Official: HD DVD dead and buried, format war is over

It's official. Toshiba just made a statement saying, " it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders." Cessation of the player and recorders are targeted for March 2008. Volume production of HD DVD disk drives for PCs and games will end in the same time frame. However, Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation did say that Toshiba will, "continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives." That's it folks, the format war is over, Blu-ray has won. Full press release after the break.

Update: Besides stating "no plans" to go Blu-ray during the Q&A, Toshiba committed to stockpiling HD DVD recording media for those who own HD DVD recorders. These will be sold on-line. As for future HD DVD software releases, Mr. Nishida could only say, "it was not our business, we cannot predict their business." Oh really? Is the lack of new titles on a dead platform really so hard to predict?

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

19 February, 2008

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

[Kimbo Slice @ Feb 19th 2008 3:01AM]

R.I.P. HD DVD 2006-2008

[Jon @ Feb 19th 2008 3:04AM]

Good riddance HD-DVD. Toshiba go start pumping out those BluRay machines now.

[AJ in the East Bay @ Feb 19th 2008 3:05AM]

Yeah, Toshiba, start making BD players so you can kick Sony's a$$ in sales, ha-ha!!

[L.Rawlins @ Feb 19th 2008 3:50AM]

'Hip hip, Blu-Ray!' to quote the BBC's coverage of this story. Now we can comfortably start to give a damn about the optical platform for HD delivery, and its about bloody time I think we can all agree.

[supermeerkat @ Feb 19th 2008 4:09AM]

If my understanding of horror films is correct, at some point in the next couple of days, the corpse of HD-DVD, laid on out a mortuary slab, will suddenly sit up, grab a scalpel and escape into the night, whilst the theme tune from Halloween plays....

[Marvin Quach @ Feb 19th 2008 7:55AM]

It was only two years old! You monsters! What have you done?!?!

Glad that somebody won though... this back and forth was getting ridiculous.

[TheAssailant6661 @ Feb 20th 2008 5:30PM]

aww man, that means now we don't get HDi and we have to use some other piece of crap developed fom java. Boo, this sucks.

[Jeff @ Feb 19th 2008 9:35AM]

Final nail in the coffin?

[Austin @ Feb 19th 2008 1:40PM]

The Black Knight always triumphs! Have at you! C'mon, then!

[cheese head @ Feb 19th 2008 3:02AM]

hahaha!

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Feb 19th 2008 3:37AM]

Oh please. It's the internet.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

Every group has assholes in it, especially on the internet. If that's enough reason to condemn a group, then you will never approve of any group, including the ones you count yourself in.

[giuliop @ Feb 19th 2008 6:11AM]

@Engadget

'As for future HD DVD software releases, Mr. Nishida could only say, "it was not our business, we cannot predict their business." Oh really? Is the lack of new titles on a dead platform really so hard to predict?'

If it's so easy to predict, why ask him in the first place? Isn't that simply a stupid way of making him tell something just to criticise him?

[wonton @ Feb 19th 2008 3:02AM]

FINALLY!

[ClaMs @ Feb 19th 2008 3:19AM]

So FINAL Final nail in the coffin + 6 feet under?
100% sure war is over?

[John Russell @ Feb 19th 2008 3:37AM]

They're retreating! We've won!

[Tiptup300 @ Feb 19th 2008 7:21AM]

no, its the FINAL final FINAL final final nail in the coffin. You know what, they just like blew up the coffin. It doesn't even exist anymore.

[Cal @ Feb 19th 2008 7:42AM]

'Tis but a scratch!

[Lazerface @ Feb 19th 2008 11:43AM]

Black Knight: "It's only a flesh wound"
Arthur: "Your arm's off!"

[monkfishbandana @ Feb 19th 2008 11:51AM]

Come back you "blu" bastard!

[3rdsun @ Feb 19th 2008 2:00PM]

HD DVD : "I'll kick your ass Blu Ray"
Blu Ray : "You don't have any feet"

HD DVD still fighting till the end

[alex @ Feb 19th 2008 3:03AM]

Best pic ever!

[AJ in the East Bay @ Feb 19th 2008 3:04AM]

Bye, my love!

[Sarcasticone @ Feb 19th 2008 6:21PM]

It never loved you, it's been eying your wallet since day one.

[Dash-2 @ Feb 19th 2008 3:04AM]

Hopefully we'll see them work with the Blu-ray guys to make the best disc possible.

[Montusama @ Feb 19th 2008 3:06AM]

time to buy an hd-dvd player now!

[X820 @ Feb 19th 2008 3:06AM]

Now we wait for Universal news...

[jguzman @ Feb 19th 2008 4:22PM]

Universal already switched to Blu-Ray
http://ps3.qj.net/Universal-Studios-switches-from-HD-DVD-to-Blu-ray/pg/49/aid/114058

[webon @ Feb 19th 2008 3:07AM]

whadaya think buy bluray now?

I wont,Ill wait for a bluray to get cheap, cuz I am

[Matthew @ Feb 19th 2008 3:07AM]

Still not going with blue-ray. I will download my movies.

