Feel sorry for me. I recently received a Toshiba laptop as a Christmas gift. Before you roll your eyes and start planning ways to rob me of my precious computer, let me finish. It has an HD DVD player, which is now totally obsolete.
Toshiba has conceded defeat in the high-definition war with rival company, Sony, and its Blu-ray format last Tuesday. The decision came after numerous major retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Netflix, decided to make the choice for consumers by abandoning HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray.
Since the introduction of both formats, many consumers have waited to see which one would become the industry standard before actually buying (which is smart, unlike me). Sony’s Blu-ray was backed by major corporations, such as Disney, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Dell, Panasonic and Phillips, while Toshiba’s HD DVD was supported by Microsoft, Universal Studios, Paramount, Sanyo and NEC. This is the reason why Sony’s Playstation 3 plays Blu-ray discs and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 plays HD DVD discs (duh).
Billions of dollars were invested by major motion picture companies in the battle of these two formats and like all wars, there has to be a loser (in the case of the War in Iraq, everyone lost … but that’s another story). The major turning point was when Warner Brothers announced their decision to cease their involvement with HD DVD right before last month’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (with all the gambling, booze and prostitution available, it’s a wonder people actually made it to the show). This led to an immediate drop of retail support for HD DVD.
If you are among those unfortunate people who bought a HD DVD player and have HD DVD discs, a couple of suggestions for what to do with them:
1.A fancy TV dinner tray with retractable cup holder. Saving space is always a priority for a college student, especially if you live on campus. Your Toshiba HD DVD player has a wide flat surface where you can enjoy your Domino’s buffalo wings or Taco Bell burritos … and with a touch of a button, a cup holder! (Note: Player must be plugged in for cup holder to work).
2.Decorations. The bottoms of the discs are shiny.
3.Donate player and discs to the Salvation Army. They’ll find a place alongside VHS players and Paris Hilton’s dignity.
4.Sell it on eBay to an unsuspecting foreigner. Post that bad boy online and let the bidding begin! Don’t mention anything about Toshiba’s plans to stop producing HD DVD movies and hope some poor fool shells out cold, hard cash for it.
If none of these suggestions work for you, you can always take it out back with some friends and beat it with baseball bats. However, I must insist you clean up the mess you most certainly would cause.
For me, since the HD DVD player is part of my laptop, I will have to live with it. However, I always wanted to see what happens when you touch the lens.
Turns out it’s nothing.