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In a series of moves which won’t shock anybody, several of the companies which had pledged allegiance to HD DVD have now jumped ship into Sony’s waiting arms (life buoys?).
Paramount Home Entertainment, which signed an exclusivity agreement in December for 18 months, issued a statement to the The Hollywood Reporter which simply said: “We are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer”.
“As we look to (begin) releasing our titles on Blu-ray, we will monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly,” the statement read. No time for a pull-out was given.
Onkyo Corporation — one of the only companies apart from Toshiba to release a HD DVD player overseas — has announced on its Web site that it’s halting the development and production of its players.
Onkyo says it had sold approximately 2000 units of the HD DVD players in selected markets. The company says it was seeing other people the whole time: “Onkyo’s research and development teams have maintained a parallel development program for the competing Blu-ray technology”.
Korean manufacturers LG and Samsung have yet to make any official announcements on their dual-format players. However, all the movie studios are now behind Blu-ray.
