[starman]

Originally Posted by jokell82 

People didn't have a library of movies before DVD. It is a fairly new phenomenon.

I had 700 laserdiscs and God knows how many VHS tapes. Lots of people I knew had libraries of VHS and Beta tapes, and some of us collected 16mm and 35mm film. This is not new.

[Shaddim]

Not new at all, almost everyone I knew had a collection of their favorite movies on VHS. Then of course, there were the weirdos who got into laserdisc.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

I had a collection of about 100 VHS movies and about 100 more of tv shows I taped.

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

RIP HD-DVD, may you rest well with BetaMax...

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Apple and the imminent death of HD DVD - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

[icruise]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Apple and the imminent death of HD DVD - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

That's kind of a worthless post. "I wonder what Apple now will do now that Blu-ray has won...?" They don't even try to answer.

[icruise]

By the way, is it just me or has Eug disappeared from this thread?

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by icruise 

By the way, is it just me or has Eug disappeared from this thread?

He is off drying his tears with HD-DVD receipts.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Downloading and playback were also straightforward, except with a couple of hiccups: Apple TV told us that our first test HD rental, “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry,” was ready to play after downloading 2% of its content, then kept stopping mid-way through the movie to load more video. After three stops and starts, we paused the video and went to get something to eat; after a while, we returned and were able to let it play straight through. Since we’re using a very high-speed broadband connection, it’s our impression that the problem was iTunes’s server speed or Apple TV’s desire to make people think that they can start watching even HD content right away; in practice, extra caching time would have improved our experience, and we likely wouldn’t have experienced an issue with standard-definition"

Apple Inc. Apple TV Take 2 (40GB/160GB) | iLounge iPod Accessory Reviews

[olePigeon]

If you're using Comcast as your high speed internet, it was probably being throttled or stuffed with TCP/IP reset packets.

I ing hate Comcast.

[Kerrigan]

Is this the longest thread in NN history?

[hyteckit]

I can't believe this thread have more replies than the Hot Babes picture thread.

What's wrong with you guys?

[exca1ibur]

Done deal...



Official: HD DVD dead and buried, format war is over - Engadget

Toshiba Officially Drops HD DVD | High-Def Digest

[Brien]

Yep. It's over.

[climber]

Originally Posted by hyteckit 

I can't believe this thread have more replies than the Hot Babes picture thread.

What's wrong with you guys?

well at least you can get porn on Blu-ray now can't you.

[PaperNotes]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

He is off drying his tears with HD-DVD receipts.

He and goMac blew so much hot air for sooo long they could have helped Richard Branson's balloon circle the globe 10 times. It must be seriously embarrassing to talk crap for over a year and support something that was obviously not going anywhere.

[Chongo]

Official Toshiba Press release
Toshiba : Press Releases 19 February, 2008

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

19 February, 2008

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.
Information in the press releases, including product prices and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current on the date of the press announcement,but is subject to change without prior notice.

[Chongo]

Originally Posted by PaperNotes 

He and goMac blew so much hot air for sooo long they could have helped Richard Branson's balloon circle the globe 10 times. It must be seriously embarrassing to talk crap for over a year and support something that was obviously not going anywhere.

I'm no fanboi, you could you say the same thing about BD (3 different profiles for players) had Warner gone HD exclusive or FOX/Disney went neutral or went HD exclusive. Remember the "how dare they" when Paramount went HD exclusive? I for one will be buying either the PS3 or wait for the 2.0 players. There are still 1.0 players on the shelves and sales people will not tell you that.

[ghporter]

Today is the first day of the HD-DVD "gray market." No longer manufactured, the players will become the stuff of hobbyists, and the discs the stuff of collectors. That means that HD-DVD will not disappear, it will just not be a viable format for anything in the future. And I'm sure there will be much discussion of finding tricks the players are capable of and easter eggs in the existing discs.

What makes me wonder though, is how the formerly HD-DVD studios are going to handle this... Rerelease their current HD titles in BluRay? Ignore HD for the moment? Neither?

[starman]

Woot! The war is officially over!

[Dakar the Fourth]

I still can't believe it. February of '08?

I'd love to see a collection of all the predictions from the last three months of '07.

[Chongo]

I'm gad I bought only 3 movies. I received 7 free, so at ±$30 a movie I was paid $10 to to take my A2

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by starman 

I had 700 laserdiscs and God knows how many VHS tapes. Lots of people I knew had libraries of VHS and Beta tapes, and some of us collected 16mm and 35mm film. This is not new.

You were by far the exception. All you have to do is look at home video sales numbers during the height of VHS/Laserdisc and now. Now of course a lot of people owned a handful of movies. But it was nowhere near like it is today. Regular Joes own hundreds of DVDs now.

[starman]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Looks like HD-DVD sales are actually increasing. HD-DVD doesn't seem to be losing market share, it seems to be gaining it back when you look at the weekly sales compared to the yearly sales.

Also, Costco selling Toshiba A2 for $250:
HD DVD Player 249.99 @ Costco B&M : Format War Central

Just checkin' out the posts from the past few months.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by starman 

Just checkin' out the posts from the past few months.

