Toshiba rumored to quit HD DVD as Wal-Mart pulls support
The conflict between high-definition disc formats is rapidly drawing to a close, as Wal-Mart is the latest store to back Blu-ray over HD DVD and Toshiba is reportedly poised to withdraw its format from the market in the near future.
The apparently reluctant concession would follow weeks of steep decline in support for the optical disc standard, which began with Warner Bros.' switch to Blu-ray as its exclusive HD movie format just ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Since then, Best Buy and Netflix have both chosen Blu-ray as their de facto choice for HD movies, relegating HD DVD to second-tier status and threatening to discontinue it entirely in the case of Netflix.
Several independent movie studios have also followed Warner's lead in opting for Blu-ray, with only Paramount and Universal now left as HD DVD supporters.
Just hours later, however, the likelihood of an HD DVD resurgence was dimmed even further by an official announcement by Wal-Mart that it would focus solely on Blu-ray. A statement issued by the big-box retailer on Friday revealed that the company would reorganize shelf space at all its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores within 30 days to promote Blu-ray alone. HD DVD products will exit the company's product channel entirely by June.
Wal-Mart's decision is anticipated to be especially damaging to HD DVD's prospects, as the nationwide chain is often regarded as the single largest video sales outlet in the US and is sometimes cited as a potential obstacle to widespread adoption of online movie downloads through its influence over movie studios' pricing.
And while Toshiba officially remains confident in HD DVD, its frequent partner Microsoft has itself seemingly scaled back its normally vocal endorsement of the beleaguered storage medium, says the Reporter. The Windows developer's technology evangelist for HD DVD, Kevin Collins, has reportedly failed to respond to multiple requests for comments.
Apple has largely kept to the sidelines during the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD, providing small amounts of support to both camps while declining to build either technology into its Mac range.
312 Comments
Awesome, now the hacker community knows where to focus it's efforts.
Wow. Can the news get any worse for HD DVD? One by one, the dominos fall. Blockbuster. Netflix. Best Buy. Circuit City. Wal-Mart. Warner. National Geographic. The HD DVD cheerleaders in this forum must be crying rivers. (They know who they are.) Even with fire sale prices, HD DVD still can't take over the majority of HD player sales and is losing so ridiculously badly in disc sales that it's not even a contest. Note that the Hollywood Reporter article says Toshiba has been bleeding money by selling each HD DVD player for hundreds below cost, something the HD DVD boosters have been screaming "Vicious, dirty rumor!" about for ages. Forget "stick a fork in it, it's done." It's blackened to a crisp.
Weren't there a few people here the other day asking for proof that HD DVD was dead? There you have it. HD DVD has lost support from Netflix, Blockbuster, Best Buy, Wall Mart, and now even Toshiba is dropping out.
So now you won't be able to rent, buy, or even buy a player for HD DVD disks.
At this point, the only people who think HD DVD isn't dead are people who bought HD DVD players and are hoping for a miracle. This war is now well beyond over.
Which doesn't bode well for the XBox 360, which is already suffering badly. With a drive that will essentially be useless soon for movies, it just lost its main competitive edge over the Wii, and it no longer compares in features to the PS3.
Now how long till a tosiba branded blu-ray player to add insult to this vast injury.
The one thing that helps take the sting out of one of these formats losing is the fact that both formats respective players are excellent upscaling DVD players. That couldn't be said for Laserdsic or Beta players.