"TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high definition DVDs, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), a company source said on Saturday."

So there we have it, an official end to the format war has come much sooner than most had anticipated. But with the aggressive remediation of technology it does not come as a surprise to see a fomat last for only a year and a half. It is just a pity that such a consumer friendly format did not last longer. So Blu-Ray it is with all of its region coding, DRM, outdated codecs and high price tags. I have no intention to sell off my HD-DVD collection and will be on the look out for some bargains over the next few months.

Source: Reuters