Feeling Blu: The Death of the HD DVD (R.I.P. 2005 – 2008)

By mega | Wed, Feb 20, 2008 12:00 pm

The battle has been won. To the victors, in this case Sony, go the spoils. Toshiba this week announced it was pulling the plug on it’s HD DVD format which had been embattled against Sony’s Blu-Ray HD format.

The tipping point seems to have been last month’s abandonment of the HD format by Warner Bros. Entertainment, the top DVD publisher, followed by Wal-mart’s decision to no longer carry DVDs in the HD format in their stores.

Toshiba’s decision to no longer develop, manufacture, or market HD DVD players and recorders at one point had bolstered the company’s stock, although what lies ahead for the company and the consumers who invested in the technology is unclear.

(See AP video story)

The big question however is what will be the impact on Toshiba’s other product lines. The company has a fairly deep commitment to the HD DVD product line. This includes HD DVD integration into some of its laptop PCs, and external drive accessories. The company now has the challenge of liquidating their surplus inventory, and dealing with irate consumers who bought the HD DVD player/recorders. Toshiba has announced that they will actually halt all production by the end of March, but will offer customer support for several years. The company has no plans to produce Blu-Ray players.

This demonstrates again the need for hardware manufacturers to collaborate on compatible formats instead of those that are mutually exclusive and proprietary. For companies like Toshiba, this circumstance clearly impacts profitability. For the consumer, it means early adoption is extremely risky and delays reasonable adoption rates. For all of us early adopters, don’t be scared, but weigh the risks of feeling blue, or prepare to enjoy the rewards of High Def!

See the side-by-side comparative analysis on EnGadget

Tech Tags: DVD, digital media, blu-ray, HD, Toshiba, Sony disc format

Category: Digital Media

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This post was written by:

mega - who has written 7 posts on Black Web 2.0.

Kevin McFall, is a media executive, with deep expertise and knowledge of digital product management and business development. Currently serving as President of Red Clay Digital, a consultancy providing guidance to company’s seeking to leverage online, mobile and other digital platforms for partnerships, customer acquisition and engagement. Prior to his current role, Kevin was co-founder and Vice President of Products & Content for RushmoreDrive.com a division of IAC. Prior to joining IAC, Kevin led digital product & affiliate programs for Zap2it.com TV & Movie guidance service (Tribune Company) as the Director of Products & Partnerships. His career has also positively impacted the American Bar Association, Sara Lee & Digital Equipment Corporations. Kevin is the immediate past president of the University of Illinois at Urbana’s Black Alumni Network, and is a lifetime member of the Alumni Association. Kevin currently serves on the Urbana Campus Alumni Advisory Board & on the board of the Inner City Computer Stars (icstars.org) Foundation. Kevin is an active member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity & several other national professional associations including the Minority Media Executives, Black MBAs, & NAMIC. Kevin earned an MBA from the Sperling School of Business at the University of Phoenix, and a B.S. in Computer Science & Mathematics, from the University of Illinois at Champaign.

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markus

Soon we may be talking about the death of Blu-Ray if the price of the media and devices don't go down. With the inception of services like Apple TV and Amazon's unbox downloading may be a better option.

Mega

Markus makes an excellent point, and that is that the need for physical media, will soon diminish completely as broadband penetration continues to prevail. So not only will the expensive Blu-Ray format get pulled, CDs and any other format of entertainment (with the exception of perhaps books because neither Amazon's Kindle nor Sony's eBook reader are making any headway in this space), will go the way of the dinosaur / 8 -track.

LaLaFuFu dotcom

They killed the wrong format. Defects (http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/16/blu-ray-disc...) in the bluray manufacturing process make me leary of any purchase of new bluray equipment to replace my already superior HD DVD equipment.

mega

What about Universal format players? That would seem to be the utopian scenario to have one of those. I have begun a quick search at my local Best Buy, Tweeter and Circuit City to see if I can find one.
Mega