February 19th, 2008

The battle is officially over, and Blu-ray beat HD DVD by TKO. HD DVD died a very quick death today as many news outlets are reporting so far. The most concise and unbiased information I could find is offered below.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

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January 1st, 2008

We thought we’d take a second to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2008. Happy New Year!

We have many new features planned for the site as well as the addition of several guest authors, so stay tuned for more CD and DVD media news!

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December 1st, 2007

PC Magazine’s article about the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray was something that I somehow overlooked and didn’t comment on here. Let me get caught up right now. From the article:

The two technologies don’t work together, and it is very unlikely that both formats will survive. Both kinds of players will work with “old-fashioned” DVDs, but if you want a high-definition video experience on a disc, right now you will have to choose one or the other. The next PC you buy may come with the option to include either an HD DVD drive or a Blu-ray drive. And with standalone players selling for $500 to $1,000, guessing wrong could be expensive.

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September 26th, 2007

Research company Forrester predicts that the format war will continue for at least 18 months, but says that Blu-ray will lose it in the end if they don’t change their tactics.

Blu-ray failed to win when they had the chance and ultimately will end up losing if they don’t lower their hardware prices down to the HD DVD level, the report concludes.

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August 16th, 2007

The European official market launch will be held at the end of August at the IFA in Berlin for Verbatim’s new single-sided 30 GB blank HD DVD media.

The twin-layer storage medium offers a capacity of 30 Gigabytes and can be written to at 1x speed. Verbatim is the first brand to launch a single-sided, writeable dual-layer HD DVD-R with 30 GB of data capacity that’s compatible with current drives and burners in the market. The new high-definition medium offers space for up to four hours of video in HD quality.

The new HD DVD-R DL 30 GB’s proven AZO recording layer technology ensures a high degree of laser sensitivity and error-free reading of the data.

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August 12th, 2007

High-def has notched up another milestone, with combined Blu-ray and HD DVD disc sales overtaking VHS during the first half of 2007.

That’s according to a new research report from Video Business, which found that during the first six months of the year, consumers bought more Blu-ray and HD DVD discs than half inch videotapes for the first time in history.

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July 5th, 2007

Mitsubishi Chemical Media Ltd. will release the first dual-layer HD DVD-R media for data by the end of this month.

The all new HD DVD-R media offers a capacity of 30GB using two layers. It can be recorded at 1x, conforming to the HD DVD Recordable (HD DVD-R) Ver.2.1 standard.

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June 18th, 2007

CDRInfo today presents a review of LG’s first combo drive that supports both the Blu-Ray and the HD DVD formats. The new GGW-H10N is a Super Multi Blue drive compatible with Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD read/write and HD-DVD-ROM.

The drive was announced at the 2007 International CES trade show in Las Vegas last January. Despite its high retail price, it could be part of high-end PCs allowing for playback of both Blu-Ray and HD DVD movies, burning on 50GB Blu-Ray recordable media and of course, it fully replaces your old DVD burner.

Read the full Super Multi Blue drive review here.

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March 2nd, 2007

The DVD Forum, the international organization that defines formats for DVD products and technologies, today celebrated its official 10th anniversary at the annual general meeting of its members held in Tokyo. The Forum, which has been hailed as a model for collaboration between the consumer electronics, IT and entertainment industries, was founded in August 1997.

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February 8th, 2007

LG Electronics today confirmed that U.S. consumers can now purchase the industry’s first dual-format high-definition (HD) disc player at U.S. retailers.

Unveiled less than a month ago at the 2007 International CES(R), the LG “Super Multi Blue” Player (model BH100) is now available at national retail stores, such as Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA, as well as regional retailers and local dealers.

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