HD DVD is out!

The official news has been released. Toshiba is pulling out of the HD format war.

Ever since I bought my first LCD TV during Xmas last year, I began to be more interested in the area of High Definition (aka HD). As my LCD TV is HD Ready, I wondered what is HD Ready. After some googling, it simply means that the equipment is ready for HD input/output.

Introduction to HD

Initially I thought simply plugging in my Starhub CableTV cable into my LCD TV would be able to produce the crisp sharp images you see in the superstores, however it doesn’t work this way.

I’ve learnt that to achieve true HD quality pictures, you’ll need a combination of the following:



You’ll need 3 components:
(1) HD Ready/ Full HD LCD TV
a. This provides the pictures
(2) HD Set-top box/ HD disc player
a. This provides the source of data
(3) HD DVD/ Blu-Ray DVD
a. This is the HD data
b. This may not be compulsory due to the data may be transmitted from Starhub set-top box or Mediacorp HD set-top box.

Without all three, you would not be able to produce those sharp pictures.

Current developments

So why are there 2 different types of HD data sources? Namely HD DVD and Blu-ray? Well both of invented by different equipment manufacturers and each is supported by different group of manufacturers, movie studios, etc.

Due to the strong differences between each format, the equipment is also different.
Thus consumers have to decide which one to buy, although the picture quality isn’t much different.

Thus this made many consumers hold back their purchases as one or the other might be phased out in the end. This made neutral manufacturers worried and they decided to development dual format equipment to allow the consumers to fall back on either format in the event of a format phasing out.

Latest News

Just yesterday, Toshiba, the leader of the HD DVD format manufacturers, announced that they will be giving up the push for HD DVD. This is the signal of the end of the format war.

The reason for them giving up is due to more and more movie studios, distributors switching allegiance to Blu-Ray. Final straw came when Warner Bros announced they’ll only support Blu-Ray from now onwards.

These bring good news for all consumers and they can start making their decisions to buy. And good news for me too. As I’ve been deciding either Microsoft Xbox, which I have to buy a HD DVD player addon to watch HD movies, or Sony Playstation 3, which has a in-built Blu-Ray disc player.

So remember to look out for Blu-ray equipment from now onwards!
Posted by JaSoN on 2/21/2008 12:14:00 PM

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Superb finishing by Torres!