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HD-DVD facing its impending death

January 09, 2008 in News comments 19

It's been a bad week for HD-DVD and, if CES 2008 chatter is anything to go by, the future is only going to get darker for Toshiba's struggling format as studio supporters continue their steady defections to Blu-ray.

In a week that has seen media heavyweight Warner Bros abandon its HD neutrality in favour of signing with Sony’s Blu-ray format – a move quickly echoed by the defection of New Line Cinema – the future of Toshiba’s HD-DVD looks decidedly grim.

As things stand, amassed Blu-ray backers in Hollywood seriously outweigh those standing firm with HD-DVD, with only Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks, and Universal still offering their movie content to the ailing format.
mistermostyn via gaming.monstersandcritics.com »
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Most recently commented on by on Jan 11, 2008

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  • -1
    StarJet Jan 10, 08
    Goodbye, HD-DVD! *sob* You tried your best ... *Salutes HD-DVD for its efforts*
    LOL
  • 1
    ONeill Jan 10, 08
    HD-DVD's gonna die, Blu-ray for the win. Sony was always winning.
    • -1
      Cdemon Jan 11, 08
      Betamax, UMD, minidisc....
  • 0
    Supernouva Jan 10, 08
    It's not over till it's over. HD DVD may be declining as it stands, but it's not out yet.
    • 1
      SS4Gogeta Jan 10, 08
      That's very optimistic bro. Sony felt the same way over the Beta max vs. VHS war and the rest is history. But you are correct, "It ain't over 'til it's over."
  • 2
    Bale Fire* Jan 10, 08
    What do you mean? Only three studio's still support HD DVD and they are frantically scrabbling for a way out of the coffin they've made for themselves, its as good as over.
  • -2
    lord of vice city Jan 10, 08
    HD-DVD you have been a constant pain in the ass, its good to see you go

    lets hope they release transformers (2007) on blu-ray, dvd just doesnt do it justice
    • 0
      VeGiTAX2 Jan 11, 08
      When the final curtain comes I'll be disappointed to see the more consumer friendly (less drm-based / corporate content controlled / feature problematic) HD format take leave from the stage.

      Competition should have made BR discs more evolved in features and in implementation for the consumer, at this point it seems that the corporations have chosen what you will like and what you will be able to do with the format they assign you.
  • 1
    kik36 Jan 10, 08
    Now my only problem will be upgrading all of my DVD's (300+) into Blu-ray format. Blu-ray may be winning, but I'm frickin' losing!!! LOL
    • 1
      Guticb Jan 11, 08
      You don't have to do it. Buy a PS3. It upscales DVD's to HD.

      Obviously it's not quite the same thing, but it's still HD, and it still looks badass.
  • 0
    Incidnia Jan 10, 08
    HD-DVD should have never bothered coming out.


    And switching your entire movie collection over to Blu-Ray will be very expensive.
  • -1
    Reason Jan 10, 08
    I just feel sorry for the people that have bought HD DVD players and HD DVDs. Big waste of money.
  • 0
    doylie Jan 10, 08
    Whenever I see an advert for a dvd that says at the end 'Also available on HD-DVD' And I'm like 'aww... I feel sorry for you...'
  • 0
    moltenblade07 Jan 10, 08
    I always thought that HD-DVD would have put the blu-ray out of the market, not the other way around.
  • 0
    Supernouva Jan 10, 08
    Microsoft could still save HD DVD by simply adding an internal HD DVD drive to the X360. Now before someone goes off on a tangent ranting on about how terrible an idea that might be, I think it is a good idea for a couple reasons.

    The first one being, HD DVD is losing in the movie business, in other words, it's losing support from movie companies like we've seen in recent reports. Now then, adding HD DVD to the 360 for the HD movies is not the point, although it is a bonus. The point is, HD DVD holds a max of 30GB of memory on a dual disc layer, which is 3 times larger than that of DVD-9, the disc format that the 360 uses for games currently. So, Xbox 360 gets the internal HD DVD drive, and game developers would have more room to develop games on the HD DVD format. HD DVD is relatively cheap, cheaper than Blu-ray, which is why for some time it faired very well against its rival format.

    Now for a question. Why is Blu-ray winning? Why are movie companies shifting in favor of the format? Time and time again, the same argument comes up as to why Blu-ray is better than HD DVD, "because it has more space than HD DVD." That is true, but is that the ONLY reason Blu-ray is surpassing HD DVD? If it is, then what's to say that the guys at Toshiba decide "hey, what if we increased the capacity of an HD DVD disc to...60GB?" Wouldn't that put HD DVD ahead of Blu-ray, even if only by 10GB? And what if they don't stop there and continue to expand like Sony is contemplating to do with Blu-ray?

    Anyway, HD DVD is obviously declining and Blu-ray has taken first place. But Toshiba can do two things in this situation: One, throw in the towel and regret ever making HD DVD, or two, improve on what they got now so that HD DVD might just regain some ground.
    • -1
      SS4Gogeta Jan 11, 08
      Bro, Toshiba can't put enough lipstick on this pig to make it attractive. I like the idea of Microsoft putting a HD-DVD player in each 360. The problem with that? The already 18,000,000 360 owners without it, besides developers can still make games on the HD-DVD format and allow existing owners to simply purchase the add on.
    • 3
      Shadow of Death* Jan 11, 08
      SS4Gogeta...please -_- That isn't gonna happen, and would be an utterly moronic way fo going about it...Think about it, seriously, how many gamers are REALLY going to go out and buy the attachment? And for that matter, how many devs are actually going to try to develop gams on HD-DVD with such a little market for it? It i a NON-STANDARD device...aside from a few niche games (Guitar hero, rock band,and Camera based games), it is impractical....Like, the non-standard HDD means that devs can't make it required that the games load some content on the hard drive to speed up loading times....that is done with the PS3 because each SKU has a standard HDD >_>

      I've already said several times on other articles, that MS would have been better off in the Long run if HD-DVD was offered as the media of choice for the 360 from the start...expensive to start with, sure, probably jacking up the price a fair bit ($100 at least, I'd guess), but that would have both helped HD-DVD AND MS in the long run....MS's quick entry with the 360 was good for a start, but in the long run, the non-standard HDD and usage of DVD9 will lead to serious limits in gaming....
    • 1
      Shadow of Death* Jan 11, 08
      (Again, can't edit)...

      To clarify, what I meant about a "Aside from a few niche games, it isn impractical", I mean it is impractical to require a 'purchased separately' peripheral for the game to work....some games offer extra function with certain peripherals (like put your face on a char with your camera), but they are not required, and are just novelties....

      So some games will work fine with their own peripherals, but ONLY if the achieve market success (like with Guitar hero)....

      Games in general will work even less so, because they'll design what must be a HUGE game (to require the HD-DVD space), but it will only be purchased by those willing to spend an extra $100 for a peripheral? They will not likely sell enough copies of the game for it to be worth the huge development costs they'd like have, designing such a big game...
  • 1
    Storm* Jan 11, 08
    Supernouva makes a good point. If I didn't have to purcahse an external HD-DVD player, I would have surely bought HD-DVDs to play on the 360. After purchasing the $100 wireless adapter, though...I just couldn't go through with another expensive attachment.

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