The battle of the high-definition DVD format is coming to a close, according to sources from within Toshiba. The past several weeks have been a headache for the company and owners of HD DVD players. The format was put on life support after a string of bad news that started in January with Warner Bros.’ announcement that they would go exclusive to Blu-Ray, the rival format made by Sony.
Since then, things have gone downhill for Toshiba considerably. Best Buy announced this week that they were siding with Blu-Ray, as did Netflix, the online movie rental service which was going exclusively Blu-Ray. Previous to the Warner Bros. announcement in January, Target pulled HD DVD players from their stores last year.
The final nail in the HD DVD coffin came Friday, February 15, 2008, when mega-retailer Wal-Mart announced on their company blog that they would back Blu-Ray exclusively starting in June. Wal-Mart, of course, is the largest retailer of DVDs. With the largest retailer (Wal-Mart) and the largest electronics retailer (Best Buy) now firmly behind Blu-Ray, Toshiba has literally no choice but to call it quits.