You can throw away your HD DVDs right...about ...NOW

Did you know this? I didn't until today. Apparently Toshiba has announced the death of it's HD DVD format by pulling out of the HD DVD business last month.

That means in the war of the next generation high-definition video format, Sony's BluRay has claimed victory, and will be the ONLY High Definition DVD format for the near future, until someone come up with Higher Definition (H-er DVD ;P) format, that is.


It also means early adopters who tripped over themselves to grab a HD DVD player a year ago are now cursing like there's no tomorrow. Whatever precious HD DVD collections they own are now probably more valuable (as collectibles) since there will be no more new HD DVD movie releases!

Oh ,by the way, if you've just purchased a HD DVD player yesterday, you'll feel like kicking yourself in the nuts. My advice is ask someone to do it for you, especially one of your friends on the opposite camp who supported Blu-Ray right from the beginning. They'll do a better job ;P


This came about after Toshiba (the creator of the format) lost support from major players in the war. Namely, Samsung (DVD player maker) and Time Warner (Movie studio).

On the other hand, the Blu-Ray backers will be so happy they'll be singing even when they're in the loo. All new HD movies will be in Blu-Ray!!
This is an extremely good news for those who're torn between the 2 formats and are thinking of either buying both or buying a hybrid player (Damn expensive, k)....like ME!! So happy!

Now I can buy a PS3 and use it for all future HD movies!! (btw, PS3 is the cheapest Blu-Ray player available currently.)

That's the thing about being the early adopters, risk-takers, who're always ahead of the pack. It's a big risk. But the thrill of innovations are just too much to resist for some people sometimes. And a lot of new technologies require the service of early adopters in testing out the market and spreading the technology to the masses (go read some business textbooks or something to understand more).

As for laggards such as us, we can enjoy cheaper products (by the time we buy, market competition would have made these products significantly cheaper), and more peace of mind that what we buy would be stable products (tested and a safer choice). Whatever it is, we wins!

Two year of battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray: a retrospective