Toshiba may quit HD DVD

[Guchi_Jnr]

Toshiba Corp. is reviewing its HD DVD business and contemplating a complete exit from production as it continues to lose ground in the high-definition format war to rival Sony's Blu-ray disc, industry sources said Saturday.

If Toshiba abandons the business, the Blu-ray format, promoted by a group led by Sony Corp., is certain to prevail as the next-generation standard for DVD players.

The move surfaced after U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Friday that its 4,000 Wal-Mart outlets and Sam's Clubs would only stock Blu-ray DVDs and players.

That announcement, which hits Toshiba from the retail and distribution side, could prove to be the final blow for HD DVD.

Money down the toilet if anyone bought one..

[Asmodai]

Yeah. Same thing happened with Beta. It often sucks to be an early-adopter.

On the other hand, Sony's much-criticized PS3/BR strategy is looking a lot more successful than it did before.

[tenkei]

may quit? i heard they outright gave up.

[frblckstr1]

Money down the toilet if anyone bought one..

Depends, they are very good upscaling DVD-players also.

Sony's much-criticized PS3/BR strategy is looking a lot more successful than it did before.

Hm, yes if I had that amount of money (400 mil $) to spend on buying one studio I could 'win' also.

I'm still waiting for BD+ 1.1 capable standalone players and will then evaluate if I go blu-ray or just skip the whole rest of the HD stuff.

I like the Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek episodes that came out on HD-DVD, they used the format very good.

[Sev]

This could be the reason to the extreme price drop on Microsofts 360 HD-DVD in Europe? Interesting, i figured €95 would be a bargain for an HD-DVD, but what use if it aint gonna be no movies.

[frblckstr1]

This could be the reason to the extreme price drop on Microsofts 360 HD-DVD in Europe? Interesting, i figured €95 would be a bargain for an HD-DVD, but what use if it aint gonna be no movies.

That I think was more a response to the cheap stand-alone DVD players.

BTW, it starts to looks final:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/hd-dvd-death-ma.html

Now, who is going to pay for those 400mil SONY spend???

Maybe I should buy a PS3 so they lose a bit more money...
Problem is that DVD remote control is blue-tooth, something my current programmable remote (a Philips Pronto) can't handle.

[frblckstr1]

W'll its official:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/official-hd-dvd-dead-and-buried-format-war-is-over/

Looks like Toshiba is cutting there losses (so, will SONY still have to pay those 400mil??)

Time to see if there is something watch wearthy on BluRay... I did expect to have to do that starting 1st quarter 2008, so looks I had the right time-frame in mind halfway last year.

(Is it wishfull thinking they will drop the region encoding for BluRay now??)

[Asmodai]

Now, who is going to pay for those 400mil SONY spend???

The consumer. Was there ever any doubt?

[Saburo]

(Is it wishfull thinking they will drop the region encoding for BluRay now??)

Probably.  I always had the impression that HD-DVD was more "user friendly."  Now Sony can do whatever they want now.  Lock 'em up!

[Asmodai]

I'd be surprised if region-encoding didn't stay. There's too much money to be made. This is especially true in Asia. DVDs in Japan are four times the price of the same disc in China.

[SomethingWild]

Regioncoding will disappear!


..but it will be called zone-encoding now  haha

(I heard something like this.. but the principle will be the same)

[frblckstr1]

Regioncoding will disappear!


..but it will be called zone-encoding now  haha

(I heard something like this.. but the principle will be the same)

Correct and the problem... zone B (=europe) is different then Japan (=zone A same as the US)

[Saburo]

Zone coding, prrrfftttt. 

NOTHING ever changes.

[SomethingWild]

Correct and the problem... zone B (=europe) is different then Japan (=zone A same as the US)

Ah really? That's really bad.. for us anyway   

[frozenthrone]

hurray.. glad that i went ahead and purchase 15 blu-ray movies.. so it looks like i wasnt in the shit end of the stick for those who collected hd dvd movies .

[frblckstr1]

hurray.. glad that i went ahead and purchase 15 blu-ray movies.. so it looks like i wasnt in the shit end of the stick for those who collected hd dvd movies .

There are some things not available (still) on BluRay, like the ST-TOS remake with picture-in-picture. It gives a good idea of what the 1.1 BR profile hopefully can also do (although I hear some sounds that developing for that is currently lacking some good development tools)

And 50 HD-DVD's on a total of about 1000 'normal' DVD's isn't that much.

Also the Toshiba XE1 has a lot of other options (like USB ports) still not used, I wouldn't be surprised if Toshiba develops this machine further into a online movie watch machine (it has a network connection already)
It already had options to download trailers with some HD-DVD's.

Like a lot of others say, BluRay might have won the physical format war, but the next one is already on the horizon.

Anyway ,was expecting to buy 'the other format' already, so am going on a machine-hunt this weekend (want to watch those AKB48 concerts in 1080i!)

[frozenthrone]

i dont think there's going to be another format war ,well not for many years, unless ur talkingg about dvd vs blu-ray or streaming tv vs bluray...  other than that, your beating a dead horse (HD-dvd) ..

[frblckstr1]

streaming tv vs bluray... 

That is defined as 'the next format war' (physical against download)

Currently BluRay is not 'at war' with DVD, 1% of sails compared to 99% doesn't seem fair

Edit:
And if its is the size that matters (the one thing that BluRay has above HD-DVD, the codecs are the same): Hitachi just annouched they are planning to make 500GB disks within the next 3 years

[eglue]

go bluray! i still need to get a ps3 so i can start gettin blurays OR even better...apple could hurry up and release a laptop thats capable of playing bluray and hooking up to tv. thatd be my dream solution right now.