Entries Tagged 'DVD' ↓

Toshiba Corp., the main developer and supported of the HD DVD disc format said today that they will cease production of HD DVD players. This move ends the format war over the next-generation video disc and hands the victory to Sony’s Blu-ray.

In a news conference today the CEO of Toshiba, Atsutoshi Nishida, said “It was a heartbreaking decision.” But the company realized that they had no chance of success after Warner Bros decided to go with Blu-ray and retail giants Best Buy and Wal-Mart also said they would only sell Blu-ray in the future.

According to Toshiba, they had sold about one million HD DVD players world wide including add-on players for the Microsoft Xbox 360 videogame console. In contrast, over six million devices that play Blu-ray Discs have been sold according to the Blu-ray Disc Association. That figure includes Sony Playstation 3 consoles which include a Blu-ray drive.

I just called 1-800-405-7520 about the 5 Free HD DVDs offer from Toshiba that I submitted in November but have not recieved. They claim there is a backlog and “call back in four weeks if they haven’t arrived.

Shall I hold my breath?

HD DVD is dead, for all intents and purposes, now that retail behemoth Wal-Mart has gone Blu.

Today they announced that all 4,000 U.S. Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores “will move forward this year with one hi-definition movie and hardware format: Blu-ray.”

A few months ago it was the Wal-Mart Secret Black Friday sale that convinced me to get a Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player for $99. Well, I guess it still makes a good upconverting DVD player with an HDMI output. I wonder if I will ever get the five free HD DVD movies that I sent in for.

Here is the official announcement from Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart Moving Exclusively Toward Blu-ray Format Movies and Players

Bentonville, Ark., Feb. 15, 2008 – Wal-Mart Stores, U.S. today announces that its 4,000 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores will move forward this year with one hi-definition movie and hardware format: Blu-ray. The change will take place quickly over the next several months whereby the retailer will phase out HD DVD offerings and reorganize shelf space. By June, Wal-Mart stores, Sam’s Clubs, www.walmart.com and www.samsclub.com will offer only Blu-ray movies and hardware machines, as well as standard definition movies and DVD players, and up converts.

“We’ve listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases,” said Gary Severson, senior vice president, Home Entertainment, Wal-Mart, U.S. “With the customers best interest in all we do, we wanted to share our decision and timeline with them as soon as possible, knowing it will help simplify their purchase decision, increase selection, and increase adoption long term. We anticipate enhancing our selection with continued great values in hi-definition Blu-ray products, so our customers can further enhance their entertainment experience at home.”

Wal-Mart will continue to sell through remaining HD DVD product, but in less than 30 days customers will see a more predominant move toward Blu-ray in stores, clubs and online. As the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart thoughtfully reviewed all areas and impact in making its decision, and is excited to move forward with one format and share its future plans with customers.

The Hollywood Reporter is saying that industry insiders expect that Toshiba will soon call it quits on HD DVD. This would effectively end the battle between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD for the next-generation optical disc format for home entertainment.

“An announcement is coming soon,” said one source close to the HD DVD camp. “It could be a matter of weeks.”

Perhaps the tide started shifting last summer when Blockbuster decided to offer only Blu-ray movies at all of its company-owned stores.

Then in January, Warner Home Video announced that they plan to abandon HD DVD and distribute their movies exclusively on Blu-ray Disc.

Perhaps the final blow was delivered earlier this week when Best Buy and Netflix both decided to support Blu-ray exclusively. Both companies cited Warner’s shift to Blu-ray as a key factor in their decision.

A Netflix spokesman said the format war appears to have been won by Blu-ray. He added, “We wanted to put an exclamation point behind that.”

The format war seems to be over as we wait for the official obituary.

HD DVD, we hardly knew ya.

Will Warner Brothers Blu-ray Support Mean the Death of HD DVD?

The New York Times proclaims “The high-definition DVD war is all but over.” That is their conclusion after Warner Brothers studio announced that they will be exclusively delivering HD movies on Blu-ray discs rather than HD DVD. Of all the Hollywood players, Warner has the largest share of the home entertainment market and this move may indeed be the beginning of the end to the standoff between the two competing High Definition disc formats.

