A brief look at the format war timeline

19 February 2008 9:52 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Toshiba has officially announced it is to cease production of its HD DVD format, conceding defeat to Blu-ray.

Here's a quick, and non-exhaustive list of the events that led to today's news.

August 2005 - The Blu-ray Disc Association and the DVD Forum announce that they have been unable to reach an agreement on a single next-gen high definition disc format

Microsoft, NEC, HP and Toshiba will develop a PC-friendly HD DVD, the Blu-ray group will go their own way. Hollywood studios start choosing the format they will back

March 2006 - Toshiba launches first HD DVD player in Japan. Sony says PS3 with Blu-ray will be delayed but coming in
November. Announces stand-alone Blu-ray players

April 2006 - Toshiba launches HD DVD players in the States, Microsoft confirms HD DVD add-on drive for Xbox 360

Summer 2006 - Various Blu-ray manufacturers announce delays in getting their hardware to market

September 2006 - Toshiba launches the HD-E1 and HE-EX1 HD DVD players at German tech show IFA

November 2006 - Blockbuster launches next-gen disc rentals

January 2007 - Warner announces Total Hi Def "Glu-ray" format discs while LG announces a dual-format player

March 2007 - PlayStation 3 with Blu-ray launches

April 2007 - LG launches dual-format player in the UK

May 2007 - HD DVD group announce spring promotion with big ad campaigns and price cuts

May 2007 - 64% of Pocket-lint readers think Blu-ray has won the format war

June 2007 - Blockbuster in the US goes Blu-ray focused

June 2007 - Blu-ray's BD+ protection standard finalised

July 2007 - Denon announces Blu-ray player, US retailer Target to only stock Blu-ray in stores, Tartan Video goes Blu-ray

July 2007 - Sony announces Blu-ray manufacturing support for all film industry, including adult movies

August 2007 - Statistics show Blu-ray movies outselling HD DVD by a wide margin but Paramount and DreamWorks announce surprise decision to go HD DVD only, Toshiba slashes hardware prices, director Michael Bay speaks out against HD DVD

September 2007 - IFA event sees launches from all major manufacturers, Toshiba states HD DVD PC drives and low prices will give them the edge, Venturer announces low cost HD DVD player

October 2007 - Sony drops price of PS3, launches cheaper model, Spielberg says he has no plans to launch films on HD DVD

January 2008 - Warner Bros drops HD DVD for Blu-ray just days before the CES tech show, affiliated companies follow suit

January 2008 - Toshiba steps up HD DVD promotional activity, keeps prices low, rumoured to pay nearly $3 million for a high-profile US advertising spot

January 2008 - Woolworths drops HD DVD in the UK

February 2008 - Netflix, Best Buy and Wal-Mart all go Blu-ray only

19th February 2008 - Toshiba releases statement to say they are quitting HD DVD

Full tags

Home Cinema, HD DVD, Blu-ray, Toshiba, Sony, PS3