HD-DVD a goner? | Movie News

HD-DVD a goner?
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Strike Back below!
by: Mike Sampson Feb. 15, 2008

UPDATE - As if you needed any more ammunition, Wal-Mart will go exclusive to Blu-ray in June. Ouch.

Ever since Blu-ray sent Warner Bros. a big fat check and convinced the studio to start sipping their Kool-Aid, the home entertainment looky lous have been clucking about how HD-DVD was done for. Well it looks like HD-DVD is done for. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Toshiba, the developer of HD-DVD, is expected to formally pull the plug on HD-DVD before the end of March. Toshiba would neither confirm nor deny the report but said they would "continue to study" the viability of HD-DVD. Data collected after the WB shift to Blu-ray says that HD-DVD has made up less than 10% of the hardware sales in the high-def DVD market (actual disc sales for early February are at about 80% Blu-ray). Toshiba was hoping that slashing prices on its players would still be able to entice consumers to opt with their format. But Netflix then dropped HD-DVD and Best Buy made the choice to recommend Blu-ray to all its shoppers. The low cost of players never caught on and Toshiba is losing money hand over fist on the players it drastically reduced. All this, of course, is good news for consumers who finally can dedicate themselves to one format instead of sitting back and waiting for a winner. Let's get this winner on-board and start moving on with our lives...

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Extra Tidbit: Will Microsoft start adding Blu-ray to Xbox 360?

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PumpyFly
3:32AM on 02/18/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
PS3!
A PLAYSTATION 3 is the best Blu-Ray player out there. And by the way, you don't have to buy all of your dvd's all over again people. You just start buying blu-ray discs from now on and keep your standard dvd's.
A PLAYSTATION 3 is the best Blu-Ray player out there. And by the way, you don't have to buy all of your dvd's all over again people. You just start buying blu-ray discs from now on and keep your standard dvd's.
 
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Ultimate_Surfer
12:22PM on 02/16/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
YESSS!!!!!
Die HD-DVD Die!!!! I'm so glad HD-DVD is dying and we can end this stupid HD war.



I'm glad buying a PS3 wasn't a complete waste, i'll get to play Blu-ray movies and when is that dame Home program going to release!!!! :(
Die HD-DVD Die!!!! I'm so glad HD-DVD is dying and we can end this stupid HD war.



I'm glad buying a PS3 wasn't a complete waste, i'll get to play Blu-ray movies and when is that dame Home program going to release!!!! :(
 
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sygnus
4:56AM on 02/16/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
Seems about over
It does seems that this is about over, however everyone said the same thing about HD-DVD when WB switched sides. Word was we would see a Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks defection asap. Months later and nada. I actually like both but prefer Blu as it has the biggest potential for growth. HD-DVD is a good product with far less starting gate flaws and a solid catalog of cool exclusive titles,...
It does seems that this is about over, however everyone said the same thing about HD-DVD when WB switched sides. Word was we would see a Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks defection asap. Months later and nada. I actually like both but prefer Blu as it has the biggest potential for growth. HD-DVD is a good product with far less starting gate flaws and a solid catalog of cool exclusive titles, but the Blu is damn sexy with a few blemishes to work out. Now what might be the wild card is this China thing. CH-DVD is possibly compatible with HD-DVD. That would be a freaking huge market to ignore. With this MASSIVE push in China for eveyone to be Hi-Def there for the Olympics, and a market place of hundreds of millions of hardware devices compatible with HD-DVD, maybe that is why Toshiba and the rest seems to be pushing through all the recent bad news for their camp. Who knows.
 
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skywalker25
4:40AM on 02/16/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
Microsoft and Blu-ray
I don't have an issue number, but I do remember reading an interview in OXM last year sometime about the HD DVD add-on. At the end of the interview the magazine asked if it turned out that Blu-ray was the clear winner, would they start to offer a Blu-ray add-on instead. The person being interviewed said they had already considered that and were not against the idea at all. Take from that what...
I don't have an issue number, but I do remember reading an interview in OXM last year sometime about the HD DVD add-on. At the end of the interview the magazine asked if it turned out that Blu-ray was the clear winner, would they start to offer a Blu-ray add-on instead. The person being interviewed said they had already considered that and were not against the idea at all. Take from that what you will.
 
