Toshiba Officially Backs Out of HD DVD Camp

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:

It was a fun run, but Toshiba has just made it official that they will be backing out of the HD DVD camps and halting production of their players. Players will continue to be sold for the next few months, but will dwindle off as time passes. For those wondering if Toshiba will now begin making Blu-ray players, CEO Atsutoshi Nishida claims there are "no plans at all".

Other manufacturers of HD DVD players have also stepped back and decided to cease production, and that includes Toshiba's add-on for the Xbox 360. In addition, ardent HD DVD supporter, Universal Studios, has also announced their shift to the Blu-ray camps, not surprisingly. Like many, I am hoping they will re-release all of their HD DVD releases on Blu-ray, since there are numerous titles people are missing out on.

And though HD DVD has only just died, the rumors took no time at all to propagate. According to Aussie site Smarthouse, Microsoft might be including a Blu-ray player with the Xbox 360 in as early as May. This sounds like wild speculation, but like us, Microsoft could have seen the writing on the wall for some time now and were planning ahead. Since Blu-ray is the victor, it would make a lot of sense for them to add the support to their console. It's only a rumor, but a good one.

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Those already sold on high-definition movies will either declare this as a great victory or a tragic loss, though keep in mind that even HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales combined are barely a drop in the bucket compared to regular DVD. Recent statistics from Zip.ca show that high-definition disc rentals account for 0.87 percent of total shipments.

Source: DailyTech
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Despite the fact I liked HD DVD more from a technical standpoint, it's hard to argue that Sony deserved to win this battle. They had great support (thanks to the PS3) and the support of many. It's going to be so much easier going forward for those looking to pick up a high-def format, but sucks for those who sunk so much money into their HD DVD collection.

RIP HD DVD.

 

[Greg King]

Yeah. As much as I was rooting for HD-DVD (I dislike Sony so much) it's nice to know that the format of tomorrow is finally decided upon. We are looking to get a new television within the next year and it will be nice not having to purchase 2 separate players simply to enjoy our favorite movies.

That said, I might wait for players to completely bottom out and pick up a cheap Toshiba 1080p capable HD-DVD player.

 

[Rob Williams]

I almost recommend just picking up a PS3 in a case like that, since Blu-ray players by themselves aren't exactly all that cheap either (and probably won't go down now that it's the lone format). Although I like the Xbox 360 more for games, the PS3 is an incredibly well-designed console. It's far more enjoyable to use over the Xbox 360, but the downside is the lack of overall killer games.

Of course, maybe I shouldn't talk since all I've been playing lately have been classics :-/

 

[barone]

Yeah, i know people who are picking up PS3s because of blu-rays especially....
I personally dont care about blu-ray quality

Rob: why do you think the ps3 is better to use than xbox 360 (i dont own a xbox, just ps3)

 

[madstork91]

The longer im around the more and more I both find reasurances that my fanboi-ism towards sony was correct in past days.

And the more I find reasons to completely despise them.

What he said.

 

[Rob Williams]

Yeah, i know people who are picking up PS3s because of blu-rays especially....
I personally dont care about blu-ray quality

Rob: why do you think the ps3 is better to use than xbox 360 (i dont own a xbox, just ps3)

Haven't seen you around here for a while! Stick around

The interface for the PS3 is much more refined than what's seen on the Xbox 360, in my opinion of course. It's clean, professional and even a bit classy. On top of that, it's easy to navigate and fast to boot. The Xbox 360 has an interface that looks like it was built for kids. Some might disagree, but that's how I feel.

The PS3 also has a nice hacking-ability, which is quite amazing. You can install Linux, run Folding@Home and even interact with your PSP. I have downloaded quite a few PSx classic games that work on both systems, and it's nice to be able to swap saved game files between the two. And even with a recent update, any PSx game that runs off the PS3 can be streamed to the PSP for play. It's not the most stable thing in the world, but it's cool nonetheless. Overall, the PS3 just tends to do things, that to me, makes sense. If you wanted, you could copy all your saved game files (and even full downloaded games) to your PC or a memory card for backup... can't do that on the Xbox 360 too easily.

I just wish all products were so "open", or at least offered a lot of functionality that makes sense. Taking that last example into consideration... I think anyone should be able to back up their saved games or files stored on the console to the PC or elsewhere for backup. It should be a consumer right! (I save mine on an external HDD).

The bad thing, of course, is that the PS3 lacks the games, while the Xbox 360 has been thriving on the best for a while. I own about 3x more Xbox 360 games than PS3 games, if that says anything. Especially paired with the Xbox Live downloadable games... the Xbox 360 is THE console to own for gamers.

I am lucky to own both, because there are so many good features of both, it would be hard to put up with just one, haha. I still need to RMA my Xbox 360 because of it's RRoD though... I'll get around to that one of these days.

 

[madstork91]

I only know two people with in a 10 min drive who own a ps3. Not to say there are not more than that... But I just do not know that many ppl who own one.

I -do- know that when they got it they thought it was the next best thing to shitting gold. Now... almost a year after they got one, they think their shit might be worth more in gold than the ps3.

