Toshiba expected to announce death of HD DVD tomorrow, stop sales by March
By Ryan Block 
posted Feb 18th 2008 2:01PM
posted Feb 18th 2008 2:01PM
Despite Red's inability to make any real public statement, Japanese publication Nikkei has it that Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida will be announcing the final discontinuation of HD DVD tomorrow, as well as halted sales of hardware and media by March (as in days from now). Apparently Toshiba will pull its units from retail shelves, but has no intention to give burned early adopters any refunds (no kidding?); it sounds like the ceasefire will include the bare PC drives as well, so those hoping to keep using HD DVD as a personal data storage medium probably won't have much luck. Apparently the announcement will come alongside Toshiba's plans to build new semiconductor fabs, which we're sure they'll try to spin as an advancement that far overshadows the hill of beans (read: hundreds of millions) they've lost in the format war. [Warning: subscription required.]Update: Nikkei also has it that the press conference is scheduled for 5PM in Tokyo, which is Midnight PT, and 3am ET. We'll let you know what turns up. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
"Toshiba will pull its units from retail shelves, but has no intention to give burned early adopters any refunds (no kidding."
xDDDDD Two words: Nice jab. If only I could vote you up.
*light bulb goes off*
*diggs*
What Toshiba should do is give the million people that bought an HD DVD machine a discount on the BR machines they are going to build now.
Toshiba should just give the early adopters a Sony gift voucher...
Speaking of burned, I'll be that's about how the people who bought computers with HD-DVD drives in them (especially laptops)
*I'll bet that's how he people feel who bought computers with them.
Given that the current HD-DVD owners are the only people who would buy combo players, it's easy for them to give "discounts" to HD-DVD adopters who want to move to BluRay.
They'll just make a combo unit, charge a "mere" $600 and say it's a courtesy discount and it would have been $800 otherwise.
business is business...other than customer loyalty, which doesn't seem to matter considering Toshiba loses, I do not think Toshiba should give a refund. sure, i like money and would like a refund, but anyone purchasing into this format war should have known the possible consequences. they've already spent so much into pushing a great format (for the consumer), and unfortunately, they lost.
it's just like an election- you put money towards your candidate, and they either win or lose. if your candidate drops out, you will not get a refund. either way, business is business. i doubt the lack of refund will prevent Toshiba from losing any consumer loyalty. if Toshiba has BD players on the market a few years from now, i believe the lack of refund will not stop someone from purchasing Toshiba's player down the road; they still make quality products.
Exactly, teej. Anyone dumb enough to pick a side in the format war before it was decided had to know the risk. Toshiba owes early adopters a big fat nothing.
I agree, teej.
Toshiba doesn't owe anyone any refunds, or even discounts. Toshiba gave you everything you paid for when you bought HD-DVD. It's not their fault that it lost. People should have known that picking a format during this war came with a risk.
toshiba!! why hast thou forsaken me???
I was one of those Black Friday Walmart purchasers and even though HD DVD is going down the drain, to me it was a pretty wise investment...
Purchased the player for $100 and got 5 free HD DVD's, then soon as Warner backed out, eBayed the player for $150. And just a few days ago got the 5 free DVD's and eBayed those for $50.
HD DVD's over and I sure as hell didn't want to be stuck with a worthless player, however for me was a good run being able to use it for a few months and still make out a worthwhile profit!
FIRST!
I mean, come on, why not announce now? What's the big f___ difference?
Dumbest is above this post!
I love the dumb-fucks who think they are posting first only to be second+ down the line.
Sorry, dude, beat you to it.
Oh, I looked at your profile, you're new, here.
Okay, you'll see what Engadget thinks of people who post "First!" (especially when they aren't) accompanied by some pointless comment--though every opinion is important!
Are you familiar with the blogospherian word 'flaming'?
What amazes me is that anyone on engadget cares.
Numerous times have a seen a double post where the first is highly ranked and the second is low ranked.
The rankings are almost pointless. I wonder if I'll get 5 stars for this one! :-o
@derX
He already knows. He did the "first" thing in an article earlier today. Several people called him on his bullshit, and he even responded. He obviously doesn't care.
Seriously, does being first and calling it make you feel good? I mean, aside from the fact that you made an ass of yourself twice today by being wrong about it, nobody cares, and you shouldn't either. Anyone can refresh Engadget over and over to get a first post on any article, but why would you? Grow up, or take your meds, or something.
