Gartner Forecasts Blu-ray Victory in 2008

By Geoff Duncan January 27, 2008

Gartner Forecasts Blu-ray Victory in 2008

Well-regarded market research firm Gartner is taking sides in the high-def format war, and is speaking on no uncertain terms. According to Gartner’s principal research analyst for Japan, Hiroyuki Shimizu, by the end of 2008 the Blu-ray disc format will have won the high-def format war will be over, and HD DVD’s attempts to appeal to consumers are merely "useless resistance."

"Gartner believes that Toshiba’s price-cutting may prolong HD DVD’s life a little, but the limited line-up of film titles will inflict fatal damage on the format," Shimizu wrote in Gartner’s Semiconductor DQ Monday Report. "Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008, Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be over."

Blu-ray currently counts five of the seven major movie distribution studios in its camp, while Paramount and Universal are the only studios exclusively backing HD DVD.

Toshiba has recently announced steep price cuts on HD DVD players—dropping prices on its HD-A3 player to $149.99 from $299.99—following Warner Brothers’ surprise announcement prior to this year’s CES show that it would cease producing both Blu-ray and HD DVD titles and begin backing Blu-ray exclusively. Toshiba’s higher-priced HD DVD player models are now priced at $199.99 and $299.99.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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You asked: Should you buy a 70-inch TV, do you really need a Blu-ray player, and more?

You Asked Ep 18

In this You Asked: Why buy a more expensive Blu-ray player? Blu-ray players vs. game consoles. Are 70-inch TVs any good? Is all eARC HDMI 2.1, and is all HDMI 2.1 eARC? And will we ever get QD-OLED with MLA?

Are all Blu-ray players the same?

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Why you should buy the RayNeo Air 2 AR glasses for Black Friday

Even the cost of an 80-inch OLED would be three to four times the cost of these AR glasses at their regular price. That's without factoring in the sheer portability of these AR glasses, which you can take anywhere and everywhere. It's like carrying a 201-inch OLED TV in your pocket or bag, which you can set up instantly indoors and out. While having a picnic, you can throw on a movie. At a local coffee shop, you can play some games. At your family's house for the holidays, you can play or watch whatever you want, on a massive screen, without bothering anyone else.

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Where to rent DVDs and Blu-rays as Netflix ends disc rentals

Redbox DVD rentals.

After a formidable 25-year run, Netflix has announced that it will shutter its DVD-to-mail rental service, DVD Netflix, aka DVD.com. Citing the shrinking DVD business, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told shareholders on April 18 that the rental service would be shipping its last DVD on September 29, 2023.
And while most of the 230 million Netflix subscribers won’t miss the service -- or perhaps even knew it still existed in the first place -- DVDs and Blu-rays are still a preferred method for watching movies and TV series if you really care about quality or just don't have broadband internet.
But now that DVD Netflix is out of the game, where can people turn to rent DVDs and Blu-rays?
Well, as the news hit Twitter, two of the best alternatives chimed in, reminding their followers that they, too, still existed. GameFly -- which primarily rents video games, but also has a selection of movies for rent -- tweeted at popular kiosk-rental company Redbox with a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid gif and the text “Out here with @redbox like … .” The two services exchanged clever gifs and tweets (Redbox and Blockbuster even exchanged jabs) about being the last ones standing, but it still might be unclear to many DVD Netflix renters where they can go to fill the void.
That’s where we come in with this rundown of where you can rent DVDs and Blu-rays now that Netflix is shutting down its DVD rental service. Oh, and if you need a Blu-ray player, check out our roundup of the best ones to buy.

Redbox