It's official: Toshiba Quits HD DVD Business
- Thread starter Shawn
- Start date
Jedah Doma
Chroma Ma' Doma!,
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DurandalThoth said:
In two years, your collection of HD DVDs will be worth about as much as the complete collection of Dash Radio.
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- 6,059
The post is now in my sig, along with one of his other genius predictions. (We shall see.)Jedah Doma said:
legendofspeed
B. Jenet's Firstmate
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- Apr 1, 2004
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DurandalThoth said:
legendofspeed on January 15th said:HD-DVD = the next neo•geo! I'm just playing on that one, but I wouldn't be suprised if in a couple of months Dashy tries to making us think HD-DVD is the new ub3r ultr4 r4re
http://neo-geo.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2427196&postcount=14
legendofspeed
B. Jenet's Firstmate
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HD DVD casualty report: over 1m players, recorders, and drives lost to the format war
At all curious to find out just how rare that HD DVD player of yours really is? Well, we hate to tell you, but it's probably not rare enough to fetch anything special on eBay in a couple of years -- but still every bit rare (read: discontinued) enough to justify taking up space in your home theater. The numbers, according to Nishida-san, at this morning's press conference:
* Xbox 360 drives (worldwide) - 300k
* PCs with HD DVD (worldwide) - 300k
Standalone players/recorders:
* US - 600k units
* Europe - 100k units
* Japan - 30,000 units
Add it all up, and that's about a 1.3 million customers -- just a fraction of the 10m+ Blu-ray owners out there -- that got boned on HD DVD. Thanks, Toshiba and Sony!
At all curious to find out just how rare that HD DVD player of yours really is? Well, we hate to tell you, but it's probably not rare enough to fetch anything special on eBay in a couple of years -- but still every bit rare (read: discontinued) enough to justify taking up space in your home theater. The numbers, according to Nishida-san, at this morning's press conference:
* Xbox 360 drives (worldwide) - 300k
* PCs with HD DVD (worldwide) - 300k
Standalone players/recorders:
* US - 600k units
* Europe - 100k units
* Japan - 30,000 units
Add it all up, and that's about a 1.3 million customers -- just a fraction of the 10m+ Blu-ray owners out there -- that got boned on HD DVD. Thanks, Toshiba and Sony!
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- Posts
- 3,905
Sorwah said:
Who's "they"?
Blu-Ray just became the HD version of DVD. It's now just a standalone format, nothing more.
Regardless, most people don't really care anyway as they're basically happy with DVD and don't really notice the PQ quality difference over an upconverting player.
We do, but most don't and don't really care since other than PQ quality, no HD format offers anything different than DVD.
AVI files, for MP4 players, are a different story.
Kristian Meller said:
I dont agree, the only reason why the movie market came down was because of mass piracy. Prices are dictated by what people will pay, and all the movie studies compete with eachother through registered IP's, marketing and the sheer quality of the movie. Prices are solely dictated if the movies are selling or not, and if not then the prices are lowered.
The only competitor is dvd, which is an old format and it will gradually dissapate into a faint memory. Retailers will stop carrying it and people will be forced to upgrade leaving prices high, until piracy runs rampant again forcing yet a new standard to come out. Its all about politics and who can shove the biggest pile of money around.
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wizkid007 said:
You do know that movie prices just went down with like $10 in various stores all over the states, right? That happened just as it was made clear that Toshiba was dropping HD DVD.
And the fact that Funai is now ready with their cheap hardware, which WILL lower prices, isn't really up for discussion.
Kristian Meller said:
Which movies? Blueray movies? Or the HD dvd movies that every is now trying to get rid of. If you meant blueray movies, which titles exactly? The ones that are probably not selling, right? New releases that are currently sought after are not going to get a price reduction and will remain high. Not to mention the user base is still very small so even the newer titles wont sell nearly as well to an undedicated fanbase like the stand alone players would have. This will change though with the cheaper hardware, and of course time.
And cheap hardware = competition. Bringing overall hardware prices down, not software, if anything it will keep prices higher as more software will be sold of the bigger titles giving no incentive for a software price reduction.
People will eventually upgrade, its the nature of the beast.
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wizkid007 said:
Yes, Blu-ray movies, and no, it's a general thing, not just for the old ones no one wants. Now that there's just one format, companies aren't afraid of comitting to the wrong one, which will, of course, also help bring down prices. If they can buy more movies they'll get them for less.
