CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[ThomasW]

[MikeEby]

This is big thing all over the news….I don’t think there is a snowballs chance in hell that it would happened but it would be funny if Toshiba said they are sticking with the format. They have already got tons free of press over it perhaps a little more free press would make consumers take a second look.

Mike

[MikeEby]

It may not be dead yet according to this report.

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/toshiba_no_decision_yet_on_fate_of_hd_dvd/

Mike

[kal]

MikeEby: You have to understand how companies work - until it's 100% officially announced by Toshiba via official press release, they will say that the statements are 'unfounded'. They are not saying that they're still backing HD-DVD however. Read their wording from their press release carefully, they state:

"we are currently assessing our business strategies,"

and

"The media [has] reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business. Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment."

They're smart enough to never say something like "we're completely behind HD-DVD and will support it for a long time". They've got a foot out the door but are going to deny they're leaving until they've actually left. As someone who's dealt with press releases and the such, that's just how business works.

That being said, they've called a press conference later tonight. Here's the announcement from bluray.highdefdigest.com:

[kal]

MikeEby: You have to understand how companies work - until it's 100% officially announced by Toshiba via official press release, they will say that the statements are 'unfounded'. They are not saying that they're still backing HD-DVD however. Read their wording from their press release carefully, they state:

"we are currently assessing our business strategies,"

and

"The media [has] reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business. Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment."

They're smart enough to never say something like "we're completely behind HD-DVD and will support it for a long time". They've got a foot out the door but are going to deny they're leaving until they've actually left. As someone who's dealt with press releases and the such, that's just how business works.

That being said, they've called a press conference later tonight. Here's the announcement from bluray.highdefdigest.com:

[MikeEby]

I have dumb question but in the days of class action law suits wouldn't Toshiba have some legal problems if they dropped support for HD-DVD so quickly.

It seems like they would be smarter to just let it die a slow death.

Mike

[kal]

[kal]

[ecrabb]

Of course, something being nuts wouldn't stop some sh*t-bag law firm from starting a class-action lawsuit so they could afford to buy all the partners new corporate jets and homes in France. I could see it going along the lines that, by selling you a product, Toshiba et al was making some sort of implied promise that you would be able to watch new releases on it for some 'reasonable' amount of time (number of years.) What is 'reasonable' would be based on previous product life-cycles. The rationale for the suit would be along the lines that there's no reason Toshiba et al should force the consumer to take the risk as to whether the product would be a success.

Doesn't sound that crazy, does it? More ridiculous lawsuits have been filed - and won.

SC

[MikeEby]

I just watched my $15 HD-DVD copy of "Shrek the Third", it looked fantastic. I can’t wait till the lack of competition gets Bluray prices down that low.

Mike

[ecrabb]

[MikeEby]

[ecrabb]

You know, the whole time this war was going on, I was of the opinion that nothing could stop HD - that it was too big to every become a 'videophile' product or a niche product like DVD-A or SACD. I even remember arguing with people about it a few times. But, now that the war is over, and BD is the only game in town, I wonder what Sony will do. Will prices continue to fall on hardware and bring more people into the fold? Or, without any competition will Sony just take larger profits as economies of scale reduce hardware manufacturing costs? Will the studios lower media prices as more authoring and replication facilities come on line (and reduce production costs), or will they keep prices the same and just take larger profits?

For the first time - just since this past weekend, in fact - I'm actually concerned that between Sony's greed and the studio's greed (we KNOW they're greedy) that Blu-ray could be destined to become a videophile product. I hope that won't happen. I hope all parties involved understand how important reasonable prices are to achieve mass adoption. Hopefully the high prices - even on media - is just some profit-taking on early adopters and prices will settle. I hope that even the competition amongst the BD player manufacturers will force prices on hardware to fall to where even average Joe won't be able to resist the urge to watch that sweet high definition - just like NFL and Nascar, man!!!

SC

[Thor]

It's official:

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2008_02/pr1903.htm

R.I.P. HD DVD

[WanMan]

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

19 February, 2008

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

[WanMan]

People can now get in line for a Class Action suit against Toshiba and the DVD Forum. And maybe any monetary results can be applied to a Blu-ray player.

[MikeEby]

[kal]

[kal]

[MikeEby]

[garyfritz]

I think prices are already fairly comparable. Compare a few recent releases: Amazon prices, street-price (MSRP)

POTC:AWE -- SD $14.99 ($29.99), SD 2-disk $22.99 ($34.99), BR 2-disk $22.95 ($34.99) -- not sure how SD/BR 2-disk versions compare, but they're probably similar
Spiderman 3 -- SD $14.99 ($28.97), SD 2-disk $24.99 ($36.95), BR 2-disk $28.95 ($43.95) -- ditto on 2-disk
Cars -- SD $19.99 ($29.99), BR $23.95 ($34.99)
Harry Potter years 1-5 -- SD $89.99 ($119.97), BR $104.95 ($149.99)

So yes, the BR disks are maybe 10-20% higher, but it's not a dramatic difference. Not at all bad for a new format.

Will Sony & the studios push the BR price down to the SD level? Maybe not, because there are zillions of SD DVD players out there. That's where the money is, at least for now, and that's where the economies of scale are. They could easily justify a 10-20% premium for the higher-quality and lower-volume BR releases.

And, honestly, that's not unreasonable. People pay a lot more premium than that for their fancy new HDTV's. I don't think a 10-20% price difference is enough to kill the format.

[kal]

Exactly. For a brand new format, the prices are already dirt cheap. DVD was never this cheap this fast. I remember drooling over only having to pay $35-40 for a DVD! That was 1/4 to 1/2 the price of the nearest LD!

Kal

[kal]

Exactly. For a brand new format, the prices are already dirt cheap. DVD was never this cheap this fast. I remember drooling over only having to pay $35-40 for a DVD! That was 1/4 to 1/2 the price of the nearest LD!

Kal

[JustGreg]