Wal-Mart to officially discontinue HD DVD sales by June
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted February 15th 2008 11:39AM
posted February 15th 2008 11:39AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted February 15th 2008 11:39AM
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The trend is there, more people are buying into Blu-ray than HD-DVD. Now that there are announcements of HD-DVD being dropped by retailers and such (Netflix)the momentum is building for the abandonment of HD-DVD as the general public will perceive it. I don't believe at this point there is anything that can be done. Someone pointed out that if Wal-Mart is dropping you, then you really must be through. I "all-encompassingly" agree. Also, why do people seem to suggest that Sony won, and that there is no competition? Disc prices may take a while to come down (maybe), but with the multitude of manufactures, why wouldn't they follow the same trend as any other device (DVD players)? Even though most reviews say HD media from Apple TV is better than cable, it is still not on par with disc format, such as Blu-ray and HD-DVD, so even though the adoption rate may increase for digital downloads, there are still way too many factors involved that favor physical media.
Your probably right... how easy would it be for MS to kill the advantage of the PS3 by putting out a $100-$150 Blu-Ray player for the 360??? They should have done that from the beginning and supported both formats...
It is over. Again. Now we wait for Paramount and Universal. Any bets on that one?
Anybody who honestly believes that HD-DVD can make a comeback at this point in time is out of their mind.
Game console "kiddies" won.
Paramount and Universal are being gracious in letting Toshiba talk first and pull the plug.
As big as an HD DVD fanboy that I am, when you don't have Wal-Mart you are nothing. Toodles, red! We always had Paris (not Hilton)!
RAID is unreliable? you think that blu-ray writable disk last any longer than DVDR's which in some cases last only 2 years and even in perfect condition still a limited time.
And obviously the pits are smaller on blu-ray so defects are quicker to be really damaging.
No I don't think it'll end up as a good long-term storage medium.
Oh, and on your bet, I say Toshiba will make their gracious exit today with a press release.
That was meant for Kuromiko.
toshiba should just market HD-DVD as a storage medium now, after all it's not the consumer that chose blu-ray but the movie rental/sale outlets, and so it's only the pre-burned movie part that's doomed you could argue.
Welcome SONY Welcome to the Hi-Def world of monoply.
No apple tv will not be as good as disc. but your not going to lose much going from 720p to 1080p IMHO. Plus it will take up alot less bandwidth as well. Last HD DVD I looked at was like 20ish gb. Thats a lot to DL over a regular cable connection. Especially for other internet users. But for $4.99 its not bad for what it is. Its the same price at hastings to get a disc. And I usually only watch movies once. But I don't have to buy a $399 Player to watch live free or die hard. and the apple tv can do awhole lot more than just rent movies. The whole "backing up" thing would nice. But burner and price of media just isn't worth it to me right now. I always backup dvds though. even if they are shrinked.
But anyways. One side had to win.
a blu ray add on to xbox would be sawheet.
Apple TV does what exactly? Rent movies at EXTREMELY expensive rates? $4-5 a movie is way overpriced when we get a movie from Netflix for about $1 a rental. What else can Apple TV do? Move music around from the computer to the stereo? Um, most people that have broadband internet probably have cable/sat which comes with XM/Sirius. What's the big advantage? We can pick from our own music? We can plug our iPod into the receiver and do that anyway.
What's the selling point on Apple TV? I've read the reviews and looked at what it offers and I can't see anything that makes me think it's worth even $50, let alone $200.
So you can rent HD movies from netflix for $1 and get them in about a minute from when you order. Where do i sign up?
apple prices are gallery DVD $2.99, NR $3.99 HD adds $1
Standard movie store prices really. Without having to go to the store, or wait.
If you looked at the specs and its not for you thats cool. I think its pretty neat. I'm slowly going apple. Which I never thought I'd do.
That is it for my HD DVD add on. I'm going to use it to watch my SD DVD and wait for the bluy ray players to come down to to $129.99. Until then i will be grabbing all the HD DVD's that i can at the cheapest prices ever. I can't wait to see 300, fast and furious, Transformers, Chronicles of Riddick, for 9.99. or less.
I was a HD DVD suporter all the way, since the beginning becuase it is better than blu-ray but i have to admit that its blu ray time. This is one of those cases where the consumers doesn't decide whats best for them, its the big companies that steer the market.
I've been buying lots of HD DVDs for less than their DVD counterparts which i find awsome.
I smell a class action suit against the Blu-Ray companies and the rest of the movie production house deal makers. Back room payments to kill off a competitor to create a monopoly are illegal.
I hope I'm not the only one who finds the irony of someone uttering "Blu-ray companies" and "monopoly" in the same breath.
Let me ask, how many HD DVD manufacturers are there?
You ought to do a little digging on the meaning of "monopoly". An "industry standard" (you know... like DVD) produced by more than a dozen consumer electronics manufacturers in competition with one another does not constitute a monopoly.