Why?

[Dakar the Fourth]

To rub salt in the wound.

[starman]

Originally Posted by jokell82 

Why?

Humor

[TETENAL]

This sucks for Paramount. Now they have to stay exclusive on a dead format until August 2008!

[Chongo]

Originally Posted by starman 

I had 700 laserdiscs and God knows how many VHS tapes. Lots of people I knew had libraries of VHS and Beta tapes, and some of us collected 16mm and 35mm film. This is not new.

let me see, at +/-$20 a LD x 700 ...

[climber]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

This sucks for Paramount. Now they have to stay exclusive on a dead format until August 2008!

No they don't. Expect news this week if not today.

[Oversoul]

[cjrivera]

[Eug]

Originally Posted by icruise 

By the way, is it just me or has Eug disappeared from this thread?

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

He is off drying his tears with HD-DVD receipts.

Heh. Glad you missed me. Just didn't have much to add to the download bandwidth arguments.

BTW, I went looking to see if Wal-Mart put those Venturer players on clearout. I was hoping to pick up a $49 or something HD DVD player for my home office. Nope, it's still $199, which is what I paid for my Toshiba many moons ago with 9 free moves.

Now I'm just (still) waiting for that reasonable Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player for $199. Judging by the bug reports though, it's likely not going to be a Samsung, which is too bad, cuz Samsung seems to be leading the name brand Blu-ray price front (PS3 notwithstanding).

[ort888]

So who wants to start the next thread?

blu-ray/digital downloads... who is winning?

[Dakar the Fourth]

I believe goMac owns the copyright on that one.

[Mrjinglesusa]

Originally Posted by ort888 

So who wants to start the next thread?

blu-ray/digital downloads... who is winning?

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

I believe goMac owns the copyright on that one.

[aristotles]

Ok, this thread is dead. It's all over and all that remains is the screaming and gnashing of teeth.

[exca1ibur]

Paramount and Universal to publish films on Blu-ray - Engadget

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by ort888 

So who wants to start the next thread?

blu-ray/digital downloads... who is winning?

Done.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by hyteckit 

I can't believe this thread have more replies than the Hot Babes picture thread.

What's wrong with you guys?

Well I'm gay, what's your excuse?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Well I'm gay, what's your excuse?

Niceee.



-t

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by exca1ibur 

Paramount and Universal to publish films on Blu-ray - Engadget

I can't believe sites like that get paid to state the obvious. Without an announcement from either company this means nothing. Of course they're going to switch to Blu-Ray, the only question is how quickly.

[TETENAL]

At least Paramount has a contractual obligation to stay HD DVD esclusive until August. If not they would probably have to give back the money to Toshiba. My guess is that they will sit it out.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

At least Paramount has a contractual obligation to stay HD DVD esclusive until August. If not they would probably have to give back the money to Toshiba. My guess is that they will sit it out.

Oh you can bet that there is some kind of out clause in the event HD DVD is no longer manufactured. And if there isn't (stupid move on their part) you're probably right - they'll just sit it out until it's expired. No sense in them defaulting on a contract when the video sales are so minuscule.

[climber]

Originally Posted by jokell82 

I can't believe sites like that get paid to state the obvious. Without an announcement from either company this means nothing. Of course they're going to switch to Blu-Ray, the only question is how quickly.

Universal just stated so this morning. Paramount will follow shortly.

[climber]

Originally Posted by jokell82 

Oh you can bet that there is some kind of out clause in the event HD DVD is no longer manufactured. And if there isn't (stupid move on their part) you're probably right - they'll just sit it out until it's expired. No sense in them defaulting on a contract when the video sales are so minuscule.

No delay, Paramount will have titles very soon. Some of them are already in production.

[Oversoul]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

At least Paramount has a contractual obligation to stay HD DVD esclusive until August. If not they would probably have to give back the money to Toshiba. My guess is that they will sit it out.

Not true, a party may be excused from performance under a contract in a number of circumstances. Two of which being (1) upon the happening of a condition and (2) an unforeseen event makes performance impossible, commercially impracticable or frustrates the purpose of the performance. I think we have either condition here (1) Warner bolting or Toshiba declaring HD DVD dead, and (2) with HD DVD dead, what's the purpose or benefit for Paramount to continue putting out titles for a defunct format?

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by climber 

Universal just stated so this morning. Paramount will follow shortly.

Missed that "Update" text at the bottom. Still stand by what I wrote though - I can't believe those sites make money.

Originally Posted by climber 

No delay, Paramount will have titles very soon. Some of them are already in production.

Link?

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Batman begins and BSG were the only thing making me want HD-DVD. Now I look forward to them both on BR. I can't wait!

[climber]

Originally Posted by jokell82 

Missed that "Update" text at the bottom. Still stand by what I wrote though - I can't believe those sites make money.

Link?

I agree with you on the web sites. Many of them are pretty bad right now. Sorry, no link. I will only say I have watched movies weeks before the street date. There are some rumors on the net about Transformers already being pressed.