Toshiba shutting HD DVD manufacturing facilities: what will early adopters do?
Filed under: Electronics, High Definition | By: Daniel
Posted on: February 17, 2008 | 19 Comments
Two days ago Mark wrote about news breaking of Toshiba’s HD DVD format coming to an end and the company should be pulling the plug soon, but today we have it confirmed that Toshiba is shutting HD DVD manufacturing facilities in Aomori Prefecture, Japan.
This information is coming from an NHK article and Reuters, the official word from Toshiba should be coming within a couple of days.
So what will all the HD-DVD early adopters do now, all those external Xbox 360 HD-DVD drives and other players will be as useful as Beta Max soon.
If you own a HD-DVD player, we want to hear how you feel?
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good riddance HD-DVD. Blu-Ray’s extra capacity and big-majority studio support prevailed in the end…looong overdue!
It’s time to mend wounds and enjoy the next-gen DVD format.
Probably better to wait for Sony to settle on a blue ray standard, given the the first and second generation of blue ray players are not compatible nor ungradeable to take advantage of the new new blue ray movie features.
Probably better to wait 6 months for the whole thing to settle down.
Great news, the inevitable has happened. Come on Paramount and Universal we forgive you!
Have both players, but loved how smooth HD Dvd played. Far superior format, its a shame.
The Bluray group controlled the news media and bought off key opposition. It was not the consumer that made the choice, it was their propaganda. Anyone who looked at the hardware and overall value of HD-DVD, at least anyone that has a free mind and does not need anyone to tell them what is good, should have been able to select HD-DVD over Bluray. Business practices and misleading statements utilized by the Bluray group, at one time, would have be considered unfair business practices and they could have faced charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission. But I guess in this day and age, it’s just business. I think we will all pay for this mistake but I think in the long run the people that have supported Bluray will pay the most, at least when they find out what Bluray has in store for the future. Eliminating HD-DVD will not cause the price of Blueray hardware or movies to go down, in fact I think one of the first things we will see is the prices are going to go up.
I have my HD-DVD player that does a good job upscaling so I’m going back to SD.
yes thats clever lets wait for a compatable upgradable player.
oh but we just had one called hd dvd,
bunch of sony morons
I guess now that hddvd is done I’ll just have to settle for upconversion. I don’t plan on going blu ray. Too expensive, too many flaws, and the name blu ray is just too nerdy.
you are all just pathetic sorry losers and feel sorry for yourselves…get over it. You won’t be “sticking with SD” who’s kiding who here. Lick your wounds and start looking at reality
This goes to show how stupid some people can be when it comes to money. HD-DVD players cost less than half that of Blue-ray and both have the exact same picture quality. Unlike the VHS and Betamax wars where the public choose VHS because it was more economical, today the public is willing to pay more for something that does not provide anything better than the cheaper item. The cost to produce HD-DVDs is less than Blue-ray; therefore do not expect the cost of Blue-ray players or movies to go down in price soon. The only difference in players is how many hours of extras to watch. What I believe is most people have better things to do with their lives than to watch a movie and 10 hours of extras, but once again the business world has decided what is better for the people.
I Have the xbox 36o hd-dvd that I bought xmas 2006 for $150. Bought a 80 gb ps3 yesterday, I will be keeping both system and waiting on the fire sale on hd dvd movies. There will be a lot of returns on hd dvd player bought within the last 30 days, depending on return policies