The HD DVD format which was designed mostly by
Toshiba, under the
DVD Forum, is now officiallykaput.
Blu-ray Wins!
The current defacto standard format for high definition video discs is now Blu-ray.
The final move was made by Toshiba on Februray 19, 2008, when they announced
that they would no longer develop, manufacture, and market HD DVD players and
recorders.
This is good news for Sony and the fact it
has already standardized it's line of products around the winning format.
(Sony's flagship product, the PS3, is Blu-ray disc compatible.) After all, they had a huge part in leading the
format wars with it's stamp of approval: "Sony's Blu-Ray" as it's also known.
For Gamers, the choice is now painfully obvious: The Sony PS3, is the winning machine. All of the PS3's game titles are already in Blu-Ray disc format.
If you have an X-Box 360 HD DVD, you'll want to wait for
Microsoft to undoubtedly release a Blu-Ray
disc addon.
So that's it. You can now trash your HD DVD player. There will be
no more titles released in HD DVD format. There is not much more to say,
other than that the war is over...
So sorry to those folks who fell for purchasing a combo player.
I guess this was not a surprise. Blu-ray had been gaining momentum as of late, including their latest exclusives with
home rental leader, Blockbuster, online movie rental house giant, Netflix, and mega-store home entertainment distributor, Best Buy.
What of the AACS encryption key controversy? Remember when digg.com received cease and desist notices last year? Will the MPAA protect (via lawsuit) those 16-bit hexadecimal key-codes for the old HD DVDs?
