Clearance sale – everything must go! HD DVD players for under a pound! Buy an HD DVD movie and get ten extra movies completely free!
If the latest developments have more than a ring of truth to them then it might not be long before the big clearance sale begins and owners of HD DVD equipment and films are left with the digital equivalent of a Betamax player and a collection of Super 8 movies.
Hello Tosh
Apparently ‘reliable sources’ close to Toshiba have told Hollywood Reporter that the company may be about the pull the plug on its ill-fated hi-def disc format.
After Netflix and Best Buy both twisted the knife further last week, Toshiba has been left looking like the spotty, obese, ginger kid in the corner of the schoolyard. The one with the personal hygiene issues that no-one wants to make friends with.
The museum of broken tech dreams
Officially, Toshiba maintains that it’s going to “study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers". In the real world though, away from high-gloss PR spin, that basically translates to: ‘We’re doomed and we know it’.
Let’s hope so. The format war has become stale and voyeuristic – like watching a dying animal and waiting for it to draw its terminal breath. It really is time we all moved on to talk about something else. Like, how long before hi-def digital downloads cause a similarly sticky end to Blu-ray…
