Is HD-DVD dead? Yes and no, according to Gizmodo. Let’s put it another way - probably yes. But the Giz people interviewed DongSoo Jun, who is Executive VP and General Manager of Samsung’s Digital AV Division, and he thinks there is still a use for Skot’s new HD-DVD player.

It will become the chosen format for “private” (that is, personal) content because the format—ahem, Toshiba and Microsoft—has a stronghold in the PC drive market.

That’s right, Microsoft and Toshiba are behind HD-DVD. And while they don’t have a lot of clout with the content people, they definitely can push around the hardware. So if you’re shooting home movies in Hi-Def, HD-DVD is probably how you will be storing them.

A few other tidbits from Mr. Jun:

• $299 is the magic price for Blu-ray players—watch around June/July
• 1,000 titles is the magic content number (Blu-ray is around 500 now)
• Digital distribution will kill standard-def physical media, not HD—people delete recorded SD content; they want to keep “high quality” content through Blu-ray

Is he right? Who knows? But he suggests two things - there may still be a use for a HD-DVD player, and Skot is screwed because he didn’t buy a Dual-Format player that handles HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Remember Skot, you’re in the business so you can write the cost off!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Digital Wonderland, General, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.