"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 So Blu-Ray it is with all of its region coding, DRM, outdated codecs and high price tags.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

Not that I think it will do much good but some thoughtful soul has decided to start an online petition to save HD-DVD. There are so many online petitions around these days that I tend to wonder just how effective they can be. Take, for example, the petition to release to release the cult cartoon Duckman on DVD. CBS cited that one of the reasons for them deciding to release this on DVD was because of the 7,000 strong online petition. So in some cases they can prove fruitful. The HD-DVD petition is fast approaching 10,000 electronic signatures, including mine of course. With the news that the HD-EP30 HD-DVD player has now dropped to £119.99 at Amazon and Play a HD-DVD resurgence would be a much cheaper solution for the consumer who wants to go HD but is put off by the high prices.

On the other side of the argument is the 'Let HD-DVD Die' petition urging Hollywood studios to drop HD-DVD and go Blu-Ray. This petition currently has just over 3000 electronic signitures.

In a surprise move Warner Brothers have announced that they are no long supporting both formats and will be releasing titles from their extensive catalogue on the Blu-Ray format. Last year there were rumours that Warner would become HD-DVD exclusive following in the footsteps of Paramount. Surely this will mean the end of HD-DVD and the HD format war. I have made it well known on this blog that HD-DVD is my format of choice, now owning over fifty discs. Warner have stated that the decision was purely down to the "strong consumer preference" for the Blu-Ray format. Why would people want region coding and extensive DRM when another format offers neither? I must really be out of touch with society.

Thanks to Marc for bring this to my attention.

I thought that it was time for a quick update on the HD war of formats and to provide a brief summary on some of the recent developments.

Wal-Mart in the US were offering the Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD for a ridiculous $99 on Friday. Then the competing chain Best Buy also announced that they would sell the same model for this price. Since Wal-Mart and Best Buy are two of the most popular, and possibly evil, ahem, chains it will be interesting to see how what impact this might have on HD-DVD sales figures over the holiday period.

Warner have stated they will not be changing their dual-format support stance in the new year despite initial online reports suggesting that they might possibly follow in the footsteps of Paramount.

Transformers (2007) is the fast selling HD-DVD titles selling over 100,000 units in the first day. It is a pity that I have no inclination to see this over-the-top Hollywood mess as I am sure that it is a quality release.

Third-generation HD-DVD players have been released in the UK and Europe and they are quite reasonable too. The HD-EP35 can be purchased for around £269.99 and comes with seven free HD-DVDs. Alternatively, you can purchase Samsung's BDP-1400 from Richer Sounds for only £299.99. The prices are starting to fall.

Despite some minor title announcements there has been very little else going on in the world of HD. The most exciting title announcement for me is William Friedkin's Bug (2006) which will be released on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray on December 6th in Germany. I was hoping that there would be a flurry of title announcements from both sides in time for the holiday season but it looks as if the usual Hollywood gunk will be littering the shelves.

Finally, and saving the best to last, BD+, the latest in the line of Blu-Ray copy protection has already been cracked. So after all the build-up for the ultimate in Blu-Ray copy protection it is so nice to know that the fuss was for nothing. Keep up the good work hackers.

There is a reason for my lack of posts on the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray format war and that is because there is very little news to report at this current time. After all of the news in the past few months things have slowed down with the only real announcements being the new generation of HD-DVD players coming from Toshiba and the budget HD-DVD player from Venturer. Add to this some minor title announcements from both parties and that is pretty much that.

I suppose the lack of major news is because of the fast approaching holiday season. Both formats are getting ready to face off. A poor showing by either format could determine their longevity but remember that these are still early days. I am also wondering whether there will be any major title announcements in time for Christmas. Blu-Ray appears to have a stronger selection of titles set for release, will HD-DVD respond?

According to TV Predictions an article in the Los Angeles Times reports that Warner are "mulling over" an offer from the HD-DVD camp to support HD-DVD exclusively. So will Warner follow in the footsteps of Paramount and Dreamworks? Even though recently Warner were quick to emphasise their dual format approach it appears that money can indeed speak louder than words.

