HD DVD has missed another deadline, this time the end-of-2005 launch date for Japan. HD DVD’s main developer, Toshiba, said the reason for the delay is that the standards for the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) copy protection scheme (used in both HD DVD and Blu-ray) are not finalized yet.
At the Media-Tech Expo in Las Vegas last week, Toshiba announced the development of a triple-layer HD DVD-ROM (read-only) disc with a data capacity of 45GB, which is enough to hold 12 hours of high-definition content on a single disc. The new disc joins the existing HD DVD lineup that includes 15GB (single-layer, single-sided) and 30GB (dual-layer, single-sided) versions.
In a widely anticipated press conference today at Toshiba's corporate offices in Tokyo, Japan, the company finally announced its decision to pull the plug on HD DVD. According to a Reuters report, it will begin reducing shipments of players and recorders immediately, with the goal of shutting down the business by the end of next month.
This past week two stories circulated around the Internet that dramatically illustrate the confusion surrounding the next-gen optical disc formats. The first rumor had both formats being delayed due to failure to agree to the finalized standard for the AACS copy protection that will be employed by both formats. The second was that Toshiba will kick off a 40-city promotional tour this coming week to hype HD DVD's March launch. Well, is it on again or off again?!
Starting April 1st that shiny HD DVD player might look a little shinier still. $100 to $200 shinier, to be exact. On that date Toshiba is dropping the price of its entry level HD-A2 HD DVD player to just $399 and cutting the upscale HD-XA2 from $999 to $799. The 1080p-capable HD-A20, which is to be released this Summer, gets an in vitro price drop too, going from $599 to $499. On top of that, if you buy any of these players by July 31st you can still send in a form to receive <A HREF="http://ultimateavmag.com/news/30807hddeals/">five free HD DVD movies</A>, according to TWICE.
Black Friday was apparently very good to HD DVD. Riding another wave of deep discount sales on the day after Thanksgiving, the HD DVD group, citing "retailer reports and other point of sale data," issued a press release claiming 750,000 dedicated HD DVD players have been sold.
HD DVDs are going to continue to trickle into stores over the next few months from Warner and Universal in particular, and French distributor Studiocanal has announced it will release 20 movies on the format this year. There's a surprising lack of coordination on the part of studios and retailers regarding the release dates of the titles.
HD DVD seized command of HD sales news this week, beating Blu-ray to a significant milestone by topping 100,000 standalone players sold in the US, and also setting an Amazon HD sales record.
Don't look for Jerry Seinfeld's forthcoming Bee Movie on Blu-ray--at least, not for awhile. DreamWorks Animation can't release anything on Blu-ray yet, having been, ah, stung by an agreement signed with Toshiba. The 18-month exclusivity pact, which began last summer, obligates the studio to release on HD DVD in exchange for millions of promotional dollars.
Despite rumors of a pending peace treaty, the possibility of a much desired agreement between the HD DVD zealots (led by Toshiba) and Blu-ray partisans (led by Sony) creating a single high-definition DVD standard look about as likely as the re-unification of North and South Korea thanks to multiple HD DVD-related announcements over the last few days.
Tuesday's surprise announcement that Paramount and DreamWorks would drop Blu-ray for HD DVD caused quite a flutter in the home theater community. Following are a few notes in the aftermath of the PR explosion.
The high definition disc format HD DVD was killed today - the victim of abandonment. Toshiba Corporation, the company behind HD DVD's development, announced that it was pulling the plug on the nearly two-year-old format, effectively making...