So, Sony’s competing Blu-ray format, now looks set to become the global standard for high-definition DVDs video market estimated to be worth nearly $24 billion.
Consumers can now be more clear-headed than before, since practically all of the high-definition format confusion has now ended. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray deliver crisp, clear high-definition pictures and sound, which are more detailed and vivid than existing video technology. They are incompatible with each other, and neither plays on older DVD players. But both formats play on high-definition TVs.
HD DVD was touted as being cheaper because it was more similar to previous video technology, while Blu-ray boasted bigger recording capacity.
In a pitched two-year battle, Sony and Toshiba tried to woo Hollywood studios to release movies in their formats and to persuade computer and game console makers to use their disc drives. The struggle was reminiscent of the 1980s battle between the VHS format of Matsushita and Betamax from Sony to become the standard for videotape.
Toshiba’s chief executive, Atsutoshi Nishida, said the death blow for HD DVD came last month, when the movie studio Warner Brothers, a unit of Time Warner, decided to drop the format in favor of Blu-ray. He also cited a decision last week by Wal-Mart Stores not to stock discs and players using the Toshiba format.
“The sudden change by Warner Brothers was like a bolt from the blue,” Mr. Nishida said in Tokyo.
He said Toshiba had already informed two of its biggest HD DVD partners, the studios Universal and Paramount, of its decision. Other partners included Intel and Microsoft, which sold HD DVD drives for its Xbox 360 game consoles.
Mr. Nishida said Toshiba would halt all production by the end of March, though it would continue offering customer support. He also said Toshiba had no plans to begin producing Blu-ray players.
