We had a feeling something was up with the results of the recent Harris Poll and it looks like we had good reason. No one is trying to say that the folks that conducted the poll had a Red agenda or anything, it is just like Adams research puts it when talking about consumer polls in general, "you can't trust the average survey respondent to correctly identify the high-tech devices in their homes." You can say that again. The funny thing is that the results of the poll even look screwy when compared to the HD DVD Promotion group's numbers which reported that even after a few months following the format war, only 1 million stand-alone HD DVD players were sold. This is nowhere near the 10 million that it would take to make up 9 percent of the 111 million US households the poll reports. And in case you care, analysts project -- you know, the ones actually based on retail sales instead of a consumer survey -- that 14.8 percent of US households will have some way to play a Blu-ray Disc by the end of 2009, which is almost double what it was at the end of 2008.

Though some iffy poll results & a Chinese spinoff may have you thinking HD DVD is just on the cusp of a comeback, Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida suggested today that the company might join the rest of the consumer electronics community and support Blu-ray. In the midst of defeat last year he said it had "no plans" to switch sides, focusing on flash memory and DVD upscaling tech instead, but after a few billion in losses that might have changed, as the prez indicated just losing the format war wasn't enough reason to skip out on the Blu-ray market and that Toshiba "would like to keep our options open." Besides enjoying the good news that our exes have found gainful employment as executive speechwriters, we'll be keeping an eye out for another Cell-based Blu-ray player to join the PS3, if not tomorrow, someday.

China's alternative to Blu-ray finally has some hardware to show off, with players from TCL and Shinco making their debut this week. Priced at less than 2,000 yuan ($292) they're reportedly 40% cheaper than the competition, and while the promised support from Warner Bros. has yet to materialize it plans to release 100 movies on the CBHD format by the end of the year. That's about all the machine translation could help us make out beyond the usual promise of lower licensing fees for Chinese manufacturers, but a better look at the latest (and by far most legit, although that's not saying much) Blu-ray fighter is beyond the read link.

[Via CDR Info]

U.S. HD DVD fans that passed up Best Buy's offer of $3 per disc, or just those who stocked up on cheap movies after the format gave up the fight have another option coming from Warner Bros. Send in the cover art sleeve (keep the disc) including UPC from your HD DVD case (plus $4.95 per movie and $6.95 / $8.95 per order S&H) and it will send you back a brand new Blu-ray copy. There's a few other restrictions, like 1 copy per movie and 25 different movies per household, but the biggest decision is likely to be whether giving up your precious I Am Legend sleeve is worth the trade, hit up Red2Blu.com for all the details and necessary forms. It seems to us like a decent offer to make HD DVD owners whole, we'd be surprised if Paramount and Universal came through with similar plans.

[Via DVDTown]

We've been looking for some new paper to turn here at the Engadget HD offices, and it looks like Marshall Phelps' "Burning the Ships" may be our next purchase. Penned by a top Microsoft lawyer and co-authored by David Kline, the book lays out details on how Microsoft had decided to sink right along with Toshiba even as HD DVD took its last dying breath. Apparently Microsoft pledged its unconditional support for the format in hopes of winning a rare cross-license deal with a large Japanese electronics firm. CNET reports that at the time, winning such a deal with Tosh was "key for it in its efforts to convince large companies, even those with broader patent portfolios, to cross-license Microsoft's technology." The writeup tucked away in the read link is pretty interesting for those intrigued by deep, dark secrets of the past, so head on down if that's you.

Missed out on those fire sales held right after HD DVD's funeral, did you? Fret not, as Blockbuster is looking to make the most of your HD DVD player purchase. As of now, the rental outfit is selling over 300 HD DVD titles at just $7.99 each, which gives you a perfect excuse to blow that Christmas cash before 2008 is even over. In related news, Frys is offering up an Xbox 360 HD DVD player along with HD DVD box sets of Heroes: Season One and Battlestar Galactica: Season One for just $49.99. Better hurry on that one, though -- the deal's up at the stroke of midnight.

[Via HighDefDigest]

Read - Frys deal
Read - Blockbuster sale

Things, they are a-changing at Netflix. It implements HD streaming on the Xbox 360, hires a new fellow to focus specifically on digital distribution, cans the art of selling secondhand DVDs and now, it's putting the kibosh on the remnants of HD DVD. If you'll recall, the rental firm chose to go Blu-ray exclusive back in February, and frankly, we're surprised the dangling love affair with the now-defunct format has lasted this long. Based on e-mails shot around to HD DVD renters, we're informed that the outfit will "no longer carry HD DVDs" effective December 15th; if you insist on keeping your HD DVDs in your queue, Netflix will kindly replace them with DVDs and go about its merry way. One more reminder of the brutal format war that was, but we'll never (ever) forget.

