HD-DVD won't last past summer 2008

[Shinjifei]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6185883.html

[ilnadmy]

I have to say, even if Sony comes in third place in the console war, the fact that Blu-ray has won is basically a massive pot of gold for them. They're going to be making money hand over fist from now until this format dies out. Their PS3 trojan horse strategy worked perfectly. If they make money off the PS3 as a gaming system, then that would just be an added bonus as far as their bank account is concerned.

[theWacoKid]

The industry is telling toshiba, bow out now, with some measure of dignity or we'll kick your ass out on the street if you don't. Netflix is a big one, as a lot of hd dvd fanboys were crowing about how they cheap hdm is with hd dvd, buy a player for cheap and rent with netflix. Uh-oh, guess that isn't going to work, since netflix just cut off any more hd dvd purchases. No american gangsta for you, hd dvd fanboi.

[Glockstar]

HD-DVD won't last past Spring, Shinji.

I can understand Best Buy's move, but Netflix's is idiotic.

I'm not in either of the format's camps (actually, that's not true; as with the rest of the world, I am, by default, in the blu-ray camp now), and I don't rent from Netflix. And now I never will. I'm going to remember this, and I'm telling you I could never trust that they wouldn't stop carrying some format willy-nilly down the road. I mean, they've got no good reason for not carrying/renting HD-DVD's. Brick and mortar retailers have limited space, but I find it hard to believe that a warehouse wouldn't have the room.

[ilnadmy]

Netflix's move isn't stupid. They cut down on inventory and procurement costs, since HD-DVD is the losing format anyway. Why carry a product which is slowly (or maybe not so slowly) but surely on its way out?

[Ocelot]

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy with this news!

I honestly thought at this time last year that HDDVD was going to win. With the popularity of the 360 and the features offered with HDDVD it seemed a surefire thing. I wasn't big on the secondary peripheral and considering I already had a Bluray this just makes it easier for me.

I guess MS will most likely go with their plan to switch over. I just wonder if they will offer another peripheral or just create 360's with it built in...or both??



Netflix's move isn't stupid. They cut down on inventory and procurement costs, since HD-DVD is the losing format anyway. Why carry a product which is slowly (or maybe not so slowly) but surely on its way out?

Exactly!

[Gadfly2317]

I'm going to remember this, and I'm telling you I could never trust that they wouldn't stop carrying some format willy-nilly down the road.

You are being a hysterical drama queen here for no good reason. Netflix didn't stop carrying a format willy-nilly. The HD-DvD format has lost, its over, and that's not Net-Flix's fault.

Only a company ran by a retard would stock up on new product that everyone knows is now obsolete. Please tell me you understand this, and were only having a momentary brain fart.

[Glockstar]

Omg; what?!

Yeah HD-DVD lost. But that doesn't mean that all their disks suddenly up and disappeared off the face of the earth!!! Wtf?! They've got 'em, rent 'em out! There a still a lot of people out there that bought HD-DVD players, and they're no doubt looking for movies to rent.

Plus, for your information, there are still 4+ studios putting out movies on HD-DVD. So it's not "obsolete" yet. Gawd. And you call me the drama queen?

You know a year down the road, when HD-DVD is long gone history, I could condone Netflix dropping the format. But now? No! They're taking sides when they shouldn't; and they're pissing off customers.

Put yourself in the shoes of a HD-DVD owner and Netflix subscriber. Here, here's an analogy you might be able to comprehend and relate to: Say you were a GameCube owner and also a member of a rental service - like Gamefly, or whatever - because you liked to rent videogames. Then this service that you were paying monthly fees too up and decided that they were going to stop carrying and renting out GameCube games, because Nintendo was making a new console and were going to be releasing it in about a year. That wouldn't bother you?

[Mochan]

You know a year down the road, when HD-DVD is long gone history, I could condone Netflix dropping the format. But now? No! They're taking sides when they shouldn't; and they're pissing off customers.