Movie prices seem to be going down and now that there's interest from Funai and the like, hardware prices will, as mentioned, go down as well, in the near future.
Buro Destruct
Formerly known as, Buro Destruct, , Southtown Stre
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- Posts
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lol 10,000,000 Blu-ray owners.
Like half the mongoloids that own a PS3 even know what Blu-ray is, let alone own an HD television.
Like half the mongoloids that own a PS3 even know what Blu-ray is, let alone own an HD television.
legendofspeed
B. Jenet's Firstmate
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2004
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- 418
HD-DVD/Blu-ray always turns into a PS3 thread, so I'll keep it rolling:
PS3 Sold Faster Than Xbox 360 In Same Period
In a recent report released by VG Chartz, it was found that the Playstation 3 sold better in its first 14 months than the Xbox 360 did during the same period. According to VG Chartz, the Xbox 360 took four months longer to hit the 10 million units sold mark in its cycle than the PS3, which hit 10 million units worldwide in January. The numbers also show that the PS3 has been selling more consistently worldwide, rather than the Xbox 360's predominate strength in the North American market. February is turning out to be a whole host of good announcements for the PS3!
Report: PS3 sold faster than Xbox 360 for same period [Gamepro.com]
PS3 Sold Faster Than Xbox 360 In Same Period
In a recent report released by VG Chartz, it was found that the Playstation 3 sold better in its first 14 months than the Xbox 360 did during the same period. According to VG Chartz, the Xbox 360 took four months longer to hit the 10 million units sold mark in its cycle than the PS3, which hit 10 million units worldwide in January. The numbers also show that the PS3 has been selling more consistently worldwide, rather than the Xbox 360's predominate strength in the North American market. February is turning out to be a whole host of good announcements for the PS3!
Report: PS3 sold faster than Xbox 360 for same period [Gamepro.com]
legendofspeed
B. Jenet's Firstmate
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2004
- Posts
- 418
Good read, check it out:
Two years of battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray: a retrospective
It's hard to believe it's actually over, but for more than two years we've followed what has come to be one of our favorite topics as Blu has faced Red in a battle to be the next physical home media format. In the end it came down to studio and consumer electronic industry support -- not to mention the PS3 -- but it was by no means an easy victory, and just because it was more popular than HD DVD, doesn't mean Blu-ray can win over the hearts of millions of DVD fans. But while we wait to see how well Blu-ray is adopted by the masses, we wanted to take a second to look back at how it all ended up working out.
We'll start this story way back in the Summer of '05 where the talks to create a unified format broke down: this is the moment most of us realized we were in for some fun. Sure, this thing got started way before that, but we have to start somewhere and this is when it really began to get interesting. As HD DVD approached the BDA to join forces and demanded too many changes to the Blu-ray disc format, the BDA told them to pound sand.Early HD DVD prototypeNow that we knew there was going to be a format war, all that was left to do was wait -- and we did plenty of that as we saw the delay of the HD DVD launch from late '05 to the Spring of '06. Things were going to get worse before they got better, as two studios who had originally promised HD DVD exclusivity had announced in the Fall of '05 that they'd also release titles on Blu-ray. Paramount was the first studio to go purple, followed by Warner a few days later. This had many people wondering if this war would be over before it started, as Universal became the only remaining major studio to exclusively back HD DVD. Of course we all know now it did get started, but as we waited for things to kick off, Netflix let its intentions to support both formats be known.
At the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, we all oohed and aahed over the beautiful sights at the Blu-ray and HD DVD booths. Still, it was very apparent by the number of prototypes that Blu was going to have more hardware support, but HD DVD had the time advantage and was due to hit the streets in March. But March came and left, and HD DVD was delayed again, but this time by about a month to April 18th, 2006. No one knew how good either format would be, and while some assumed Blu-ray would look better because of it's capacity advantage, some were worried it wouldn't matter. In fact, many believed the studios would down convert the 1080p signal over component video which was the most common connection at the time. That fear was soon put to rest as one by one each studio announced it wouldn't set the Image Constraint Token (ICT) -- yet.
Although a few were lucky enough to find HD DVD players and titles for sale a few days early, most of us had to wait for the official release which came on April 18th 2006. Overall, the reviews were good, but the hardware was less than perfect and was most definitely first gen. Luckily, we didn't have to wait very long for replacements. Potentially more important, however, HD DVD had beaten Blu-ray to market by about two months -- thanks to Samsung delaying the first Blu-ray player.
