Electronics giant LG will continue to support the HD DVD format, keeping its combo format players on the market - so says Gizmodo. I am glad to see LG is not a pussy like Toshiba.

“LG believes that at this present moment in time, it is necessary to provide a player which supports both formats and therefore create simplicity and convenience for the existing HDDVD consumer.”

“With the recent announcement from Toshiba, Blu-Ray will now be the format that will pave the way for high definition movies, however this does not rule out HD DVD immediately as there are still a number of consumers who have chosen HD DVD and begun to build a HD DVD collection.”

“Overall LG is still excited about the future of this market, LG has always set out to lead high definition players and will continue to do so with more technology evolutions and hybrids which will launch in due course.”

This is welcome news and affirms that you should not sell your HD DVDs, and if you do, sell them to me: admin (at) ilovehddvd (dot) com. It also keeps the format in a medically induced coma. Without studio support, there will only be about 400 movies in HD DVD.

The catch will be to make this combo player affordable.

This should get slightly more interesting when China releases CH DVD … ilovechdvd.com anyone?

Paramount and Universal announced they have gone Blu. When MS announces a BD drive for the 360, it will be like some great socialist uprising. But instead of Red it will be Blu.

I love HD movies, but the BD format is horrible for consumers. Set yourselves up now for stories about irate customers and prepare for downlaods by getting some iTunes Apple TV lovin’ or an xbox 360. WTYM.

 I received Pan’s Labrynth, Zodiac and the French Terminator 2 (2-disc with director’s cut) in the mail today. I still love HD DVD and will continue to buy these movies.

Toshiba will no longer produce HD DVD hardware. Despite legions of fans who were hopefully that Toshiba would push on, they pussed out. If it was an American company, they would push on through bankruptcy, then sue their opponent, win the suit and be awarded a Monopoly. In Japan … they puss out.

I’ll focus on reviews and finding HD DVD movie deals until interest in the site fade.

WSJ reports

Our beloved Engadget reports:

Despite Red’s inability to make any real public statement, Japanese publication Nikkei has it that Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida will be announcing the final discontinuation of HD DVD tomorrow, as well as halted sales of hardware and media by March (as in days from now). Apparently Toshiba will pull its units from retail shelves, but has no intention to give burned early adopters any refunds (no kidding?); it sounds like the ceasefire will include the bare PC drives as well, so those hoping to keep using HD DVD as a personal data storage medium probably won’t have much luck. Apparently the announcement will come alongside Toshiba’s plans to build new semiconductor fabs, which we’re sure they’ll try to spin as an advancement that far overshadows the hill of beans (read: hundreds of millions) they’ve lost in the format war.

Linkage

Our Post HD DVD beta page is up here. If this news is true, I will focus on HD DVD deals. I’ll keep reviewing HD DVDs - for whatever purpose, and link to the reviews but my primary focus will be on HD DVD deals. If the demand is there, I will consider putting up an HD DVD trade forum. Yes, I will ban all Blu-ray Trolls.

Post-HD DVD Linkage

We refrained from posting any of the rumors which were circulating this weekend announcing what would amount to the end of the line for HD DVD, namely that Toshiba had dropped support for the format. Such a move would leave no more HD DVD hardware manufacturers, limiting the HD DVD market to what was sold and the remaing inventory.

Our patience paid off.

This morning, February 18, 2008, Toshiba announced that it was currently assessing its business strategies and that nothigng had been decided.

Toshiba has not made any announcement or decision. We are currently assessing our business strategies, but nothing has been decided at the moment

Although this is grey enough to leave some wiggle room to bail its format, it also failed to confirm the new reports and took a nice jab at NHK and Reuters for running its stories otherwise.

I know many would like to see HD DVD die - these people are very vocal on forums and in blogs. There is some belief that by having HD DVD “die”, so to speak, BD will be in a position to thrive as the sole next gen optical format. These dreams, however, are only dreams.

First off, Sony did not price its products competitively with competition, without direct on-shelf competition, Sony would be less inclined to lower prices on expensive equipment and media.

Secondly, mass-market HD movie Downloads are about 3 years away. Many say that the bandwith is not big enough to support this product. These people are referring to downloading to your PC - a cool feature to be sure. Right now, however, downloads are in the living room already. Presently, you can record an HD movie with a Tivo or other DVR device and take it with you to watch on your iPod. The only drawback is that it is not “on demand”. Setting HD quality on VOD/PPV movies to record via a DVR would not be difficult and would be easily accessible to the average consumer. Furthermore, is MS opened up its movie downloads to let users burn the images to HD DVD would be huge. Point is, movie downloads are here and now, you dont need a PC.

Those facts considered, with Blu-ray players still costing more than $300 dollars for a profile 1.1 player and the PS3 touted as the premiere Blu-ray player, BD has a long way to go to achieve success. Compared to HD DVD, which needs to overcome this horrible PR and get some studios to switch - I say the future for both formats is equivocal: death by downloads.

Source

And just to be clear:

Wal-Mart will not sell HD DVD hardware or media

Best_Buy will continue to sell HD DVD hardware and software - they will just suggest a Blu-ray preference to their customers.

Nextflix will discontinue renting HD DVDs (so what?)

Blockbuster never rented HD DVD (I thought Blockbuster was dead)