Toshiba dumps HD DVD; ends format war

19 February 2008

Mumbai: Japan's Toshiba Corporation has decided to stop developing and marketing HD DVD players and recorders, thereby ending a battle with rival Blu-ray disc technology for next generation video format.

Beginning 2002, Tokyo-based Toshiba was locked in a format war with rival blue-laser optical disc technology for the booming $24 million DVD market.

Toshiba's move would make Sony Corporation, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, which makes Panasonic brand products, and five major Hollywood movie studios backing the Blu-ray the winners in the battle for high-definition DVD formatting.

"We concluded that a swift decision would be best," Toshiba president and chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida told a press conference.

He said the decision was a difficult one, "but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence."

Toshiba, however, will continue to support existing HD DVD players, he added.