Engamer » HD DVD

The War is over, Blu-Ray wins. A video documentary.

mike — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:33:34 +0000

In other news, Microsoft is late to the party AGAIN. (I know it’s a lame analogy. At least I didn’t say “LAN party.”)

The HD DVD player for the XBox 360 is “officially” $50. Not recommended unless you have the shelf-space to buy one of every “limited edition”, made in China toy and keep it in the original packaging…

HD DVD is Dead: Toshiba Concedes the War to Blu-Ray

mike — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:07:08 +0000

Blu-Ray wins. Toshiba officially announced they will discontinue production of new HD DVD hardware.

The killing blow was probably Warner’s well-timed (or poorly-timed, depending on which side of the battle you were cheering for) pre-CES announcement that it was dropping publication of the HD DVD format. A big studio switching formats like that likely motivated the quick one-two of Blockbuster and Netflix officially supporting only Blu-Ray. After all the bad news Toshiba’s concession quickly followed the final Friday announcement by Wal-Mart that they would follow suit.

I’m actually shocked that Toshiba dropped out of the race so gracefully. Their losses may be into the hundreds of millions of dollars, but the move should save consumers a bundle as higher sales should lead Blu-Ray drive and disc prices to fall.

Speaking of falling prices, new and used XBox HD DVD drives accompanied by stacks of games are already littering eBay. Prices are only half what they were last week – and they’ll probably be half that after the holiday on Tuesday.

If you’re now in the market for a Blu-Ray player, the PS3 is future-proofed with support for version 2.0 of the Blu-Ray format. Oh, And, it plays games too.

The Long, Slow Death of HD DVD: Dropped by Netflix

mike — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:17:10 +0000

Netflix has made their choice too. They’re officially choosing a high-definition format and dropping HD DVD in favor of Blu-Ray.

This won’t be the last nail in HD DVD’s coffin, but it’s a major one. It also means you should cancel your order for that XBox 360 HD DVD add-on. Microsoft has already admitted that they “could still develop a Blu-ray Disc drive for the Xbox 360.” Get with it already Microsoft, you’re falling even farther behind PS3 in the tech race.

Anyone reading this actually buy an HD DVD add-on for the XBox 360? It’s hard to be sympathetic to money bags, but tell about it in the comments and we’ll try.

Update: It looks like Best Buy has followed the Netflix lead today. They’ll be pushing Blu-Ray players in stores, though they’ll continue to sell HD DVD discs.