I, for one, welcome our Doom-playing, second place "First!" Overlords.
I welcome their ridicule more.
Dude, ogscorpion, how do you start this off by making a stupid comment (FIRST!!) and then being upset that people are flaming you for it? That's like falsly yelling fire in a theatre, causing chaos to ensue, then yelling at the cops for making such a big deal out of it.
[Big problem with this analogy: It's making this seem like this "incident" is much bigger than it is but analogies are fun.]
Want to know what Toshiba might announce it tomorrow? Here are some possible answers:
--Because it wants to.
--Because it's probably, somehow, in the company's best interest to do so.
--Because they want to annoy Ogscorpion.
Now that your question has been answered (though shabbily, I admit and intend), back to the flaming.
FOR SPARTA!!!!!
------------------
BTW, per usual, I'm just joking around here; don't take any of this personally.
@ ogscorpion:
Okay, so if you're playing the whole "I may have started it, but YOU guys are being childish by continuing it" card . . . then does that mean you're going to stop "firsting" on Engadget so we won't have to put up with your bullsh17?
I get enough of the Firsties on The Onion. I don't need it here.
. . . and magically . . . all of ogscorpion's replies have been erased. Thank you, whoever that was.
(I wrote that just in case anyone coming later doesn't understand why we continue flaming him.)
Carry on.
Ok,
Toshiba isn't making the announcement immediately because they are a multinational corporation, with all the pressures and obligations that being a publicly traded company comes with. When you make such a large investment in a technology like they did, you can't just one day decide to say "we're through!" There's all kinds of internal processes they have to go through before they can make that announcement. For example, they probably have to get their legal department's go-ahead that everything is legit. They have to go through layers and layers of business bureaucracy to even set a date for an announcement. They couldn't care less about all the internet geeks like us who just want to see an end to this.
There's your argument. You can't complain about that anymore.
(Yawn)...zzzzzzzzzz
Yawn about what? You start off with stupidity, then complain that the people calling you on it are getting sidetracked and attacking you instead of the topic of the article. So we respond on topic, and you revert to childishness again.
I've only read your posts on two stories, and I already can't stand you.
the fact that all of you have taken even a minute of your life to reply to his obviously irrelevant and inane comment (especially the fking paragraph responders), makes your lives even more pointless than our initial poster.
you may be thinking, "wow, that's ironic considering you're replying to our responses, making your life pointless to the 3rd degree." on the contrary, it isn't pointless. i'm hoping you all realize you're idiots; this realization may give you the power to enjoy such things in life as girls, people, social interaction, friendship, relationships, family, etc. if not, then quit the internet and die in a fire because you're ironically worthless.
Can someone at Engadget please ban this troll?
Dwells: Are you done crying?
Thank god.
I wonder how this (if at all) when officially announced will change the HD Landscape, particularly the Playstation 3, and of when we might be hearing from Paramount and Universal?
When Toshiba officially announces the death of the format I'd expect Paramount and Universal to announce their switch likely the same day, at the longest within a week. Toshiba stalling could have something to do with those two studios, so good question.
As for the PS3, sales will probably remain strong being even with or slightly above the 360, but it's more interesting to think about the stand-alone players and how well they will sale now that the war is over and how soon price drops can be anticipated. I'd also expect an external Blu-Ray add on announced for the 360 very quickly after everything becomes official, likely built by Samsung unless Toshiba has plans we didn't hear about.
First!!!...ohh....damn
Enjoy your win for now Blu-ray, HVD is coming for you in a decade!
Read about HVD on Wikipedia... man! 3.9 TB on a disc... *droools*
What to store...? What to store...?
Some day a few years from now, someone will read your post and smirk ... "3.9TB? HA! How far we've come."
Uplifting and depressing at the same time ... *ponders life*
Finally!
now maybe we can get TrueHD + a movie on one disk. oh wait, blu ray was doing that already.
my bad.
(True audiofiles know the difference between DD+ and TrueHD. you don't have to drink DD+'s cool-aid. just listen. But, i guess, if you were supporting hddvd, then you were drinking poison to begin with--so, all your senses have been off kilter, eh??)
;{/D
just...no.
Wouldn't it be easy to sell Blu Ray circuit boards to replace the HD DVD format?
Then everyones players could be retrofitted to the new format. Seems wasteful to toss all those players away.