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Spoonard
1:35AM on 02/16/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
HD DVD
I will continue buying HD DVD's till there is no more to buy. Then I will buy SD DVD's and use my Xbox 360 HD DVD player to upscale them. I WILL NOT SUPPORT BLU-RAY!!!
I will continue buying HD DVD's till there is no more to buy. Then I will buy SD DVD's and use my Xbox 360 HD DVD player to upscale them. I WILL NOT SUPPORT BLU-RAY!!!
 
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MasterChief3624
5:51PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
Argh, type it correctly...
It is HD DVD. No hyphen between HD and DVD.



Argh..



-.-



But anyways... I hate that HD DVD is losing. Blu-ray is not the better format. It's just the one that is making a bigger profit, so of course all the studios are flocking to it.



I hate this industry sometimes :|
It is HD DVD. No hyphen between HD and DVD.



Argh..



-.-



But anyways... I hate that HD DVD is losing. Blu-ray is not the better format. It's just the one that is making a bigger profit, so of course all the studios are flocking to it.



I hate this industry sometimes :|
 
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LoCkEd_N_LoAdEd
4:14PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
i'm happy
in my opinion, blu-ray is kicking HD-DVDs ass. and it shows. i have an xbox 360 and a ps3. i just use my ps3 for blu-ray. but i hope that microsoft makes a blu-ray player attatchment. that would be nasty =P



GT: DaCh0zen0ne
in my opinion, blu-ray is kicking HD-DVDs ass. and it shows. i have an xbox 360 and a ps3. i just use my ps3 for blu-ray. but i hope that microsoft makes a blu-ray player attatchment. that would be nasty =P



GT: DaCh0zen0ne
 
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the clever guy
4:03PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
hey cricker....do you have evidence to back up your claim that microsoft WILL be putting blu-ray drives into their 360's? while this may or may not be good news....i dont fucking like it one bit. more storage? better picture? blah blah blah? i dont give a shit. my dvd's play, look, sound, and seem just fucking fine. i fucking hate the fact that now i'm going to have to re-buy all of my goddamn...
hey cricker....do you have evidence to back up your claim that microsoft WILL be putting blu-ray drives into their 360's? while this may or may not be good news....i dont fucking like it one bit. more storage? better picture? blah blah blah? i dont give a shit. my dvd's play, look, sound, and seem just fucking fine. i fucking hate the fact that now i'm going to have to re-buy all of my goddamn dvds at some point. and then we'll have blu-ray forever...then some new fucking format will come out. vicious fucking cycle. it's bad enough we are dumb enough to "double dip" buy dvds (ooohhhhhh, 2 extra scenes and an extended commentary)....let alone $35 fucking blu-rays discs! god, who knows what that double-dip pricing will be!
 
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Brer B8a
3:45PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
johnhawks
Blu-Ray is not over are you kidding me? Companies are going to push blu-ray on everyone now just like they did with dvd's. Soon everyone is going to be forced to buy HDTV's and if you have ever seen how a regular dvd looks on an HDTV without a upconverting player, it looks like shit. Blu-ray players will play blu-ray and upconvert your DVD's, so why not spend a little extra for a blu-ray player...
Blu-Ray is not over are you kidding me? Companies are going to push blu-ray on everyone now just like they did with dvd's. Soon everyone is going to be forced to buy HDTV's and if you have ever seen how a regular dvd looks on an HDTV without a upconverting player, it looks like shit. Blu-ray players will play blu-ray and upconvert your DVD's, so why not spend a little extra for a blu-ray player that will play dvd's and blu-ray. Prices will eventually come down too. Don't think it is going to cost $400 for a player by this time next year. And the whole idea of a home entertainment ipod will never work. People want their hard copies so they can take them over to their friends house or let somebody borrow them and so on. Plus people aren't going to wait a week to download a 20 GB movie. Can you imagine your storage drive crashing along with all your movies you bought? That would suck. Blu-ray is going to be here for awhile.
 
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sanjayx2000
3:35PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
HD vs. BR
There is only one thing to say. The worst format allways win.
There is only one thing to say. The worst format allways win.
 
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johnhawks
2:16PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
bluray is over as well.
There is just not enough demand to buy an entirely new piece of hardware and re-buy all your movies just so the quality looks a little nicer. And only perfectionist geeks really give a shit any way.

