Toshiba officially loses the HD-DVD/Blu-ray format war
Posted by kevin at 10:23pm on Saturday, February 16, 2008 EDT
Filed under: Business
It looks like the confusion over which high definition digital format to go with next is over. After a tough few weeks in which major US corporations such as Netflix, Warner Brothers and Wal-Mart gave up on the HD-DVD format in favor of Sony’s Blu-ray Toshiba has finally given up the ghost. Today the company, which had been one of the leading manufacturers of HD-DVD media and equipment confirmed recent NHK reports that it’s dropping the format altogether from this point forward, with an official announcement coming sometime next week.
How much does this decision impact Japanese movies? Probably not much yet. There have been relatively few domestic films released in high definition format aside from a few notables such as Sukiyaki Western Django, Hatsukoi, Tegami, Keetai Deka: The Movie, and a handful others - certainly not enough to make it a huge issue. The immediate results will be more obvious with US imports until it becomes financially feasible to start releasing lower-grossing Japanese movies on the still-way-too-expensive Blu-ray media format.
Source: Reuters via Gizmodo via Ain’t It Cool News