They use different lasers and circuitry and software. Way too expensive and impractical to replace those, and then still have a HD-DVD logo on the front. You'll have to buy a new player.
My insider also said that they were going to confiscate all sold hardware from people's homes.
Seriously, pull hardware? That just doesn't make sense.
Now if you said discontinue promotions and production, that would seem more believable.
They make a cheap upscaling DVD player
Pulling hardware is a good thing. You don't want people who don't know that it's dead to buy a player and then get pissed that they can't buy any new movies.
Why would Toshiba care about that again?
People would buy them because of their value proposition, not the ability to buy new movies.
When Toshiba releases a finalized, full featured, actualy working (no bugs) blu ray player, people will buy it for the same reason regardless.
People are dumb. They obviously don't care (or remember) that Sony does this with proprietary formats, why would they care/remember that Toshiba did it?
You missed a key part of my reply: "people who don't know that it's dead"
People who know about that might buy it for the value, but people who don't know that their investment will be unsupported and never have new media come out for it will be very upset. Upset people tend to be bad for business.
But Toshiba can't pull the hardware from other manufacturers, so you should be able to find your value there.
Future can be predicted. After, Red & Blues lasers, time for Green lasers in about a decade or so. All the Best to Toshiba then!
I'd rather have the green lightsaber.
No, green lasers would have come in the middle if they were coming at all.
so does this mean no Charlie Wilson's War in April? How quickly can Universal switch up to Blu-Ray facilities?
Well if Toshiba does actually announce this tomorrow, I wonder what that will do in relation to Microsoft's earlier announcement that they are waiting to hear from Toshiba.
If MS does start selling Blue Ray addons I wonder if I can send in my HDDVD drive to be "repaired" since it would be suffering from DDF (Dead Disc Format).
RIP HD-DVD
2/19/08
You will be missed
Good night sweet prince.
Think about it this way. You may be able to pick up a HD-DVD player for under 100 bucks soon. Maybe even something like 50. They you can buy movies online (like ebay or something) for under 10 bucks. Might be worth it for an investment of like 10 movies or more.
yea man...im waiting for the HD dvd clearance sales.... amazon is gonna have a buy 1 get 3 free sale i can smell it.....
i wish anyways....
They probably have to pull everything, in order to let Universal and Paramount out of their agreements, plus they're probably figuring they don't want a sinking format out there. The retailers were probably complaining they would have to take a huge loss on the units already shipped, so Toshiba is probably saying "yank em off shelves, send em back" and will just do one big quick loss on everything out there. Makes sense I guess.
The win for BlueRay is a major defeat for the consumer.
Now the only legal method to own Hi-Def video content, belongs the same company that had no problem root-kitting your PC's, screwing every BR V1.+ customer, has been a relentless supporter of DRM, and even today pushes it's proprietary formats over clear and common standards. Memory Stick Vs. SD. UMD Vs MiniDVD. MiniDisc over Mini-CDR or ZIP Disk. Beta over VHS.
The victory of Blue Ray represents handing this Fascist Dictator of the tech industry the HiDef market, lock, stock, and barrels.
And who must they deal with now in this "free market"? The MPAA. Another terrorist organization that believes it has an intrinsic right to charge you ever time you look at their content. That believes it is more important to sue it's customers out of their fair use then provide content worth buying.
Cheer all you want. You're cheering for the end of your ability to choose.
@ Ratteler
I'm with you, brother . . . I too was hoping Sony (The Evil Empire, as it's known around my house) would lose this one, but they out-foxed Toshiba. I've been boycotting Sony ever since the rootkit, but now, I don't know.
Like it or not, "The market has spoken," . . . as Colbert would say.
Oh just shut up about it already... sorry but this whole "Blu-Ray owned by teh evilz Sony Empire!" crap is really tiring. I might as well say "thank goodness HD-DVD lost since Microsoft just Embraces and Extends everyone destroying competition and we'd only be able to play movies on Microsoft hardware" How many times must it be said that BDA is made of more then just Sony? Last I checked Toshiba was basically the sole provider of standalone HD-DVD Players, while there's a multitude (and growing) number of manufacturers of Blu-Ray hardware. Did you cry when CD took over Cassette too??
News flash: Giant Organizations do Bad Things for the sake of profit!
Blu-Ray != Sony
Blu-Ray is an association of many companies, just like DVD. Remember how well DVD took off and rapidly became cheap and ubiquitous? That's because it didn't have any competing formats.
