TOKYO - Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders, handing a victory to rival Blu-ray disc technology in the format battle for next-generation video.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080219/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_toshiba

Thats unfortunate for all the people who bought hd dvd players. Its good news for everyone who didnt though. I've been waiting for a clear winner before I bought either one so i guess this is good news.

Hopefully this will drive Blu Ray prices down. I know I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for a player AND $30 a movie.

Hopefully this will drive Blu Ray prices down. I know I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for a player AND $30 a movie.

Why would it drive prices down?  It's the only game in town now.

Bingo. Competition typically drives down prices. Now with Blu-Ray not having any other competition, they can basically set their prices however they see fit.

With the format set, the Chinese junk brands will start showing up which almost always sends prices tumbling.  Nobody wants to buy into a technology like this without knowing the end game.  IE: (see betamax vs VHS).  When the consumers start buying the prices will drop.  I've been in this business 30 + years, it always happens.  

Bingo. Competition typically drives down prices. Now with Blu-Ray not having any other competition, they can basically set their prices however they see fit.

Only as far as someone will go to pay the price they set.  Many of my friends have not and will not purchase a Blu Ray movie for their current prices.  they could charge 100$ a movie but doesnt mean the market will bear that price.

My family just got a HD dvd like 3 months ago too >.>

Anime Other,

Now you know what it is like to be alone.

With the format set, the Chinese junk brands will start showing up which almost always sends prices tumbling.  Nobody wants to buy into a technology like this without knowing the end game.  IE: (see betamax vs VHS).  When the consumers start buying the prices will drop.  I've been in this business 30 + years, it always happens.  

exactly. Also, without the demand for HD DVD, the demand for Blu Ray will increase, allowing them to sell higher volumes at lower prices.

Anime Other,

Now you know what it is like to be alone.

There has to be some BassResource member that is with me!  

Ahhhh, yep. All the Blue Ray and PS3 haters are eating crow now! FWIW my first gen PS3 works flawlessy, and the resolution on the 1080p Sony Bravia TV is amazing....

Except now Microsoft is expected to shortly announce a Blu Ray XBOX360 which is going to eliminate another one of the few advantages of the PS3... ;D

Here is but one of the reasons from Israel:

In Volume Storage - Matteris Ltd.

Matteris is developing a novel, removable, high speed - high capacity In Volume Storage System (media and a recording/reading driver) for the enterprise archive and backup market. This innovative storage technology reaches high capacity by utilizing the volume instead of the surface of the medium. Using Matteriss Storage Technology, CD-ROM sized media can store Terabytes (=1000Gigabytes) instead of a maximum of 25GB as in Sonys blue-ray DVD.

MATTERIS is developing a novel, removable, high speed - high capacity Holographic Storage System (holographic media and a recording/reading driver) for the enterprise archive and backup market. The Holographic Storage reaches high capacity by utilizing the volume instead of the surface of the medium. Using NST's Holographic Storage Technology, CD-ROM sized media can store Terabytes (=1000Gigabytes) instead of a maximum of 27GB as in Sony's blue-ray DVD.

For these huge capacities, there is a need of high speed data transfer, or it will take days to back up a system. By writing in parallel millions of bits grouped in holograms (a hologram is a picture of 1000 x 1000 bits each), at the rate of every millisecond (1/1000 of a second), the Holographic Storage system is reaching writing/reading speeds of Gigabits/sec.

MATTERIS has developed a proprietary holographic material with an entirely different concept than that of the commonly used photo-polymers. This novel material, based on nano-materials, is far superior to photo-polymers, offering no need for development (process-less material), no shrinkage, reading between recording sessions, daylight safety, higher capacity and many others.

The enterprise high-end archiving and backuping generate and store digital data at an estimated rate of over a billion gigabytes per annum and it is doubling every year. Data is stored mainly in hard drives or archived using tapes. Both magnetic (hard drives, tapes and removable disks) and optical (CDROM, DVD) storage technologies suffer from inherent storage density limitation, which impedes these technologies from keeping up with the exponential demand for data storage.

Except now Microsoft is expected to shortly announce a Blu Ray XBOX360 which is going to eliminate another one of the few advantages of the PS3... ;D

Yeah...if you can't beat 'em.... :

Raise your hand if you ever actually saw a Betamax?

Raise your hand if you ever actually saw a Betamax?

I owned one and worked on many.  

Proof that the average American doesn't always choose the correct format.

Beta was far superior to VHS.  

Except now Microsoft is expected to shortly announce a Blu Ray XBOX360 which is going to eliminate another one of the few advantages of the PS3... ;D

Yeah...if you can't beat 'em.... :

I don't think it was a matter of adapting to mimic Sony and the PS3. Microsoft said from the beginning that they would go with whoever won the HD DVD war. Now that Blu Ray has won, XBOX is offering the most up to date technology. Up until now, Blu Ray had really been the major reason that people have been buying PS3 instead of XBOX. Now that XBOX will be Blu Ray compatible as well, they will probably win buyers who would have gone with the PS3 because of the Blu Ray. I would expect to see XBOX increase their lead over PS3 sales once the Blu Ray models or converters come out.