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Feb. 19th, 2008 12:18 pm
(no subject)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080219/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_toshiba
So HD-DVD is officially dead. Honestly, saw that coming from a mile away. There were just too many critical blows struck against HD-DVD.
So many studios jumped on the Disney bandwagon and decided to go Blu-Ray only.
Wal-Mart decided to offer only the Blu-Ray version of movies which came in both formats.
PS3 outselling XBox360 in the worldwide market.
etc etc etc
But what I think really killed HD-DVD was the fact the idiots actually stated they were already working on HD-DVD2 mere months after HD-DVD came out on the market. Stuff like that works when your market is technogeeks. Not so much when you're trying to draw in the drooling mouthbreathers who shop at places like Wal-Mart. Toshiba shot themselves in the foot with that one.
Yet again, what caused one format to win over the other had little to do with which format was technically better. The nail in the coffin in the HD format war was the same thing as the video cassette format war.
Bad business decisions.
Sony's refusal to allow porn to be produced on Betamax was what killed beta. It truly was. If you could have bought "New Wave Hookers" on beta back in the day, I bet it would have won hands down.
Toshiba's statement about already working on making the new HD-DVD format obsolete right after it's release really screwed the pooch for them. If they'd kept that quiet, I think the format might have lasted awhile longer.
Of course neither format made a difference to me because I don't own an HD resolution television nor do I own either of the next gen video consoles. And I don't plan on buying any of the above in the near future.
The change in format frankly pisses me off. I had just started to upgrading my movie collection to DVD when they started talking about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. I'm not converting again until the movies are a lot cheaper. Or if the manufacturers start to give a rebate on movies one already owns when converting to the new format.
So HD-DVD is officially dead. Honestly, saw that coming from a mile away. There were just too many critical blows struck against HD-DVD.
So many studios jumped on the Disney bandwagon and decided to go Blu-Ray only.
Wal-Mart decided to offer only the Blu-Ray version of movies which came in both formats.
PS3 outselling XBox360 in the worldwide market.
etc etc etc
But what I think really killed HD-DVD was the fact the idiots actually stated they were already working on HD-DVD2 mere months after HD-DVD came out on the market. Stuff like that works when your market is technogeeks. Not so much when you're trying to draw in the drooling mouthbreathers who shop at places like Wal-Mart. Toshiba shot themselves in the foot with that one.
Yet again, what caused one format to win over the other had little to do with which format was technically better. The nail in the coffin in the HD format war was the same thing as the video cassette format war.
Bad business decisions.
Sony's refusal to allow porn to be produced on Betamax was what killed beta. It truly was. If you could have bought "New Wave Hookers" on beta back in the day, I bet it would have won hands down.
Toshiba's statement about already working on making the new HD-DVD format obsolete right after it's release really screwed the pooch for them. If they'd kept that quiet, I think the format might have lasted awhile longer.
Of course neither format made a difference to me because I don't own an HD resolution television nor do I own either of the next gen video consoles. And I don't plan on buying any of the above in the near future.
The change in format frankly pisses me off. I had just started to upgrading my movie collection to DVD when they started talking about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. I'm not converting again until the movies are a lot cheaper. Or if the manufacturers start to give a rebate on movies one already owns when converting to the new format.