The reason DVD caught on is because it was CONVENIENT. VHS melted and got wound up in your VCR and would naturally degrade. DVD's have a much longer shelf life, require less care AND had...
There is just not enough demand to buy an entirely new piece of hardware and re-buy all your movies just so the quality looks a little nicer. And only perfectionist geeks really give a shit any way.

The reason DVD caught on is because it was CONVENIENT. VHS melted and got wound up in your VCR and would naturally degrade. DVD's have a much longer shelf life, require less care AND had better picture quality, chapters, special features, etc. Blu-ray is the same fucking thing, except more expensive to the layman consumers eye. Most people don't even get it.

DVDs will not become obsolete until companies start mass marketing players that can have high quality digital films right into them and be stored in the hardware, like a home entertainment iPod. That's where we're heading and Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will go the way of Laserdisc, Beta and 8-Tracks. I've been saying this for years.
 
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theshadowalker
1:01PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
I'm still irked over the fact that many of my favourite movies haven't even been released on DVD yet; and, now that the format's becoming obsolete, those titles will probably go to the end of the queue...again!
I'm still irked over the fact that many of my favourite movies haven't even been released on DVD yet; and, now that the format's becoming obsolete, those titles will probably go to the end of the queue...again!
 
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shoe1985
12:20PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
It will probably take 5 years for standard DVD to disappear. Blu Ray had the advantage because it came installed with the PS3. For HD-DVD, you had to buy an add-on for the 360. It was just easier for people to go with Blu Ray.
It will probably take 5 years for standard DVD to disappear. Blu Ray had the advantage because it came installed with the PS3. For HD-DVD, you had to buy an add-on for the 360. It was just easier for people to go with Blu Ray.
 
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sunpaintedblack
12:18PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
over before it began
blu-ray discs hold more information. plain and simple. and not just a little, but a lot more. the release of American Gangster on HD-DVD cant even fit the extended cut with lossless audio without moving it to the 2nd disc, which is a standard dvd. if it was on blu-ray, both version of the movies plus the best audio tracks would have all fit on the same disc. and cricker is right, standard dvds...
blu-ray discs hold more information. plain and simple. and not just a little, but a lot more. the release of American Gangster on HD-DVD cant even fit the extended cut with lossless audio without moving it to the 2nd disc, which is a standard dvd. if it was on blu-ray, both version of the movies plus the best audio tracks would have all fit on the same disc. and cricker is right, standard dvds arent going anywhere for at least 5 years, but by then, it'll be all blu-ray and all downloadable content. every tv will be connected to the internet in some way, and instead of popping in your old dvds you'll just stream whatever you want right to your tv or set-top box. but for the best quality sound and video without waiting a day to download it, you'll go blu-ray. but for now, standard dvds are still the, well, standard, and theres no worry about that changing anytime soon.

oh, and i seriously doubt Sony would let microsoft put on a blu-ray drive to their xbox. that's what sony's PS3 is for.
 
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cricker
12:12PM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
great
This is good news for all of us. Once Hollywood gets on the same boat the prices will start coming down on players and movies. There will be less confusion within the market and DONT WORRY standard DVD isn't going anywhere for along time, especially since alot of DVD's look just as good as their high-def counterparts!!! Oh and by the way Microsoft will put in blue-ray drives they will have no...
This is good news for all of us. Once Hollywood gets on the same boat the prices will start coming down on players and movies. There will be less confusion within the market and DONT WORRY standard DVD isn't going anywhere for along time, especially since alot of DVD's look just as good as their high-def counterparts!!! Oh and by the way Microsoft will put in blue-ray drives they will have no choice and will actually benefit them in cost bc they wont have to produce hardware which isnt microsoft's strong suit
 
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ginopags
10:22AM on 02/15/2008 Add as a friend | MFC profile
What about...
What about standard DVD... how much longer will they keep pumping those out? Don't see the need to scrap those until the next, and hopefully final, format comes along... which is probably just years away (ummm, or already exists... digital!).
What about standard DVD... how much longer will they keep pumping those out? Don't see the need to scrap those until the next, and hopefully final, format comes along... which is probably just years away (ummm, or already exists... digital!).
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