The Hollywood Reporter is citing “reliable industry sources” as saying that Toshiba is on the verge of officially dropping its HD DVD format. Though Toshiba denies that any such decision has been made, the just-published article in The Reporter points to “substantial” losses from each HD DVD player sold and a series of high-profile defections as key motivators for the company, with one unnamed source close to the HD DVD camp telling the Reporter that “an announcement is coming soon… it could be a matter of weeks.”
Reports show that 50% of all people using BitTorrent at any given point in time do so to download TV-series, quite an impressive number. In total, over a billion TV-shows are downloaded every year, and this number continues to rise.
Gizmodo rounds up their choices for the 229 best lego sets in lego’s 50 year history. Incidentally it’s Lego’s 50th birthday this year. I was a huge fan of the bricks growing up and still am. Looking through gizmodo’s collection I realize I actually had quite a few of their choices during childhood. My current prize possession is the Lego Ferrari Enzo, at over 1000 pieces and took me the better part of a week to assemble.
A very interesting article from the International Herald Tribune on some of the challenges Apple and others face on bringing the movie rental model to Europe.
Though Blu-ray has outsold HD DVD in overall disc sales by a factor of nearly 2:1 since the start of 2007, last week saw the largest gulf between the two rival formats yet, with Blu-ray commanding an 85% share of all high-def discs sold.
This fantastic video shows how just a few people were able to create an epic battle scene with the help of careful planning and some clever cg. Fantastic.
Chris Breen staunchly defends the Apple TV and its future Potential….
The number of comments from Doubting Thomases who are either enamored of the Xbox 360 (coupled with Connect360) or simply find the Apple TV’s specs-to-dollars-spent ratio underwhelming compels me to suggest that, in a year’s time, those DTs are going to be as wrong about the Apple TV as their early 21st-century counterparts were about the iPod.
Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD DVD after Warner Brothers’ recent backing of Sony’s Blu-ray technology, in a move that will sound the death knell of HD DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end. Paramount and DreamWorks Animation, which makes the Shrek films, came out in support of HD DVD last summer, joining General Electric’s Universal Studios as the main backers of the Toshiba format.
However, Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, is understood to have a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp that would allow it to switch sides in the event of Warner Bros backing Blu-ray, according to people familiar with the situation.
Please god tell me this is a mistake. I like Sony, I really do, almost as much as I like Apple, but this is just [insert expletive here] nuts. This is right up there with the whole root kit fiasco. So please please tell me this is wrong….
DRM free music from Sony BMG will be available from January 15 to those who purchase a plastic card called the “Platinum Music Pass” for the album they want from a retail store for $12.99. Buyers will then have to visit MusicPass.com and enter a code to download the DRM free album they selected in the store.
The HD DVD Promotional Group tonight reacted to Warner’s abandonment of HD DVD for movies by canceling its Consumer Electronics Show keynote on short notice. The organization does not say the keynote is being removed permanently from its scheduled but says it has “postponed” the event without a new date, according to the announcement.
Toshiba have issued a press release in response to Warner Brother’s blu-ray moves. I guess what else could they say, but they need to accept two things, they lost, and the more they try to convince people they were actually winning when the numbers clearly showed the opposite the more ridiculous the look.
Here’s the press release:
TOKYO, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ — 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. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have long maintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely together to help standardize the first-generation DVD format as well as to define and shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor. 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. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007. 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.
There are two things wrong with that statement.
“HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007.” - Only because Toshiba decided not to include the number one selling blu-ray player, the PS3 in those statistics. Disk sales showed blu-ray consistently outselling hd-dvd by as much as 3-1.
and even funnier….
“Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.’ decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray,”
It was rumored on every technology, dvd and many mainstream news sites for the last month. Surprised? Really?
What will be really funny is if Microsoft decides now, that it is finally going to put a hd-dvd drive into the xbox as a built in drive, just as it’s too late to do any good.
By the way, in case anyone is wondering why this move means so much, Blu-Ray now has exclusivity of 70% of the entertainment industry content producers. HD-DVD can not survive on the remaining releases from Paramount, Dreamworks animation, and Universal, all of whom must be seriously considering their options right now. Paramount looks particularly stupid arly stupid right now.
[Read Toshiba ‘Surprised’ By Warner Blu-ray Announcement | High-Def Digest]
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