With HD-DVD officially dead in the water, rumors have started circulating that Microsoft is about to dump the format too, and bring out a Blu Ray enabled Xbox 360 as earlier as May 2008! Smart House apparently has the inside word and it would seem that internal testing has been underway for quite some time!

Insiders at Microsoft in the USA have told SmartHouse that Microsoft has already configured a standalone Blu-ray player that can be connected into an Xbox 360 and that subject to internal marketing and sales approvals the model could be on sale within 3 months.

The Company has also been working on a built in Blu-ray player however insiders are claiming that Microsoft see the HD format battle moving online with consumers offered 1080p movie and content files as a download as opposed to having to buy a HD DVD or Blu-ray disc.

Both Intel and Microsoft have been supporters of the HD DVD format that is set to be killed off this week.

Furthermore, Smart House report that Sony has already commented on Microsoft coming out with such a Xbox 360, saying,  "We would welcome Microsoft to the Blu-ray stable. In fact it is quite logical for them as the PS3 has been very succesful in driving consumers to Blu-ray. In fact we believe that it has done more to win the format war than traditional Blu-ray player".

This thread is as dead as the format.

If anyone knows any good deals on hd-dvd player, pls post them here. I'm on the lookout for one. Thinking of getting the A30/E30. Best i've seen is the ones at b&h photo at US$165 pre-shipping cost.

I'm also on the lookout for one as well. At dirt cheap price, it doesn't really matter whether the format is still alive or not but there are enough existing hd-dvd movies to keep me occupied and if Amazon sells them all at 50% or less, it's worth getting them compared to those original dvds sold at Speedy.

Anyway, anyone who wants to sell his hd-dvd titles, you may contact me personal via PM and if I'm interested in any of the titles, I'll be interested to buy them from you. Just sapu-ed a couple of hd-dvd titles from my friends, they hit the panic button and sold everything away, crossing over to the blu-ray side. Me still neutral lah, even with blu-ray only, they haven't won the war yet unless they have a sizeable market to crush dvds first and don't forget most of the special editions, extended cuts or unrated versions are only out on standard dvds. You don't get Pearl Harbor Director's Cut on blu-ray, you certainly don't get King Kong Extended Version on hd-dvd either but only on standard dvds.

Toshiba Resigns from Format War; Blu-ray Wins!

Blu-ray Disc Sources close to the situation have alerted Blu-ray.com that Toshiba is expected announce at a press conference to be held at 5pm (local time) in Tokyo, Japan that they have ended their support of the HD DVD format. Toshiba will announce that effective immediately, production of HD DVD hardware, software, and authoring tools will cease, and that sales and support of existing products will end sometime in March.

As the main supporters of HD DVD, their resignation effectively ends the format war. Blu-ray has won.

Since Warner Brothers' announcement that they would exclusively support the Blu-ray format, rumors have been circulating that HD DVD's lagging sales and loss of studio support would force Toshiba to exit from the high definition format war. The weeks following were riddled with additional studios, retailers, and distributors announcing that they too would support Blu-ray exclusively, concluding with Wal-Mart's announcement last Friday that they would drop support of HD DVD in June.

This information should be considered a rumor until Toshiba makes the official announcement, but our sources have always proven accurate. Once the official announcement is released, we will update this post with any additional information.


source : blu-ray.com

       

p.s : i wanna buy HDDVD player...

huh? Blu-ray.com as a source for HD DVD news?

a press function has been scheduled by Toshiba on 5pm Tokyo - we do not know what they will announce

huh? Blu-ray.com as a source for HD DVD news?

a press function has been scheduled by Toshiba on 5pm Tokyo - we do not know what they will announce

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

lol this thread is going down soon.
For the time being, this thread will remain until we have more info (Microsoft releasing blu-ray addon or something)

Farewell HD-DVD .. and also farewell to my HD-DVD add on. Im selling it away. Anyone interested ??

Eh? I know the format is dead but why la sell? With the impending stock clearance of HD-DVD titles, you are looking at getting very good HD content for very cheap prices (hopefully).

I am sure the HD-DVD add-on will last you a couple of years more, so why not just keep it and enjoy the HD-DVD movies you have?