Wal-Mart drops HD-DVD

[rossl]

It's over :p

see the Dispatch this morning

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blu-ray chosen over rival format
Wal-Mart to drop HD DVD
Saturday, February 16, 2008 2:55 AM
By Marcus Kabel
Associated Press

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has selected Blu-ray over HD DVD in the market battle for the format of high-definition video.

The nation's largest retailer said yesterday that it has decided to sell only Blu-ray DVDs and hardware in its 4,000 U.S. stores and no longer carry rival HD DVD offerings.

see the rest of the story at the link

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/02/16/wm_bluray.ART_ART_02-16-08_C11_149CIGP.html?sid=101

[nicholc2]

Honestly other than an official stance, this really doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Have you taken a look at Walmart's pathetic selection of HD media? In the store by me they only have one end cap that has both BR and HDDVD media on it. They also only offer one HDDVD player (the A3) and one BR player (3000), so for them to drop HDDVD means they won't be selling one player and won't be selling about 15 or so titles. Oh, and of last week they STILL hadn't changed the msrp on the HDDVD player to $149 like it's supposed to be. So big whoop. This is more about media spin than anything else. Walmart doing this really isn't going to affect any sales in the long run.

Not that I'm disagreeing with you about BR inevitably winning this, but just stating the obvious. It's sad for the consumer really. Now we're going to be stuck with a product that is more expensive, less reliable, and doesn't even have a complete spec. Hopefully we'll see a profile 2.0 player for sub $200 soon. Here's hoping anyway.

[betona]

HD is collapsing and Toshiba has been incredibly inept with both strategy and marketing over the past year. Forget the fanboi's and the technology, there's a great case study in how many very stupid mistakes Toshiba made.

Like nicholc2 indicates, I'd buy a set-top BR player today if there was a 2.0-spec model for under $150. But they've never even come close and I don't see it happening this year. Which means I don't see hi-def movies going truly mainstream, either.

The way memory prices are falling, one wonders if we won't have a thumb drive movie that plugs into the HDMI port before too long?

[Scott]

Guess I know what I'm spending my tax rebate on! (PS3)

[snodgrass23]

Guess I know what I'm spending my tax rebate on! (PS3)

That's definitely what I'm leaning towards as well. I figure with the second generation games coming out this year as well, there should be a decent number of games worth getting eventually that I don't alread own for the 360.

[SpaceGhost]

no thumb drive, apple tv take 2. I love mine, they just need to build the HD library faster. With everything else it does, it's pretty cool.

[SpaceGhost]

I feel bad for the poor uninformed people buying sub 150 dollar HD-DVD players today at Best Buy and Circut City.

[nicholc2]

I feel bad for the poor uninformed people buying sub 150 dollar HD-DVD players today at Best Buy and Circut City.

There's no reason to be sorry for them. They can still enjoy HDDVDs now and in the future. It's not like they're going to self destruct. Also, they will have a great upscaling player for regular dvd's. That's why I haven't even considered getting rid of mine. Til BD comes out with a stable profile 2.0 standalone for sub $200 I'll enjoy my A2 to the max! :)