Daddy Day Camp Uh, Im guessing

Daddy Day Camp

Uh, Im guessing they start producing Blu-ray movies just about as quickly as possible. Still, there will be some delay, and there will probably still be some HD-DVD exclusives trickling on to shelves in the next few weeks. According to Engadget, Toshiba said it currently has no plans to develop and sell Blu-ray players. I find that hard to believe. While some sulking is inevitable, Toshiba will certainly wise up soon and realize that some revenue is better than none, even if Toshiba does have to pay Sony and the other Blu-ray founders some sort of royalty. I have no doubt well see Toshiba Blu-ray players on store shelves by Christmas. In the long run, this is the right decision and will allow consumers to buy Blu-ray players and movies without fear that their purchases will be rendered useless paperweights in a few months. In the short term, though, if Toshiba does bail tomorrow and HD-DVD players and discs disappear by March, its going to put some consumers in a tough spot. After all, there are still several big HD-DVD exclusives hitting shelves in the next few weeks, including American Gangster which comes out tomorrow and Beowulf which hits next week. So bargain shoppers will probably have some decisions to make. Do you take advantage of what are likely to be huge discounts on obsolete HD-DVD players and movies so you can get your hands on high-def versions of movies youve been eagerly anticipating? Or do you sit on your hands and wait for the studios to slowly reissue all their HD-DVD exclusives as Blu-ray titles? Of course, you could just buy the regular DVD versions of all those movies right now, but who wants to invest in that ancient junk? The company says the transition will happen quickly, and by June, all 4, 000 Wal-Mart and Sams Club stores, as well as both chains Web sites, will be Blu only. The full statement from Wal-Mart is after the break. The movie rental company said Monday that consumers and movie studios have clearly chosen Blu-ray over HD-DVD. Were now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumers preferred means. Netflix also said Blu-ray has been more popular than HD-DVD among its customers. Netflix wont be buying any new HD-DVD titles, but will continue to rent out its current stock of HD-DVD discs until the discs natural life cycle takes them out of circulation in the coming months. You know how when presidential candidates drop out of the primary and say theyre doing it for the good of the party so the country can rally around one nominee? Its time for Toshiba to pull a Mitt Romney and step aside. If you harbored any hopes that HD-DVD would survive despite the defection of Warner, you might want to avert your gaze now. While sales of standalone Blu-ray players were only slightly ahead of standalone HD-DVD player sales before the Warner announcement, that all changed after the studio dropped its bomb. A week later, Blu-ray player sales accounted for almost 93 percent of all high-def movie players. That gurgling sound you hear is the HMS HD-DVD plunging to the ocean floor. The Financial Times says that Paramount is preparing to exercise a clause in its HD-DVD exclusivity contract that would let the studio tear up the agreement and go back to supporting the rival Blu-ray format. If that happens, Universal would be the only major studio left supporting HD-DVD exclusively, and I suspect at that point Toshiba just pulls the plug on HD-DVD and calls it a day. While I earlier scoffed at the idea that HD-DVD would fold its tent mere days after the Warner announcement, it now looks like the platform might go from viable technology to Betamax 2 in just a couple weeks. Suffice to say, buying an HD-DVD player right now would not be a wise investment. Even when Paramount and Dreamworks announced they were going HD-DVD exclusive, it wasnt enough to ensure victory. Now, though, with Warner going Blu, I think its clear that Blu-ray will win. A breakdown of which studios are Blu-ray exclusive versus HD-DVD exclusive, along with some analyst comments, after the jump. Well, I said this was a possibility, and lo and behold, Warner Bros. said today that it will support Blu-ray exclusively beginning in May. Full announcement from Warner after the jump. 5234 Nicholson Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20895 Top 10 Favorite Day Spa 2010 SpaFinder,Voted The Best New Day Spa in Maryland 2009 and the Best of Washington by Washingtonian magazine. Awarded the Spa Philanthropist Award by the Day Spa Association and the International Medical Spa Association, Located in Rockville, Maryland, Blu Water Day Spa has a boutique stocked with international items, a meditation room where clients can relax, and six treatment rooms with scented candles and music adding to the tranquil environment.