Print - Armistice: Toshiba Ends Hi-Def DVD Format War, Halts Production of HD DVD

Faced with a growing number of partners defecting to the competition, Toshiba announced Tuesday morning that it would cease production of HD DVD hardware, effectively ceding the high definition DVD format war to Sony's Blu-Ray. Toshiba's decision comes on the heels of an announcement by US retailing giant Wal-Mart, which said recently that it, too, would focus solely on Blu-Ray.

"It was an agonizing decision for me, but I thought if we kept running [the HD DVD] business it would have grave ramifications for the management of our company," said Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida. "We made a quick decision, judging that there is no way of winning the competition."

Toshiba said that Warner Bros.'s decision last month to support only Blu-Ray was the tipping point, as that gave Blu-Ray customers access to an insurmountable 75 percent of all new content. Only Universal, Paramount, and Dreamworks were still making HD DVD content by that point, while 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney and MGM all supported Blu-Ray. Video rental firms Blockbuster and Netflix recently cast their support for Blu-Ray, as did US electronics retailer Best Buy.

While a standardization on a single format, Blu-Ray, is expected to help spur sales of both hardware and software, it's unclear whether Blu-Ray will ever see the wide scale success of its predecessor, DVD. That's because consumers are increasingly turning toward electronic delivery of media, including such technologies as On Demand and download services like Apple iTunes and Amazon Unbox.

Toshiba says it has no plans to sell products based on Blu-Ray technology.

"Armistice"? Please. An armistice is a TEMPORARY cessation of hostilities. This is defeat, plain and simple. Perhaps your headline should have read "Surrender...".

"Toshiba says it has no plans to sell products based on Blu-Ray technology." i would call that a *temporary* cessation of hostilities.... Microsoft announced today to some Australian game mag that they'll release a Blu-Ray add-on for the XBOX 360 now. BTW: when will studios announce that their HD-DVD exclusive movies will be released on Blu-ray? and what's the deal with Paramount? XP

An armistice is the effective end of a war, when the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is derived from the Latin arma, meaning weapons and statium, meaning a stopping. Time to write up a shopping list of HiDef titles I wouldn't mind picking up for $10 or less and an extra 1080p player.

@ "sxs...": "Death to plastic discs!" You won't be saying that when ISPs start metering bandwidth. ;-) Plastic discs are still a great means of storage. They're far from being EOL'd by digital distribution means. And, like the man from Microsoft said, I can still sell my used one for five bucks if I want a hamburger. Mmmmm....burger.... @ Webdev: "An armistice is the effective end of a war, when the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is derived from the Latin arma, meaning weapons and statium, meaning a stopping." Wow, you can quote Wikipedia! Verbatim! Only, I see, without quote marks or attribution. I prefer to use dictionary.com for actual--you know--DEFINITIONS, but whatever. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/armistice

"I prefer to use dictionary.com for actual--you know--DEFINITIONS" his definition is still valid. if you actually read dictionary.com completely instead of selectively, it reads: "World War I ended with the armistice of 1918." --dictionary.com unabridged definition example (of course, they also quote a similar definition to his underneath that from the Online Etymology Dictionary, too) losta: http://tinyurl.com/yw8drw XP

Wow. I honestly thought Blu Ray would go the way of Betamax. Interesting. I guess it's Sony's turn now.

I love it when Mr. Snarkiness posts a link but doesn't actually read what it is on the page. From that page: "armistice noun a state of peace agreed to between opponents so they can discuss peace terms WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. " Seems appropriate here, so Toshiba can discuss licensing. Or: "armistice ['a?mistis] noun (an agreement) stopping fighting (in a war, battle etc)" Again - no mention of temporary. But if you're lotsa, facts don't actually matter, but whatever.

....something i've noticed while watching tv: until Sony starts making movie studios advertise movies as: "Coming soon to Blu-ray" and ending the ad with "also available on DVD", DVD sales will still prevail. XP

I" love it when Mr. Snarkiness posts a link but doesn't actually read what it is on the page. - no mention of temporary." Bite me. Your eyes must not be working. Again, from the page: ar·mi·stice –noun a temporary suspension of hostilities ar·mi·stice (är'mi-stis) n. A temporary cessation of fighting by mutual consent; a truce. Those are the first two definitions. They both use the word "temporary". Yes, facts matter--facts which you conveniently choose to ignore. Idiot...

I agree that armistice was probably not the best word, but it does represent Toshiba's stance at little bit more accurately. However, as with many words in English, they can have multiple definitions, sometimes definitions that are even contrary. Armistice is both a temporary and long-term cessation of fighting. Of course, great to see that typical lotsa attitude.

lostahismarbles: you really think Toshiba is just completely giving up with competing against Sony? as Paul already stated, as did i even quote: "Toshiba says it has no plans to sell products based on Blu-Ray technology." so yes, TEMPORARY is quite fitting here. besides that, you completely lost the grasp of the whole definition: an armistice is a truce used in an interim towards building a long term peace accord. if you look at it, Sony just sold their Cell plant to Toshiba, so peaceful or competitive, you completely lost the point of the definition in your constant babbling. butthead! XP

A very sad day for consumers as the Empire known by its common name of The Blu-ray Disc Association (Sony, Apple, Thompson, Pioneer, etc.) has won the HD format war. Unfortunately, the casualties were the millions of DVD customers around the world as we get a format that benefits movie studios at the cost of our rights. Just to say F.U. to the BDA, I'm sticking with DVD. No HD, No Blu-Ray. Standard DVD. I'll pony up the cash for an upconvert DVD player too. This was really bad for consumers as HD-DVD had no region coding and better extras. I hope those guys enjoy the money, I really hope consumers put off buying Blu-Ray for as long as standard DVD is around.