users in the long term, better support, better choice and competition from manufacturers who are all forced to make devices which comply to one standard and compete for your cash.

__________________
Common sense isn't !!!

Padre

At least SOMEONE gets it!

Studio1

Better marketing?

The only reason Betamax lost out to VHS.

eastlake

Absolutely Studio,

Beta was by far the superior system, but JVC got VHS out quickly and got the drop on Sony. The rest is history.

__________________
Common sense isn't !!!

bassett

And the better marketing comes by way of PS3, without that, it would have been a completely different story, perhaps.

Regardless of who win's, won, Blue-ray will still remain a small boutique market, until costs come down to equal the prices of your standard Woollies DVD. And the same goes for the stand alone players, as opposed to the plastic PS3 rubbish.
But the strange thing is, the high-end market has completely ignored this supposed new format, and no players exist, nor are any forecast, Which is strange when you consider they where quick to jump on the DHCD, SACD and DVD-A market. So what does that tell us.

bassett

Talking of HD-DVD the current Hardly Normal catlague arrive to-day via the local paper, page 24 shows a Toshiba HD-DVD player $295.

So where have they been for the last few of weeks

intelliGEORGE

No wonder Blu-Ray won, when you have a lazy $1bn to bribe studios with.

Congratulations Sony!! Thanks for taking the HD market away from open source.

__________________

Jumpingmanjim

How? HD DVD was hardly what you would call "open source".

Padre

open source? doubt that VERY much.. if it WAS open source, we woulda seen many more HD DVD authoring apps hittin the shelves, as it was, only very few even offered 3xDVD authoring and even that used existing tech.
Sony use Java specificially for web integration and browser like integration within the menu system, and it works.

As for bribes and throwing money, well it was actually the other way around. Toshi and MS threw cash like it was going out of fashion. Sony simply offered the tools to get the job done. Toshi promised early adaption of the market, and they barely made a scratch and were over 9 month late in release.
Theres alot more to it than money, believe me..

Pokedad

You just watch Sony screw consumers to the wall now HD DVD is gone. Despite that people will have you believe a one horse race is never a good thing. Both were both as bad as each other given the chance. As i understand it though HD DVD was not planning to push manditiory HDMI HD content.

Padre

actualy from a production point of view (my line of work) HD DVD (as a format and as a delivery option) did nothing to accelerate my delivery of HD content.
Those wanting to author HD DVD couldnt, not only for the lack of burners, bu for the lack of actual authoring tools. Fair enough Pinnacle Studio and Ulead could create 3x DVD's however these are not professional applications and far from being "standard" so the risk of incompatibility is real.

At th ened of the day, its not Sony people shoudl be afraid of, its the retialers becuase its these guys who dictate the price of movies.

Moving away from movie piracy, the fact of the matter is that BD is one means of delivering HD content in optical format. HD DVD, despite sharing the same codecs and similar bitrates, didnt have the backing of production houses which took HD onboard.
For most of the houses, it was a natural progressin, for others, it was a means to enhance profit.

Everyone is sittign there badmouthign Sony, but i shoudl point out that EVERY dvd you have ever seen carried over 1500 patents.
Of those Sony own more than half of.

In addition, Sony own over 2000 patents for MPG encoding alone. So you can thank SOny what you see on DVD today...

Personally, i have nothign against sony. I do have a gripe to pick about BD prices, but thats not their fault.
In addition, the PS3 is a pretty decent upscaler, and those with DVD collections dont have to worry about their collections becomign obsolete because these scalers come VERY close to the real deal.

Like i said, people can bitch and moan al they like but its not goign to change the fact that most of waht you see today, be it DVD, free to air, or HD, is because of them

Jaws

Thank god it died, I get them by the trolly loads at a fraction of the price, and won't stop!