Toshiba is preparing to drop its HD DVD format as early as today, sources say. The manufacturer--and the movie studios that backed HD DVD, such as Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Animation SKG
and Universal Picture--now face the challenge of extricating themselves from the format without suffering further damage.
Consumers who bought HD DVD players may still be able to add
to their collections for a while. But the remaining studios still issuing titles in HD DVD are likely to make the switch to Blu-ray as soon as possible. "Your main impact could be consumers souring on
your brand, because you're selling them a format that's going away," says Tom Adams, a consultant at Adams Media Research. After spending a lot of time trying to sell the technology as
superior to HD DVD, Sony expects buyers to stop fence-sitting and move from regular DVDs to high-definition. Of potential buyers, Sony research shows some 40% have been holding back because "no one
wanted to get stuck with a format that was obsolete," says David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
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