Consumers can now finally buy a Blu-Ray Player! SIGHT!! You would be a fooled consumer to buy an expensive profile obsolete, non-internet capable, non-pip Blu-Ray player right now. Blu-Ray will suffer the same fate as HD DVD, Laserdisc, Mini Disc, UMD, Memory Stick, Betamax. Besides, what lower to middle income American family is going to buy an expensive $300-400 Blu-Ray player with $34.95 new releases when you can get the same release standard DVD for $14.95 at Wal-Mart and play on an up-converting DVD player, and make backups with DVD Burners. NICHE!
So this phenomenon we've been observing this past 30+ years of rapidly falling costs and prices in the high tech industry --Blu-ray is not subject to this? I am in awe of your deep insight :-)
I guess you think DVD players were always 35 bucks and DVD's were always 15-20 dollars? Go back to 1998 (2 years after the first DVD player was introduced) and look at the actual prices. The discs were 30-50 bucks and the players were between 350 and 800. Sound familiar? Why would anyone adopt DVD when VHS tapes and players were so cheap at the time?
And every time I hear someone use the word "obsolete" to describe players that don't; support gimmicks like Picture in picture and 'interactive content" (i.e. crappy games links to lame internet portals) I think of DVD features like 'angle'. If you want them, fine, but they don;t make a player "obsolete" when they are not present.
here comes the standard nail in the coffin comment...
and honestly, it's not like Walmart carried a decent selection of hd dvd's anyways.
how does one give up selling the six titles they had?
Memo to High Tech CEOs everywhere: "Less Advanced But Cheaper" is not a winning strategy.
Actually only the idiots at the HD-DVD alliance don't know this. So telling that Microsoft is in that group. If you still have MSFT stock you will get what you deserve. I cashed out over the Yahoo offer, the death of HD-DVD, plus PS3 now outselling Xbox plus 16% reported defect rate on XBox made me feel even better about cashing out.
In the words of my illustrious friend Anton Chigurh... "CALL IT... FRIENDO"...
(Soon to be available on Blu-Ray).
That was a fantastic movie, but I think the quote was more like "what does where I come from have anything to do with anything, FRIEND-O?"
"AND DOWN GOES Fra-err HD-DVD!" Ring-Ring-Ring
The only reason why I wanted Blu-Ray to win was because I didn't want to buy another HD format in addition to my Playstation 3.
Putting Blu-Ray tech in the PS3 was the single smartest move to win this HD format war. That's the bottom line.
Things would have been a whole lot different if Xbox360 would have had an internal HD-DVD drive. But guess what, they didn't. It is what it is and I'm glad this "war" is finally over!
Honestly, I don't think the PS3 had much to do with this win.
I would say that aggressive backroom deals with studio heads was what caused the domino effect here. HD-DVD was doing fine until about two months ago, and then they lost support. It wasn't because people were buying more Blu-Ray discs or players (in fact, HD-DVD sold very well over the holidays), but it was because Warner Bros made their choice, and that was a major blow to HD-DVD.
Once WB favors one format over the other, it's lights out for the one they leave behind. WB is just too big to ignore.
Alright let's sweep HDDVD under the mat and pretend it never existed.
Hide everything HDDVD?
What's HDDVD?
Wow, Sony finally won a format war!
OH NOE
FAIL AHEAD.
Wake me up when I have a tv bigger than 32".
Physical media dead? Not so fast. I have both an Apple TV and PS3. I will always prefer a Blu-Ray movie over any downloaded HD under most situations.
I was and still am an HDDVD fan. I am however, really glad big companies like bestbuy, wal-mart, movie studios, etc. are stepping forward and making some decisions based on the data available to end this format war sooner than later. I own both a blue ray and an HDDVD player and haven't bought any movies in ages. I welcome these developments at this point.
Well, here is to me getting really cheap HD movies for my A30!
And using the money I saved over the BD equivalents to.... eventually have to buy a PS3 or BD player. Hopefully Microsoft will come out with a 360 add-on.
Warner switching sides had little effect on Blu-ray winning. It was when the retailers publicly came out in favor of Blu-ray that the scale tipped, and now that some of the bigger names, like NetFlix and Walmart are dropping HD-DVD completely, there's no consumer choice in those situations and Blu-ray becomes the defacto standard.
No one's going to argue that one format is best for everyone, but I have serious reservations with letting the retailers make the decision for the consumer. It's not rocket science to understand retailers prefer the margins they are making on $300+ players versus $179 players or $30+ titles. I'm not saying that BRD consumers haven't bought a boatload of players so far, but I don't completely buy into the PR hype from the retailers that they are listening to *all* consumers in making the Blu-ray only choice. If the consumer had made the choice that clearly, it would have been a slam dunk as to which side wins a long time ago.
You don't wanna say this is it for HD-DVD? Why the frick not? It's dead and done. I bet if it was Blu-ray in HD-DVD's spot right now, you would be partying and saying, "this is it for Blu-ray!", Sony hater.
Here's what will happen. The Chinese will 'borrow' HD-DVD, saturate their country with 'borrowed' content and retire their DVD-9 industry:)
I for one also welcome our Sony overlords.
