The high-definition format war is officially over says The Hollywood Reporter. Toshiba today officially announced it will discontinue developing, manufacturing and marketing HD DVD players and recorders. The announcement ends a two-year-long battle with Blu-ray Disc to succeed DVD. Toshiba will stop shipments of HD DVD players and recorders by March, and will stop production of HD DVD drives for computers as well. The company added it would continue to provide product support and services for current HD DVD owners. The decision came much more quickly than industry sources indicated first to Home Media Magazine on February 14, when they predicted Toshiba would stop backing HD DVD by May.
The move came soon after both Wal-Mart and Netflix announced they would only carry Blu-ray product, and Best Buy announced it would give preference to Blu-ray. Warner Home Video’s decision in early January to only support Blu-ray left HD DVD with Paramount Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Home Entertainment as the only major studios supporting the format. Hardware sales data the week after Warner’s announcement showed 93% of high-def players sold were Blu-ray, according to The NPD Group, and Nielsen VideoScan data has consistently shown Blu-ray software outselling HD DVD 3:1 or more.
Toshiba significantly lowered its player prices during the holiday season, and Microsoft dropped the price of its Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on by $50 earlier this month. Toshiba also bought a 30-second Super Bowl ad for a reported $2.7 million, but apparently was not effective in boosting sales or digging into Blu-ray’s lead.
The Hollywood Reporter is citing “reliable industry sources” as saying that Toshiba is on the verge of officially dropping its HD DVD format. Though Toshiba denies that any such decision has been made, the just-published article in The Reporter points to “substantial” losses from each HD DVD player sold and a series of high-profile defections as key motivators for the company, with one unnamed source close to the HD DVD camp telling the Reporter that “an announcement is coming soon . . . it could be a matter of weeks.”
Asked to respond to the report, Toshiba VP Jodi Sally reiterated her company’s support of the HD DVD format. “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,” said Sally. She went on to address “the market developments in the past month,” saying only that “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.”
Netflix has announed that they will carry high-def DVDs only in Blu-ray format. Citing the decision by four of the six major movie studios to publish high-def DVD titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray format, Netflix said that as of now it will purchase only Blu-ray discs and will phase out by roughly year’s end the alternative high-def format, HD DVD, developed by Toshiba.
When Warner Home Video announced last month that by the end of this year it will release high-def titles exclusively in the Blu-ray format, it joined fellow majors Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment in endorsing Blu-ray. Currently, the two remaining majors, Paramount Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Home Entertainment, publish in the HD DVD format.
Since the first high-definition DVDs came on the market in early 2006, Netflix has stocked both formats. But the company said that in recent months the industry has stated its clear preference for Blu-ray and that it now makes sense for the company to initiate the transition to a single format. This is an interesting new development. This past December, prior to Warner Brothers going exclusively Blu Ray, Netflix reported that HD DVD and Blu Ray rentals were just about even. So in just three months Blu Ray rentals increased and HD DVD rentals decreased by a large enough margin to discontinue renting HD DVDs?
Continue reading NetFlix Tells Customers They Are Supporting Blu Ray