Um, theyr'e dropping the format a year down the road. Read the article please k thanks.

[Glockstar]

Um, I did. It says, "...online movie rental service Netflix announced it would phase out its offering of HD DVD discs by the end of the year."

A couple of key terms there: phase out; and by the end of the year. This implies that they're starting to drop the format now. Okay? Thank you.

I'm sorry, it just seems like a real asinine thing to do customers. I don't know, maybe I'm just kooky, but if I were them I'd be doing the exact opposite. I'd be sending out a notice to my HD-DVD renters that tells them despite the growing popularity of blu-ray and the seeming demise of HD-DVD, that they could still count on us to stock the movies you want to see - that kind of thing.

Guess I'm overestimating the size of their warehouse. The company is probably just this one 40-year old still living with his parents loser, and his warehouse is his closet.

[ilnadmy]

Well, from now on less and less people are going to be using HD-DVD. Which means Netflix is going to see demand drop continuously from now on. Hence why they are "phasing out" HD-DVD and not just dropping it outright. As demand declines, so will Netflix's stock. I think that's pretty reasonable.

[theWacoKid]

Hollywood reporter is citing reliable industry sources that toshiba will be throwing in the towel in the coming weeks, so forget about hd dvd making it to summer. You'll know shortly, the 5 free movie offer expires in two weeks and I don't expect to see it renewed.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ib77125d96b22e86027d0bfb0c25aa58d

Toshiba to drop HD DVD, sources say
Company says no decision has been made
By Thomas K. Arnold and Erik Gruenwedel
Feb 15, 2008

The format war has turned into a format death watch.

Toshiba is widely expected to pull the plug on its HD DVD format sometime in the coming weeks, reliable industry sources say, after a rash of retail defections that followed Warner Home Video's announcement in early January that it would support only the rival Blu-ray Disc format after May.

Officially, no decision has been made, insists Jodi Sally, vp of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products. "Based on its technological advancements, we continue to believe HD DVD is the best format for consumers, given the value and consistent quality inherent in our player offerings," she said.

But she hinted that something's in the air. "Given the market developments in the past month," she said, "Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players."

[Gadfly2317]

Put yourself in the shoes of a HD-DVD owner and Netflix subscriber. Here, here's an analogy you might be able to comprehend and relate to: Say you were a GameCube owner and also a member of a rental service - like Gamefly, or whatever - because you liked to rent videogames. Then this service that you were paying monthly fees too up and decided that they were going to stop carrying and renting out GameCube games, because Nintendo was making a new console and were going to be releasing it in about a year. That wouldn't bother you?

I would expect them to continue to rent out current GC games in their inventory, but I couldn't imagine they'd increase their inventory of something on the way out.

It's not an exact analogy, because a movie is a movie, and the same movie is available on a different format, so they are, from here on forward, going to purchase movies for their inventory in the winning format, not the obsolete one .

With the GC analogy, especially with exclusives, it doesn't matter if the console is going away, if you want to play Mario Sunshine, it's only available on one console. That's why you can still rent it at Gamefly.

[ilnadmy]

Plus, compare 5-6 years of GameCube games with 1-2 years of HD-DVD movies. There can't be that many they have in stock.

[theWacoKid]

The fat lady's singing.

Walmart dumps hd dvd.

Wal-Mart to Go Blu-ray Exclusive
Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 12:46 PM ET
Tags: Wal-Mart, High-Def Retailing (all tags)

The nation's top retailer will phase out its HD DVD support by early summer.
That's the official word this morning from Wal-Mart, first announced on the company's gadget blog, CheckOut.com.

According to Wal-Mart execs, the company will begin emphasizing Blu-ray in both brick-and-mortar stores and online over the next thirty days, with plans to completely phase out HD DVD movie and hardware sales by June 2008. The company will continue to sell DVDs and standard-definition hardware.

