Toshiba expected to announce death of HD DVD tomorrow, stop sales by March
By Ryan Block 
posted February 18th 2008 2:01PM
posted February 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.
W00t!!! Blu-Ray rocks!!!
I cannot figure out what is worse, blu-ray winning or HD DVD losing. HD DVD is in its current state a far superior product to blu-ray. From features (web content, interactivity, a complete format) to price (cheaper discs and players) and most importantly looser DRM, it is better than blu-ray hands down. Somehow the HD DVD group was unable to market their product effectively. With blu-ray the apparent winner, consumers are now forced to pay twice as much for HD players that will be obsolete in a few months when a new standard comes out. Cue that guy who says "but the PS3 is future proof". That is beside the point. For one I do not want a mini hangar sitting around my living room (seriously that thing is ugly), but also at this stage in the game there should already be a well developed format established (again, how did blu-ray win this thing?). In any case, I think personaly I will just stick to burning good ole fashioned DVD's. Maybe in a year or two blu-ray will be practical and affordable.
Blu-Ray won cause it was the better format. More disc capacity and a lot more support from both manufacturers and studios.
It also helped when they introduced BD live at CES this year.
Pity so many got burned with HD DVD but thats life, all we can do is move on and buy a Blu-ray.
So Toshiba... when can we see a return to SED technology?
If Toshiba where to release the DVD/HD-DVD combo disk that they talk about and made them standard release, the outcome would be different.
I believe the next XBOX should use HD-DVD disks. Then it would be more difficult for the games to be pirated.
thank god this war is over. but to me HD DVD was dead from day one. those who say blu-ray sucks , either wish to pirate it and complain about drm and region shit. or simply cant afford it. too pricey :-) go hock your hd dvds on a fucking blanket in times square assholes
thank god that this "war" is over. i read this article about a year ago on a website and someone was debating which to buy. it said hd dvd is winning but in the end blu ray will probably come out victoriously.
thank god i read that article and bought my ps3 or else i would have been pissed like many of you probably are. for the record blu ray is sweet.
and for those of you who think that you wont fall into this "trend" sure pal, how do you think tapes fell to dvds. it is inevitable. blu ray is the future of dvd. evolution for movies.
See you all in the future
FIRST!