http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/ Engadget Comments for Wal-Mart to officially discontinue HD DVD sales by June http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/MS missed a chance to deal a knockout blow to Sony and give consumers a "Killer Ap" for Vista and pad their own interest both near term and long term.
If MS has 45 Billion to spend, they would have been better off paying off Warner, Disney, Blockbuster, Netflix and the rest to go HD DVD exclusive. Even if they didn't incorporate the HD DVD drive in the 360 as they should, they should have at least had NATIVE (no external program required: see Chris Lanier's Blog at: http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2008/01/25/1480420.aspx ) streaming of DVDs and HD DVDs to extenders such as the 360 from 200 disc changers. This would have killed the PS3, given Vista sales a boost and the external HD DVD drive wouldn't be useless for loyal early adopters. Once HD DVD had caught on, MS would have the time to allow networks to be built for faster, cheaper and higher QUALITY HD rental/purchase streaming down the road. As it is, they've missed a chance to put Sony out, help their bottom line and customers. As it is, BluRay fanboys have successfully convinced people that Sony's extra layer of DRM (BD-J), rootkits and players that are buggy and aren't even uniform in features are superior because they cost more and have a few gigs of extra space and a "scratch-resistant" layer. Had HD DVD won and 200 disc changers streaming HD around the house to 360s and media extenders caught on, then you wouldn't need a "scratch-resistant layer" since you would only have to put the disc in once. The HD DVD disc could have been ripped and converted for use on a portable device, and be out of inventory for use on the changer until the PMP was cleared of the HD movie. But all these wonderful things won't be unless MS acts quickly and spends $45 billion not on buying a search engine in fight it's already lost, because Sony's BD-J DRM system is Java based, and MS will never support streaming of HD content in Windows with a Sony and Java based system. We will probably see 200 disc Bluray changers from Sony, but the interoperability with Media Center/360s will be much more difficult and likely have to come from third parties.]]>Feb 15th 2008 5:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 2:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/]]>Feb 15th 2008 11:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 12:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 12:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/i dunno, in the end, i think bluray is the better choice.]]>Feb 15th 2008 1:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
from the wiki: "The 'Blu-ray Disc Founder' was founded in May 2002 by nine leading electronic companies: Matsushita, Pioneer, Philips, Thomson, LG Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, and Sony"]]>Feb 15th 2008 1:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
"Sony started two projects applying the new diodes: UDO (Ultra Density Optical) and DVR Blue (together with Pioneer), a format of rewritable discs which would eventually become Blu-ray Disc (more specifically, BD-RE).[7] The core technologies of the formats are essentially similar."

And by "Sony wins" i mean from an investor stand point, are they not the biggest investor in Blu-ray?]]>Feb 15th 2008 2:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:46AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/for the consumers (the same ones that have "chosen" Blu-Ray) to bend over and grab their ankles.....

R ]]>Feb 15th 2008 11:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
Prices will and currently are coming down on bluray stuff, and they have to now that they need to compete with DVD which is truly the big competition.]]>Feb 15th 2008 12:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
Physical media is dead to me. I look forward to it being dead for everyone else as well. I'm just wondering what BestBuy is going to put in all of that empty space once CDs and DVDs are gone. I suppose the US's lack of broadband investment will force the relics to stay around for awhile. And then there are those folks who can't let go of Vinyl so ...]]>Feb 15th 2008 12:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 12:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
Where are you planning to back up all those downloads? A bluray burner would be the perfect back-up solution.

I gave up on digital distribution because of this, you store a huge library of movies then one day your drive crashes and you loose it all in the blink of an eye. You also keep running out of space, and have to constantly upgrade or add drives. No digital distributed media could be sold or exchanged between users. I cant even lend out legally obtained digital media. Worst of all the video and audio quality of downloaded media is no where near to what you get from discs.

For now and the next 10 (at least) years disc media will reign as a method of distributing SOLD video media (rentals will most likely be replaced by electronic distribution). When network bandwidth, extremely large reliable storage (holographic storage?) and more flexible DRM standards are available, then downloable media will reign.]]>Feb 15th 2008 12:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 12:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
Q: "Where are you planning to back up all those downloads?"
A: RAID]]>Feb 15th 2008 12:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
RAID is not a reliable backup solution. Regardless of how many drives in the setup, RAID is still plague by single point of failure. ]]>Feb 15th 2008 12:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
Its a strange day when people cheer the loss of a much cheaper, less copy protected and yet identical quality format for a more expensive, unfinished product simply because of some misguided brand loyalty programmed into them from advertising.

Honestly, I think I'll skip this generation of video if its all been decided by movie studios playing games. Surely they would be better sticking to making films than messing with technology issues.

]]>Feb 15th 2008 1:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Oh wait, it had VCD for competition.... hmm. Which would equate to DVD being Blu-rays competition now wouldn't it, on a relative basis?

I sure will be glad when stupid goes out of style.

]]>Feb 15th 2008 1:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/]]>Feb 15th 2008 1:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 2:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
Amen.

Blu-Ray is not a Sony format, its a consortium format that they are a major player in. They all have to play by the same rules and now they are competing against each other. Competition will now intensify and prices will drop faster sicne they don't have to worry about who was going to win.]]>Feb 15th 2008 2:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
Finally, someone who understands this isn't just some stupid Microsoft vs Sony war. 99% of the people on here are championing on standard or the other for absolutely no good reason. While the physical discs of Blu-Ray may be superior to HD-DVD (currently anyways), the interactivity model for Blu-Ray is a pile of crap. Unlike HD which uses xml, the Blu-Ray interactivity spec is just like OCAP (which was a complete joke) and requires a java engine to process. That coupled with the additional DRM is going to make streaming a giant pain in the ass. When physical discs go away and we're still saddled with this format (yes folks, format does not just mean what disc they go on) it's going to make the transition to streamable, sharable content much harder.]]>Feb 15th 2008 2:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
And what are you talking about with "no backwards compatability?" Am I supposed to be upset my Blu-ray player can't play VHS tapes?]]>Feb 15th 2008 2:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 2:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
Which RAID single point of failure? You mean the controller?

Here's how to fix that:

Step 1: Replace controller
Step 2: Go back to enjoying your media

Somehow I fail to see the problem.]]>Feb 15th 2008 4:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 4:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
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. ;-)

TonyD]]>Feb 15th 2008 9:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
Where is DVD's competition?
Where was the confusion?
When has their been two movie formats?]]>Feb 16th 2008 12:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:46AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_backwards_compatible]]>Feb 15th 2008 12:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 1:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 2:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 16th 2008 2:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
@Teetdogs

Because, they mostly comment on impulse and are tightwads over the slightest misinformation displayed on the web.

Just learn from your mistakes and don't let it happen again. ;)]]>Feb 15th 2008 4:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
fyi, hd dvd also uses a blue laser.]]>Feb 15th 2008 4:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/
You guys are ruthless.]]>Feb 15th 2008 8:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 11:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/Feb 15th 2008 1:12PM