UPDATE 13/09/07

TV Predictions have now reported that Warner are "supporting both" formats for the time being. This does not come as a surprise as their Total Hi-Def discs, containing HD-DVD one on side and Blu-Ray on the other, will be released in the very near future. The Warner HD website, however, reveals numerous tasty upcoming titles such The Exorcist (1973), Batman (1989) and the Dirty Harry films that will be HD-DVD only and could possibly be released in crucial fourth quarter just in time for the holiday season.

UPDATE #2 15/09/07

Warner have now cancelled the release of their first Total Hi-Def discs. Perhaps they are reconsidering their stance after all. Expect more announcements from them in early 2008.

Do all good things come in threes? The TV Shows on DVD blog are reporting that a third HD home video format was unveiled at the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association in Denver this week. This format is called HD-VMD and is from a UK company called New Medium Enterprises (NME). The format is similar to Blu-Ray and HD-DVD in that it offers full 1080p video, up to 7.1 surround and potentially offers a bit-rate of 36mbps, higher than HD-DVD's 36mbps but lower than Blu-Ray's 54mbps. The main difference between the formats is that HD-VMD uses a red laser rather than the blue laser used by Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. NME believe that makes the units cheaper to build also allows for cheap authoring of discs. The players themselves look rather futuristic, are very slim and compact and are available in a series of different colours. But, even better, the initial launch price will only be $199.99, roughly £99.

So I go away for a few days and what happens; a major turning point in future of HD-DVD occurs. As many of you following the format war will now know Dreamworks and Paramount are no longer supporting Blu-Ray and will only be releasing titles on HD-DVD with immediate effect. Being someone who thought HD-DVD was dying a slow, unfortunate death I was very happy to find that it is not going anywhere just yet. There have been some suggestions that Microsoft paid a considerable amount of money to both Paramount and Dreamworks to 'help' them make this decision but at least it is a step in the right direction for HD-DVD.

This was followed by the resignation of Warner's outspoken supporter of HD at the next generation of home video. Commentators thought this might lead to Warner following in footsteps of Dreamworks and Paramount but nothing has happened as of yet. It would appear that Warner favour HD-DVD over Blu-Ray due to them releasing a handful of titles as HD-DVD only. It will be interesting to see what announcements occur over the coming week.

Whilst visiting my Facebook page tonight I noticed that there had been a online poll asking people whether they support HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Though the results are from a limited audience of 1000 and can only be taken with a pinch of salt they still provide a rough indication of preference. A thorough breakdown can be found in the attachment on the left. It shows that 64% of poll participants currently favour HD-DVD over Blu-Ray. This is quite a significant difference and is one that comes as a surprise. It would be interesting to see what the results would be if the poll had been conducted on MySpace or Bebo for that matter.

So, overall, we can see that the HD-DVD format clearly has a lot of support that will hopefully continue to grow. I wonder how the Blu-Ray camp will respond to this? Only time will tell.

According to TV Predictions recent research indicates that the are 1.5 million homes in the US that have Blu-Ray players compared to 300,000 homes that have HD-DVD players. This means that for every five Blu-Ray players sold one HD-DVD player is sold. Yet more bad news for the HD-DVD camp who are taking a real battering this week. What is also interesting is that out of this 1.5 million only 100,000 are stand-alone Blu-Ray players, the rest are PS3 consoles. Even though PS3 sales are much lower than expected it is still helping Blu-Ray press forward in the format war.

After such encouraging news yesterday regarding the release of the Sergio Leone Anthology and Masters of Horror on Blu-Ray I was not too surprised to find that MGM have now announced that despite this leaked information they have no release plans for the rest of 2007. MGM have claimed that the information printed in Home Media Magazine was "erroneous" and have asked for it to be removed from the website. MGM postponed releases of several films on the Blu-Ray format, such as Silence of the Lambs (1993), earlier this year so this is not too much of a shock. This constant changing of release schedules, and this applies to HD-DVD as well as Blu-Ray, is not good for either HD format.

The full news story can be found here along with the original article from Home Media Magazine.