The same will hold true now that we're down to one hi-def optical disc contender. We'll have one unified format that all of the movie studios and electronics companies will get behind, and prices will drop. Samsung will want to sell more players than Sony, who will want to sell more than LG, etc, so they will all set their prices as competitively as possible.
One standard does not equal one company. It's good for us, the consumers, to have one standard.
Please stop spreading stupid FUD!
"no problem root-kitting your PC's" -- Please name me one software company that has not had major issues with exploits over the years. Any public facing company would not put this software on your machine if they had thought it would work like a root kit. The backlash would kill their public image, just like this did to Sony. Bad judgment happens. Lack of testing happens. Mistakes happen. Truly disreputable companies do not become the size of Sony and Microsoft or Toshiba.
"screwing every BR V1.+ customer" - I assume you are spouting some crap that people with Blu-ray profile 1.0 players are screwed? There are some Blu-ray players that are crap but those are the fault of the companies that made them not the Blu-ray format. A properly updated Blu-ray 1.0 player will play every movie on the market now. Those that don't... well, see Samsung and Lawsuit.
"a relentless supporter of DRM" - Apple and FairPlay and iTunes; Microsoft and Plays4Sure; EMI; Universal; Fox; etc.....
"Memory Stick Vs. SD." - SD was released in 1999 while Memory Stick was released in 1998. How can something that came out a year later be a clear standard? Further, there are about half a dozen makers of Memory Sticks.
"UMD Vs MiniDVD" - UMD was developed as a video game platform. Sony attempted to market it as a movie format also but its primary purpose is for video games. I suppose you are equally upset with Nintendo's use of carts on the DS and GB as well as being upset about the 1.5GB discs used in the GameCube? I also assume that you are pissed at Iomega for the Zip Disk that you promote later?
"MiniDisc over Mini-CDR or ZIP Disk" - By Mini-CDR I assume you mean Mini CD like are used for CD singles. The 3 inch version of the standard CD? If so then a simple comparison shows Mini CD with 240MB capacity and MiniDisc with a 650MB capacity. How are these two comparable? MiniDisc was released in 1992 while Zip Disk came out in 1994 and the original Zips only held 100MB.
"Beta over VHS" - This has been beaten to death so I will not go into detail except to say that Betamax was released in 1975 while VHS was not released until late in 1976.
"You're cheering for the end of your ability to choose." - This is a really silly statement. I suppose you do not have any choice for a DVD player or CD player or a VCR or a Television. I mean all of those markets have settled on one standard also.
The rest of your post is just a silly, un-thought-out diatribe and I will not bother with it.
Please stop spreading stupid FUD!
"no problem root-kitting your PC's" -- Please name me one software company that has not had major issues with exploits over the years. Any public facing company would not put this software on your machine if they had thought it would work like a root kit. The backlash would kill their public image, just like this did to Sony. Bad judgment happens. Lack of testing happens. Mistakes happen. Truly disreputable companies do not become the size of Sony and Microsoft or Toshiba.
"screwing every BR V1.+ customer" - I assume you are spouting some crap that people with Blu-ray profile 1.0 players are screwed? There are some Blu-ray players that are crap but those are the fault of the companies that made them not the Blu-ray format. A properly updated Blu-ray 1.0 player will play every movie on the market now. Those that don't... well, see Samsung and Lawsuit.
"a relentless supporter of DRM" - Apple and FairPlay and iTunes; Microsoft and Plays4Sure; EMI; Universal; Fox; etc.....
"Memory Stick Vs. SD." - SD was released in 1999 while Memory Stick was released in 1998. How can something that came out a year later be a clear standard? Further, there are about half a dozen makers of Memory Sticks.
"UMD Vs MiniDVD" - UMD was developed as a video game platform. Sony attempted to market it as a movie format also but its primary purpose is for video games. I suppose you are equally upset with Nintendo's use of carts on the DS and GB as well as being upset about the 1.5GB discs used in the GameCube? I also assume that you are pissed at Iomega for the Zip Disk that you promote later?
"MiniDisc over Mini-CDR or ZIP Disk" - By Mini-CDR I assume you mean Mini CD like are used for CD singles. The 3 inch version of the standard CD? If so then a simple comparison shows Mini CD with 240MB capacity and MiniDisc with a 650MB capacity. How are these two comparable? MiniDisc was released in 1992 while Zip Disk came out in 1994 and the original Zips only held 100MB.
