AfterDawn: News

Microsoft finally pulls plug on HD DVD add-on

Microsoft has announced that will stop producing its HD DVD player add-on for the Xbox 360, citing Toshiba's end of support for the format as the key reason why.

The company said it would continue to provide warranty support for the 300,000 or so players that had been purchased to date.



"HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a High Definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own," added Blair Westlake, a VP of Microsoft's media and entertainment group.

Microsoft was the second largest backer of the format behind Toshiba, and has said it will continue to look into how HD DVD technology, such as the interactive layer HDi, can be applied to other platforms.



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Feb 2008 17:47

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• 19 comments

• oscarin

  Microsoft has been all along the real killer of the format, not WB nor Toshiba, Sony won because they played all their cards supporting BD building it in the PS3, Microsoft could have done the same building HD-DVD capabilities in the XBox.

  24.2.2008 18:28 #1

• tripplite

  it's really said that we will be stuck with blue ray, i'll miss you HD-DVD
  

  
  

  24.2.2008 18:31 #2

• milkyoreo

  finally

  24.2.2008 20:34 #3

• H_Seldon

  Like with Betamax, only those who bought it will continue to moan over its loss. Sony played all of its cards and bought off some of its competitor's supporters.
  Microsoft didn't even see that coming, and for that deserved to lose. Now they can swallow their pride, and gracefully accept Blu-ray, or they can try and develop their own technology like Apple does, to so many people's annoyance.
  More and more people are shaking their heads and finding Shareaza (the official version) at http://shareaza.sourceforge.net/?id=home

  25.2.2008 00:28 #4

• ripxrush

  I am disapointed, I dont like it but it is true sony did a much better job of marketin gthere product & gettign it out there the PS3 was a great way to get it out! spend $400 on a stand alone HD player or $400 on a system that has a ext gen player in it! if you buy the player & the format dies that sux (i know i have HD-DVD) if you get the system with the player you still have a $400 system that plays games! they played good! & M$ was never whole hartedly into it in the 1st place!
  (sorry for typos i am @ friends who dosent use firefox [which has spell check])

  25.2.2008 00:57 #5

• H_Seldon

  dats okay wee ondrstand vut u say xactly
  And its true. We all saw the handwriting on the wall when we heard the PS3 was going to have Blu-ray built into it didn't we?
  But wasn't the Blu-ray a better technology as well (I mean disc storage for one thing)?
  I'm still waiting for the price to drop another couple hundred.

  25.2.2008 01:30 #6

• beachcomr

  Yes....Blue-ray IS a better technology...and besides, as mentioned, that the discs have 20 Gigs more capacity than a HD disc....(50G compared to 30Gig, I think)....the Blue-ray players read the data twice as fast as HD...thus, I believe, less prone to errors such as pixelization-freezes, stuttering video, etc.(and faster reading of data must improve quality overall!) But, alas, I am one of those that did, indeed, buy a HD Player due to it's lower cost and Amazon bundled a total of 10 HD DVDs with it.(although they were in 3 groupings....still waiting for the 5 from the 'rebate group').
  So.....I'm trying to buy as many HD DVDs as I can at the lowest possible prices so it will justify still owning one.
  .....And yes I will have to buy a Blue-ray player to continue watching DVDs at the highest resolution possible...and I did 'shell-out' for a new LCD TV(my 1st)...and High-def TV looks great, of course not as sharp as the HD DVD movies.
  Of course all of the HD/DVD owners, in the same 'boat as I am , after switching to Blue-ray...'WE' will have a larger library of high-def movies to watch..since our HD DVDs are not produced in Blue-ray (YET!)
  It seems it will take some time for all of the HD movies to be recut to Blue-ray.
  So the PS3 will be added to the already high stack of equipment in my 'technically-correct' living room. So I guess I'll 'get into' gaming too !

