It's all over, apparently.
Toshiba have announced they're halting production of HD-DVD players, effectively ending the high-definition format war between Toshiba's HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-Ray.
It seems the recent decision by Warner Brothers to abandon HD-DVD and throw their weight exclusively behind Blu-Ray was, as expected, the final nail in the HD-DVD coffin.
HD-DVD never really countered Sony's "Trojan horse" tactic (of outfitting the Playstation 3 with Blu-Ray), despite ensuring their HD-DVD players were cheaper than Blu-Ray players. It makes me wonder how things might have turned out if Microsoft (a key supporter of HD-DVD) had ensured the XBOX 360 was HD-DVD compliant on its release 12 months before the PS3 -- instead of forcing gamers to buy an expensive add-on months later.
Toshiba stand to lose hundreds of millions in this failed project, which will leave a bitter taste in their mouths -- particularly as HD-DVD discs were actually superior to Blu-Rays in many ways (such as their enhanced interactive capabilities), and cheaper for manufacturers to produce.
I hope Sony will now throw their full weight behind Blu-Ray, and make improvements to their winning format -- in the aim to persuade consumers to upgrade from standard-DVD. Now that consumers don't have to fear "backing the wrong horse", it will be interesting to see how many people make the jump from standard-definition to high-definition in the next few months.
So, if you bought a HD-DVD player: commiserations. There's just the vague hope that HD-DVD supporters Microsoft, Universal, DreamWorks and Paramount will stick with the format... but I somehow doubt it. Still, look on the bright side of things -- your HD-DVD player will still play whatever HD-DVD discs you bought, HD-DVDs on release are likely to plummet in price now, and it'll still upscale all your DVDs.
And if you bought a Blu-Ray player or PS3: you can relax now. The battle's over and Sony are the victors. Well, unless HD-quality downloads make a physical disc format obsolete in the next 5-10 years... but that's another debate!
