Betamax welcomes HD DVD at the pearly gates, HD DVD now officially dead
 In case you’ve been asleep (hey my mom even knows), Toshiba today officially stated that they will stop production of HD DVD discs and players by the end of March 2008.
For those of you that have been waiting to jump on the hi-def disc train, you now have a very clear path to follow to get the wonderful buttery goodness that is hi-def video. Ring the bell, the new heavyweight champion of hi-def is Blu-ray.
And my world is a little bit darker for it.
Here’s the word from Toshiba on their decision,
We 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.
As far as the availability of new HD DVDs, your guess is as good as mine. There are still some releases scheduled for February, but I’m not sure how far past that we’ll get before the shelves start getting really empty.
I’m just glad that this format war has come to a relatively quick end. Although I’m really kinda bummed that Blu-ray ended up winning the battle, the real winner is the consumer.
As I said, now you’ve got a clearly defined choice. Actually, there is no choice. There’s only one player left in the game.
Blu-ray wins.
Blu-ray wins.
Blu-ray wins.