Mesogog

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp is planning to stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video, allowing the competing Blu-Ray camp a free run, public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday.

Toshiba is expected to suffer losses amounting to tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders and other steps to exit the business, Japan's NHK said on its website.

No one at Toshiba could be reached for comment.

The format war between the Toshiba-backed HD DVD and Sony Corp's Blu-Ray, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, has slowed the development of what is expected to be a multibillion dollar high-definition DVD industry.

Toshiba was dealt a blow on Friday when Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it would abandon the HD DVD format, becoming the latest in a series of top retailers and movie studios to rally behind Blu-ray technology for high definition DVDs.

Toshiba plans to continue selling HD DVD equipment at stores for the time being but will not put resources into developing new devices, NHK said.

A production plant in northern Japan is already confirmed to be shut down.

If Toshiba withdraws, Microsoft will be under pressure as well. So far, the company has placed its bet only on HD DVD and has offered an external HD DVD drive for its Xbox 360 console. The company will also have to write-off potentially millions in losses and redirect its HD strategy towards Blu-ray. This move could be embarrassing for the software giant at the very least, as it will force the company to concede to Sony’s HD strategy and its competing Playstation 3 console.

On the content side, movie studios Universal, Dreamworks and Paramount – the major players among the remaining exclusive HD DVD supporters, are expected to make Blu-ray announcements within weeks. The HD DVD camp does not have any supporters which are exclusively selling HD DVD players or recorders in the PC market.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...27196120080216

Shinji Kido

Yeapp,the war is pretty much over.

I was rooting for HD too. Can anyone give me a blow by blow on the differences? Tell me to Google it and......

BOSCOtheROCK

the onyl real difference between the 2 is disk size. i read one that hddvd has 15 gigs of space and the bluray has 25gigs but was recently enlarged to 30 gigs so yeah. thast the onyl difference. oh and i think blu ray was 1080p copatible and hddvd was only 1080i