• Toshiba abandoned the HD-DVD player on February 19, 2008, thus ending the "format wars"
    • One of two competing high definition formats
    • Sony's Blu-Ray system boasts higher-capacity discs
    • Greater number of Hollywood studios providing content
    • Toshiba's HD-DVD system remains only way to watch films from Studio Canal, Universal and the Weinstein Company

  • Blu-Ray is a high-definition DVD format. The name comes from the blue violet laser used to read and write this type of disc. Blu-Ray technology is built on DVD technology, but it uses a more advanced laser to read the data on the disc. The Blu-Ray laser can read finer detail the the standard DVD laser, which allows more data to be written to Blu-Ray discs.

    Panasonic introduced the first portable Blu-Ray player during the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2009.ABC News: Sneak Peek at Some of the Best Gadgets at CES (January 7, 2009)

  • Winning the Format War

    For a long time, it was not clear which format the movie industry would embrace: Sony's Blu-Ray or Toshiba's HD-DVD. Both formats were virtually identical from a technical standpoint, and the major film studios, electronics retailers, and consumers seemed unable to determine which would be the standard format. Late in 2007, though, Time Warner picked a side, announcing that all future high-definition releases would use the Blu-Ray format. Soon many similar announcements followed, which precipitated price drops for HD-DVD hardware. Toshiba kept up a strong public front briefly, but it was not long before they announced that the HD DVD format would be discontinued.

    However, as of October, 2008, only 4% of movie discs sold in the U.S. are Blu-ray discs. Steve Jobs' statements about the non-viability of the Blu-ray format further suggest that the declaration of a winner in the HD wars may have been premature.CrunchGear: Can we get it over with and declare Blu-ray dead already? (October 29, 2008)

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