  25.2.2008 06:58 #7

• beachcomr

  Originally posted by beachcomr: SORRY THIS WENT IN TWICE ! MY MISTAKE !Yes....Blue-ray IS a better technology...and besides, as mentioned, that the discs have 20 Gigs more capacity than a HD disc....(50G compared to 30Gig)....the Blue-ray players read the data twice as fast as HD...thus, I believe, less prone to errors such as pixelization-freezes, stuttering video, etc.(and faster reading of data must improve quality overall!) But, alas, I am one of those that did, indeed, buy a HD Player due to it's lower cost and Amazon bundled a total of 10 HD DVDs with it.(although they were in 3 groupings....still waiting for the 5 from the 'rebate group').
  So.....I'm trying to buy as many HD DVDs as I can at the lowest possible prices so it will justify still owning one.
  .....And yes I will have to buy a Blue-ray player to continue watching DVDs at the highest resolution possible...and I did 'shell-out' for a new LCD TV(my 1st)...and High-def TV looks great, of course not as sharp as the HD DVD movies.
  Of course all of the HD/DVD owners, in the same 'boat as I am , after switching to Blue-ray...'WE' will have a larger library of high-def movies to watch..since our HD DVDs are not produced in Blue-ray (YET!)
  It seems it will take some time for all of the HD movies to be recut to Blue-ray.
  So the PS3 will be added to the already high stack of equipment in my 'technically-correct' living room. So I guess I'll 'get into' gaming too ! SORRY THIS COMMENT WENT IN TWICE _ MY ERROR !

  25.2.2008 07:46 #8

• SProdigy

  Geesh, always Sony vs. MS... this isn't the console war kiddies, it was really Sony's Blu-Ray vs. Toshiba's HD-DVD. The only reason there was an add-on made for 360 is because MS was on the HD-DVD side. There was never a real reason for them to include it.
  
  As for Blu-Ray being included with the PS3, I'm not sure that's what sealed the fate for HD-DVD either. It's not like the PS3 is outselling the Wii or 360 (yet) and that is probably because of it's higher price tag this whole time, BECAUSE Blu-Ray was included.
  
  Most people did not see the "value" of getting Blu-Ray with their PS3 because there were 2 formats. Sony is not stupid, and most likely realized if they didn't force Blu-Ray as the winner, then the fate of the PS3 would be dismal as well.

  25.2.2008 08:23 #9

• eiamhere

  It is terrible for the consumer that Sony is at the helm of the new enternmaint medium.
  
  I believe Microsoft have a large interest in downloadable content. This would work in with their current products (Windows, Xbox live,Zune). They have several formats which they try to force down people's throat WMV, etc (don't really know the latest. Should really stop being lazy and google it, but, nah).

  25.2.2008 10:59 #10

• Onibon

  I think that Toshiba and Microsoft should have given HD DVD a bit longer run, at least until the signal swith in 2009

  25.2.2008 11:44 #11

• Onibon

  I think that Toshiba and Microsoft should have given HD DVD a bit longer run, at least until the signal swith in 2009

  25.2.2008 11:44 #12

• esrever

  I completely agree. I don't want to buy a high definition movie if it costs me a hundred damn dollars. No wonder there are people downloading "illegally".

  25.2.2008 12:50 #13

• H_Seldon

  The figures for US sales in October has just been released, and here they are ranked in order of number of sales:
  # Wii: 519,000 (Total: 5 million)
  # DS: 458,000 (Total: 13.6 million)
  # Xbox 360: 366,000 (Total: 7.1 million)
  # PSP: 286,000 (Total: 8.8 million)
  # PS2: 184,000 (Total: 39.4 million)
  # PS3: 121,000 (Total: 1.9 million)
  It has been somewhat different in other parts of the world, so this is kinda deceiving to just look at the States. In Europe, for example, sales for the PS3 were double the 360 in the same month of October.
  After Christmas, the PS3 added value and lowered their prices, resulting in sales increases.
  As for value, I immediately felt that the Blu-ray was going to be the winner in the end, and saw both the value and the strategy in Sony putting it into the PS3.
  From the moment that the Blu-ray players were introduced, I repeatedly saw articles on the internet that claimed that (to paraphrase) "Despite the much higher price, Blu-ray players are outselling HD players by 3 - 1."
  So it wasn't just me who thought that Blu-ray was the better way to go.
  I emailed everyone I knew, who are thinking of buying a new DVD player and are not tech conscious, and advised them NOT to buy the HD-DVD player despite it being much cheaper. I KNEW it was going down the Beta-max road, and I KNEW we'd have a new Beta-max group. (And I suspect so did all those people who were buying the very expensive Blu-ray players.)
  
