Feb 16, 2008. Say goodbye to HD-DVD. We hardly knew yee.

Looks like Toshiba who makes the HD-DVDs is dropping out. That means there won't be anymore HD-DVD players, and more importantly, there's no one left promoting HD-DVD!

The last supporter of HD-DVD was Universal, but they've left the building fast! We mean real fast. Like out the window because as soon as Toshiba made its announcement, Universal switched formats.

Now if you're the owner of an HD-DVD player like us, you'll only have a few months to buy HD-DVDs because the stores will stop carrying them real soon. Dead formats just take up space because nobody new is buying the hardware so why waste space on the software (or movie as in this case).

You might be wondering about the HD-DVD players still on the market. What will happen to them? The answer is huge discounted prices and free movies with every purchase. Why this instead of just dumping them? Because once you've spent money making something, you have to sell or lose that money completely. A smaller loss is better than a total loss. Expect Microsoft to push their HD-DVD player until the last one is off the shelf.

Now Microsoft has stated they'll make a Blu-ray player if Blu-ray becomes the defacto format. They have to because the PS3 has it, and Microsoft has to look strong in comparison to the PS3. So even if nobody buys the Microsoft Blu-ray addon after their HD-DVD fiasco, expect Microsoft to still make one.

In the end, does this benefit you as a consumer even if you've purchased an HD-DVD player? The answer is yes. VHS and DVD are two formats that dominated the market. As more players make Blu-ray hardware and Blu-ray movies, prices will go down, especially if Blu-ray wants to compete with DVD sales. You can try and sell your HD-DVD player on ebay, or just save it like the original robot that we have lying around. For those looking for cheap deals, don't buy HD-DVD players even if they give you twenty free movies because those movies are the only ones you'll ever get for your HD-DVD player.