July 1 - 7:55pm EDT   As the dust from the HD DVD/Blu-ray war settles, Toshiba is allegedly not adopting the victorious Blu-ray standard, but instead is expected to pursue DVD up-sampling and Internet-enabled players. TG Daily writes that Toshiba has not released specific plans or future machine specifications, but believes that the players would be based around its SpursEngine 1000 processor for upsampling – a 'lite' version of the Cell BE CPU. The observations come as the Toshiba-chaired DVD Forum approved the logo for "DVD Download/DL" [full story]

June 30 - 11:15am EDT   After having left the market for several years, Lenovo today returned to home desktops and launched the IdeaCentre K210. The mini-tower is a parallel to the IdeaPad notebooks and borrows design elements from the portables, including face detection security when paired with a BrightEye add-on webcam that clips to most LCDs. The image recognition system also dynamically adjusts brightness based on proximity to the screen. [full story]

May 5 - 4:55pm EDT   Microsoft today repeated its past denials that the company is developing a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360. Following a report on Friday which said Microsoft had contacted ASUS for drives to be used as add-ons for the game system by the fall, Microsoft has echoed its past approach and says that it has "no plans" to launch a Blu-ray reader add-on in the near future. The company prefers to focus on the core gaming of the Xbox, according to a statement. [full story]

April 11 - 8:35am EDT   Shuttle has taken the unusual step of launching a small form factor PC that caters to both current and obsolete HD videos. While the company already sells systems with Blu-ray alone, the XPC G5 6801M Vista incorporates a combo optical drive from LG that allows it to play both Blu-ray titles as well as the now defunct HD DVD format, letting early adopters keep their libraries active. Playback at 1080p is helped along by the use of a Radeon HD 3450 that offloads most of the work from the CPU and also outputs its video to either DVI or HDMI through a bundled adapter. [full story]

April 9 - 3:20pm EDT   Online retailer Amazon is the latest company to offer compensation for having bought an HD DVD player, reports and anecdotes indicate. Customers say they are now receiving e-mail bulletins from Amazon, informing them that as "someone who purchased an HD DVD player from us before February 23, 2008," they are being given a $50 credit for any future purchases from the website. To claim it users must enter an individual promotion code during checkout, and do so by the end of April 9th, 2009. [full story]

April 8 - 12:35pm EDT   Bargain retailer Wal-Mart has joined the ranks of corporations attempting to appease buyers of HD DVD players, which are now obsolete and faced with an increasingly dwindling movie supply. The company is offering refunds to anyone who bought an HD DVD player on or following November 1st of last year, with or without original packaging. People must, however, return the player by April 30th, and bring with them their original receipt. [full story]

April 2 - 10:20pm EDT   Microsoft today has again denied claims that the firm is building an Xbox 360 with a Blu-ray drive. The Redmond, Washington-based firm has flatly rejected assertions that Lite-On is manufacturing BD drives for a future version of the console and has reiterated its past assertions that it has no need to push an HD movie disc format to succeed, noting that the Xbox built its current success on games rather than videos. Customers also have access to online downloads if they really need HD video, Microsoft says. [full story]

April 1 - 9:20am EDT   Best known in the Americas for producing add-in optical drives, Lite-On is building Blu-ray drives for Microsoft's Xbox 360, according to claims made within the storage industry. The firm is reportedly assembling read-only drives that would ship in the second half of this year and would allegedly be used for the next version of the Xbox 360 itself rather than a USB add-on, as was the case for the now defunct HD DVD drive. The reasons behind the decision are unclear, though the move is likely necessary to ensure native 1080p output for Blu-ray movies, as USB may affect the likelihood of support for the HDCP encryption needed to play back some titles at full quality. [full story]

March 28 - 4:40pm EDT   HD DVD has ceased to exist in every formal capacity, an official announcement explains. The HD DVD Promotion Group, a body put together to represent the various companies which once produced HD DVD movies and players, has announced that as of March 28th, it has put a halt to all operations. Its website has been closed, leaving behind a message redirecting companies to the official bodies for the regular DVD format. [full story]

March 24 - 11:10am EDT   Plextor today surprised the computer drive industry with a pair of dual-format HD optical drives. The B920SA and B300SA are both intended as native Blu-ray disc drives but also provide 3X HD DVD reading; while the format war has ended, the new drives give owners of the now-obsolete HD DVD format a chance to watch their movies on a computer, according to the company. The B920SA also loses none of the functionality of a Blu-ray only drive and can burn 25GB discs at up to 4X speed in addition to writing DVDs and CDs. [full story]

March 20 - 2:00pm EDT   The latest effort at blocking unofficial copying of Blu-ray movies has been undone, the developers of a cracking utility claim. AnyDVD 6.4.0.0 adds the ability to bypass BD+ encoding, used on a number of discs to prevent either direct copying, or ripping to a hard drive. This change is said to particularly affect releases from 20th Century Fox, who have led the adoption of BD+, while other companies continue with variants of AACS. AnyDVD is now also better compatible with regular DVDs using Arccos protection. [full story]

March 19 - 11:50am EDT   Best Buy hopes to satisfy disaffected buyers of HD DVD players by offering them a $50 coupon, the retailer announced today. Worth $10 million, the deal will hand out the in-store discount to anyone who bought either a dedicated HD DVD reader or add-ons such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 HD DVD drive on or before February 23rd, the Saturday that followed Toshiba's discontinuation of the format. The decision was made to head off concerns from customers who unknowingly bought into the now-obsolete format and will help them make their own decisions, whether to switch to Blu-ray or something else altogether, Best Buy claims. [full story]

March 14 - 6:45pm EDT   When Blu-Ray and HD DVD were first discussed, Apple said it would commit to Blu-Ray, but was allegedly waiting for a winner to be proclaimed in the next-generation format war. Robert Cringely, a writer for PBS wonders what Apple is waiting for, since Toshiba recently announced that HD DVD was to be no more. Cringely theorizes that Apple could be waiting to add official Blu-Ray support into its professional apps, like Final Cut Studio 2. [full story]

March 13 - 11:45am EDT   Toshiba will take a serious but far from fatal blow to its bottom line for its decision to discontinue HD DVD, according to a report by Japan's Nikkei Business Daily (account required). The electronics maker is predicted by the newspaper to be spending $986 million this quarter to ramp down its production of HD DVD players and discs at its factories as well as writing down the cost of unsold devices. The tally will significantly affect Toshiba's income but should still result in a significant profit, as official company estimates would have it generating $2.9 billion in the same period. [full story]

March 10 - 11:15am EDT   Microsoft has quickly confirmed existing rumors and today officially dropped European prices for the Xbox 360. The base Xbox 360 Arcade system now costs £160 in the UK and €200 in Europe, making the system less expensive than the already low-cost Nintendo Wii that serves as its chief rival; the standard 20GB Xbox 360 in turn drops to £200 or €270. The black, 120GB Elite model now sells for £270 or €370 depending on the region. [full story]