Toshiba officially gives up on HD-DVD format

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yeah, if all this had been sorted out in 2005 when Toshiba were getting ready to bow out, it would have stood more chance of making an impact. The consumer generally finds HD confusing and unnecessary, but it was even more confusing when you could easily pick a 'losing' side.

WV: I would question any rumours you've heard about extreme payments and whatnot. People "in the know" (ie. The Digital Bits which had just about the most up to date and accurate news coverage, I'd say) said it was interesting because they've got a lot of industry insiders which they trust, and also have a pretty damned good understanding of the technology and the companies involved.

They say they witnessed, on quite a few occasions, rumours being inserted into forums and news-sites that were complete and total lies... always against Sony/Blu-Ray. Where did they bizarre lies that creeped into different channels around the internet come from? Well, essentially it's pretty obvious that the HD-DVD camp were planting these stories. (MS continues to be a classy company.)

It's clever marketing if you think about it, but it's certainly made me begin to question and doubt these "rumours" I read on news sites and forums*.

* This post is of course the exception and is 100% accurate **.

** May not be 100% accurate.

Linky poos for those who are interested in the physical/download debate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/technology/personaltech/21pogue.html/?_r=1&oref=slogin

and quote from The Digital Bits:

Unlike so many of the most ardent supporters of either side, I don't have any particularly dislike for Microsoft or love of Sony. I really could care less about such things - I just love watching great movies in great quality. I'm a Vista user, and of all the next-gen game systems out there, I really dig the Xbox 360. I don't even have a PS3. But I'll tell you, I've been suspicious of Microsoft's motivations in this format war for a while now, based on reports from our many industry sources, and my own personal experiences with Microsoft's HD-DVD "evangelism" team. The Rough Draft article fleshes out and supports (from another perspective) MANY of the things we've been saying for a while now, including the fact that it was Microsoft that convinced Toshiba to continue backing HD-DVD when Tosh was ready to give up back in 2005 (before these formats actually launched), and also that Microsoft campaigned on behalf of HD-DVD to prolong the format war itself. It's no coincidence that right after Warner announced they were backing Blu-ray at CES, Bill Gates started shifting the focus away from HD-DVD toward downloading. And it's also no coincidence that since CES, Microsoft - which had been the most vocal supporter of HD-DVD up until that time - hadn't said much else about HD-DVD until their statement on Monday that the format's failure wouldn't impact their Xbox 360 business.

One of the big reasons we here at The Digital Bits decided to finally officially back Blu-ray in June of 2007, was that we'd noticed that certain folks in the HD-DVD camp were saying things that made no logical sense to us, that were contrary to EVERYTHING we'd come to know about the home video business in more than a decade of working in and interacting with it, and that occasionally we even believed to be blatantly false. We also noticed that much of this misinformation was being spread to folks online in the various discussion forums and groups, who didn't have the perspective, experience and industry contacts to KNOW it was suspect, and these folks were in turn spreading it elsewhere online. This happened repeatedly. It was a deliberate effort to use enthusiasts to fight corporate PR battles, and finally we simply couldn't sit on the sidelines anymore and let it continue unchallenged. We've gotten pretty good over the years at sniffing out marketing spin and PR BS. And some of the stuff that was spread around was really despicable, even to the point of personal smears. We've never seen anything like it. Even back in the DVD vs. Divx days, it NEVER got as nasty online as it did with HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray. And certain parties were deliberately fueling the fire.

[twmac]

Cheeky MS.

I've always liked stories like this as it is interesting to see how corporations try and subtly manipulate what we think and say. Or, in some cases, how they very unsubtly manipulate the hearts and minds. Nice link.