Alas the wait was finally over and the format war officially started around June 15th as the Samsung BD-P1000 hits the streets. But as reviews starting to pour in, there was trouble in the Blu camp as some of the transfers from film were terrible -- so bad in fact, that a few titles were later replaced for free. This, combined with a bug in the first player that messed up its noise cancellation circuitry, left many thinking HD DVD was the clear choice for videophiles. But this wasn't the only problem -- most of the initial Blu-ray titles released were using MPEG2, which by itself doesn't pose much of a problem, but due to some issues producing BD50 discs, the authors of the discs had to make it all fit on a single layer disc (25GB). At this point, many in the Red camp were claiming that BD50 discs were a myth and would never come to market, and although it took about four months, on October 10th 2006, Sony's Click was released on Blu-ray as the first BD50 title.
PS3 and Xbox360Although the format war had officially started, we all knew things were just about to get rolling when the game consoles entered the scene. And in November, both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 add-on HD DVD drive were released. The PlayStation 3 had the craziest price anyone had ever seen on a gaming console at $499 (20GB), and although many were skeptical about its abilities as a Blu-ray player, it not only was the cheapest option at the time, but it was also by far the best. The Xbox 360 add-on was only $199, but required an additional purchase, making the two options very comparably priced. At this point, the debate of which would help their format was out of control. Claims were made in both directions about gamers and playing movies on a gaming console, but ultimately the PS3 was outselling the add-on by about five to one. It wasn't until much much later that we learned the impact that the PS3 would have on the outcome.
Going into CES 2007 the Blu-ray camp had really picked up a lot of steam after an embarrassing start. We knew things were far from over, and Blu was looking good. It didn't stay that way for very long as the Red camp picked up it's second hardware manufacture -- no we don't count the RCA -- and a big one at that, as LG not only announced the first dual format player at CES, but it actually hit the streets a week or two later.
The rub was of course that although it would play HD DVD movies, it didn't support HDi, so the best part of HD DVD was not included. But LG wasn't the only one with a surprise at CES, as Warner was there to announce its Total HD disc. Sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was short on details and seemed like a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
owards the end of 2006, both formats were seeing moderate success, and although HD DVD had outsold Casino Royale Blu-rayBlu-ray every week of year, the charts pulled a 180 half way through December and Blu-ray was off to a good start in 2007 -- it went on to win every week that year. The first title to really move any volume was Casino Royale, which Sony touted the fact that it shipped over 100k copies, but unfortunately for Blu, only half of them were actually sold. At this point, many analysts believed that the HD movie market was Blu-ray's for the taking. Sales were good, but Blu-ray wasn't doing anything to seal the deal, and after a few months of silence, HD DVD got a break in the way of a fantastic rumor that seems downright silly in hindsight. How so? In April of '07, $300 for a Chinese HD DVD player at Wal-Mart sounded like a great deal, but a week later we learned there wasn't much to the rumor, but of course HD DVD had the last laugh as Toshiba brand HD DVD players were available for $98 at Wal-Mart during a pre-Black Friday sale in November.
The Blu-ray Disc Association wasn't going to take this lying down, and somehow managed to get Blockbuster to announce it'd only carry Blu-ray titles in many of its stores. Many still believe that there was some sort of deal going on here, and although it was argued that this was a non-announcement, we heard at least a few sales people say something like "if you want'a rent movies, then Blu-ray is for you" -- despite the fact that it wasn't true.
Transformers HD DVDThen, in the Fall of '07, HD DVD dropped the bomb on the BDA, one that could've very easily been the watershed moment that shifted things in its favor. Paramount and Dreamworks announced it would no longer release its movies on Blu-ray. This was very sudden and in fact one title (Blades of Glory) still managed to make its way on to Blu-ray and still goes for a premium on the second-hand market. Many were predicting that this was the first of many defections from Blu-ray, but rumors quickly surfaced indicating that there was a backdoor deal involved and while it was never definitively confirmed, many believe Paramount made out. But not everyone working with Paramount was on board, as Michael Bay was already planning on releasing his latest project on Blu-ray, and was not bashful about voicing his beef with the fact that Transformers wouldn't be released on Blu-ray.
