Well Toshiba's HD-DVD format player was officially killed today by the Sony-Blu ray format. For me this is personal as I had bought a Toshiba A3 HD-DVD last year around Christmas, now an obsolete piece of technology. I got a good deal for it at the time - $169, but it is now selling for close to $120 as stores try to get rid of stock. It'll get cheaper over the weeks until it becomes a collectable.

The DVD format battle had been fought during the past several years. Sony has led a group backing its Blu-ray technology. Toshiba has promoted its HD DVD format, which it touted as the affordable choice for consumers. Persuading major film studios and US retailers (like Walmart and Best Buy) to issue movies in the Blu-ray format was crucial in Sony winning the battle. They lost the home video war - Sony Betamax versus VHS, but they won this time around. Toshiba is planning to stop production of all HD-DVD players by March 1st 2008 and to completely phase out the HD-DVD players by mid-year. No refunds or compensation will be provided to consumers who bought HD-DVD players.

There will be no more movies released in the HD-DVD format, so what's out there will be what's left. I can still play regular DVD's on the player so it will still have some use for me. I did buy it for the HD format, so it'll be disappointing not to have movies in that crystal clear format going forward. What's most annoying is that for the price I paid, I could have bought a top of the line regular DVD player instead of a mid-range HD-DVD player. Ah well, that's life in the technology fast lane. Overall for consumers this is a good thing as there is now only one choice for high definition DVD players.

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