It was only a matter of time, but Toshiba’s announcement that it will officially stop production of HD DVD discs and players still brought tears to my eyes. Well, not really, but it still sucks so much ass.Just a few months ago, back in October, everything was fine. Paramount had announced they would go HD DVD exclusive and the Blu-ray crowd cried as they would not be getting an HD version of Transformers. HD DVD players were all the rage.
But the cheese started to stink when Warner Bros. joined Sony Pictures (Columbia/Tristar) Fox, Disney and went Blu-ray exclusive. That started a snowball effect that ultimately led to the HD DVD format’s demise. It was just too much. On top of that, big name retailers like Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, Target and Netflix also turned their backs on HD DVD, putting the final nails in HD DVD’s coffin. It was a brutal gang up.
So Sony’s more expensive HD format finally won. Will Universal Studios and Paramount/DreamWorks, the only studios to remain HD DVD-exclusive, go Blu-ray? Of course they will, there is no other option. We’ll also be seeing a Blu-ray adapter for the Xbox 360, and a big spike in stand-alone Blu-ray players as well as PlayStation 3 consoles.
I’m glad there’s a definite winner in the high definition format war, but it’s always sad to see a serious contender lose, and one that I was in favor of. I have yet to see a live action movie on Blu-ray that looks better than King Kong on HD DVD. I’ll be keeping my Planet Earth, Complete Matrix Trilogy and Transformers HD DVD’s as collector’s items, even after I have no HD DVD player to watch them on. I congratulate Sony for the win, and thank Toshiba for trying to lower the price of HD content.
