The End of HD DVD - What happened?
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I mentioned earlier, there were about an equal number of movie studios that were set on a single HD format and wouldn't release movies on the other format. This is what gave us one blockbuster on one format and another hit on the other format. Consumers really couldn't do anything to affect this. We might be able to completely stop buying a certain format, but that wouldn't prevent movies from being on different formats. So you're stuck with simply not buying the movie, which sounds like a lose-lose situation. In early January, HD-DVD took a striking blow: one of the major studios that was previously backing them left for the Blu-ray camp.
Doesn't sound all that horrific does it? We think people are mainly buying HD-DVD players for their TVs and to play HD-DVDs on them. Sure, there are some HD-DVD ROMs for the computer, but they are still very expensive and most of these players don't have any burning capacity. At this point we have only video playing as the application for this format. Our main purpose in buying a HD video player is to watch videos. This war looks like it is going to be decided by the movie studios and not the consumer or manufacturer.
So how important was that one movie studio that left the HD-DVD camp? If it was not a major movie studio, perhaps it would be okay, but the one that switched was Warner Brothers. They are one of the biggest players in the movie industry. They currently have four major movies in the theaters right now: The Bucket List, P.S. I Love You, I am Legend, and One Missed Call. Here is a quick rundown of which movie studios are supporting which format.
Blu-Ray | HD-DVD |
Warner Bros. | Paramount |
Disney | Universal Studios |
Fox |
|
Lionsgate |
|
MGM |
|
Sony Pictures |
|
As you can see, the movie studios have really gotten behind Blu-ray. HD-DVD is only left with two movie studios. Is the war technically over? Well, it took Betamax two years to die after it was all but buried. Toshiba seems to be going for a more graceful exit, announcing in the Wall Street Journal that it will stop producing HD-DVD players at the end of March. At first, Dreamworks said it would stick with the HD-DVD format; within a week or two after making that statement, it announced that it was moving over to Blu-ray. Still, you never know; HD-DVD might rise from the grave and come back. Either way, chances are that it won't be able to live on much longer.
HD-DVD last ditch effort
Meanwhile, we've seen serious price slashing on HD-DVD players and movies. You can find an HD-DVD player today for under $85. There's no telling how much longer these players will last.
Next: Time to buy Blu-ray? >>
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