Bruce Nazarian

A SINGLE FORMAT! 

Unless you have been under a rock since January, you know that an avalanche of change has been sweeping through the Next Generation Optical disc community. Warner Brothers kicked things off in early January, when they announced they would support the Blu-ray Disc format exclusively over HD DVD on releases beginning around June 2008. Followed by recent similar announcements of exclusive support for Blu-ray Disc from Target, Netflix, Best Buy, and finally Walmart, it would appear that a major market shift is finally taking place. One the one hand, this is a great development, since it will finally resolve a format war that (in the opinion of many) has caused a lot of confusion in the minds of potential adoptees. Some have opined that the confusion over Next Gen had contirbuted to a perceived slowdown in DVD sales, as well, and that was a justification for Warner's opinion.

Regardless, it would appear to be over. This morning, the BBC is reporting that Toshiba has aoounced it will cease production of HD DVD players and recorders, effectively ending the format. They have said they will continue to offer support to existing customers, and that's a good thing. How this will play out in the future is something the DVDA will remain on top of.  Despite the end of the format, we should thank Toshiba (and its partners) for their technological development efforts on HD DVD.