What has been dubbed the new Betamax war, HD-DVD has finally been discontinued by Toshiba as they admit defeat to the ever increasing dominance of the Blu-Ray format.

Blu-ray discs are larger (50GB as opposed to the 30GB HD-DVD) and because of the drive inclusion in the PS3, 10.5 million units have been sold (as opposed to the 2 million HD-DVD). The final bell tolled when Warner Bros. switched camps to the Sony format.

Fundamentally, the idea behind the drives were the same. A blue laser light will store data in very small chunks on a DVD style disc. The differences came in that Sony wanted to use Java software and Tosiba wanted to use HDi, made by Microsoft. Last minute attempts as compromised failed.

Those who have bought HD-DVD drives will not be completely out: the drives will still be support by Toshiba.