We have received no such email and we have Netflix. I only have a regular DVD player. How will this effect other customers. Can those discs be played in regular players?

Yes, they will if you buy the HD-DVD marked "combo format", as there are some HD-DVDs that are offered as single-disc combo-discs with regular DVD recordings on one side of disc.

Donna, you would only get the email if you had put that you had an HD-DVD or Blu-ray DVD player in your profile. Nothing will change for you. You will still get DVDs like you always did.

quote:

Originally posted by Donna:
We have received no such email and we have Netflix. I only have a regular DVD player. How will this effect other customers. Can those discs be played in regular players?

Here's the Netflix email:

We're Going Blu-ray

Dear Terry,

You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens.

You can click here to change your format preferences.

We're sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.

-The Netflix Team

Terry, in your blog, you mention Paramount has departed from the HD-DVD camp. I haven't seen this yet. Where did you see this ? That would be fantastic news !!!!!

Amazon is offering new Blu-ray Deal.... Get 3 for the price of 2 Be sure to search through the 4 main topics - "Action & Adventure" "Drama & Family" " Suspense & Horror" "Comedy"

Amazon is also offering the same deal for HD-DVD

Sorry, I meant Warner Brothers.

quote:

Originally posted by macjeff:
Terry, in your blog, you mention Paramount has departed from the HD-DVD camp. I haven't seen this yet. Where did you see this ? That would be fantastic news !!!!!

Darn....I was hoping you had stumbled on some great news......but the day Paramount sees the exclusive Blu-ray light will come soon enough

Articles such as this one is predicting that Toshiba will throw in the towel soon. Of course, it is still just rumors as Toshiba is still holding to its official public line of .....

"“Based on its technological advancements, we continue to believe HD DVD is the best format for consumers, given the value and consistent quality inherent in our player offerings"

But also stated the following....

"Given the market developments in the past month,” she said, “Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players"

Hopefully, Toshiba will be a stop to this battle soon

Wal-Mart just announced that by June 08, it would then only sell Blu-ray discs and players. Up to that date, Wal-Mart will begin to phase out HD-DVD products.

The end of time for HD-DVD is getting closer everyday

Great Score Cards! Go here and scroll down!

quote:

Great Score Cards! Go here and scroll down!

What a great link....very good summary of the two competing formats

More "end of life" news articles are popping up this morning.....Here is the latest...Toshiba to exit HD-DVD. Not official yet as Toshiba still has no comment.

..."Toshiba Corp is planning to stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video, allowing the competing Blu-Ray camp a free run, public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday"...

..."Toshiba is expected to suffer losses amounting to tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players"...

Here is a good web page that charts Blu-ray vs HD-DVD for sales rank at the Amazon web site

Selectable on the page is comparing the top 10 to top 100 sales for both formats. Also, selectable is the time frame from today to past 7, 14, 30, 45, 60, or 90 days

Nothing new on the "End of Life" of HD-DVD.

Here is the tombstone
Just waiting for the final "death" date

Toshiba stock shares went up 6 percent on speculation that the company will soon abandon HD-DVD format

..."Toshiba’s expected withdrawal will leave millions of consumers around the world as disappointed backers of a “dead format"...

..."The decision will also deal heavy blows to the largest corporate backers of HD-DVD, particularly Microsoft"...

..."Toshiba is understood to have poured more than $2 billion (£1 billion) into developing and promoting HD-DVD"...

This also puts Adobe in a very good spot as CS3 Production Premium is (currently) the only solution for end-to-end video editing, production and Blu-ray output/burning on the Mac

MacDailyNews writes:

HD DVD is Officially Dead; Toshiba stops Production of Defunct Format
Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 06:32 PM EST

Stock surges 6%.

According to this article, ..."Toshiba Corp. formally announced Tuesday that it will discontinue its next-generation DVD business"...

..."The Tokyo-based electronics conglomerate said it will cease research and production of HD DVD equipment and will stop selling such products around March 31"...

quote:

Originally posted by macjeff:
According to this article, ..."Toshiba Corp. formally announced Tuesday that it will discontinue its next-generation DVD business"...

..."The Tokyo-based electronics conglomerate said it will cease research and production of HD DVD equipment and will stop selling such products around March 31"...

Here is the official press release

Here is the Q&A from the Toshiba press conference

..."Q: How many HD DVD players and recorders, exactly, did you sell?
A: 600,000 players in the US -- 300,000 of which were Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. 100,000 units were sold in Europe. And about 10,000 players and 20,000 recorders in Japan. So about 730,000 units worldwide"...

..."Q: Any plans to adopt Blu-ray?
A: No plans at all, not at this moment"...