Howard Stringer made history in 2005 for being the first non-Japanese executive to take the helm at Sony Corp. But he may be better remembered as the one who won the high-definition war, erasing the stain on the electronics firm’s image ever since it lost the videotape war two decades earlier.
Although celebrated yesterday, the victory [...]

Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders, handing a victory to rival Blu-ray disc technology in the format battle for next-generation video.
“We concluded that a swift decision would be best,” Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters at his company’s Tokyo offices.
The move would make Blu-ray [...]

Supermarket giant Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has announced it will only sell high-definition DVDs in the Blu-ray format at its 4,000 US stores.
The decision is viewed as a serious setback for the rival Toshiba-backed HD DVD format.
Wal-Mart said that customers had shown a clear preference for Blu-ray, developed by Sony, and the rival format [...]

 
Prospects for a resolution to the high-definition DVD format war seemed to come into sharper focus on Monday as Best Buy (BBY) and Netflix (NFLX) separately announced plans to promote Sony’s (SNE) Blu-ray format over Toshiba’s HD DVD. if(window.yzq_d==null)window.yzq_d=new Object(); window.yzq_d['09jXC0LEYpE-']=’&U=13b0fjbbd%2fN%3d09jXC0LEYpE-%2fC%3d634238.11950759.12479112.2498248%2fD%3dLREC%2fB%3d5130741′;
Best Buy, the No. 1 consumer electronics chain, said that beginning in [...]

 
Here’s a sub – head on a Times of London feature about Bill Forsyth, the writer and director of the 1981 movie, Gregory’s Girl: ‘Gregory’s Girl, free with the Times on Saturday, is a much-loved cult film …’ The article ran to near 2,000 words.
And its main purpose apparently was to promote that The Times [...]

Cablevision Systems Corp said on Monday it would offer U.S. consumers the option of seeing a movie via its on-demand service, as long as they agreed to pay for a DVD of the film.
The service, called “Popcorn DVDs On Demand,” would allow Cablevision’s 2 million digital subscribers to order a DVD via their remote control [...]

Girding for a potential threat from Apple Inc., online DVD rental service Netflix Inc. is lifting its limits on how long most subscribers can watch movies and television shows over high-speed Internet connections.
The Associated Press has learned the change will become effective Monday, on the eve of Apple’s widely anticipated move into the movie rental [...]

The two remaining studios backing HD DVD could switch sides soon, ending the high-def format war instantly.
Daily Variety has confirmed that Universal’s commitment to backing HD DVD exclusively has ended. And Paramount has an escape clause in its HD DVD contract allowing it to release pics on Blu-ray after Warner Bros.’ decision to back that [...]

 
Toshiba Corp insisted on Sunday that its HD DVD high-definition video format is far from dead despite being dealt a major setback by Warner Bros studio’s decision to exclusively back Sony Corp’s rival Blu-ray technology.
Akiyo Ozaka, president of Toshiba America Consumer Products, told a briefing at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that HD [...]

 
Blockbuster Inc., which has been losing money on online movie orders, is boosting prices of its DVD-by-mail service for new customers and some existing ones by up to 40 percent.
The movie-rental giant began notifying customers of the increases - and some price cuts - early Thursday. The hikes will take effect next week and caused [...]