"We've listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases, explained Gary Severson, senior vice president, Home Entertainment, Wal-Mart US.

"With the customers best interest in all we do, we wanted to share our decision and timeline with them as soon as possible, knowing it will help simplify their purchase decision, increase selection, and increase adoption long term. We anticipate enhancing our selection with continued great values in hi-definition Blu-ray products, so our customers can further enhance their entertainment experience at home."

As we've previously reported, Wal-Mart was a key promotional partner for the HD DVD camp this past holiday season, with the retailer prominently featuring a Toshiba HD DVD player in one of its television commercials.

Today's announcement from the retailer comes on the heels of news earlier this week that both Netflix and Best Buy had endorsed Blu-ray.

[Fivespot]

I got an e-mail from Netflix regarding their decision and they're not stopping the rental of HD DVD's. They're not going to replace any if they break and don't plan on buying any future new releases in that format.

They will continue to rent HD DVD's however. It's not like they're going to throw them all away.

I posted the e-mail in it's entirety within my blog if anyone is interested in reading it.

And Glock you're under estimating Netflix although I think you're joking. I think. They have warehouses all around the country.

[folken001]

Bye bye HDDVD.

[Fivespot]

or buy HD DVD. They're really cheap now. ;)

[theWacoKid]

I got an e-mail from Netflix regarding their decision and they're not stopping the rental of HD DVD's. They're not going to replace any if they break and don't plan on buying any future new releases in that format.

They will continue to rent HD DVD's however. It's not like they're going to throw them all away.

I posted the e-mail in it's entirety within my blog if anyone is interested in reading it.

And Glock you're under estimating Netflix although I think you're joking. I think. They have warehouses all around the country.

They'll be phased out completely by the end of the year.

[T.Tashi]

or buy HD DVD. They're really cheap now. ;)

I left a comment on your blog. :)

[thelastword]

Action speaks louder than words.....


http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/gaf-gifs/bluraykill.gif

[Cuddly Knife]

Robocop rules.

[Glockstar]

I got an e-mail from Netflix regarding their decision and they're not stopping the rental of HD DVD's. They're not going to replace any if they break and don't plan on buying any future new releases in that format.

They will continue to rent HD DVD's however. It's not like they're going to throw them all away.

I posted the e-mail in it's entirety within my blog if anyone is interested in reading it.

Blog?! Blog?! 'Don't talk about the Playoffs!']

What's with you and that blog anyway? You get a dollar for every hit you get or something?

The letter:

"Dear _____,

You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens.

You can click here to change your format preferences. [...to Blu-ray]

We're sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.

-The Netflix Team"


Well, they sent out a letter... so they got half the job done. Too bad they said the exact opposite of what I'd expect. Especially if I were a customer. Their motivations seem political to me. They're certainly not customer oriented. Thus, I feel this move is inappropriate.

Oh well, I don't have a HD-DVD player and I don't rent from them so what should I care, right? I'm going to drop it; this is all you'll hear from me on the subject. [**Zzzzzip**]


And Glock you're under estimating Netflix although I think you're joking. I think. They have warehouses all around the country.

Oh, so the live-at-home loser has friends, eh?

[theWacoKid]

Japanese newspaper NHK has the following translated blurb from their paper.

Toshiba Corporation has decided to withdraw from next generation high-definition DVD production.

Toshiba has been struggling with its version of the next generation DVD format, as support for Blu-ray technology has spread among US retailers.

Toshiba has been in heated competition with other Japanese electronic giants such as Sony, Panasonic and Hitachi, which produce the high-definition DVD format, Blu-ray.

The Blu-ray format now makes up 90 percent of the Japanese high-definition DVD market after winning last year's price war for DVD recorders and players.

Toshiba faced even more difficulty when the major movie studio, Warner Brothers Entertainment, announced that it planned to use only the Blu-ray format for its movie software.

The company said it will continue to sell HD-DVD products for a while but will stop further development of HD DVD. Meanwhile, it said its DVD factories in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, would be closed.

