Wal-Mart’s Dumping HD DVD

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If you weren’t already convinced the next-gen optical disc battle was over, Wal-Mart has announced their intentions to dump HD DVD and exclusively stock Blu-ray. There’s also murmurs that Toshiba is about ready to throw in the towel… The quicker they do so, the better – a single format and less consumer confusion will lead to higher adoption rates and ultimately lower hardware prices.

8 thoughts on “Wal-Mart’s Dumping HD DVD”

  1. Now that this war is ending, lets not lose site of the fact that the real fight will be between Blu-Ray and DVD.

    And if most people have 32″ or smaller TVs, or 720p or less resolution, there may not be a compelling reason for them to move off DVD.

    DVD has lots of advantages–every title available, lower prices, faster load times, cheaper players, known technology, no issues with backward compatibility, no need to find an Ethernet jack (which most people won’t have), etc.

    And of course DVDs are rippable, making the movies portable across players/formats.

    And DVDs are playable on most PCs, meaning you can watch them on your laptop on the airplane, or on the portable players that are available for very reasonable prices.

    There are lots of niches Blu-Ray doesn’t even play in yet–in car entertainment systems for example. Are you really going to buy that kids movie in Blu-Ray when it means your kids can’t watch it in the car?

    I don’t see Blu-Ray supplanting DVD for a very long time. The whole eco-system has to evolve.

    My next computer will have a Blu-Ray burner though…

  2. “Now that this war is ending, lets not lose site of the fact that the real fight will be between Blu-Ray and DVD.”

    I totally agree Glenn. At the moment I think the manufacturers are getting excited to provide a unified front to the consumers with one “new” format (Blu-Ray) as the latest and greatest new thing.
    I think it will be a hard sell to the general public, but who knows.

    On another note, my dad called me the other day saying he got this note from Netflix saying they would no longer would support HD-DVD format and asked me if that would affect him and his equipment. I explained to him that he just had the standard DVD player in his setup anyway, but it goes to show you the confusion out there on the subject.

  3. I am not invested in either format, but I think the coming end of the war is great. With only one format, studios should be more willing to release their catalog titles and not just new releases.

  4. I’m glad to see the war will be ending soon. I’ve held out on getting either Blu-ray or HDDVD b/c I didn’t want to spend money on a dead format. I see myself adopting BR as some point this year now that it seems like everyone is getting on the BR bandwagon, and the rumors that Toshiba will be dumping HDDVD soon.

  6. Another issue with Blu-Ray: Currently, there aren’t any players (besides the PS3) that can handle the next gen 2.0 player profile. So even if you make the switch to BR today, you’re not set for the future.

    I think I’ll stick with Xbox360 downloads and upconverted DVDs for now.

  7. I’m with Tom – I’ll stick with upconverted DVD’s until a BR DVD sells for $150. Eventually the market will drive the price down – but until then I have plenty of DVDs to watch.

  8. I’ll join Tom as well. It will be interesting to see how video downloads progress. If they come in with HD and a good market model before BR hardware gets to a low price point then that’s the ticket.

    I know the physical format will hang on. However, I like the idea of not having to store discs.

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