This leaves Paramount, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation as the only studios remaining that will release movies on HD DVD. That is kind of a drag for me since I was one of the estimated 90,000 purchasers of the $98 Toshiba A2 HD DVD special sale at Wal-Mart in early November.

Barry M. Meyer, the CEO of Warner Brothers said “consolidating into one format is something that we felt was necessary for the health of the industry.” It seems that someone at least is finally taking action to end the confusion that is a major reason that consumers have been sitting on the sidelines when it comes to buying high-definition disc players.

Blu-ray Discs can hold up to 50 GB of data but how much of that capacity is actually used in a typical Blu-ray movie?.

Continue reading →

Is this the beginning of the end for DVD? Will Apple take a big slice out of the DVD movie market with video file downloads the same way iPods and music downloads have made music CDs little more than quaint relics of the technological past?

Yesterday, Apple Computer gave a sneak peek at a device they are calling iTV. At a media event where they launched a new generation of iPods and announced the inclusion of full-length movies on the iTunes store, they revealed plans for a white set-top box, half the size of a Mac Mini, that will connect to a TV display and wirelessly stream content stored on a separate computer to a TV’s digital or analog input.

The popularity of the iPod has propelled the Apple iTunes store to being the fifth largest legal distribution channel of music (including CDs) in the US, right behind retail giants Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target and Amazon. With the introduction last year of the video-capable iPod, Apple started selling TV shows for $1.99 a pop and the video downloads have proven to be very successful with most of the major networks jumping in to offer shows for sale as downloadable files.

The problem is that you are pretty much limited to viewing those 320 X 240 pixel resolution videos on the 2 inch screen of the iPod or a desktop or notebook computer. Television shows and movies are lean-back, feet propped up type of experiences that limit the appeal of the longer iTunes videos to captive commuters and technology early-adopters. Apple’s iTV box promises to fill in the missing link between the high-speed Internet connected computer sitting on a desk in the spare bedroom and the flat-panel TV hanging on the living room wall with an elegant simplicity, well-thought-out design and integrated media delivery service that made the iPod so popular.

The new movies will be encoded at 4X the resolution at 640 X 480 which they are calling “near DVD quality�? but is still well below the minimum HD resolution of 720 X 1280 and is not in the widescreen format that most DVD movies are distributed in. I don’t see myself eager to pump these squarish 4 X 3 format movies through my projector. I’ve become too spoiled by HDTV and panoramic movies on DVD to comfortably take a step backwards. That being said, it is only a matter of time before High Definition video makes its way to this device.

I see this as a major step in the direction of the future of Home Theater. The transition from renting movies on VHS to buying them on DVD shows that people want to collect their own library of favorite movies if the price is right. People have gotten used to having their music collection stored as digital files and hardly touch CDs anymore.

The iTV (Apple says this is just a working name) appears to be less than 1 inch tall, has a USB2 and Ethernet port as well as HDMI and Component video connections. A pair of left and right analog audio jacks and a digital Optical audio jack completes the simple rear panel. 802.11 wireless networking is built in and the interface as demonstrated appears to be an upgraded version of the Front Row software used in newer Apple computers with an iPod style remote control. Expect it to be available in the first part of next year for $299.

Clint DeBoer over at Audioholics.com thinks so and gives 10 Reasons Why High Definition DVD Formats Have Already Failed.

The first HD-DVD movie titles from Warner Home Video were due to arrive in stores on March 28. Now it appears that the launch will be delayed because of technical problems. This has caused Wal-Mart, who had been accepting advance orders since February, to cancel those orders and Best Buy has had to pull ads for the discs from their weekly circulars.

Toshiba is the only manufacturer to have HD-DVD players ready for store shelves and they are priced at $500 to $800. The HD-DVD discs are expected to retail for around $30.

HD-DVD is a next-generation technology that is being touted as a replacement for DVD-Video. Blu-Ray is a competing format that raises the spectre of when VHS and Beta videotape formats created confusion in the marketplace until VHS finally won out, much to the detriment of millions who had shelled out money for the Beta players.

Read the whole story here.