It's finally over (HD DVD)
 

http://gizmodo.com/357957/toshiba-kills-hd-dvd-official

Yep, HD DVD is toasted.

Somehow, I feel that the consumer still lost this battle as I think this was Sony's "Well they have their standard so we are going to make our own proprietary standard instead of playing nice with them" attitude at work here.

Anyone buy any HD DVD gear on this forum?

I think your last question is the key -- there were not large numbers of early adapters, many folks stuck with vanilla dual-layer DVDs. Who wants to race out and buy an expensive box that comes in two flavors without knowing which will become flavor of the day?

Why pick blue ray then? If no one was buying either kind of media?

Not only that, but I don't think that either camp did a good job of selling HD. I have an HDTV at home and 480p DVD video looks pretty good on it. I've seen Blu-ray and HD DVD demonstrations at various TV outlets, but the difference between DVD and HD DVD or Blu-ray is not as marked as they would have you believe. I will eventually upgrade, but I'm in no rush. I will wait until Blu-ray players become commodities.

Where HD really makes a difference is in the camcorder market. The difference in picture quality between SD camcorders and HD camcorders is huge! I plan to upgrade in this area very soon.

Give it a couple years. Blu-Ray will be out due to Hi-Def download. You can take your portable hard drive or iPod Video to Wal-Mart, stick it in a slot, buy your movie, and load it right in. Or, just download it via iTunes. Apple is jocking for that right now as you all know.

Although i dont have a hd tv, i have seen 1080p on a 70"screen and it looks miles better then standard def. I read on a wiki, that the human eye sees the difference in detail if you sit 3x the height of the tv away from the tv. Although the general public wont care about the detail, all the want is the film to watch. Only when tvs and players are cheap will people switch. I always knew Blu ray would win, and i think it is mainly due to the ps3 (which im getting tomorrow :D)

I wonder though what would have happened if M$ had but a hd-dvd drive in the xbox 360?

Correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't Blu Ray made by committee? Not just sony, but several companies, just Sony being one of the bigger ones? So, it may not fall into the mini disk and beta max category since its backed by other companies. At least, lest hope.

Nope your right, the other big people i know of that are in with Blu ray are samsung and lg. A full list is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray...n#Contributors

Universal just gave in. "Just call me Kornblau-ray..."

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1007

So that pretty much finishes the war doesnt it? Blu ray has won as far as disks go, the only thing that might beat blu ray is downloadable HD content

This presupposes that high speed (i.e., many Mbps) connectivity is generally available.

Don't forget that large segments of the population are still only served by lines capable of no more than 56 Kbps. Wireless internet connectivity in many places outside of major population centers, if even available, is exorbitantly priced.

Heck, I live 30 miles outside of Los Angeles (as the crow flies), and it was less than a year ago that the lines were upgraded to support 180 Kbps DSL (if I'm lucky - it's generally more like 140-160 Kbps).

I think the death knell of physical media is decades away, at least.

well, now that that's settled, you think they could get around to making decent content to put on these disks? HD crapolla is still crapolla... :D

Downloaded HD has already displaced HD discs in our house. Apple TV, Dish DVR with download, and Xbox.

Eh, I still watch my DVD's. DVD has a LOT of life left in it. Hell, VHS ain't even dead yet. (I still see DVD/VHS players in stores)

And HD don't mean diddly squat to me when I'm watching it on my iPod (5G and touch).

Netflix is still handing out standard DVDs. It's not like you can just type in just any movie and find it in three formats.

Sony is but one (okay, two) of many companies involved with Blu-Ray.

Wikipedia lists the following contributors:

Adobe Systems
Almedio Inc.
Alticast
Aplix Corporation
ArcSoft, Inc.
ATI Technologies Inc.
Atmel Corporation
AudioDev AB
Broadcom Corporation
Canon Inc.
CMC Magnetics Corporation
Coding Technologies GmbH
Cryptography Research Inc.
CyberLink Corp.
DATARIUS Technologies GmbH
DCA Inc.
Deluxe Media Services Inc.
Dolby Laboratories Inc.
DTS, Inc.
Electronic Arts Inc.
Esmertec
Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd.
Fujitsu Ltd.
Gibson Guitar Corp.
Horizon Semiconductors
Imation Corp.
InterVideo Inc.
Kenwood Corporation
Lionsgate Entertainment
LITE-ON IT Corporation
LSI Logic
MediaTek Inc.
Meridian Audio Ltd.
Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Metta Technology
Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co.Ltd.
Mitsui Chemicals Inc.
Moser Baer India Limited
NEC Electronics Corporation
Nero AG
Optodisc Technology Corporation
Paramount Pictures/Viacom (exclusively supporting HD DVD effective 20 August 2007)
Pixela Corporation
Prodisc Technology Inc.
Pulstec Industrial Co., Ltd.
Ricoh Co., Ltd.
RITEK Corporation
ShibaSoku Co. Ltd.
Sigma Designs Inc.
Sonic Solutions
Sonopress
Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment (Columbia Pictures, Tristar Pictures Screen Gems).
STMicroelectronics
Sunext
Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd.,
Texas Instruments, Inc.
Universal Music Group
Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC)
Visionare Corporation
Zentek Technology Japan, Inc.
ZOOtech Ltd.
Zoran Corporation

The biggest thing keeping me from buying Apple TV is that it doesn't (yet) support 1080p resolution. I can understand the 720p downloads, but I don't understand the limitation on playback for all files.

Maybe its because people would need rather fast internet to steam or download 1080p? And apple are probably waiting for hd to become the norm before they make 1080p available. Im guessing 1080p would be more expensive as well

That explains why you can't rent 1080p video from ITMS, but not why Apple TV doesn't support 1080p at all.

Apple typically sets technology trends rather than follow them. Supporting 1080p would help make it the norm.

In a few years, 720p won't be considered high definition. A lot of people don't consider it high definition now. It's certainly better than NTSC or PAL, but inferior to 1080p.

PB Pro screens support 1080i, and some computer displays and game boxes do, but only high-end digital TV's do (I have a Sony Bravia that will do either).

A lot of folks watch TV broadcasts on their sets most of the time, however, and at this point not all stations are broadcasting in 720 16:9 (I get a couple that do 720 3:2 though), never mind 1080p or 1080i at 30 frames/sec.

but blu ray is at 1080p, and i think it wont be long until hd broadcasts are in 1080p,

Just a side note, they are already working on the successor to hd tv http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_H...finition_Video

I just read a piece the other day (can't find it again) pointing out that to broadcast 1080p (or even 1080i) over cable (many of which like mine carry 15 Mbit/sec internet, a whack of analog TV, 720p TV, and FM channels, and a phone) would strain their carrying capacity. My cable company is fiber to neighborhoods, then standard 75-ohm coax with a 90-volt twisted pair for phone power to individual homes. I think 1080p will probably wait for an infrastructure upgrade.

You got that right. Titles, titles, titles!! And yes, even VHS. Try, for example, finding the live action George of the Jungle in widescreen. Ahem... Disney... ahem.