I'm not sure how you would consider this a monopoly? Toshiba is the only manufacturer pumping out dedicated HD players and even the Onkyo player that was scheduled to be released is a Toshiba rebadged. Meanwhile, Bluray players are currently or scheduled for release by Sony (of course), Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer, LG, Marantz, Denon, Sharp and god knows who else in the future. Meanwhile, HD DVD? Toshiba! PERIOD! Oh, and an add on for your Xbox (what ever). At least that's how it's been since the inception of HD DVD.
Sony developed the technology and have been actively marketing it and doing it well. If that means paying studios for their support? why not! Toshiba has done this with Paramount but at the end of the day, their marketing plans failed. Nothing more.
Why are you not calling VHS, CD or DVD a monopoly? Philips still received royalties for DVD technology. Is that a monopoly? NO! The only difference here is two major innovators did not see eye to eye on technology this time and decided to go their own way and go to war if neccesary.
So please. Let's stop with the monopoly non-sense.
OK.. I'm done.. Going to watch a bluray movie now. ;-)
i still prefer dvd's.
Anyone think this format war will be cared about in... five years? Remember the first Xbox and how everyone and their brother dumped on Microsoft for trying to enter and control the games market? Seems to have been forgotten with the release of the 360. That was only four years from the launch of the original Xbox.
With the PS3 it's the opposite situation. Sony screwed up in so many ways and fell from grace. Everyone saw it as a chance to strike one for the underdog, to be a part of the perceived minority that dare resist the big corporations.
News flash: IAll debate ceases to matter once you have half or more of the internet population relaying half-read, quarter-understood information they found on a blog. It's not about which format is better or worse, it's about which company is currently the target. As of the moment, fans are dying to stick one out for HD-DVD, even as the format seemingly loses one supporter after another in retail daily.
This format war was so perilously balanced to begin with that a domino effect could not be avoided, depending on which side screwed up first. It's only going to get worse from here for HD-DVD. Every company that goes Blu is just another mindshare lost by the public in favor of HD-DVD.
Does this mean I care about Blu-Ray movies? Not really. What I care about is getting a burnable disc format that can store large, raw video files for editing and archive purpose. Does HD-DVD fit my needs in this case? Not really. That's my extent of loyalty to either format.
It can be debated from here to the time intelligent mice cover and rule the Earth, but if HD-DVD wants to survive, they need to quit bleeding retail support out the wazoo. it doesn't matter what the average tech fan thinks if no one is left around to sell HD-DVD products or support them. That's just common sense.
In my view, both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will be leaving store sheleves unless they provide all the titles available now on standard DVD and bring prices way down. You can easily watch standard DVD's in Extended Def (EDTV) which is very close to HD as it is, so why would consumers bother upgrading to a Blu-ray player with fewer titles, slightly higher def, and much higher prices? Plus, AppleTV and other downloadable devices are more convenient and show potential for greater selecton in days to come.
lol, can u imagine ***XBox 720: now introducing blu-ray, HD DVD is soooo yesterday...***
I feel like a kindergarden kid when I read the tech-savy in this blog; sometimes very helpful, but often far above my level of understanding. I really don't care as to Blu-Ray or HD, so long as the choice doesn't result in a Beta-VHS standoff, and it looks like that is about settled. As far as Blu-Ray v. download, I'd love to have fiber to my set, say 100mb, with true 1080p definition and a choice of (as the ad said) "every movie ever made any time." Add to that "every song ever recorded" and when I died there'd be a smile on my face. Unfortunately, I suspect I will expire before I see such a state of bliss transpire. Ah, born 30 years too soon.
Well, Sony won this round. They lost the Video Tape Wars when VHS beat Beta. But they lost the music download business when Apple came up with the Ipod. The company that gave the world the walkman should have been the rightful leader to digital music but they were held back by a corporate culture that said no to digital downloads. Will Sony now lead or follow in the format to follow hi def, in say 5 years. Or will another company come up with an even better format. Dont' forget Sony blew alot on PSP format too. But they have the film library to ensure their format will at least have product between Columbia Pictures and MGM/UA libraries.
@Prey521
Yeah, you're right, I'm clueless. After all, physical media containing movies is nothing at all like physical media containing music. Two completely different animals - not at all similar. Just because sales of music CDs have been declining rapidly over the last 6 years (a format that was purchased in much higher quantities than movies) why should that indicate an inevitable decline in physical media containing movies? I am sure your grandchildren will be enjoying movies being played off vulnerable, expensive shiny discs.
Yeah, I must be incredibly clueless, nothing at all like the sharp, forward looking intelligence you obviously possess. Now pardon me while I go watch Raiders of the Lost Ark on my betamax while listening to a Peter Frampton 8 Track tape.
And the only shop I have available to shop is Walmart. Now I am really in trouble:
http://www.socoolaz.com/article.cfm?articleID=30121
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Downloaded content HD or other wise is dead before it is even out of the gate. The greed of the telcom. industry is and will kill any real state of the art development in this area. Talk of charging by usage, Comcast's limiting users using Bitorent blind to the fact they pay for "UNLIMITED" use, not to mention the US has just about the slowest broadband in the world.