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HD-DVD/Blu-ray war end ??

lovecloud

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http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSL1627196120080216

Toshiba to exit HD DVD, end format war-NHK
Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:50am EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp is planning to stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video, allowing the competing Blu-Ray camp a free run, public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday.

Toshiba is expected to suffer losses amounting to tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders and other steps to exit the business, Japan's NHK said on its website.

No one at Toshiba could be reached for comment.

The format war between the Toshiba-backed HD DVD and Sony Corp's Blu-Ray, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, has slowed the development of what is expected to be a multibillion dollar high-definition DVD industry.

Toshiba was dealt a blow on Friday when Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it would abandon the HD DVD format, becoming the latest in a series of top retailers and movie studios to rally behind Blu-ray technology for high definition DVDs.

Toshiba plans to continue selling HD DVD equipment at stores for the time being but will not put resources into developing new devices, NHK said.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne, editing by Mike Peacock)


http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSL1637974620080216

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high-definition video, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), a company source said on Saturday.

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.

The company source told Reuters that Toshiba was in the final stages of planning to exit the HD DVD business and that an official decision would be made soon.

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi, Kentaro Hamada and Nathan Layne, editing by Mike Peacock)
 
Another set of articles with still no official word from the company themselves, so yet another round of rumormongering.
 
Hope it isnt true, if it is it will be a shame.

I think what is needed is something from Toshiba either way to dispell or prove rumours.

Last official statement was 14th Jan. would be nice to see what the cost cutting etc has done to sales.

I personaly would hope that they ride it out to end of year and see what the good film releases do.
 
Hope it isnt true, if it is it will be a shame.

I think what is needed is something from Toshiba either way to dispell or prove rumours.

Last official statement was 14th Jan. would be nice to see what the cost cutting etc has done to sales.

I personally would hope that they ride it out to end of year and see what the good film releases do.

I think they would have denied it by now if there were no truth to the matter. They cannot survive without major retailers.

- Rich
 
I actually couldn't care less about the Toshiba plans at this point. What I'm more interested in is the announcements from Paramount and Universal. Toshiba can keep making HD DVD for all I care, however, I want one format that has ALL studio support. As of right now, we still don't have that.
 
And just to think about all those poor folk who woke up at 5AM to get Toshiba HD-DVD Player for 99.99 on Black Friday, and now they will be worthless, at least they are backwards compatible and can play regular DVDs so its not a total loss. Just goes to show you , "be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.":agree:
 
Looks like we are going to have a flood of BD+ disks to deal with soon...
 
I actually couldn't care less about the Toshiba plans at this point. What I'm more interested in is the announcements from Paramount and Universal. Toshiba can keep making HD DVD for all I care, however, I want one format that has ALL studio support. As of right now, we still don't have that.

Duh! :doh: Toshiba IS the driving force behind HD-DVD. When they fold it, it's gotta be over and the remaining studios will HAVE to go Blu-Ray. I thought you knew that?

Don't take this as a PERSONAL insult - But it's uninformed (and unconcerned) consumerism by people exactly like you that led to Sony winning this thing. It's not only you, I'm sure a lot of other consumers also let thier children lead them by the nose - as opposed to fighting for the principle of the issue and boycotting Blu-Ray until it lost. Sadly the "I want it all and I want it now" has infiltrated American consumerism to the point where there's little hope.

-W
 
Duh! :doh: Toshiba IS the driving force behind HD-DVD. When they fold it, it's gotta be over and the remaining studios will HAVE to go Blu-Ray. I thought you knew that?

Don't take this as a PERSONAL insult - But it's uninformed (and unconcerned) consumerism by people exactly like you that led to Sony winning this thing. It's not only you, I'm sure a lot of other consumers also let thier children lead them by the nose - as opposed to fighting for the principle of the issue and boycotting Blu-Ray until it lost. Sadly the "I want it all and I want it now" has infiltrated American consumerism to the point where there's little hope.

-W

You really TRULY misread what I was saying didn't you? Either that or you woke up on the wrong side of bed and STILL misread what I said. I KNOW the studios are going to go Blu-ray. What I said was I don't care about Toshiba's announcements of the death of HD DVD, what I care about is announcements from the studios as to what their plans are now. OBVIOUSLY they're going to switch to Blu-ray. The question is when, what's the plan for existing titles on HD DVD to be converted to Blu-ray, etc. So, yea, you totally didn't get what I said at ALL.
 
Looks like we are going to have a flood of BD+ disks to deal with soon...

Yeah I have nothing against Blu-ray except for this DRM sh1t that makes life hell for HTPCers :(

I hope this doesn't become an excuse for all studios to put BD+ or worse on all their discs...
 
BD+ will be dealt with in time, as you all know. I'm personally just happy to have ONE format so that HD in general has a chance. (I love how people call me a Blu-ray fan now...do they not get that I started out with HD DVD and have supported it right up to the point where Warner switched??? Anyway...) Yes, Blu-ray has more restrictions and is less consumer friendly. We know this. It still won. We're now stuck with the format, but, at least there's only ONE format to deal with now. The protection will be defeated. Just have patience.
 
BD+ will be dealt with in time, as you all know. I'm personally just happy to have ONE format so that HD in general has a chance. (I love how people call me a Blu-ray fan now...do they not get that I started out with HD DVD and have supported it right up to the point where Warner switched??? Anyway...) Yes, Blu-ray has more restrictions and is less consumer friendly. We know this. It still won. We're now stuck with the format, but, at least there's only ONE format to deal with now. The protection will be defeated. Just have patience.

