As widely reported, Toshiba has given up on its HD-DVD format, conceding defeat to Blu-Ray in the war for the next-generation of optical media. After recent studio defections the decision was largely expected, although the accelerated wind-down comes as a little bit of a surprise — they expect to cease production by the end of March 2008.

For those (like myself) who have HD-DVD equipment, this isn’t really the end of the world as there are hundreds of HD-DVD titles out there already which will hopefully soon be discounted. Blu-Ray hardware has come down in price to the point where it isn’t entirely nonsensical to own both players and LG have announced they will continue manufacturing their dual-media players.

I have seen a few media reports bemoaning the fate of people stuck with a large number of "obsolete" HD-DVD titles which strikes me as ridiculous — it’s not like the discs suddenly become unplayable after this announcement. I assume anyone with a decent collection will continue to pad it out and eventually (if they haven’t already) move to Blu-Ray for future titles (and for BR exclusives.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 16:20 and is filed under Home Theater.