HD DVD Promotion Group officially dissolves in a high-res burst of tears

Well, it's no surprise that it was going to happen, but the HD DVD Promotion Group officially dissolved today, leaving behind nothing but this terse message directing us to individual "selling agencies." And so, with literally nothing left of HD DVD, we formally close the sad chapter of consumer electronics history known as the HD Format War, remembering those times when HD DVD rode high, with low prices, more features and less restrictive rights management as its rallying cries, and the rantings of Michael Bay still only the delusional fantasies of a fool. May the resistance live on, and our PS3s always be reminded of a time when their ascension was not guaranteed. Red's dead, baby.

[Jake E. @ Mar 28th 2008 9:30PM]

So about the final nail in the coffin...

[Aguiluz @ Mar 28th 2008 9:38PM]

And about time!

[John @ Mar 28th 2008 11:51PM]

...and nothing of value was lost.

[Aguiluz @ Mar 29th 2008 1:06AM]

Et, tu, Blu-ray?
Then fall, Toshiba...






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_tu,_Brute%3F

[nDee @ Mar 29th 2008 2:18AM]

New exhibition in museum :
Betamax, HDDVD........

[El perron @ Mar 29th 2008 3:16AM]

Your precious blue ray format is already dead, just wait till Dark Knight comes out on HD DVD! lol

[Chuckles McGee @ Mar 29th 2008 1:57PM]

I'm sure there will be a "Best Memories of the HD-DVD Promotion Group" compilation video released a few years down the line...on Blu-ray, of course.

[Todd @ Mar 28th 2008 9:31PM]

( Steve Baller pours a little malt liquor out of 40 oz bottle )"...This is for my fallen Homie..."

[retro77 @ Mar 28th 2008 9:36PM]

rofl! good one!

[Anton @ Mar 28th 2008 9:32PM]

Well, it was fun while it lasted, eh?

[Khris @ Mar 28th 2008 9:34PM]

We interrupt your regularly scheduled HD-DVD reminiscing for this important message.

Blu-Ray prices rise sharply. More to come!

[Macha88 @ Mar 29th 2008 12:23AM]

HDDVD:Blu-ray, I am your father.
Blu-Ray: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooo

[Nathan @ Mar 29th 2008 12:43AM]

BluRay: "And what if I have a straw that reaches all the way across the room and starts drinking [HD DVD's] milkshake? I DRINK [HD DVD's] MILKSHAKE! (sluuuurp) I DRINK IT UP!"

[Sukhminder @ Mar 29th 2008 4:39AM]

*Bloodedied mess of HD DVD*

Blu-ray: I'm finished now

[retro77 @ Mar 28th 2008 9:35PM]

Idea: Turn HD-DVD into a storage only media versus consumer video.

[Taylor @ Mar 28th 2008 11:17PM]

Why would you do that when Blu-Ray has a much higher capacity?
HD-DVD's (non-Bluray) features were mostly in the interactive content department.

[HD-DVDsucsmyballs @ Mar 28th 2008 11:42PM]

Thank-You!!!! This was the defining moment that would define which format to choose - especially for those of of us who's career was on the line. ( The HD video production industry )

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 29th 2008 12:16AM]

HD-DVD was such a better format- especially when it came down to quality/cost... Blu-Ray is still trying to catch up to the features HD-DVD had from the start...

[Sukhminder @ Mar 29th 2008 4:43AM]

*Bloody

I don't know why I started making up words.

[DrXym @ Mar 29th 2008 6:32AM]

Zeus, a profile 2.0 does more than catch up with HD DVD, it surpasses it. BD-J and greater local storage means it can do a lot more than HD DVD ever could. Even so PIP and internet connectivity were and still are minor features and I'm not surprised the Blu Ray camp didn't hold up their release plans for them.

[retro77 @ Mar 29th 2008 10:36AM]

What about a mini-HD-DVD format for stuff like PSPs and Eee's and those other ultra portable devices?

[John @ Mar 29th 2008 12:59PM]

@DrXym : Is that what the $200 extra cost of a BR standalone is for ? The extra 768 MB of memory ?

Damn, memory is not cheap these days, I hope we're getting our dollars worth in interactive features. And of course, those will be so much cooler now that they're Blu instead of red... Yeah... Rrrrrrriggght.

[DrXym @ Mar 29th 2008 3:02PM]

John, "Is that what the $200 extra cost of a BR standalone is for ?"

No idiot, it's because Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Denon / Marantz et al, want to make money on their investment and therefore sell their Blu Ray players at a price that ensures a profit. At the same time they are competing with other CE's for your blu ray bucks so the prices are a reflection of manufacturing costs, profit margins and competition. In other words the prices start high and drop as the market grows.

On the other hand Toshiba had a monopoly on its format and sold their HD DVD players at a massive loss to try and win the war. Hence the disparity in prices. Sadly for Toshiba their tactics didn't work and their prices were so predatory that virtually no other CE would go anywhere near the format because there were zero profits in it.

[Jordan @ Mar 28th 2008 9:36PM]

Red vs Blu.
Caboose FTW.

[Aguiluz @ Mar 28th 2008 9:39PM]

Oddly enough, both technologies use blue lasers if I remember it correctly. This in turn effectively makes it Blue vs Blu.

