Chicago (IL) – The end of the HD DVD format may have come faster than many of us would have expected. And despite the outcome of the format war has long been unclear, there have been several reports that correctly predicted the winner as early as July 2005. Join us as we are looking back in time to recap how the defeat of HD DVD developed.  

Following the announcement of Toshiba to pull the plug on HD DVD, we felt that it was time to have a closer look at our reports since the beginning of the format war to provide an overview of the events that led up to Sony’s success and Toshiba’s loss. On the following pages, we are listing all important HD format war articles, ranging from the very beginnings in November 2003 to the shutdown of HD DVD today.

The list allows you to recall the role of publishers, hardware companies, the Playstation 3 as well as Microsoft, which may have played a significant role in the downfall of HD DVD, due to its decision not to offer an HD DVD drive integrated in its Xbox 360. Even if we here have dealt with HD DVD and Blu-ray almost on a daily basis for some time, we were surprised to find some instances that predicted Blu-ray as the winner of the format war early on:

In July 2005, a survey claimed that consumers preferred Blu-ray over HD DVD. Following the launch of high-def players, some speculated that enthusiast users gave HD DVD the edge and sales numbers for 2006 appeared to be in a stalemate. In March of 2007, a European Sony executive told journalists that HD DVD would be “dead within one year”. Walking through high-def sales data in 2007 provides an impression how the lead of Blu-ray began to build up and hurt HD DVD.

Another surprising outcome of this format war is that the adult film industry had very little to do with the fall of HD DVD. The format still had the support from most studios that were releasing movies in high-def. The critical component of Blu-ray’s success appears to have been the Playstation 3, which not only put millions of Blu-ray players into the market, but also convinced gamers to purchase lots of Blu-ray movies.  

However, the end of HD DVD came very quick and its fate was decided by a few serious blows. In early 2008, Warner Bros. said it would abandon HD DVD. Soon, several retailers, most importantly Best Buy, began focusing on HD DVD and online rental company Netflix said it would be dropping HD DVD as well. Toshiba’s only reaction was the reduction of HD DVD player prices, which, from today’s view, only accelerated the format’s departure. 

2003 and 2004: Supporter groups are formed, first specifications and the name "Playstation 3" surfaces  

  

Year	Month	Day	Category	Article	Source
2003	Nov	17		Next-Gen DVD Split By Two Competing Standards	Techweb
2004	Feb	26		DVD Forum approves HD-DVD format	DVD Forum
	May	19		13 firms to form Blu-ray mega-group	The Inquirer
	June	9		HD DVD ROM physical spec v1.0 approved	DVD Forum
	July	15		Sony to test-produce Blu-ray discs in US	Forbes
	July	26		Microsoft says Longhorn to be HD DVD compatible	Reuters
	Aug	5		Sony adopts Blu-Ray for PS3	Spong
	Sept	1		Blu-ray Disc BD-ROM spec adds Microsoft's video codec	EE Times
		22		HD DVD, HD DVD ROM logos approved	DVD Forum
		22		PlayStation 3 will use Blu-Ray discs	games industry
	Oct	5		Group formed to promote Blu-ray Disc format	EE Times
		21		NEC, Toshiba add HD-DVD to PCs in 2005	Digit Mag
	Nov	11		Sharp unveils first Blu-ray disc recorder	PC World
		29		Universal Pictures backs HD DVD	Macnews World
		24		HP confirms plans for Blu-ray	The Register
		29		Toshiba claims Hollywood endorsement for HD DVD	The Inquirer
	Dec	1		HD DVD Recordable logo approved	DVD Forum
		3		Blu-ray read-only format to be finalized early 2005	Mac Central
		9		Disney to support Blu-ray Disc format	EE Times
		20		DVD Forum approves Thomson's compression format for HD DVD
		23		Toshiba launches HD DVD consortium	The Register

 

Read on the next page: 2005 - Bondage talks between HD DVD and Blu-ray and a surprising survey that correctly predicted the outcome of the format war