HD-DVD Retired

Toshiba finally pulled the plug on the future of HD-DVD. Toshiba stated that they "carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," ... "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality." Toshiba plan to slow down shipments of HD-DVD players with the intention of stopping them altogether by the end of March. So Blu-ray has won, but the battle may not be over yet. I for one would like to see Blu-ray succeed, even in light of increasing competition from digital downloads. For me the beauty of owning a disk is the additional content that comes along with it. Digital downloads need to offer that capability and the immediacy of playback without any kind of wait.

Death Of HD-DVD?

Many tech sites are reporting/speculating on the expected death of HD-DVD .. with recent developments such as many retailers opting for Blu-ray and content suppliers throwing their weight behind the format from Sony, it seems inevitable that Toshiba should throw in the towel. However I'm not so sure it will be an easy decision for them with millions invested in the format. I'm sure of one thing, before the dust settles, both camps are going to be sorry that they didn't listen to the lessons that could have been learned from past format wars.

Hitachi Announce 100GB Blu-Ray Disc

Hitachi has announced that it has created a 100GB blank Blu-ray disc. They have achieved this by creating a disk that has four layers. This doubles current Blu-ray capacities and takes back the HD storage crown from the triple-layer, 51GB HD-DVD blank disc. The new Blu-ray disc will apparently be compatible with existing Hitachi Blu-ray players and burners after a firmware upgrade. Hitachi is also working on an eight-layer, 200GB disc.

HP Pavilion HDX Laptop

HP have introduced their Pavilion HDX Laptop. This unit isn't so much a laptop as it is more a desktop replacement which will give pretty much any desktop and laptop a serious scare. The HDX is packed with features such as 2GB-4GB ram, a 240GB hard drive, a HD DVD-ROM drive, HDMI output, built-in TV tuner, webcam, a remote control, and a 4 speaker audio system which includes a built-in subwoofer. As a laptop you will most likely need to give your legs a break every few minutes as the thing weighs a whopping 15.5 lbs. The HDX begins at US $2900.

Blade Runner Ultimate Collectors Edition DVD's

Some 25 years after it was first released Bladerunner will be released in time for Christmas in several variants. Ridley Scott, who directed this landmark and incredible movie has made a new version and edit which cast everything in a new light. There will a two-disc special edition, a four-disc collector’s edition, and my favourite; the five-disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition in the awesome “Deckard Briefcase” packaging. I'm going to ignore all versions except the Ultimate Collector's Edition. This will include the ultra-rare, near-legendary Workprint version of the film, newly remastered. A commentary by Paul M. Sammon, author of Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner will also be included, along with an All Our Variant Futures: From Workprint to Final Cut featurette. The Ultimate Collector’s Edition will be presented in a unique 5-disc digi-package with handle which is a stylish version of Rick Deckard's own briefcase, in addition each briefcase will be individually numbered and in limited supply. Included is a lenticular motion film clip from the original feature, miniature origami unicorn figurine, miniature replica spinner car, some collector's photographs as well as a signed personal letter from Sir Ridley Scott.

Second Generation of Hybrid HD Drives

LG announced the upcoming release of 2 second generation HD Drives. The Hybrid HD DVD/Blu-Ray players are the GGW-H2LI and the GGC-H2LI are priced at around $500 and $400 respectively. Unfortunately for us Europeans these drives are US only models ...

Blu-ray Sales Beat HD-DVD

Like that wasn't unforeseen ... as I mentioned in an earlier comment claims were made which stated that HD-DVD had sold more units that Blu-ray. What with Blu-ray being an integral part of the PS3 you could immediately discount those claims. and now with reports on sales of HD content, that turns out to be something which was right to to with many more titles being sold on Blu-ray than HD-DVD...

100,000 HD DVD Units Sold

According to Shiny Shiny, "HD-DVD is first to sell 100,000 units, leaving Blu-ray in its wake." With over 100,000 HD-DVD players sold since their launch, that seems like a pretty decent figure. However it is a figure which pales in relation to the actual sales of Blu-ray based players. Isn't the Playstation 3 a Blu-ray player as well as a games machine? We know that there have been many more than 100,000 PS3s sold. Sony actually peg its European sales alone at over 800,000 units to date, and the January figure for US PS3 sales was 244,000. Go figure.

Samsung Announces Dual Format HD Disc Player

Samsung announce the release of a Dual Format HD Disc Player. They follow LG in what I hope is something of a positive trend in offering a player which will play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD media. The BD-UP5000 will fully support both formats including, interactivity capabilities. For more infomation read the Official Press Release.

Toshiba Launch 3rd Gen HD DVD Player...

The Blu-ray/HD DVD is hotting up with Toshiba launching the 'HD-EP10' at CeBIT. Launched Stateside in January as the HD-A20 this third gen HD DVD player is looking to be a very cool player ... Pardon the Pun. The EP10 can deliver 1080p content in addition to 1080i and 720p. The only problem is that many of the current so called HDTV's cannot handl this unit full capabilities.

Toshiba Announces 51GB HD DVD

HD DVD takes the lead in the format wars capacity battle. Toshiba have announced that they have successfully created a triple-layer disc with 17GB per layer ... which adds up to a total of 51GB of storage. Dual-layer Blu-ray discs can hold around 50 GB of data. We're looking at a possible Q4 2007 release. Roll on the new Beta and VHS.