A Toshiba insider claims that the company will abandon its HD-DVD format, yielding the next-generation DVD format war to Sony’s competing Blu-ray technology. So now that the war is over you should run out and buy a new Blu-ray player, right? Not so fast.

The first generation Blu-ray players currently on shelves, profile 1.0, don’t offer many nice perks like picture-in-picture, local storage, or internet connectivity. Those features will arrive with second generation players, called BD Live or profile 2.0, which should hit stores by the end of the year. Once prices fall, those are the players to buy.

As for HD-DVD…

Japanese public broadcaster NHK had earlier reported that Toshiba would suffer losses in the tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) as it scrapped production of HD DVD players and recorders and took other steps to exit the business.

An official eulogy is expected early next week.

Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war: source [Reuters]

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