Reports have been swarming since Friday but today Toshiba officially announced that it would no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD DVD players and recorders. The withdrawal of Toshiba all but ends the high-definition format war that has been waged over the last few years between Toshiba’s HD DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray Disc. Several developments undoubtedly led to this decision but from what I can tell the beginning of the end was last month’s decision by Warner Brothers to drop support for HD DVD and to release future titles in the Blu-ray format only.
On February 11th two more nails were driven into HD DVD’s coffin when the online rental company Netflix announced that it would drop support for HD DVD and would begin to purchase HD titles in Blu-ray only. Best Buy announced on the 11th as well that it would begin to promote Blu-ray as its format of choice in stores by March of 08′. A mere four days later on February 15th the coffin was nailed shut when Wal-Mart announced it would drop HD DVD and would only sell movies, players and recorders in the Blu-ray format. Three days later Toshiba conceded defeat in the DVD format war.
Who cares? …
Anyone who has invested the $300.00-$400.00 or in my case $600.00 dollars per system at launch on the Playstation 3 should be more then pleased with today’s news. While downloads may be the future Blu-ray at present has a clear playing field with unlimited potential. Sure it costs a little more but in my case as a gamer I don’t care. The more companies and developers that pick up support for the format the more titles we’ll get and the happier I’ll be.
The interesting part of this whole mess is yet to come however when Microsoft tries to obtain a license to make an external Blu-ray player for the XBOX 360 as it had previously supported HD DVD. It will be odd to see Microsoft on the other end of a class action lawsuit. The plaintiff instead of the defendant …HA.
All I know is my 60GB PS3s are starting to look better and better everyday. Anyone who thinks that downloadable content will kill recorded media in the near future is undoubtedly misinformed. Someday downloadable content may very well dethrone the disc but I doubt it will happen in my lifetime. In your kids lifetime perhaps but not today and certainly not tomorrow. In other words go buy yourself an HD television and a Blu-ray player. Step out of the Stone Age and join the rest of us in the HD revolution. The winner …Sony and Blu-ray!
Apparently the new animated series will be released to us in two chunks. The first will be a full length animated feature film which is currently set to release in North American theaters Friday, August 15. The second will be a new television series which will run weekly 30 minute episodes. Currently there are over 100 episodes planned for the new animated series.
Like I don’t enough on TV to watch? On the other hand it’s nice to know that Star Wars isn’t dead and while we will undoubtedly never get Episodes VIII, IX, & X at least the brand will go on. After reading up on it and watching the trailer a half dozen times I’m pretty satisfied that it should keep the Star Wars dork (Myself included) occupied for quite some time.
The story will be set in the fictional Star Wars galaxy of course and will take place between Episodes I & II. You can grab more information on the project at Starwars.com or you can click here for a look at the latest trailer.
A couple of months ago I posted about the teaser trailer for 01-18-08 which you can read about and see here. While there still hasn’t been a lot of information released on the film there continues to be an unlimited supply of speculation and rumors. At least a new trailer has finally been released.
This is old news I know but when I first saw this trailer while at the theatre for Transformers this summer I instantly wanted to see it. Looking back on it at the time it did succeed in peaking my interest but I have since become annoyed. Cloverfield (Old Working Title - Code Name) 01-18-08 or whatever the hell it will eventually be called is still a mystery. I’m not surprised given the fact that it’s a J.J. Abrams film, but I mean damn dude give us something.
Rumors …
So many rumors and very little facts can be found while surfing the web at this point. True the teaser is meant to incite interest which is what it did but months later the lack of information is just pissing people off. It appears as though it will be a “Godzilla like” monster attack film based in New York given the size of the scratches on the Statue of Liberty and the fact it tore her damn head off but Godzilla it is not. J.J. needs to get off his high horse and give us something to work with. ARGH!! Either way it should make for an interesting film.
February 19th, 2008 by 
Shaun
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