"Beta over VHS" - This has been beaten to death so I will not go into detail except to say that Betamax was released in 1975 while VHS was not released until late in 1976.
"You're cheering for the end of your ability to choose." - This is a really silly statement. I suppose you do not have any choice for a DVD player or CD player or a VCR or a Television. I mean all of those markets have settled on one standard also.
The rest of your post is just a silly, un-thought-out diatribe and I will not bother with it.
Sony is not the only one in the Blu-Ray camp. Many other companies such as Philips who invented laserdisk and co-invented compact disk as well as co-developed Blu-Ray. Its not like sony controls Blu-Ray. Plus the branch of sony that did the root-kit is separate from the one who came up with blu-ray.
You realize this idiot is defending Toshiba - a company that sold US Nuclear Submarine secrets to the USSR. You are a tool and I hope you get what's coming to you for such an ignorant and pathetic post.
You realize this idiot is defending Toshiba - a company that sold US Nuclear Submarine secrets to the USSR. You are a tool and I hope you get what's coming to you for such an ignorant and pathetic post.
Let's not forget that MS has been notorious for developing DRM that's highly nontransferable. While I agree this is a loss for the early adopter, it's the studios you should complain about more than Sony. If studios like FOX and Disney weren't so paranoid then they wouldn't want 2 layers of encryption on their movies. But it's like I always say, the RIAA and MPAA forget anything that I can see or hear can be replicated one way or another. There is no piracy solution.
Sony doesn't own Blu-Ray, so your entire rant is misplaced.
Arrrgggh.
I have an Xbox HD DVD player.
I expect prices on HD DVD movies to go down soon!
Then I'll hoard a lot!!!
There still are some HD-DVD releases I'm waiting to buy:
Beowulf
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Appleseed Ex Machina
And plenty I want to rent. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that these releases still happen on HD DVD.
Not to mention I'm hoping I can still rent other stuff from Blockbuster.
Wow, I just got my HD-DVD player three months ago. If I would have had this unit for a year or so, I wouldn't feel so ripped-off.
I am going to Walmart to get my money back.
F.
Dammit . . . reply went under the wrong post. Stupid engadget! It said "replying to Ratteller" when I was typing it! I know b/c I had to look at it twice to spell it right!
@ flamaest:
Sorry... I was responding to the Ratteler post above you, not your post.
Damnit Engadget fix your stuff, or at least acknolwedge your working on a fix or SOMETHING. Is there somewhere that this posting stuff has been addressed?
@ smart people
The consumer has spoken is true. With both formats combining for a 1% market share, the consumer is definately not interested at this point. The "evil empire" has a long way to go to unseat DVD. They think they now have a full 1% share but they will lose a lot of the HDDVD supporters completely.
Same for me, my reply was to Ratteler, but posted down here for some reason. Engadget's comments have been pretty wonky lately...
that is what you get for shopping at walmart. talk about a truely evil company, they are selling out the entire country to china one smiley faced cheapskate at a time.
I think the HD DVD camp is discussing the situation with all the backers, especially the studios who have movies coming out in the next couple of months on HD DVD. Some of them probably have them pressed or are in the process of getting them pressed. They are going to have to calm everyone down first before they can officially announce anything. I don't think they are dragging their feet, they are trying to avoid a crisis and mainly lawsuits (which may be inevitable, we'll see).
Remember when this format war first started? They said that the porn industry will decide the winner, just like how they decided the vhs vs beta war.
I guess one of Toshiba's viable options now is to discuss this with the porn industry, afterall, they do have a large install base with the xbox owners. What else are they going to use their hd-dvd addons for?
Will I get my 5 free HD-DVDs? I bought it about a month back but only managed to send it in like a week before (the form for the 5 free HDDVDs) I seriously hope they are going to give me those 5 free HD-DVDs.
I sent in my rebate form for the 5 free movies at the beginning of December and am still waiting. I called Toshiba and was told my rebate is in "processing". Not holding my breath on this one...
maybe but most likely no.
it took about 6 months for me to get mine
They should bury all the hardware in the desert with the Atari cartriges. I can't wait to see the photos of what comes of all the useless hardware. I predict Engadget posts on "creative ways to use/destroy your HD-DVD player".
