When will HD-DVD call it quits?

[zombie]

I'd like to know your opinions on when you think HD-DVD will announce that they will no longer produce players or discs.

[Waelan]

I think early 2007 itll take the ps3, PC drives, and HD movies to get going before they toss it in.

[thunderhawk]

Well, I think they gotta bleed a bit first before they realise so... :?
I think Autumn 2006...

[Blue]

It seems nearly everyone has been focusing on Toshiba and Sony to resolve the format war. An unlikely party resolved the DVD war. I think the same has just happened to this latest threatened war, only no one has woken up to it yet. Blu Ray is unstoppable on the computer and games front ( a fight between the movie studios and the computer group would be an interesting one - thankfully one we will not see ) reading between the lines Paramount and Co have stopped HD dead - the enormous list (of less than 100) titles seems to be an impressive list of 25 and falling. At the beginning of this everyone thought the movie studios were the key – well guess what there are 3 that still are and I suspect will stop the war from starting. This is sort of like a big fight, lots of publicity and pre match chest beating but only the ones in the red corner are a no show, but there is a crowd in the blu corner.

It's amazing how talented Toshiba and Co are, they once used to only make electronic sort of stuff. I think they are just about to diversify into the ship building market. Anyone want an anchor!!!!!!

[zombie]

Originally Posted by Blue

At the beginning of this everyone thought the movie studios were the key – well guess what there are 3 that still are and I suspect will stop the war from starting.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I chose Autumn 2005 in the poll because I believe the signs are overwhelmingly pointing in favor of Warner, Paramount, and Universal changing their minds and supporting Blu-ray. Once HD-DVD lost Disney to BD (and then Fox on top of it), the other HD-DVD studios knew that there chances of success with HD-DVD went way down and the future of their format would now be a much more uphill battle. The recent scaling back of '05 launch titles followed by yesterday's announcement from Toshiba that they are likely going to delay HD-DVD till March '06 speaks volumes. This isn't a strategic move to help their format, it's a strategic move to give themselves more time to work out some kind of agreement with the BDA where hopefully Toshiba will get some say in the future of home video. HD-DVD is dying... the writing's on the wall.

PS: So how did you vote, Blue?

[Blue]

n2blu,
My vote is incorrect I voted Autumn - as per my normal operation, open mouth first think second (anyone want to purchase an almost new brain – not much use, only one owner).

I'm from Australia so Autumn is March – May which is my official answer. Remember Toshiba has called a truce until about then, so I don't think we will hear much from them until then. From the term Autumn I assume you are not from US or you would have called it fall.

I have already started voting with my feet. Last year I stopped purchasing DVD’s and I have been endeavouring to put the money away for purchases of Blu Ray DVD's, hopefully sooner than later.

By the way n2blu thanks for the effort you put into the forum.

[zombie]

I hadn't realized Autumn meant different months in different parts of the world. I am indeed in the US and it's true nearly everyone refers to Sept- Dec as fall here. Only the weatherman refers to it as autumn... guess I wanted to seem more educated by using the "autumn" term but that sure backfired didn't it? :lol:

By the way n2blu thanks for the effort you put into the forum.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm just glad there's a place devoted to Blu-ray news and discussion that I can participate in. As I've stated previously on the forum, I sold all of my movie DVDs a long time ago in anticipation of purchasing my favorites on BDs. I too hope their release comes sooner rather than later. All of this news about HD-DVD scaling back and postponing gives me a lot of hope that I'll be able to purchase BDs from Warner, Paramount, and Universal a lot sooner than I had previously thought. Hopefully they'll all be on board and releasing BDs by late 2006.

[phloyd]

I think it will bleed in 2006 and eventually die in 2007.

[iceman]

I voted 2007 because I think Toshiba is too stubborn to not release HD-DVD and it would be a major prestige loss if they didn't.

But n2blu had an interesting theory. I, like most people, think it was pretty much game over for HD-DVD when Disney, Fox and now Lion's Gate choose Blu-ray. If you remember Warner also had to pay Universal Studios to join them... so if they change side now it's definitely game over for HD-DVD, but on the other hand Toshiba and Warner have been buddies for a long time...

Someone smart and funny said this:

The engineers at these Japanese companies are like modern day Samurai. I'ts as if Toshiba engineers lose they will have to commit suicide. Its utterly ridiculous that consumers have to suffer through this battle of the egos-- If anything Toshiba should just back down and admit their format is inferior. Toshiba was influenced by the greed of the west and thus led to the development of a stopgap format in the interest of the greedy western studios. The consumer won't see a dime of the supposed lower initial production cost of HD-DVD. It will just make the Warner executive's wallet fatter, and keep the Toshiba engineer's ego intact. If they were truly thinking of the future they would go with Blu-ray so in another few years we don't have to switch formats yet again when 2K displays are the new hot thing and 200GB of space is required. HD-DVD has already lost and Toshiba knows this, but is too stubborn to back down. They'd rather be like old Samurai and die in the heat of battle, with the PS3 chopping their heads off. They could make loads of money by working out a deal with Sony to share some of the Blu-ray royalties in exchange for not bringing out the format. But they won't -- The same reason you don't see Samurai anymore

[john_1958]

i think hd-dvd companies will abandon hd-dvd and concentrate more on HVD by optware