HD DVD is officially dead; Toshiba stops production of defunct format

"Toshiba Corp is planning to stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video, allowing the competing Blu-Ray camp a free run, public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday," Nathan Layne reports for Reuters. "Toshiba is expected to suffer losses amounting to tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders and other steps to exit the business, Japan's NHK said on its website," Layne reports. "Toshiba was dealt a blow on Friday when Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it would abandon the HD DVD format, becoming the latest in a series of top retailers and movie studios to rally behind Blu-ray technology for high definition DVDs," Layne reports.

moxxey:

I doubt you'll see an internal blu-ray drive in the BV7 as B&O would be the only manufacturer to ship a TV with blu-ray built-in. The format is not that secure and, as we know, B&O like to see how the market develops. At the moment, the primary source of blu-ray playback is through the PS3 or external blu-ray drive.

A PS3 is a superb option. It's only £270, very quiet, you can use it as a media device (audio, photos, videos) and, of course, you can play top games such as Burnout Paradise. I'm no gamer, but this game has me hooked! First time I've played any game for years.

I read somewhere else in this forum that B&O are working on 100hz and BR for the BV7-40. However they want to sell the existing BV7-40 for probably a year before we will se an internal BR player. However I'm really interested in buying a new television now. But I don't like these extra boxes either. But when can we expect BR to be the common movie standard?

I notice more and more BR activity, so maybe it's about to explode? For instance I know that Genesis releases their "When in Rome" DVD in BR. A show recorded in 2007 before an audience of 500.000. Gotta see that with the best possible quality... Maybe PS3 will do for the time being, but not if it's impossible to later include the BR player in the BV7.

Hmm..

* Xbox 360 drives (worldwide) - 300k

* PCs with HD DVD (worldwide) - 300k

Standalone players/recorders: *

US - 600k units *

Europe - 100k units *

Japan - 30,000 units

So over a 1 million new electronics garbage.  now throw away your HD-DVD player and get a shiny new blu-ray.

who cares aboot blu ray and hd dvd ?

downloads are the future and apple are there already

the apple tv mk 2 has 720p hd available for a fraction of the cost of a blu ray and you don't clutter up the room with boxes either

what would you rather have ?

hundreds of discs filling up the shelves and a nightmare in cataloguing / finding the right film

or everything at your fingertips via an oh so intuitive remote control ?

personally i'm not buying any more hd dvds or blu rays from now on  

upscaled dvd looks pretty good to me and 720p HD downloads are more then enough , thankyaverymuch  

Flappo The Grate:

who cares aboot blu ray and hd dvd ?

downloads are the future and apple are there already

the apple tv mk 2 has 720p hd available for a fraction of the cost of a blu ray and you don't clutter up the room with boxes either

what would you rather have ?

hundreds of discs filling up the shelves and a nightmare in cataloguing / finding the right film

or everything at your fingertips via an oh so intuitive remote control ?

personally i'm not buying any more hd dvds or blu rays from now on  

upscaled dvd looks pretty good to me and 720p HD downloads are more then enough , thankyaverymuch  

 I think you'll find the content providers are very interested in the future of the Blue-Ray disc!

Another chance to sell you something you've already got or had and an opportunity to charge you more for what you want. Cynicism aside, many actually like having a library of discs and the manufacturers/content providers will be trying to take advantage of the huge uptake of "HD" panels in recent years by launching a huge marketing capaign to get players into homes and discs into people's Christmas stockings etc. now that the dust has settled.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/19/itunes_worldwide_bbc_confirmed/

interesting development

Addressing the initial request on this thread about which BD player to use:

 The Beosystem 1 currently offers IR control of the Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic Blu-Ray players. I should think that the BS3/BV7 will offer even more options for compatibility. With the Beo 5, you can program the inner and outer directional buttons on the round part of the remote to directly control the menu navigation and ff/rew/chapter up/chapter down navigation.

 The Playstation 3 is an excellent BD player, in my opinion, because Sony does a nice job of keeping the firmware updated to keep up with the latest Blu-Ray features. Also, the PS3 now supports divx (but with some limitations in compatibility). With a Lintronic device and a third-party IR adaptor, you can get around the drawback of the PS3 lacking an IR sensor. However, it's still not possible to power the Playstation on and off through IR control.

Something worth waiting for and watching is to see if Microsoft adds an inexpensive Blu-Ray external drive for their Xbox 360 (which they are rumored to be planning). The Xbox 360 has an excellent library of HD downloadable movie rentals. As downloadable content is expected to be the future of HD, this solution would give you the best of both world. Also, the Xbox 360 supports divx -- even more reliably than the PS3 does.

When and if (let's hope for "when") B&O provides a Blu-Ray player, this should offer some unexpected benefits. The BD format requires that all future BD players have the ability to connect to the internet via ethernet. This will enable firmware updates from B&O to be performed by the user at home -- no longer requiring expensive service visits from our dealer for firmware updates. Also, an internet connection could offer many extra features -- such as accessing CDDB for info about the CD/DVD/BD disc that is playing. 

Puncher:

Flappo The Grate:

who cares aboot blu ray and hd dvd ?

downloads are the future and apple are there already

the apple tv mk 2 has 720p hd available for a fraction of the cost of a blu ray and you don't clutter up the room with boxes either

what would you rather have ?

hundreds of discs filling up the shelves and a nightmare in cataloguing / finding the right film

or everything at your fingertips via an oh so intuitive remote control ?

personally i'm not buying any more hd dvds or blu rays from now on  

upscaled dvd looks pretty good to me and 720p HD downloads are more then enough , thankyaverymuch  

 I think you'll find the content providers are very interested in the future of the Blue-Ray disc!

Another chance to sell you something you've already got or had and an opportunity to charge you more for what you want. Cynicism aside, many actually like having a library of discs and the manufacturers/content providers will be trying to take advantage of the huge uptake of "HD" panels in recent years by launching a huge marketing capaign to get players into homes and discs into people's Christmas stockings etc. now that the dust has settled.

Ithink that flappo is right.. of course whants the industry blue  ray but internet will win I  think that is why B&O did a poll what kind of stuff you liked as radio speakers tv ect.

gr eric