Toshiba have announced they are stopping production of HD-DVD and therefore effectively killing off HD-DVD. Blu-Ray had been gaining ground ever since Warner Bros decided to throw it’s support behind the format in a switch of allegience.
Campared to the format war in the 1980s between VHS and Betamax it can be argued that Sony learnt it’s lesson, as this time the more expensive, but technolgically superior and Sony backed format won out.
As the de facto industry standard, Blu-Ray can expect a big uplift in sales now uncertainty over it’s future has been removed, and assuming the price of players continues to fall. HD-DVD was almost half the price of Blu-Ray, with the cheapest Sony device being a PS3 at around £300.
The HD-DVD will be a museum piece as soon as March 2008. Maybe a good time to get a player on eBay and start buying up only discs as people switch if you want a (short sighted) cheap route in to HDTV.