Toshiba's new alliance with Paramount soon paid off as Transformers set new records for sales, but it wasn't enough to take that week's Nielsen VideoScan numbers as Blu-ray's defensive buy one get one free offer kept Blu ahead by a mere 1 percent -- the closest Red ever got to winning a single week since December of '06.
Moving into the holiday season, Blu looked like it had an answer for every HD DVD offensive and even though HD DVD had a few very successful hardware sales before Thanksgiving, the Nielsen VideoScan numbers continued to show Blu-ray with a solid lead -- many considered media sales the most important metric when measuring the success of a format. But regardless of sales, it seemed like a stalemate and many wondered if it'd ever end. What we didn't realize was that when Warner decided to kill off its Total HD disc plans, that soon after it'd make a move that would be remembered as the one thing that sealed the deal for Blu-ray. We did suspect something was up because for the first time ever Warner released a Blu-ray title with arguably better specifications than its HD DVD counterpart, and consumers finally had a choice between HD DVD's interactivity or Blu-ray HD supplements. It wasn't long before we learned that more people chose the Blu-ray version and we believe this is a big part of the reason why Warner eventually made the decision that it did.
Meanwhile, the Blu-ray spec continued to be a work in progress as Sony released a firmware update for the PS3 that -- among other things -- made it the first Bonus View (Profile 1.10) compatible player.
Leading up to CES 2008, we heard many rumors that Warner was going to make a move and many of our readers were convinced that Warner was going Blu and that it'd mean the end for HD DVD. And just before the big show, Warner dropped the final big bomb on Red, letting the whole world know that it was over between 'em. As we all expected, rumors of payoffs were in the air and we have no doubt some sort of deal was made. Warner insists it was doing what it thought was best for the home media business -- of which Warner owns most of.
After Warner's big announcement, we wondered how HD DVD would (or could) fire back, but for the first time, we think Toshiba was caught off guard, as not only was the HD DVD CES press event canceled, but the official response to Warner's move was down right somber.
After the dust from CES settled, things really started to get interesting as the HD DVD camp starting seeing defections right and left, and although it held on to its core by not losing any studios, companies like Netflix and Wal-Mart seemed to know something no one else did. At this point we're not sure which came first, but regardless, within a week of Netflix, Wal-Mart and Best Buy announcing their love for all things Blu, the rumors of the official end for HD DVD starting coming in so solid that not even the most devout HD DVD fanboy could feel at ease.
Finally, Toshiba held a press conference in Japan that would effectively and definitively end the HD media format war after 1 year, 10 months and 5 days.
In retrospect, it was the PS3 and its owners who won the war for Blu-ray. Despite what many believed, PS3 owners were buying Blu-ray movies and although it was a small fraction, it was enough to convince the studios Blu-ray had the most potential to be the next physical format -- that and because the BDA was willing to offer a few anti-consumer features like BD+ and region coding. We can certainly appreciate Toshiba not having any regrets about the way it approached HD DVD, and although it didn't win when it was all said and done, we believe HD DVD did successfully pressure Blu-ray to step up its game. Red forced Blu to be more concerned about its transfers and authoring, to reduce prices earlier than it may have liked, and to market itself more heavily than if there was no format war at all.
Two years of battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray: a retrospective
It's hard to believe it's actually over, but for more than two years we've followed what has come to be one of our favorite topics as Blu has faced Red in a battle to be the next physical home media format. In the end it came down to studio and consumer electronic industry support -- not to mention the PS3 -- but it was by no means an easy victory, and just because it was more popular than HD DVD, doesn't mean Blu-ray can win over the hearts of millions of DVD fans. But while we wait to see how well Blu-ray is adopted by the masses, we wanted to take a second to look back at how it all ended up working out.
We'll start this story way back in the Summer of '05 where the talks to create a unified format broke down: this is the moment most of us realized we were in for some fun. Sure, this thing got started way before that, but we have to start somewhere and this is when it really began to get interesting. As HD DVD approached the BDA to join forces and demanded too many changes to the Blu-ray disc format, the BDA told them to pound sand.Early HD DVD prototypeNow that we knew there was going to be a format war, all that was left to do was wait -- and we did plenty of that as we saw the delay of the HD DVD launch from late '05 to the Spring of '06. Things were going to get worse before they got better, as two studios who had originally promised HD DVD exclusivity had announced in the Fall of '05 that they'd also release titles on Blu-ray. Paramount was the first studio to go purple, followed by Warner a few days later. This had many people wondering if this war would be over before it started, as Universal became the only remaining major studio to exclusively back HD DVD. Of course we all know now it did get started, but as we waited for things to kick off, Netflix let its intentions to support both formats be known.
