Toshiba is expected soon to abandon its lame-duck high-def disc format, HD DVD, according to the Hollywood Reporter. No date was announced, but the industry trade paper’s sources said it will happen “sometime in the coming weeks.”

It’s only mid-February, but it has been a horrible year for HD DVD. After making big news by selling loads of HD DVD players at low prices during the holiday season, Toshiba suffered a major blow when Warner Home Video announced before the Consumer Electronics Show in January that it would drop HD DVD and solely support the rival Blu-ray Disc. Industry defections have followed. Most recently, disc-rental behemoth Netflix said it would offer only Blu-ray instead of both formats, and Richfield-based Best Buy announced that it would give preference to Blu-ray in its stores.   

UPDATE: Several news agencies, including Reuters, NHK and Kyodo, jumped on the Hollywood Reporter story over the weekend to do their own “exclusive” confirmation that Toshiba is planning to drop HD DVD. On Friday, Wal-Mart turned the knife in HD DVD’s back even more, saying it would support Blu-ray exclusively.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under DVDs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.