[John @ Mar 28th 2008 11:34PM]

"If I die I want you to have my orange juice"
best.line.ever.

[Macha88 @ Mar 29th 2008 12:24AM]

replyed to wrong comment above
HDDVD:Blu-ray, I am your father.
Blu-Ray: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooo

[Blackstar @ Mar 29th 2008 4:58AM]

For the RvB fans....

"See, there is a base for the Red Team, and one for the Good Team!"

(or if you prefer Season 1...)

"Red Sucks, Blue Rules."

[Jagannath A @ Mar 28th 2008 9:38PM]

"still only the delusional fantasies of a fool"

haha I read it as tool ;)

btw I highly doubt they burst out in tears :p businessess care least about emotional bonds they would probably be rejoicing over the fact that its all over and they will now be back joining others in milking cash from all of us and just show a loss for whatever hap with HV-DVD

[kev @ Mar 28th 2008 9:53PM]

R.I.P

[Nickoladze @ Mar 28th 2008 9:57PM]

Not much of a loss when I can get HD DVDs for $5 each on eBay, and BR movies are over $30.

[Khris @ Mar 28th 2008 10:11PM]

Until you want a new release! ;)

[Nickoladze @ Mar 28th 2008 10:14PM]

With the crap being pumped out now, I'm completely content.

[BigD145 @ Mar 28th 2008 11:13PM]

Most of it has been crap since regular old DVD's were first used.

[fischju @ Mar 29th 2008 1:28AM]

I must live in opposite land. I bought an HD DVD player for $50 after the format was pronounced dead, and I'm currently surfing various sites and buying HD DVDs. (You can't beat these prices for HD media - remember kids, just because there aren't new movies doesn't mean the old ones stop working)

[Nickoladze @ Mar 29th 2008 1:31AM]

exactly, cheap HD DVD movies are the only reason I'm buying them in HD, they're cheaper than a regular DVD. As far as I can see into the future, I'm not buying a BR player.

[wraith808 @ Mar 29th 2008 11:22AM]

And to all of the people that say "when your HDDVD player stops working you won't be able to use those", wrong again. Most of the ones that I've bought are HDDVD/DVD combos. Something I still don't see in the Blu-ray camp. HD-DVDs marketing sucked. Drop the price of the players- sure. But they should have had the studios drop the price of the content to the DVD level with the combos, and *stop producing regular dvds*. That way HD-DVD content buy-in would have been a *lot* higher. Oh well.

[Killer @ Mar 28th 2008 10:21PM]

Well this is great...I'm still waiting on my 5 free movies. I sent both my Blu-ray and HD DVD rebates at the same time. Both have the same process time, but I got my Blu-ray movies 2 weeks ago and no HD DVDs in sight. I swear if I don't get the movies I'm entitled to, Someone is getting sued. (that's somewhat of sarcasm after all they're just movies)

[Rob @ Mar 28th 2008 10:44PM]

You're not kidding. I've sent for mine as well and now with this announcement, my chances of getting my freebies has completely vanished. Crap. Let's see what kind of excuse they give me. By the way, anyone has the contact number to check on the status of the movies. I'd be nice to at least know if they'd honor it or not.

[Samuel @ Mar 28th 2008 11:09PM]

yeah, I'm gonna be pissed too if I don't get my movies I sent off for in January....

[Killer @ Mar 28th 2008 11:56PM]

The # is 1-800-405-7520

[wickedpheonix @ Mar 28th 2008 10:23PM]

Is this the last, really last, RIP post? RIP then...

But I don't see myself getting any physical media (other than games) for a long time if ever. Digital downloads is the real future and I am embracing it :D

[Jon Doe. @ Mar 28th 2008 10:31PM]

No. Engadget is composed of BR lovers. They will be milking this until next year.

[Jon Doe. @ Mar 28th 2008 10:30PM]

Meanwhile BR players are actually going up in price...lovely...normally at the end of the war the civilians win....how did we win again other then with licensing fees that will keep content inflated for a while and hardware that still hasn't dipped below $200 let alone a good player under $300.

[Sam Zebian @ Mar 28th 2008 10:34PM]

Someone didn't get the memo...

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2164/504517659177481828lo5.jpg

[Killer @ Mar 28th 2008 10:38PM]

Well, Hello There! =D

[Sam Zebian @ Mar 28th 2008 10:53PM]

I just knew I should've posted this yesterday... I was looking up something about HD-DVD (I think it was a movie) and I saw that in Google images, and that thought popped up in my head. I was like "I should put this on the next HD-DVD article on engadget. Oh, they won't be posting anything on it for a while now, it's DEAD!(I have 2 HD-DVD players :( Now I'll have to wait for an article on HD-DVD..." fortunately, they posted one today.

[Jacob @ Mar 29th 2008 10:14AM]

I saw her waaaaay long ago, and now I think we should all resurrect HD DVD so she can have her job back lol. not that she'll have any trouble getting a new job

[tekdroid @ Mar 28th 2008 10:42PM]

This morning I saw the DRM Promotion Group is counting its cash on my SD lowdef TV.

[Kurian @ Mar 28th 2008 11:54PM]

Die bitch..