Market observers said that Toshiba could suffer a loss of hundreds of millions of US dollars.

And picked up by Reuters.

Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war: source

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high-definition video, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), a company source said on Saturday.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK had earlier reported that Toshiba would suffer losses in the tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) as it scrapped production of HD DVD players and recorders and took other steps to exit the business.

The company source told Reuters that Toshiba was in the final stages of planning to exit the HD DVD business and that an official decision would be made soon.

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi, Kentaro Hamada and Nathan Layne, editing by Mike Peacock)

[Mochan]

Um, I did. It says, "...online movie rental service Netflix announced it would phase out its offering of HD DVD discs by the end of the year."

A couple of key terms there: phase out; and by the end of the year. This implies that they're starting to drop the format now. Okay? Thank you.

I'm sorry, it just seems like a real asinine thing to do customers. I don't know, maybe I'm just kooky, but if I were them I'd be doing the exact opposite. I'd be sending out a notice to my HD-DVD renters that tells them despite the growing popularity of blu-ray and the seeming demise of HD-DVD, that they could still count on us to stock the movies you want to see - that kind of thing.


There's a difference between "phasing out" and "dropping."

What Netflix is doing is they will gradually phase out the HD-DVD titles they have. You can still rent out HD-DVD titles until the end of the year when it will be dropped completely.

What Netflix will probably do is they will no longer add new HD-DVD titles and just keep old stock, gradually removing them to make space for Blueray titles -- no matter what anyone says warehouse space is finite and for every corner a HD-DVD takes up, that space could be used for a Bluray title instead. Warehouse stocking overhead and actually buying the HD-DVDs is too much of a cost to justify for a format that is already all but dead.

By the end of the year, the format will be gone and forgotten, and Netflix will pull all HD-DVDs out of stock to make room for Bluray disks. Sounds reasonable to me.


Thing is, it is smarter to take a stand. We've all discussed how having two formats hurts everyone and having just one format is healthier for the industry as a whole. Hence why Netflix is taking sides.

[theWacoKid]

We need to change the thread title, hd dvd won't last the winter and make it to spring let alone last past summer. This just in.

Toshiba To Announce Plan To Exit HD DVD Business

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Toshiba Corp. (6502) has decided to stop developing and manufacturing HD DVD players and recorders immediately and to halt sales of HD DVD products by the end of March, The Nikkei learned Monday.

This decision is expected to be announced Tuesday afternoon by President Atsutoshi Nishida, along with plans to build new semiconductor plants.

The company has yet to discuss the future of HD DVD drives, which it has been supplying to Hewlett-Packard Co. and others, but intends to stop manufacturing them as well.

Toshiba has sold a total of roughly 1 million HD DVD recorders, players and personal computer drives around the world. Of these, 600,000 to 700,000 players have been sold, mainly in North America and Europe. The Japanese sales of around 10,000 to 20,000 units consist largely of recorders. Players sell for about 200 dollars in the U.S., while recorders go for around 100,000 yen in Japan.

Toshiba intends to take back the roughly 100,000 HD DVD units in retailers' hands, but not to accept returns from consumers.

Production lines for HD DVD devices can be used to make devices for conventional DVDs, so the withdrawal from the HD DVD business is unlikely to have a major impact on jobs. But Toshiba's losses from the retreat are estimated to reach into the tens of billions of yen.

Since launching an HD DVD-compatible device in Japan back in 2006, Toshiba had spearheaded the fight against the rival Blu-ray Disc next-generation DVD format, which has been supported by Sony Corp. (6758), Matsu****a Electric Industrial Co. (6752) and others.

HD DVD quickly lost traction after Warner Bros. Inc. announced in January its decision to stop releasing HD DVD titles. Support for Blu-ray by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other major U.S. retailers drove the final nail into HD DVD's coffin.

(The Nikkei Tuesday morning edition)
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