Tag: FORMAT WARS

Other than the frenzied anticipation for the coming breed of tablet PCs, the one topic that dominates the mindspace of the technorati these days is the world of e-readers. More specifically, a great debate is brewing; each of the e-readers and their associated online book stores favor differing standards and file formats, and we may have another good ole fashioned format war on our hands. ...

It's official. After plenty of rumors and speculation Toshiba itself has indeed confirmed that it will cease production of HD DVD players and recorders sometime next month. That means the high-definition format war is over and Sony, having lost so many of these battles in the past (Betamax, MiniDisc, UMD, etc. etc.), has finally got winner on its hands. Or does it? Having offed HD-DVD on the ...

It's been a rough week for HD-DVD, Toshiba's high-definition video format, and things are starting to look even worse. Sony Corporation's Blu-ray format, supported by heavyweights 20th Century Fox, Sony, and Walt-Disney, won important allies this week: Best Buy announced it would start recommending Blu-ray over HD-DVD to its customers, Netflix completely dropped HD-DVD in favor of Blu-ray, and ...

The chips are down for Toshiba and its HD-DVD format, the competitor to Sony's Blu-ray that has been on the receiving end of some serious knocks lately. Netflix said it's dropping the format, and Best Buy indicated it's beginning the process of doing the same. Blu-ray player sales are way up and things are looking so bad that Toshiba's response to all this sounds half-hearted at best. No ...

In what may be the final nail (among many final nails) in HD-DVD's coffin, rent-by-mail juggernaut Netflix has just announced that it will be going with Blu-ray as its hi-def movie format of choice (Blockbuster recently made the same decision). The announcement comes in the wake of several major studios finally jumping ship to support Sony's format. all of which tells us one essential truth: ...

In the war of Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, each of the opposing camps seems to think that having an exclusivity deal is a powerful weapon. It started in June, with Blockbuster making a big deal about going exclusive for Blu-ray in its brick-and-mortar stores (despite still offering both formats in its Netflix-like online rental service). Most recently, it was Paramount going exclusive to HD-DVD, meaning ...

While next-gen disc format Blu-ray languishes in the overpriced gadget ghetto, competing format HD-DVD and the players that play it are breaking free by dropping in price to a popular holiday gift level. ar. Hot on the heels of the release of the Toshiba HD-A3 HD-DVD player, retailers across the country are dropping the price of the previous-generation HD-A2 below the all important $200 ...