At the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, we all oohed and aahed over the beautiful sights at the Blu-ray and HD DVD booths. Still, it was very apparent by the number of prototypes that Blu was going to have more hardware support, but HD DVD had the time advantage and was due to hit the streets in March. But March came and left, and HD DVD was delayed again, but this time by about a month to April 18th, 2006. No one knew how good either format would be, and while some assumed Blu-ray would look better because of it's capacity advantage, some were worried it wouldn't matter. In fact, many believed the studios would down convert the 1080p signal over component video which was the most common connection at the time. That fear was soon put to rest as one by one each studio announced it wouldn't set the Image Constraint Token (ICT) -- yet.
Although a few were lucky enough to find HD DVD players and titles for sale a few days early, most of us had to wait for the official release which came on April 18th 2006. Overall, the reviews were good, but the hardware was less than perfect and was most definitely first gen. Luckily, we didn't have to wait very long for replacements. Potentially more important, however, HD DVD had beaten Blu-ray to market by about two months -- thanks to Samsung delaying the first Blu-ray player.
Alas the wait was finally over and the format war officially started around June 15th as the Samsung BD-P1000 hits the streets. But as reviews starting to pour in, there was trouble in the Blu camp as some of the transfers from film were terrible -- so bad in fact, that a few titles were later replaced for free. This, combined with a bug in the first player that messed up its noise cancellation circuitry, left many thinking HD DVD was the clear choice for videophiles. But this wasn't the only problem -- most of the initial Blu-ray titles released were using MPEG2, which by itself doesn't pose much of a problem, but due to some issues producing BD50 discs, the authors of the discs had to make it all fit on a single layer disc (25GB). At this point, many in the Red camp were claiming that BD50 discs were a myth and would never come to market, and although it took about four months, on October 10th 2006, Sony's Click was released on Blu-ray as the first BD50 title.
PS3 and Xbox360Although the format war had officially started, we all knew things were just about to get rolling when the game consoles entered the scene. And in November, both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 add-on HD DVD drive were released. The PlayStation 3 had the craziest price anyone had ever seen on a gaming console at $499 (20GB), and although many were skeptical about its abilities as a Blu-ray player, it not only was the cheapest option at the time, but it was also by far the best. The Xbox 360 add-on was only $199, but required an additional purchase, making the two options very comparably priced. At this point, the debate of which would help their format was out of control. Claims were made in both directions about gamers and playing movies on a gaming console, but ultimately the PS3 was outselling the add-on by about five to one. It wasn't until much much later that we learned the impact that the PS3 would have on the outcome.
Going into CES 2007 the Blu-ray camp had really picked up a lot of steam after an embarrassing start. We knew things were far from over, and Blu was looking good. It didn't stay that way for very long as the Red camp picked up it's second hardware manufacture -- no we don't count the RCA -- and a big one at that, as LG not only announced the first dual format player at CES, but it actually hit the streets a week or two later.
The rub was of course that although it would play HD DVD movies, it didn't support HDi, so the best part of HD DVD was not included. But LG wasn't the only one with a surprise at CES, as Warner was there to announce its Total HD disc. Sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was short on details and seemed like a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
owards the end of 2006, both formats were seeing moderate success, and although HD DVD had outsold Casino Royale Blu-rayBlu-ray every week of year, the charts pulled a 180 half way through December and Blu-ray was off to a good start in 2007 -- it went on to win every week that year. The first title to really move any volume was Casino Royale, which Sony touted the fact that it shipped over 100k copies, but unfortunately for Blu, only half of them were actually sold. At this point, many analysts believed that the HD movie market was Blu-ray's for the taking. Sales were good, but Blu-ray wasn't doing anything to seal the deal, and after a few months of silence, HD DVD got a break in the way of a fantastic rumor that seems downright silly in hindsight. How so? In April of '07, $300 for a Chinese HD DVD player at Wal-Mart sounded like a great deal, but a week later we learned there wasn't much to the rumor, but of course HD DVD had the last laugh as Toshiba brand HD DVD players were available for $98 at Wal-Mart during a pre-Black Friday sale in November.