 

[barone]

Haven't seen you around here for a while! Stick around

The interface for the PS3 is much more refined than what's seen on the Xbox 360, in my opinion of course. It's clean, professional and even a bit classy. On top of that, it's easy to navigate and fast to boot. The Xbox 360 has an interface that looks like it was built for kids. Some might disagree, but that's how I feel.

The PS3 also has a nice hacking-ability, which is quite amazing. You can install Linux, run Folding@Home and even interact with your PSP. I have downloaded quite a few PSx classic games that work on both systems, and it's nice to be able to swap saved game files between the two. And even with a recent update, any PSx game that runs off the PS3 can be streamed to the PSP for play. It's not the most stable thing in the world, but it's cool nonetheless. Overall, the PS3 just tends to do things, that to me, makes sense. If you wanted, you could copy all your saved game files (and even full downloaded games) to your PC or a memory card for backup... can't do that on the Xbox 360 too easily.

I just wish all products were so "open", or at least offered a lot of functionality that makes sense. Taking that last example into consideration... I think anyone should be able to back up their saved games or files stored on the console to the PC or elsewhere for backup. It should be a consumer right! (I save mine on an external HDD).

The bad thing, of course, is that the PS3 lacks the games, while the Xbox 360 has been thriving on the best for a while. I own about 3x more Xbox 360 games than PS3 games, if that says anything. Especially paired with the Xbox Live downloadable games... the Xbox 360 is THE console to own for gamers.

I am lucky to own both, because there are so many good features of both, it would be hard to put up with just one, haha. I still need to RMA my Xbox 360 because of it's RRoD though... I'll get around to that one of these days.

I would love to know how to hack my ps3. I looked up folding@home because i had no idea what it was, and apparently it is an energy-saving project?

I saw this on wikipedia

Stanford announced in August 2006 that a folding client was available to run on the Sony PlayStation 3.[18] The intent was that gamers would be able to contribute to the project by merely "contributing electricity," leaving their PlayStation 3 consoles running the client while not playing games. PS3 firmware version 1.6 (released on Thursday, March 22, 2007) allows for Folding@home software, a 50 MB download, to be used on the PS3.[2] A peak output of the project at 990 teraFLOPS was achieved on 25 March, 2007, at which time the number of FLOPS from each PS3 as reported by Stanford fell, reducing the overall speed rating of those machines by 50%.

That sounds pretty cool...

But anyway, id love to know how to hack my ps3 because I want to be able to watch movies on it that I have on my computer... and I'd definitely want to be able to play old PSx games on it like you do. Maybe you could guide us through how to do it or give a link or something? I don't even know what I need.. but i want to hack my baby ps3 because im doing nothing with it.

 

[Rob Williams]

Hacking is a broad term. In this case, I just mean there is a LOT you can do with it... dig deep under the covers, so to speak.

> "apparently it is an energy-saving project?"

Hah, it's for cancer research. Energy-saving would be an oxymoron, since Folding@Home would keep the CPU running at 100% for as long as it's running. Apparently, it's as efficient as a normal desktop machine, but you could still expect it to add at least $20 to your power bill each month. It's for a good cause, however.

> "But anyway, id love to know how to hack my ps3 because I want to be able to watch movies on it that I have on my computer..."

First and foremost, I believe these need to be in a certain format, such as MP4. You -will- need to read up on this though, because even though the PS3 allows a lot, it's fussy when it comes to which video formats work. Personally, I have a NAS box that works alright, and also a router with built-in hard drive that does the job also.

Ideally, you can have an external hard drive that you plug in via USB and access that way. Or as an alternative, set up your PC as a media center (can be done with Vista Home Premium/Ultimate or MCE 2005) to access the data that way.

The most difficult part will be finding out how to make videos playable, but a quick Google search should help you there. I wanted to delve deeper into it before, but didn't have the time. I'd like to in the future though.

 

[barone]

Ah, come on. fully figure out how to do it and share it with us

 

[Rob Williams]

Haha. I am not lying when I say I am strapped for time, but this is still something I'd like to tackle at some point. I personally have no need to do something like this with the PS3, since the PS3 and my PC are connected to the same display. It's simple to switch between them, so there's little sense to copy data between both of them.

Perhaps I am work it into an article soon though... it might not be a bad idea.

 

[barone]

Haha. I am not lying when I say I am strapped for time, but this is still something I'd like to tackle at some point. I personally have no need to do something like this with the PS3, since the PS3 and my PC are connected to the same display. It's simple to switch between them, so there's little sense to copy data between both of them.

Perhaps I am work it into an article soon though... it might not be a bad idea.

Oh what do you use to connect them to the same display? They are connected to the TV?

 

[Rob Williams]

I have both my computer and PS3 hooked up to the Gateway XHD3000 for the time being. The PC uses DVI, the PS3 uses HDMI.

 

[barone]

you hook up your computer to a 30" monitor? what cable do i need to connect pc to my tv so i can watch movies. i got a nice ol hdtv too