The Death of HD-DVD

Blu-ray and HD-DVD had gone to war, and companies began to side with one format or the other. A few movie studios hedged their bets and produced content for both formats. But that wasn't very efficient or cost-effective. Retail stores faced a similar dilemma: should they dedicate vthe aluable floor space to both HD-DVD and Blu-ray? And if one failed, what would happen to the other? Many people agreed that it would be better for the industry to settle on one format.

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The fall of the HD-DVD format means that retail chains like Best Buy no longer need to have two separate sections for high-definition media.

By the summer of 2007, Blu-ray was doing very well. While dedicated Blu-ray player sales weren't very high, Sony's inclusion of a Blu-ray player in the PS3 helped promote the format. According to a report by Home Media Research, Blu-ray discs outsold HD-DVDs by a factor of two to one in the first half of 2007 [source: Reuters]. But HD-DVD wasn't ready to throw in the towel just yet. Despite the widening gap, studios like Paramount and Dreamworks announced that they would produce content exclusively for the HD-DVD format (although Steven Spielberg's Paramount films still found their way to Blu-ray) [source: Barnes].

Blu-ray achieved another victory that summer when Blockbuster Video stores switched exclusively to the Blu-ray format for its high-definition movie selection [source: Rusli]. And HD-DVD suffered yet another setback when the retail outlet Target announced it would stop carrying the HD-DVD players and only reserve space for Blu-ray machines [source: Ault]. After each announcement, a few bloggers and tech reporters pronounced the HD-DVD format officially dead. Yet HD-DVD backers continued to fight.

Professional reporters and amateur bloggers alike began to predict a format war that would stretch well into 2009 [source: Bangeman]. Companies that had hoped to build players that could handle both formats abandoned those plans. While the prognosis for HD-DVDs was grim, Toshiba's HD-DVD players were still less expensive than dedicated Blu-ray machines. The lower price gave HD-DVD supporters hope that they backed the right high-definition horse.

­But suddenly there was a shift to Blu-ray. More studios began to defect to Sony's format. By January of 2008, the end was near: Warner Bros. announced it was switching exclusively to Blu-ray. By that time, HD-DVD only had two studios backing its format: Universal and Paramount. To make matters worse, Universal's exclusivity agreement had just expired and Paramount had an escape clause. Paramount's agreement stated that if Warner Bros. jumped to Blu-ray, Paramount could follow suit [source: Fritz, Garrett].

But the tech world really knew HD-DVD was in trouble when Toshiba canceled all HD-DVD press conferences and events at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. HD-DVD still had a presence on the showroom floor, but Blu-ray's booth outshone its rival. The HD-DVD booth was shaped like a large square -- the Blu-ray booth took on the shape of a ghostly pirate ship. The writing was definitely on the wall.

A short time later, retail giant Wal-Mart announced it would only offer Blu-ray movies and electronics in its stores. Toshiba officially conceded the format war to Blu-ray in February 2008. The company announced it would stop manufacturing HD-DVD players by that March [source: Negishi, Hamada].

That wraps up the story on HD-DVD -- for now. To learn more about high definition video, tune in to the links on the next page.