A few days ago, Engadget posted a concise version of the high definition format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. It’s a tale of dirty deals, upsets, streams being crossed and big gambles.

At the end of the tale, it tells of the biggest gamble paying off: the inclusion of Blu-ray in the PlayStation 3. This, of course, stirs up the question: “What if Microsoft crammed an HD DVD drive in the XBOX 360?” Where would we be today? I guess this is another one of those “What if” questions which we’ll be left unanswered.

It’s been over for 12 hours now, but the news keeps rolling in after Toshiba pulled the plug on its ailing format.

While Toshiba may not be adopting Blu-ray “at the moment“, early naive/misinformed/idiotic consumers can find solice in the fact that their HD DVD collection could be viewed on upcoming combo players from LG who have taken it upon themselves to continue HD DVD support. That’s really nice of them. I mean, just because the format’s dead; it doesn’t mean that existing HD DVDs cease to function.

As for you fence sitters, may I recommend the PlayStation 3 as a Blu-ray player? Cnet says it’s a solid choice. Don’t believe they’re credible enough? Why not believe Sound and Vision Magazine then. Whatever you do, be sure to put Planet Earth on your list of Blu-rays to watch.

After a series of mighty blows from retailers and rumors surrounding Toshiba’s inevitable decision; the leader of the red team officially called it quits for HD DVD.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,”

Quite possibly the smartest move they could have made for themselves and the high definition movie market.

The Present Is Blu.

Japanese public broadcaster, NHK, is reporting that Toshiba is planning to end HD DVD production. I have been hearing this for awhile now, but without an official statement from Toshiba: it’s all hearsay for now.

I promise to stop posting rumors of the red format’s death after this article.

Another day, another piece of bad news for HD DVD. This morning, U.S. retailer giant Walmart announced its intentions to phase out HD DVD discs and players from its stores and exclusively back Blu-ray as its format of choice.

This piece of news comes after a week of bad news starting with Best Buy’s and NetFlix’s defection on Monday. Perhaps its time to move up that HD DVD defeat announcement, Toshiba.

Are you surprised? Not I. The latest rumors concerning HD DVD aren’t pleasant. The Hollywood Reporter posted an article a few hours ago stating that Toshiba is going to be pull the plug on the dying Red format, HD DVD.

The Hollywood Reporter cites the reason as follows: ”the substantial loss Toshiba is incurring with each HD DVD player sold — a figure sources say could be as high as several hundred dollars — coupled with a series of high-profile retail defections has driven the company to at last concede defeat”.

The source also states that ”An announcement is coming soon,” and “It could be a matter of weeks.”

It’s time for the HD DVD format-icide watch!

I didn’t miss this yesterday, but I did forget to comment on it. A couple of blows were dealt to the HD-DVD format yesterday when NetFlix decided that the future is indeed Blu. As for BestBuy, they’re not dropping HD DVD, but they are going to recommend and promote Blu-ray more heavily now.

None of this is surprising though.

Should we begin taking bets on when HD DVD throws in the towel?

Despite Warner Brothers shunning and, more recently, Woolworths rejection, Toshiba still believes that HD-DVD can win. So much so, that they believe a $2.4 million ad during Super Bowl XLII will be beneficial to the HD-DVD cause. Well somebody needs to believe in the cause, because Microsoft isn’t as committed as they should be — they admitted that they’ve been speaking with the “enemy” about their HDi software. Don’t read too much into it though, it could just be ‘coopetition’.

Good luck with ad, Toshiba. Here’s hoping that it was money well spent!

Not much to report on today. Let’s start off with this pink monitor. It’s missing the Hello Kitty logo, though. Otherwise it would be perfect for my sister. Maybe? I don’t think even she would buy that.

Gizmondo has balls. Their bloggers pulled off a rather simple, but entertaining prank on the last day of CES 2008 and they have the video to prove it.

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Robots. Will they serve us or will we serve them? I am not sure about the future, but judging by today’s Mahalo Daily, they are serving us today in a very unimpressive fashion.

More high definition format war “news” today. HBO reassured the public that they are going Blu-ray. (Band of Brothers in HD, please!) Paramount is staying on the HD DVD course despite reports. What about Universal Studios? Universal Studios is being hush hush about their future. As for Microsoft? They could support Blu-ray or not.

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