It seems that over the course of the last month, HD DVD has been taking loss after loss, but it seems the giant retailer Wal-Mart has finally put the final nail in the coffin.
The company announced this morning that it has chosen sides in the next-gen format war and that by June it will only be stocking Blu-ray Disc players, completely dropping HD DVD in the process.
Susan Chronister, of Wal-Mart’s video division wrote in her blog earlier this morning that the company made its decision following Best Buy’s and Netflix’s recent decision to snuff HD DVD.
“By June, Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines and, of course, standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players,” Chronister said. She then added, “if you bought the HD DVD player like me, I’d retire it to the bedroom, kid’s playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard-def movies, and make space for a (Blu-Ray Disc) player.”
That may be a good decision as well considering that HD DVD players are, on average, excellent up converting players for Standard Definition movies and are still much, much cheaper than its counterpart Blu-ray players.
As much as this latest blow hurts consumer choice, I hate to admit that this is the end for HD DVD. Lets see if Blu-ray fairs any better against digital downloads.
Result for: dvd player
First reported by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK and later confirmed by Toshiba itself, the next-gen format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray is finally over, with Toshiba planning on stopping production of HD DVD players.
The battle, which has raged on for the last couple of years, has often been compared to the Betamax-VHS battle of the MID 1980’s and has slowed down the development of what movie studios hope will become a multi-billion dollar industry over the next decade.
The final blow to HD DVD and Toshiba took place yesterday when the mammoth retailer Wal-Mart announced they would go Blu-ray exclusive beginning in June. Other recent news, such as Best Buy and Netflix’s decisions to support Blu-ray must have also weighed heavily on Toshiba’s decision.
“We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business,” said a Toshiba source, who also added that an official announcement could come as early as next week.
We will keep you updated on any word from Microsoft, Paramount, or Universal as to this latest word from Toshiba but for now it seems that all that can be said is R.I.P HD DVD.
Result for: dvd player
The high-end electronics maker Onkyo has also announced that it will be ending support for HD DVD and stopping all production of HD DVD players.
Although a couple of companies have recently decided to continue their support for HD DVD players Onkyo clearly felt differently following Toshiba’s recent decision to end support for HD DVD. “As Onkyo manufactures HD DVD players with core parts supplied by Toshiba,” Onkyo’s statement read, “it will be difficult for Onkyo to continue its further development and production of HD DVD players.”
Any future HD products will be made for Blu-ray, says the company, but it will offer full support for all its HD DVD products including after-sales service.