The Blu-ray Disc Association wasn't going to take this lying down, and somehow managed to get Blockbuster to announce it'd only carry Blu-ray titles in many of its stores. Many still believe that there was some sort of deal going on here, and although it was argued that this was a non-announcement, we heard at least a few sales people say something like "if you want'a rent movies, then Blu-ray is for you" -- despite the fact that it wasn't true.
Transformers HD DVDThen, in the Fall of '07, HD DVD dropped the bomb on the BDA, one that could've very easily been the watershed moment that shifted things in its favor. Paramount and Dreamworks announced it would no longer release its movies on Blu-ray. This was very sudden and in fact one title (Blades of Glory) still managed to make its way on to Blu-ray and still goes for a premium on the second-hand market. Many were predicting that this was the first of many defections from Blu-ray, but rumors quickly surfaced indicating that there was a backdoor deal involved and while it was never definitively confirmed, many believe Paramount made out. But not everyone working with Paramount was on board, as Michael Bay was already planning on releasing his latest project on Blu-ray, and was not bashful about voicing his beef with the fact that Transformers wouldn't be released on Blu-ray.
Toshiba's new alliance with Paramount soon paid off as Transformers set new records for sales, but it wasn't enough to take that week's Nielsen VideoScan numbers as Blu-ray's defensive buy one get one free offer kept Blu ahead by a mere 1 percent -- the closest Red ever got to winning a single week since December of '06.
Moving into the holiday season, Blu looked like it had an answer for every HD DVD offensive and even though HD DVD had a few very successful hardware sales before Thanksgiving, the Nielsen VideoScan numbers continued to show Blu-ray with a solid lead -- many considered media sales the most important metric when measuring the success of a format. But regardless of sales, it seemed like a stalemate and many wondered if it'd ever end. What we didn't realize was that when Warner decided to kill off its Total HD disc plans, that soon after it'd make a move that would be remembered as the one thing that sealed the deal for Blu-ray. We did suspect something was up because for the first time ever Warner released a Blu-ray title with arguably better specifications than its HD DVD counterpart, and consumers finally had a choice between HD DVD's interactivity or Blu-ray HD supplements. It wasn't long before we learned that more people chose the Blu-ray version and we believe this is a big part of the reason why Warner eventually made the decision that it did.
Meanwhile, the Blu-ray spec continued to be a work in progress as Sony released a firmware update for the PS3 that -- among other things -- made it the first Bonus View (Profile 1.10) compatible player.
Leading up to CES 2008, we heard many rumors that Warner was going to make a move and many of our readers were convinced that Warner was going Blu and that it'd mean the end for HD DVD. And just before the big show, Warner dropped the final big bomb on Red, letting the whole world know that it was over between 'em. As we all expected, rumors of payoffs were in the air and we have no doubt some sort of deal was made. Warner insists it was doing what it thought was best for the home media business -- of which Warner owns most of.
After Warner's big announcement, we wondered how HD DVD would (or could) fire back, but for the first time, we think Toshiba was caught off guard, as not only was the HD DVD CES press event canceled, but the official response to Warner's move was down right somber.
After the dust from CES settled, things really started to get interesting as the HD DVD camp starting seeing defections right and left, and although it held on to its core by not losing any studios, companies like Netflix and Wal-Mart seemed to know something no one else did. At this point we're not sure which came first, but regardless, within a week of Netflix, Wal-Mart and Best Buy announcing their love for all things Blu, the rumors of the official end for HD DVD starting coming in so solid that not even the most devout HD DVD fanboy could feel at ease.
Finally, Toshiba held a press conference in Japan that would effectively and definitively end the HD media format war after 1 year, 10 months and 5 days.
In retrospect, it was the PS3 and its owners who won the war for Blu-ray. Despite what many believed, PS3 owners were buying Blu-ray movies and although it was a small fraction, it was enough to convince the studios Blu-ray had the most potential to be the next physical format -- that and because the BDA was willing to offer a few anti-consumer features like BD+ and region coding. We can certainly appreciate Toshiba not having any regrets about the way it approached HD DVD, and although it didn't win when it was all said and done, we believe HD DVD did successfully pressure Blu-ray to step up its game. Red forced Blu to be more concerned about its transfers and authoring, to reduce prices earlier than it may have liked, and to market itself more heavily than if there was no format war at all.
Last edited: