It’s official: HD-DVD is dead…Blu-ray is the victor

Toshiba officially put the last nail in the HD-DVD coffin – today, Toshiba announced they will cease HD-DVD player production and replication. They will phase out HD-DVD by the end of March 2008. Warner Bros. decision to go Blu-ray exclusive this past January was one nail in the coffin. The second nail was delivered by the retailers (Best Buy, Netflix, and Walmart). After these two it was only a matter of time before Toshiba raised the white flag.

As most of you know, I was an early supporter of HD-DVD but when WB went BD exclusive, I was ready for this format war to end so we can all unite under one HD format. Do I regret my decision in buying an HD-DVD player? Heck no. I bought the Toshiba HD-A1 for it’s excellent ability to upscale SD DVDs to 1080i and looked at HD-DVD as a ‘bonus.’ The HD-A1 was also appr. $300 cheaper than the Denon DVD-2910 that I was contemplating on buying.

Anyways, we’ve already gotten an announcement from Universal Studios (one of the two HD-DVD exclusive studios) stating that future titles and catalog titles will be released on Blu-ray disc. Although Paramount hasn’t officially announced anything it’s obvious they will support Blu-ray (again).

Now, let’s hope the BD association starts lowering the prices of players and movies. The next battle for BD will be against HD movie downloads/rentals.

[via Format War Central]

Filed under: Blu-ray, HD DVD, Home Theater, Movies

Blu-ray Deal: Buy 2 get 1 free

Amazon is having a buy 2 get 1 free deal on select Blu-ray titles. There are approximately 180 titles that qualify – just make sure you view each genre (action & adventure, drama & family friendly, etc.) by clicking on the tabs on top of the page.

I bought Black Hawk Down, House of Flying Daggers, & Underworld: Evolution for $38 ($12.66/title) – a pretty darn good deal.

The price varies so if you’re buying a lot of discs make sure you divide your purchase into separate orders. For example, all $15.95 discs in one order and all $23.95 discs in another because Amazon gives the cheapest disc to you for free.
Not sure how long this deal will last so buy ’em if you can!

Filed under: Amazon, Blu-ray, Deals, Home Theater, Movies

Looks like Blu-ray is going to beat HD-DVD

I’m a bit sad to write this but it looks like Blu-ray is going to win the HD DVD format war now that Warner Bros. has gone Blu-ray exclusive. Now, Blu-ray has a large majority of the studios supporting it – the only exclusive studios supporting HD-DVD are Universal Studios and Paramount. However, there have been rumors that they will also go neutral or Blu-ray exclusive but I don’t think we’ll see them go Blu in the near future since Universal publicly stated that their ‘current plan is to continue to support HD-DVD’ (notice how they used the words “current plan” which tells me they’re starting to think in Blu).

Let’s make this easier, here’s a list of what’s happened since Warner Bros. went Blu-ray exclusive:

• Paramount also says their “current plan” is to stick with HD-DVD
• New Line says they are also going Blu-ray exclusive
• HBO is going Blu-ray exclusive
• The HD-DVD booth at the CES show was desolate. There were also reports that at CES Blu-ray had all of the mojo.
• Constantin Film goes Blu-ray exclusive
• The HD-DVD group fires back and slashes hardware and software prices
• Nielsen VideoScan reports Blu-ray market share for the week ending January 13 = 85% compared to year to date of 74%. It was also the first time where no HD-DVD title was in the top 10 sales for a given week.
• Rumors of Target going Blu-ray exclusive

Yeah, these are very dark times for the HD-DVD consortium and mostly for Toshiba since they are the primary backer of HD-DVD…and these are great times for the Blu-ray Disc (BD) consortium – especially Sony since they’re the primary backer of Blu-ray. However, I don’t think it’s gonna be a cake walk for BD to win the format war due to various reasons – the primary being that Universal and Paramount are still HD-DVD exclusive and the high BD player prices.

Personally, since the Warner Bros. announcement (Jan. 4) I broke down and bought a Blu-ray player (Playstation 3). I bought it about a week after the WB announcement. Needless to say, I think the writing’s on the wall for HD-DVD and it will die a slow death, which is very unfortunate because I’ve been a HD-DVD supporter from the beginning and I am NOT a Sony fan by any stretch of the imagination. I supported HD-DVD for various reasons that I won’t list because this post on Gizmodo sums it up almost perfectly.

Needless to say, I’m tired of this format war and am ready for it to end. Blu-ray has around 75% of Hollywood studios supporting it…and it hurts to say this but “go Blu.”

Filed under: Blu-ray, HD DVD, HDTV, Home Theater, Playstation 3

European PS3 Launch Confirmed: March 23, 2007

Sony has officially confirmed the PS3 launch with some deets: only the 60GB version will be available and priced at 425 GBP in the U.K. ($840 USD) and 599 Euros for the rest of Europe ($779 USD). With all of the negative mojo (Kotaku, NY Times) surrounding the PS3, who’s willing to bet PS3 sales will mirror the lackluster numbers in the U.S.?

Is it just me who thinks the PS3’s pricepoint is a bit ridiculous? Yes, I know the addition of the Blu-ray player adds a significant cost but $600 USD for a 60GB PS3 is a bit absurd and forcing gamers to pay for something they may not want is a bit unfair.

Filed under: Blu-ray, Gaming, Playstation 3, PS3