[Andrew @ Feb 19th 2008 3:09AM]

Exactly. Legally or illegally, I'm all digital download from here on out.

[cheese head @ Feb 19th 2008 3:09AM]

Have fun with your sub standard HD downloads that don't even know what 1080P and lossless audio are.

[X820 @ Feb 19th 2008 3:12AM]

have fun then.

[Jon @ Feb 19th 2008 3:12AM]

I think I rather have crisp 1080p picture with lossless sound thankuverymuch, all in a nice disc package.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for digital downloads, but with the way broadband penetration is, and how unreliable ISPs are - it will be a long way in the future before I ditch physical media.

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 19th 2008 3:34AM]

same, i know i've previously stated that not everyone has the bandwidth for movie downloads.. fortunately that someone is not me..

simply in spite of blu-ray i will be downloading my movies.

[Sam Winter @ Feb 19th 2008 3:37AM]

I want to see you download even 3 Blu-ray rips in a month. Your ISP will "fair access policy" you in a heartbeat, maybe even cancel your service for "abuse". Not that I agree with that, just saying how bad ISPs are..well in the USA at least..

[ScooterDe @ Feb 19th 2008 4:12AM]

@ cheese head, etc. increasingly downloads are 720p and even 1080p. Get yourself some decent broadband.

Toshiba will focus on NAND flash, it says, and rightly so: show me a 64GB SD flash card for under $50 and I'll show you the end of Blu-Ray. Anyone want to guess how long that will take?
Further, high definition disks, whatever the format, are a limited market. It is completely unlike the move from tape to disk (VHS to DVD). The adoption will be less pronounced, so the switch to a new format will be easier and faster as DVD owners leapfrog Blue-Ray and invest in consumer-friendly HDD storage, Flash card players, and movie download services with their related (cheap) boxes.

[Indy89 @ Feb 19th 2008 2:37PM]

@ScooterDe
I don't know where you live but almost everywhere I know in the UK its not an easy case of "just getting decent broadband" everyone has to live with what you can receive which is average of a pathetic 4Mb/s even if you can receive better its doubtful you will ever get more than a 1-2GB of a download at full speed then you will be dropped because of fair usage. Also at this rate of broadband its going to take a hell of a long time before or some sort of miracle on ISP behalf before disc quality movies are made available. Take the movie downloads on Xbox Live HD movies seem on average around 4-6GB big most SD movies on DVD are about this size while HD movies on Blu Ray are about 20GB and up, the reason for this well its easy the quality is a shit load better. Most 1080p movie downloads Ive seen still contain some pixlation in the picture which is just wrong for HD also they generally look like upscaled SD movies, again wrong for HD if I want upscaled picture Ill watch a DVD. Digital distribution is a bit of a way off yet from being a realistic replacement to discs, theres DRM which is a problem also no physical item means you cant trade should you want to (although this may apply to games more).

[Jacob @ Feb 19th 2008 6:27AM]

who honestly cares about lossless audio? why do you think DVD-A and SACD both lost? as for 1080p, just look at the iTunes HD vs Blu Ray comparison. While iTunes HD movies are lower in quality compared to BD, they're nearly equal, and both are true high definition.
I think my dad said it best. Who cares about high def, he just wants to be able to watch a movie. Blu Ray will continue to be a niche market for many years.

[bama @ Feb 19th 2008 9:28AM]

No, I think your dad said it best when he said "Son, are you done with the computer? I'm going to upgrade it to a Pentium II so we can play some Commander Keen in hi-def. Also, have you seen my abacus.........I need to calculate how much these sweet pair of thick-rimmed tinted glasses are going to cost me.

[robert @ Feb 20th 2008 12:24AM]

"While iTunes HD movies are lower in quality compared to BD, they're nearly equal..."

While your IQ is much lower than everyone else's, they're obviously not nearly equal.

[dubs @ Feb 19th 2008 3:08AM]

finally I don't have to hear about this format war anymore. R.I.P. HD DVD.

[Josh @ Feb 19th 2008 3:08AM]

Well, this Death Watch didn't really drag out too long.

[az_runner @ Feb 19th 2008 3:41AM]

Now we only have to wait for that Tivo Deathwatch prediction to come true and engadget will have nailed it.

[murray @ Feb 19th 2008 1:31PM]

That's 'cause Engadget waited till HD-DVD was basically already dead before it started the death watch. It was kinda pointless...

[webon @ Feb 19th 2008 3:09AM]

wow I told the guy that called first to GTFO and he actually did

man I'm good

[webon @ Feb 19th 2008 3:17AM]

lets see if it works again
GTFO!
this time I mean it

[webon @ Feb 19th 2008 3:18AM]

wow it works

[NineT9 @ Feb 19th 2008 3:10AM]

Will hd-dvd blend?

might as well see since their useless now! get your players out, your hd-dvd discs, etc

[Robert Lew @ Feb 19th 2008 3:10AM]

"production of HD DVD disk drives for PCs and games will end in the same time frame"

games?

[Espada @ Feb 19th 2008 3:11AM]

About time. Go Blu!