It appears that HD-DVD may have just had the last nail in the coffin as Toshiba have decided to cease producing new HD-DVD players or marketing them:
Toshiba is refusing to give any refunds or sweeteners to HD DVD player buyers who were burned by the death of the format, saying they still have “inherent value”.
Overnight, the company said in a statement it had reviewed its overall HD DVD strategy and decided it would no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players.
Of course, the first line there is also important. Toshiba isn’t required to give refunds or incentives to anyone who bought HD-DVD initially and quite frankly, I always figured it would be a horrible idea to back either format until a clear winner was emerging. This is a good move for Toshiba in the end anyway, they were getting hammered all over as various movie studios had dropped them and adoption of blu-ray playes was getting ahead of HD-DVD in key markets like Europe. Of course, I find it curious that they claim their players will have “inherent value”, given that the decision makes them worthless bricks almost and anyone with one will almost certainly have to upgrade to Blu-ray in order to continue with a high definition movie option. Perhaps they mean you can use the thing as a paper weight? Or perhaps hollow it out and make a particularly festive hat out of it, which could be considered rather arty as well (tech art?). Alternatively, you could always use it as a fancy kitty litter box among other things.
I’m sure all these uses will make the $100 plus dollars many of these players cost seem completely worth-while.
Animacules 