In its last breaths in the BluRay–HD-DVD format wars, the later has finally received the final blow to it’s share of the market. The format wars, which has been compared by many to the Betamax vs. VHS video format wars that had consumers scratching their heads on which video players to purchase and in what format of movies to purchase. Toshiba, one of the biggest manufacturers of consumer electronics (namely media players) has given hints that it is finally retiring its line of HD DVD players in favor of the newer BluRay disk player. Sony, a staunch supporter and promoter of the BluRay disk technology has been vying for the shift for quite sometime with many of its players on the shelves already supporting BluRay technology.
Officials of the firm have stated that an exit strategy has been in the works and that they are finalizing plans to end their production of HD DVD players sometime this year. This comes as one of America’s largest retailers, Wal-Mart officially announced that it was going to pull HD DVD players from store shelves opting to restock them with BluRay Players instead. This move is said to have sealed the tombstone of the HD-DVD format by many signalling the loss of support by many industry leaders/manufacturers.
The said feud has been going on for quite sometime and many have said that the result is slowed development of the promising BluRay technology which has almost four-fold capacity if compared to HD DVD. Last January, Time Warner/Warner Bros. Studios has released a statement that it would now start releasing movies in the BluRay disk format. This adds bite to Sony’s drive for their BluRay standard and with almost three-quarters of the players out on the market supporting BluRay it might have been early indicators that finally convinced the company to shelve the HD DVD format. This would be a sure sign of rapid development and of course decreasing prices for the said newer players with more competitors entering the game which has been the trend when it comes to technology driven consumer electronics.