  I don't know why MS supported HD-DVD. Maybe it had something to do with MS and Sony competing in other areas, such as audio compression technology. I don't know. I'd have to think about it.
  But it was a bad move. I don't know if it really costed them anything, in actual dollars. Did it? Did they put any money into development?
  Didn't their customers foot the bill for the add-on?
  
  I read an detailed article before both formats were released, and I saw right there that Sony was the winner. I think most people did.
  
  As for those of you who didn't, or bought overheating 360's and thought that you might as well buy this add-on too, don't worry about it. I've bought lots of crap before and made alot of mistakes too.
  When it comes to tech stuff though, read more and think more beforehand. Don't buy on impulse or on price.
  
  If you own a stock and you've heard the company's closing, you don't buy more stock. You dump it and take your lumps. I wouldn't buy any more HD-DVD's assuming it will probably be awhile before the same discs are released in Blu-ray.
  I assume the same discs are going to be released on Blu-ray VERY soon.
  Don't kid yourself. Dump it.
  
  Having Blu-ray included in the PS3 didn't seal the fate of HD-DVD. It was the technology itself, and all the people who read up on the differences before they were both released, and all those people buying Blu-ray players despite the huge increase in price.
  The PS3 having Blu-ray didn't seal HD-DVD's fate, but it sure didn't help.
  
  Most people DID see the "value" of getting Blu-Ray with their PS3 because to them - there was only 1 format.
  
  As for the PS3, the same situation applies as did with Blu-ray. While alot of people liked the letter "X" or the cool box the machine came in, or they didn't want to wait for the PS3, or they hate Sony for some reason, or they bought into the advertsing that the Xbox was cooler - others read the tech articles and thought that the tech behind the PS3 was going make it the superior console.
  Watch G4Tech TV and you'll see one guy says he likes the Xbox better but doesn't say why, and another guy says the PS3 is better and has real tech reasons why.
  
  So I don't think Sony had to kill HD-DVD to make Blu-ray or PS3 the winner in the end. They just wanted to kill HD-DVD to make Blu-ray and PS3 the winner NOW.

  25.2.2008 14:02 #14

• vinny13

  The 360 wouldn't be so bad if they didn't steal all of their good games from PC developers and maybe took the extra time to make a functional console instead of releasing a year (too) early... Kinda sad...
  
  Like they ripped Halo off from the Mac lmao :P

  25.2.2008 16:04 #15

• vinny13

  Originally posted by tripplite: it's really said that we will be stuck with blue ray, i'll miss you HD-DVDHow could you miss a disc?

  25.2.2008 16:05 #16

• saltynuts

  Originally posted by vinny13: The 360 wouldn't be so bad if they didn't steal all of their good games from PC developers and maybe took the extra time to make a functional console instead of releasing a year (too) early... Kinda sad...
  
  Like they ripped Halo off from the Mac lmao :P
  
  
  
  steal or buy the rights?

  25.2.2008 18:57 #17

• vinny13

  Ya bought the rights to a computer game and ported to their system and they make all of the money.
  
  So actually they're not really buying them, they're taking them and a ton of money with them :P

  25.2.2008 19:23 #18

• borhan9

  The question here is will Microsoft move over to Blu-ray now that the war is over? Is it the fact that Sony brought blu-ray out and that is the reason they have not backed the format as of yet.

  19.4.2008 18:56 #19