It's a little known fact that the terra cotta army is in fact a buried inventory from the time when there was a big household knick-knack format war. The manufacturer of the larger than life soldier statues hadn't counted on the rising popluarity of China Vases that could be prominently displayed in even small homes. When it turned out that the estimated demand was completely wrong the manufacturer decided to create a landfill with over 8000 leftover inventory items.
You read it here first.
Yeah, I'm sure they've still probably lost a lot of money from this, but how much are they getting for each PS3 sold since they helped create the Cell chip?
What are the nerds supposed to argue about now?
The reason for the switch to the Blue-Ray (read: its not a laser) was because the ray was more intense: its not blue by choice, but because it shines blue due to its intensity. Green is a less intense color than blue, so, I highly doubt we will see green (insert your choice of Star-Trek-esque shennanigans here) anytime soon.
It's blue by choice. Shorter wavelengths of light allow data to be packed closer together and still distinguished during read-back. It's the same principle as X-ray microscopes.
Allen, wtf. you could not be more wrong.
I am sad to see HD-DVD die. I consider it the better of the two technologies. Toshiba needs to sincerely examine what they did wrong.
Even liking HD-DVD better I bought a Blu-Ray a few weeks ago when it started to take a turn for the worse.
I've done my share of supporting better but abandoned technologies. Apple Newton anyone?
hmm...but, do i still get the 5 free movies for my recent hd player purchase?
What else would they do with the excess discs?
I will just put my hd-dvd's with my collection of laserdiscs...
I'm far from a legal expert. But just wondering if there could be a lawsuit put against Toshiba. For all the people who bought the players with the believe we would get free movies. It looks doubtfull we will ever get them. I only got 6 movies as it is. would be 11 if I could get my f'ing freebies, I was lured with. I'm not going bother buying blu-ray, mostly because i'm unemployed now and bitter.
There is one miserable advantage for us HD-DVD users (mine's in my laptop - d'oh!):
There's going to be some good sales on all the HD-DVD media and movies in the next few weeks.
Cash is King
Where's Truth Teller? Is he still with us on this world?
The Toshiba announcement has been confirmed. They're now looking into selling US Nuclear secrets again for make up for their losses.
Is it true that Toshiba sold US Nuclear Submarine secrets to the USSR? If so, then everyone of you commies that bought a HD DVD player should be exported.
I don't get it. Anyone who reads Engadget and who bought into the HD-DVD *or* BluRay format knew they were buying into a format war with an unpredictable outcome and with obsolescence for the loser. Some hoped for a "dual format" winner, but that would have just raaised everyone's costs. All this complaining about refunds and lawsuits is ridiculous. You knew what you were doing, and you picked wrong. Sorry about that, but that's the way "early adopter" technology works. Just be glad this format war didn't drag on another year or two, which it easily could have done.
I remember the Betamax vs VHS war. My parents went with the Betamax. They bought a 100+ movies and then their Betamax player went out and $600 later they got it fixed then it died again. I learned from watching that mess. I have been waiting for the victor of HDDVD and Blue-ray. I had a feeling that it would be Blue-ray. The green laser is pretty far out. So say I got bookoo BR disks then Toshiba comes back with a green laser based format that blows away BR. By that time I will be job hunting in Mexico.
Jesus fuck. You posted the same thing yesterday and when it didn't happen today yous ay tomorrow is the day. What happens tomorrow when they don't announce it? You post another story saying it will be Wednesday? Why is Engadget cheering so much for the demise of HDDVD? Did you fuckers forget the whole rootkit fiasco among the other 10000 evil fucking shit Sony has done?
I'm glad the format war is over, but I hope there's some future for HD-DVD as a storage format.
It's going to be a long time for Blu-Ray burners to get cheap enough for mass storage; HD-DVD is already there. Here's what I'd like to see:
From Toshiba and the other "red" vendors: Keep making HD-DVD burners (how many Toshiba laptops have been sold with them in the past year?). Flood the market. Make it the recording standard, and you might still stand some chance of recovering some of your investment.
From the Blu-Ray camp: you've won. Allow vendors to build dual-format drives without pulling their licenses.
Except Toshiba's single laptop, no HD-DVD writer has ever been offered for sale in the US. And media is impossible to find.
HD-DVD is at least as dead as a computer format as it is as a movie format. I would suggest the reason is simple: Who wants to write 15GB on a disc (single layer HD-DVD writers are all that are available) when they can write 25GB (single-layer BD) or 50Gb (dual-layer BD)?