[Thanks, Shawn]

Sure, sure, the format war is over, but we never expected HD DVD to just disappear overnight, and it looks like the combination of deeply-discounted hardware, cheap media, and a weak economy are keeping Red alive even as Toshiba pretends no one really wants true HD anyway. Players are going for as little as $60 with movies available for $10, and retailers like Buy.com say that "sales are still very strong." Of course, eventually all this stock has to run out, so we doubt this'll be a long-lasting phenomenon, but hey -- stranger things have happened.

Honestly, we were taken aback when Toshiba released version 3.0 firmware for its launch HD DVD players two years after release, but that has been replaced by absolute shock, at a 4.0 software update for the long-dead format. The whole family can join in on this one, either via the player or downloading and burning a copy from the website, with updates available for the whole line: HD-A1, HD-XA1, HD-D1, HD-A35, HD-A2, HD-A2W, HD-A2C, HD-D2, HD-A20, HD-XA2, HD-A3, HD-D3, HD-A30. The only official word is this patch "addresses certain playback issues" -- forum posters report 1080p/24 playback jaggies on MPEG-4 AVC-encoded titles like Transformers is no longer a problem. If everything is working fine (and, of course, you're still using your HD DVD player) it may be best to wait until more reports to avoid any potential compatibility problems.

[Via Slashgear]

Read - AVS Forum
Read - Resource for : Firmware Update Information for Owners of Toshiba HD DVD Players:

Toshiba almost had to mess up its thirty-seven hundred dollar lynx coat, at the thought of seeing its HD DVD walking in the rain with some alley-cat-coat wearing hush-puppy-shoe-wearin' Taiwanese crumb cake. According to China's Economic Daily News, some Taiwanese manufacturers apparently sought to buy out the company's blue laser patents and use them negotiate a reduction in the cost of Blu-ray licenses. Whatever the master plan was, it's all for naught since Toshiba's not keen on giving up its licenses, which EDN sees as related to the upcoming China Blue High Definition discs still set to roll out based on HD DVD. HD DVD without Toshiba is like corn flakes without the milk, so it's unlikely we'll ever see it with anyone else, Tosh's own XDE dalliances notwithstanding.

While scads of HD DVD adopters took advantage of extended return periods in order to rid themselves of the defunct format, we wonder who ran out to acquire a player at rock-bottom prices? Even now, the cost of entry into Blu-ray is still ridiculously high, and it's not like we ever had any issues with the image / audio quality of HD DVDs. Rather than beating around the proverbial bush, we'll get right down to it: did you rush out to buy an HD DVD player soon after the format war concluded? Did you stock up on HD DVD titles at bargain basement prices? Are you still enjoying your HD DVD player right now? Tell us how your unit is faring after a few months of being shunned by everyone else, and don't even think of being shy.

CBHD, née CH-DVD -- the Chinese version of the now-deceased HD DVD format -- is in production, gearing up for a fourth quarter launch. DigiTimes cites reports from enorth.com.cn that Shanghai United Optical Disc has laid out the first production line, although Taiwanese disc makers (already burned by HD DVD) aren't as confident it can take on Blu-ray, even with considerably lower royalty fees and hardware costs for disc replicators. Coming alongside news that Chinese-built Blu-ray players based on increasingly affordable hardware is on the way, plus a decided lack of studio support, it's not hard to see how this one will turn out (again.) Not to underrate China's national pride, but unless it can gain an unexpected foothold among DVD pirates, CBHD will probably be on the high definition scrap heap alongside HD DVD, EVD and the rest before long.

Okay, so we really have no clue what's going on inside of Toshiba's labs, but one thing is for certain: it has upscaling on the brain. After hearing of an elusive super-resolution DVD player and seeing an all-too-curious new DVD logo, in flies word from Germany that the outfit is prepping an updated line of Picture Frame LCD HDTVs for release at IFA 2008. On the surface, there's not too much different about these REGZAs compared to any others, but internally, the newcomers are expected to tout Cell-based Resolution+ technology, which will upscale SD images in an attempt to make something (read: HD) out of nothing. Granted, Tosh has been talking up this stuff since CES, so it's not an entirely new concept, but we'll be interested to see if this has anything to do with those rumored DVD deck plans.

[Via Big-Screen, danke Joel]

We keep hoping that Toshiba will come to its senses and just let this whole thing die, but no. Apparently insistent on keeping the last-generation format alive for as long as it possibly can, it seems the outfit is getting ever-closer to a super-resolution DVD player that would reportedly upscale DVD content like nothing we've ever seen. The latest tidbit in this woefully depressing saga is a newly approved DVD Download DL logo, which was given the final thumbs-up by the DVD Forum Steering Committee last month. In reality, no one outside of Tosh's headquarters has any idea if this development is indeed intrinsically related, but at this point, we wouldn't be shocked one bit to find that it was. Then again, the June 11th meeting also saw specifications for CH-DVD approved, so here's to hoping Toshiba isn't jumping on that bandwagon fiery wreck.

[Via TG Daily]

Read - DVD Forum approval
Read - Discussion / rumors