Finally, after much dilly-dallying, Microsoft has publicly conceded to stopping making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 gaming console.

However, the company said it will continue to provide standard warranty support for its HD DVD players.
With this move, the last of the support to the dying (now dead) HD DVD format has ended. During the time the format lasted, Toshiba, Intel, NEC, and Microsoft were arguably its main proponents.

Actually, HD DVD's downfall began quite some time back when major Hollywood studios, including Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, and Warner Bros Entertainment chose rival Blu-ray over HD DVD for distributing their high-definition content.

This was followed by nearly all of USA's major retail chains, the likes of Best Buy, Target, and 'last but not the least' Wal-Mart Stores, pledging support to Blu-ray over HD DVD

With Toshiba's public withdrawal of the format, the fate of HD DVD was more or less sealed, leaving Blu-ray the unchallenged victor.

Now that Microsoft has said it will stop making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 console, Blair Westlake, a Corporate Vice President with the company's media and entertainment group, further said they will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of DVD movies that they already own.

Just how are they planning to do this?

With HD DVD players firmly out of the way, is Microsoft now going to make attachable Blu-ray players for its Xbox 360. In any case, Sony's PS3 gaming console already has built-in Blu-ray playback capability.

Or is the company now going to increase high-definition downloads on its Xbox Live service, as it said earlier.

Guess we'll just have to wait for the official announcement...
Source: techtree

The high-definition DVD war that ended this week saw Blu-ray emerge victorious from the field of battle.

Now that the dust has settled a bit, we're tackling questions from people
who might be wondering what all the fuss is about.Just as Beta and VHS went head-to-head in the '80s, HD DVD and Blu-ray spent

the last two years battling to see which would be the eventual successor to DVD,
bringing crystal clear, high-definition picture and sound to our living rooms.
And as Sean Connery famously said in Highlander, "In the end, there can be
only one."

There was never a doubt that one format would triumph, the only questions
were which one and how soon. The big backers for each side (Toshiba and
Microsoft for HD DVD; Sony, Panasonic, Samsung and others for Blu-ray) gambled
they'd be victorious, but -- to stay with the Highlander analogy -- Blu-ray
chopped off HD DVD's head.

Decline of HD DVD

Citing consumer confusion and indifference as a reason for lackluster high-definition software sales, Warner Bros. announced they would stop supporting HD DVD by June 2008, and the company would release software only on Blu-ray Disc.

This was followed by news of Netflix phasing out support for the format, and Best Buy's decision to recommend Blu-ray Disc over HD DVD in its retail locations.

Wal-Mart announced that they would be supporting only Blu-ray by June 2008.

On February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced their decision to discontinue development and marketing of the HD DVD format. The company citied "recent major changes in the market". According to Toshiba, HD DVD Player (replay only) had sold approx. 10,000 sets in Japan and approx. 700,000 worldwide. TV broadcasting program recordable HD DVD recorders sold approx. 20,000 in Japan. HD DVD Drive for PC, add-on for Microsoft Xbox 360 and others is approx. 20,000 in Japan and approx. 300,000 worldwide. Toshiba will continue support by holding spare parts for 8 years after complete close of HD DVD business . Shipments of HD DVD machines to retailers will be reduced and will stop by the end of March 2008. Toshiba plans to continue to market recordable HD DVD discs. The company plans to solicit media manufacturers for recordable HD DVD media.

What is HD DVD ?

HD DVD or High-Definition DVD is a high-density optical disc format designed for the storage of data and high-definition video.

HD DVD was designed by a consortium of companies (principally Toshiba and NEC) to be the successor to the standard DVD format. Toshiba made an official announcement on February 19, 2008 that the company would no longer develop, manufacture, and market HD DVD players and recorders, effectively ending the high definition optical disc format war

Attempts to avoid a format war

In an attempt to avoid a costly format war, the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum attempted to negotiate a compromise in early 2005. One of the issues was that Blu-ray's supporters wanted to use a Java-based platform for interactivity (BD-J), while the DVD Forum was promoting Microsoft's "iHD" (which became HDi). A much larger issue, though, was the physical formats of the discs themselves; the Blu-ray Disc Association's member companies did not want to risk losing billions of dollars in royalties as they had done with standard DVD. An agreement seemed close, but negotiations proceeded slowly and ultimately stalled.On August 22, 2005, the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum announced that the negotiations to unify their standards had failed. Rumours surfaced that talks had stalled; publicly, the same reasons of physical format incompatibility were cited.
In the end of September, Microsoft and Intel jointly announced their support for HD DVD.

Hewlett Packard (HP) made a last ditch attempt to broker a peace between the Blu-ray Disc Association and Microsoft by demanding that Blu-ray association adopt Microsoft's HDi instead of its own Java solution and threatening to support HD DVD instead.However, the Blu-ray Disc group did not accept HP's proposal.

Read :Blu ray

Chicago (IL) – The Blu-ray camp has responded to the rather dramatic HD DVD player price cut from last week this weekend: If you purchase certain LCD TV models, Sony and Sharp are throwing in a “free” Blu-ray player.

Price has not been one of the advantages of Blu-ray players so far, but it appears that Sony & Co are beginning to take first shots at Toshiba on this battlefield as well. The ad package in your Sunday newspaper brought two especially interesting flyers – one from Sony and one from Best Buy.

Sony is offering a $400 rebate on the purchase of a LCD TV/Blu-ray player package, which essentially gets you the BDP-S300 for free (we’ll forget the sales tax here). Qualifying TVs are the 46” KDL-46V3000, the 46” KDL-46W3000 and the 52” KDL-52W3000, which carry MSRPs of $2300, $2500 and $3000, respectively. The instant rebate can be used for all of Sony’s current Blu-ray players (excluding the Playstation 3) and is apparently available through all retailers that offer these products.

BestBuy not only advertises this Sony program, but also a similar and time-limited promotion for Sharp TVs and Blu-ray players. Purchasing an Aquos D64-series LCD TV (for prices between $1700 and $3000) allows customers to bag a Sharp BD-HP20U Blu-ray player free of charge. The player usually retails for $500.

Of course, if you own an HDTV and simply want a cheap high-def player, the Toshiba HD DVD units are still the most attractive devices. But you’ll have to be careful what and where you buy: For example, Best Buy offers the entry-level HD-A3 (whose MSRP was dropped to $150 by Toshiba last week) for $300. Most online shops are currently selling this player for about $125.

The Blu-ray promotion includes five free movies; the HD-A3 HD DVD player includes seven or nine free movies, depending on the retailer.