As Toshiba announced their withdrawal from the HiDef wars, gamers have been watching Microsoft with great anticipation. The death of HD-DVD at the hands of Sony’s Blu-ray technology has left a gaping hole in the peripheral capabilities of the leading next-gen console. While many insiders have hinted at the unavoidable move to Blu-ray for the Xbox 360, the MS faithful have held on to the hope that the gaming giant had another trick up their sleeve. Today, at a press conference in Redmond, they got the news they were hoping for. Kind of. All the details, after the jump. (more…)
HD-DVD is dead for sure now. National Geographic’s new documentary hits video shelves on 4/9 (well before the June break-up date with Warner Bros) and apparently the train ain’t stoppin’ in HD-DVD town. So, what did that June date really mean? Not much, as the only Warner Brothers label still supporting both formats and honoring the dual-format agreement is the BBC.
Get ready to pronounce HD-DVD dead. Since Warner Brothers’ recently hopped off that HD-DVD gravy train, information has come to the surface regarding the exclusivity contract between HD-DVD and Paramount that was signed last summer.
Another low blow for HD-DVD? Could this spell the end of the format war, as we know it?
HD-DVD is taking a beating this week. Everybody is pulling it’s support like its the Titanic. For all of you that still have an HD-DVD player, as long as they make ‘em, I’ll keep posting about ‘em.
I know, i’m a glutton for punishment.
Your HD-DVD releases for the week of January 7, 2008 after the jump. (more…)
If you followed engadget’s live coverage of the Philips CES presentation, there was a convenient tidbit of info “leaked”. According to Philips’ Stewart Miller, it looks like America’s second largest retailer Target is going Blu-ray exclusive… Now we’ve known for a while that they only sell Blu-ray players and they’ve preferred Blu-ray over HD-DVD when it came to prominent display space, but this would seem to be the first outright mention that Target’s going Blu-ray exclusive.
If you’ve been living under a low-def rock for the past year or so you may not realize the high-def video format war is in full swing right now. Those of us following (most of us from the sidelines, afraid to choose one format over the other in case one loses completely and our investment is made obsolete) have been waiting to see how this past holiday’s sales went for each camp. We’re only at January 4th and those sales results certainly haven’t been made public yet but a HUGE win for the Blu-ray camp came today as Warner Bros. (along with New Line Home Entertainment and HBO Video) announced their intention to exclusively support Blu-ray over HD-DVD as their high-def video format of choice. To add insult to injury, Warner Bros. said that until they cut off support cold turkey at the end of May ‘08, they’ll artificially delay any HD-DVD movies still in the pipeline so the DVD and Blu-ray versions hit the market first. Consider the screws twisted.
There’s a lot of interesting press going on right now, especially the early on knee-jerk reaction by Toshiba that literally seemed to be a “WTF did Warner just say?!” I’m fairly certain they were quite surprised by Warner’s move. This certainty is based squarely in the fact that their statement said “Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.’ decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray.” I mean I suppose I might have misinterpreted something in that quote but it really like an unpolished “OMG, we were so BFFs! I H8 U!”
Then as the evening progressed, we learned the CES HD-DVD press conference was literally cancelled. Now between you and me, if I were on Microsoft’s end of the recent “We’re about to make a ‘big announcement’ that may or may not be related to HD-DVD” buzz and I see the last dual format studio pick a side (not mine), Toshiba (one of HD-DVD’s biggest supporters) expressing public astonishment, and the entire HD-DVD event being outright canceled… well, let’s just say that I’d be a little concerned right about now.
Follow the jump for more imminent signs of the world (ok, really just the HD-DVD format) ending… (more…)
Happy Holidays to you all. Just because the rest of us are taking a break from our daily lives the Hi Def battle rages on.
In case you’re new to the Hi Def war, Blu-Ray has owned HD-DVD over the last few weeks. Since it’s Christmas day we’re going to settle this week’s battle in one day. Here are your Blu-Ray and HD-DVD releases for the week of December 24th, 2007.
With the Top 100 Gaming Moments going there is no reason to even mention the releases for HD-DVD this week, but I’ll do it anyway. Here are your HD-DVD releases for December 17, 2007. (more…)
Are you one of the millions of people afflicted with agoraphobia (the fear of going outside), otherwise known as a WoW addict? Were you able to meet that special someone during one of your multi-day raids on a dungeon? If so, then HD-DVD has just the thing for your geek-infested long distance relationship!
Thanks to Toshiba’s genius foresight of including ethernet ports on all HD-DVD players (unlike Blu-ray), people who own the same HD-DVD movie will now be able to sync their players over the internet and enjoy watching a movie together with that special someone who is miles away without ever leaving the comfort of their dark, depressing bedroom. They even went as far to include microphones in the players’ remotes so that you can chat back and forth about all the on-screen action.
Hit this link to read more. Don’t worry, there’s no sunlight.
Last week, the morale in the HD-DVD camp was high. This week…not so much. The cupboard is pretty bare and it looks like there is some belt tightening going on. Hopefully, the Christmas spirit will kick start some titles.
Here are your HD-DVD releases for December 2, 2007.
