Recently Filed in HD DVD

It appears that Toshiba has, finally, put HD DVD behind them, announcing that its first Blu-ray player will be available in November for $250. The BDX2000, a Profile 2.0 player (BD-Live), outputs 1080p at 24 frames per second and has Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. And just so there’s no confusion here, Toshiba points out that the BDX2000 “does not play HD DVD discs. Blu-ray discs with high-definition content required for HD viewing.” Toshiba, of course, lost the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • HD DVD • Product News

Toshiba will finally launch its first Blu-ray player later in 2009, according to the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. Blu-ray.com says the player is called the BD-18, and it will read both Blu-ray discs and DVDs. No specs have been released. The Yomiuri Shimbun, quoting unnamed sources, adds that Toshiba may consider a recordable Blu-ray player in the future, depending on the market. Toshiba, of course, lost the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war in early 2008 and subsequently suffered a 95 percent loss in profits.… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • HD DVD • Product News

I’m not going to advocate grabbing an HD DVD player (though you can certainly get one on the cheap these days) at this point if you’re able to shell out for a Blu-ray player, but if you’re content on hanging on to one you already own, head over to iNetVideo. Chances are you’re already familiar with the site, basically an online warehouse that buys up a bunch of discs and sells them to us at pretty sweet prices. The Blu-ray deals are pretty good, but… View this story
Blu-ray • HD DVD • Movies and Music • Deals • Product News

Warners Bros., which effectively ended the format war when it announced sole support for Blu-ray, is letting customers swap their HD DVD titles for the Blu-ray version in its new Red2Blu program. The studio is offering the “upgrade” program for up to 25 HD DVD titles at $4.95 a piece via Red2Blu.com. The best part for HD DVD fans? It appears that you don’t even need to send in the disc—just the cover art sleeve for the title. So, you can keep the HD DVD… View this story
Blu-ray • HD DVD

In case you’re still scrounging for HD DVDs to add to your collection… we’ve got a pretty good way to kick off your New Year. Gizmodo says that Blockbuster is making way for more Blu-rays, and clearing its current HD DVD inventory. They have some pretty good ones up for grabs, including “Zodiac,” “A Christmas Story,” Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “The Polar Express,” all of the “Bourne” movies, and much more (about 350 total). Now we’ve got some not-as-great news. Sure, it’s pretty sweet… View this story
HD DVD • Movies and Music • Home Theater • Product News

We know that HD DVD has been RIP for 10 months now, but we also keep hearing that many people haven’t put their HD DVD players out to pasture yet either. Since this is the season for deals, there’s an HD DVD deal going on at Borders that you might be interested in if you still give your HD DVD player good use. The retailer has its HD DVDs on clearance, so pretty much all of their 145 available titles are under $10. For the… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • HD DVD • Product News

We all know who won the format war. Still, a little defeat wasn’t keeping HD DVD users from putting that player into their daily/weekly rotation. Well, if that routine included getting movies from Netflix, we’ve got a wrench for you. The company said earlier this year that it would stop buying titles. Now they don’t want to ship them either. As of December 15, subscribers will no longer be able to rent HD DVDs via Netflix. Netflix sent out an email stating that, “At that… View this story
Blu-ray • HD DVD • Home Theater • Product News

So it looks like a lot of our readers are still buying up HD DVDs . We don’t blame them; everyone loves a cheap thrill, especially when it’s delivered in high-def. In honor of recent developments, we decided to put together a quickie list of some of our favorite HD DVDs. Sure, we don’t expect the format to ever make a comeback, but if you’re still collecting, you might want to consider adding at least one of these to your A/V cabinet. Low prices and… View this story
HD DVD • Movies and Music • Home Theater • Info and Answers • Slideshows

If there’s one thing we understand by reading your valuable comments, it’s that HD DVD fans are still very happy with their players, very vocal about it, and still snapping up what are now bargain discs. Toshiba might have thrown in the towel earlier this year, but we’re giving them props for at least keeping the HD DVD players in people’s homes up to date by continuing to release firmware updates. Sure, this seems like a no-brainer for the company, but it also recognizes that… View this story
AV Components • HD DVD • Home Theater • Enhancements • Product News

Old habits die hard. Despite the downfall of HD DVD earlier this year, the defunct format still seems to be selling. Don’t expect HD DVD sales to give Blu-ray a run for your money, but Pocket-lint says that recent economic conditions have given a boost to the old, cheap standby. HD DVD hardware, which can also upscale standard-def DVDs, can be found fairly cheap. Also, many movie titles are on sale for below the $10 mark.  Ryan Kugler, president of Distribution Video & Audio, said… View this story
Blu-ray • HD DVD • Home Theater • Product News

Have you picked up a Blu-ray player yet? Are you buying Blu-ray discs or just renting them? Or do you just download movies from iTunes when you want to see something new? Word from the Redhill Group (via Hollywood In Hi-Def) is that Blu-ray sales are steadily increasing, and the numbers for 2008 seem pretty positive. An average of 1.14 million Blu-ray disc sales per month is about 2 1/2 times more than how business was going last year, and about 1 1/2 times that… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • HD DVD • Miscellaneous • Movies and Music • Enhancements • Product News

As if I need to remind, the recent Blu-ray / HD DVD battle was not only bloody but also very, very expensive for all involved. Both Sony and Toshiba burned through their budgets (and then some) on aggressive promotions, sly marketing and hyper-rapid product development. In the end, BD won and Toshiba announced that rather than join the party, they would instead focus on improving the standard DVD technologies. Many assumed this meant enhancing the image scaling capabilities via their SpursEngine 1000 processor, a pint-sized… View this story
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