Microsoft to discontinue Xbox HD DVD player
Last Updated: Monday, February 25, 2008 | 9:12 AM ET
The Associated Press
Microsoft Corp. said it will stop making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 video game system after Toshiba Corp. ceded the high-definition video format battle to Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray.
Microsoft said Saturday it would continue to provide standard warranty support for its HD DVD players. Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida last week estimated about 300,000 people own the Microsoft video player, sold as a separate $130 US add-on for the Xbox 360.
"HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high-definition experience to consumers, and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own," Blair Westlake, a corporate vice president of Microsoft's media and entertainment group, said in a written statement.
Microsoft was one of HD DVD's main backers, along with Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) and Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp., and its support was seen as a big win for Toshiba's format.
But enthusiasm for HD DVD waned as major movie studios — including Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co., News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. Entertainment — picked Blu-ray to distribute high-def DVDs. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. struck what seemed to be the final blow for the Toshiba format just over a week ago when it said it would only sell Blu-ray players and discs.
Microsoft said it is looking at how the HD DVD technology it has developed, such as HDi, which adds interactive features to DVDs, and its VC-1 video encoding technology, can be applied to other platforms.
The software maker, based in Redmond, Wash., said the decision to stop selling HD DVD players won't have a material impact on its video game business.
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Greece passes new austerity deal amid rioting
- Greek lawmakers have approved harsh new austerity measures demanded by bailout creditors to save the debt-crippled nation from bankruptcy, after riots in Athens and other cities left stores looted and burned and more than 120 people hurt. more »
- Quebec town 'heartbroken' after killing of woman, sisters
- A small Quebec town is in mourning Sunday after a Quebec man was charged with killing his nieces and his mother, who were found dead in their family home. more »
- Houston autopsy results withheld by police
- Whitney Houston was found in a hotel bathtub but it'll take weeks to determine precisely how she died, a Los Angeles coroner's official says. more »
- Musicians who died before their time
- The growing list of musicians who have died young. more »
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- Ancient Antarctic lake may harbour microbial life
- If scientists find microbes in a frigid lake 3.2 kilometres beneath the thick ice of Antarctica, it will illustrate once again that somehow life finds a way to survive in the strangest and harshest places, and it will offer hope that life exists beyond Earth. more »
- B.C. killer whale habitat protection ruled a legal duty
- The federal minister of fisheries has no discretion when it comes to protecting the critical habitat of B.C.'s southern resident killer whales, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled. more »
- Game developer seeks $400K, makes $1M in a day
- Videogame studio Double Fine went on the website Kickstarter to raise $400K US in a month to develop a new game. They reached that target in a matter of hours. more »
- McGill asbestos study review criticized
- A group of anti-asbestos activists and scientists are criticizing McGill University's plans for an internal review of a major asbestos research study that has been called into question. more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Glacier Discovery Walk: Will the visitor centre enhance the view? Feb. 10, 2012 3:17 PM Environment minister Peter Kent has announced the construction of a new Glacier Discovery Walk and visitor centre on the Icefields Parkway in Jasper National Park. It raises the issue of how to balance commercial development in our National Parks against the preservation of the last refuges of wilderness.
Quirks & Quarks
- February 11: Inside the Mind of a Neandertal Feb. 10, 2012 4:01 PM Can we get inside the mind of a species that's been dead for 30,000 years? A new book, How to Think Like a Neanderthal, suggests we can. The authors reconstruct a creature like us in many ways, but with important differences.
Latest Features
- Adele wins best album, best record Grammys
- Houston autopsy results withheld by police
- Quebec town 'heartbroken' after killing of woman, sisters
- Northern lights viewed from space
- Greece passes new austerity deal amid rioting
- Pop queen Whitney Houston dies at 48
- Manitoba man dies after falling off moving SUV
- Doors blocked in fatal Manitoba trailer blaze
- Former Stanley Park petting zoo goats feared slaughtered
