Blue Ray Technologies Will Drop its HD-DVD Lines

The only indie multi-format high definition disc
pressing plant, Blue Ray Technologies, will drop its HD-DVD lines
without waiting for the widely-reported and anticipated announcement of
Toshiba’s retreat from HD-DVD.

"This is a victory for the consumers, who can now move in to the
stunning high def disc world and build collections with confidence,"
said industry expert Erick Hansen, a DVD pioneer and chairman of Blue
Ray Technologies. "Toshiba can take heart in that there is no shame: it
was a battle well-fought and that they have several adaptable
technologies and backup plans."

In fact, no orders had come in to the full-service disc manufacturer
for HD-DVDs, even partial orders along with Blu-ray clients looking to
service both markets, since November. The indie film companies that BRT
serves had seen the death of the HD-DVD format long before last week’s
announcement that Walmart, Blockbuster and Netflix were dropping the
format – and even before Warner Bros. announced in January at the CES
show they were going Blu-ray only.

"This week we will dismantle our HD-DVD lines and will be adding new
equipment to bolster our Blue-ray manufacturing," said Hansen
explaining, "Despite our name and preference, we always offered HD-DVDs
as a service to our customers. Now we will reconfigure part of that
equipment to make DVDs and CDs," said Hansen. "The indie film companies
moved quicker than the studios and gradually stopped mixed orders in
favor of Blu-ray late last year."

Hansen explained: "They preferred the larger capacity and full 1080p
quality of the Blu-ray discs going forward. We saw this but since I
have been saying HD-DVD was DOA for four years, we still had to wait
for the industry to catch up to the inevitable. HD-DVD is dead, all
that is left is the burial."

He said: "We are waiting this week for the other shoes to drop from
Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks, the last studios to support HD-DVD
over Blu-ray — and word from Microsoft, who used the now-obsolete
format as an add-on to their Xbox game console."

Blue Ray Technologies