The NY Times asks: is HD DVD dead?
Posted on Jan 05, 2008 under Main |Andrew Yoon
Filed under: Blu-ray
Warner Brothers’ surprise announcement of Blu-ray exclusivity may have effectively ended the format war. At least, that’s what analysts are thinking. Richard Greenfield, the media analyst with Pali Research, wrote a pretty sharp comment about the state of the format wars. It’s over. “We expect HD DVD to ‘die’ a quick death,” he said.
According to Greenfield, NBC Universal did not commit to backing HD DVD exclusively, which means their catalog of products can move to Blu-ray in the future. Fans of Heroes and Battlestar Galactica, among other series, can breathe a sigh of relief. Paramount and Dreamworks, on the other hand, do have an exclusivity agreement, but may have a potential “escape clause” to abandon their support of the format.
Toshiba and Microsoft are the big backers of HD DVD in this format war, and it appears that WB’s announcement caught the electronics manufacturer off-guard. According to GameDaily, the company released a statement: “Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.’ decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD … We were particularly disappointed that this decision was made in spite of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well as other regions in 2007.”
The next steps are unclear at the moment. Will Toshiba and Microsoft raise the white flag, or will they bust out the moneybags to continue the battle? “We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer.”
[Sources: GameDaily, The NY Times]
blu-ray, hd-dvd, warner-bros
Source: The NY Times asks: is HD DVD dead?
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