Hmm..nothing personal, but do you really think that having 2 formats would somehow affects HD chances of survival ? HD is here to stay, be it BD only or HD/BD combo -- Actually I think having competition is good for consumer no matter how confused this consumer is, it brought prices down so fast that it really made HD "survival" chances much better.

All this "consumer confusion" is blown out of proportion anyway, has nothing to do with BD/HD IMO. Consumer inability to tell the difference between SD and HD, HDMI or S-Video, etc is where the root of the confusion is. I now see "Must have HD signal to see HD picture" signs in most electronics stores and I don't hear anybody saying that this confusion is somehow threatening survival of HD. Little worried now with having a BD monopoly out there :(
 
Hmm..nothing personal, but do you really think that having 2 formats would somehow affects HD chances of survival ? HD is here to stay, be it BD only or HD/BD combo -- Actually I think having competition is good for consumer no matter how confused this consumer is, it brought prices down so fast that it really made HD "survival" chances much better.

God, YES, I do. I don't know how many times I need to repeat that. I very much do! Do you have ANY idea how many people I know that have been sitting on the sidelines saying "Yea, I'm going to wait until there's a winner cause I don't want to end up with the 'wrong' format"??? WAY TOO MANY. There is a REAL chance that HD will end up a niche product like laser disc was if consumer adoption doesn't start to pick up. I'm not the only one to say this. HD is NOT going to replace DVD as the consumer choice unless consumer attitudes start changing. People are buying HD DVD players in droves now that the prices are lower. You know why? It's NOT for HD DVD! It's for their existing DVD library so it "can look as good as HD" according to the people buying them. Yes, people are saying that upscaling is simply "good enough". HD is not a guaranteed winner here. FAR from it. The real battle is just beginning. If sales of Blu-ray don't pick up now that HD DVD is out of the picture, the HD world is in real trouble. Don't take my word for it. Do some research. Pick the week that had the MOST amount of sales for Blu-ray and HD DVD. Combine the sales totals of each. Now compare it to an average week of DVD sales. That should open your eyes a little.

All this "consumer confusion" is blown out of proportion anyway, has nothing to do with BD/HD IMO. Consumer inability to tell the difference between SD and HD, HDMI or S-Video, etc is where the root of the confusion is. I now see "Must have HD signal to see HD picture" signs in most electronics stores and I don't hear anybody saying that this confusion is somehow threatening survival of HD. Little worried now with having a BD monopoly out there :(

The consumer is not stupid, much to many people's amazement. They're not confused over what HD is, they just see no need for it due to upscaling of existing DVD's and the fact that they don't want a dual format situation with having to buy a really expensive dual format player or two separate players. Most everyone I've talked to didn't want either solution. BD monopoly? WTF? Is that anything like the DVD monopoly we have now??? You have the studios competing with each other to sell movies. That's not a monopoly. BD is simply a format.
 
God, YES, I do. I don't know how many times I need to repeat that. I very much do! Do you have ANY idea how many people I know that have been sitting on the sidelines saying "Yea, I'm going to wait until there's a winner cause I don't want to end up with the 'wrong' format"??? WAY TOO MANY. There is a REAL chance that HD will end up a niche product like laser disc was if consumer adoption doesn't start to pick up. I'm not the only one to say this. HD is NOT going to replace DVD as the consumer choice unless consumer attitudes start changing. People are buying HD DVD players in droves now that the prices are lower. You know why? It's NOT for HD DVD! It's for their existing DVD library so it "can look as good as HD" according to the people buying them. Yes, people are saying that upscaling is simply "good enough". HD is not a guaranteed winner here. FAR from it. The real battle is just beginning. If sales of Blu-ray don't pick up now that HD DVD is out of the picture, the HD world is in real trouble. Don't take my word for it. Do some research. Pick the week that had the MOST amount of sales for Blu-ray and HD DVD. Combine the sales totals of each. Now compare it to an average week of DVD sales. That should open your eyes a little.

The consumer is not stupid, much to many people's amazement. They're not confused over what HD is, they just see no need for it due to upscaling of existing DVD's and the fact that they don't want a dual format situation with having to buy a really expensive dual format player or two separate players. Most everyone I've talked to didn't want either solution. BD monopoly? WTF? Is that anything like the DVD monopoly we have now??? You have the studios competing with each other to sell movies. That's not a monopoly. BD is simply a format.

I highly respect your contributions to the forum but you need to calm down a bit. My eyes do not need opening as I am perfectly aware that HD sales total around 1% of SD DVD sales. I do follow up all developments and sales numbers very closely. I am format neutral with LG combo drive btw so I have no particular invested interest in any of them to win.

We heard all this talk about format survival oh so many times before: kflex vs x2 modems, DVD+R vs DVD-R, etc and in all these cases market found a perfect solution thanks to free market economy. Should this HD/BD battle went on longer it would not have determined survival of HD as many studio execs try to make you believe. They would have come up with some compromise to make sure that they don't lose all these billions of $$ they are about to get from selling you and me the movie that I have already bought on VHS and DVD once again.

And yes, DVD is monopoly, and their region codes suck. Same applies to future BD monopoly. At least with HD DVD we did not have region coding.

Respectfully disagreeing with your opinion. ;)
 
I highly respect your contributions to the forum but you need to calm down a bit. My eyes do not need opening as I am perfectly aware that HD sales total around 1% of SD DVD sales. I do follow up all developments and sales numbers very closely. I am format neutral with LG combo drive btw so I have no particular invested interest in any of them to win.

I have also been format neutral since last July, but, my interest in getting to a single format is not for my sake exactly, but, for my friends and family. My parents, for example, had to decide which format to buy last November before Warner was even considering the switch. They ended up with Blu which is now proving to be the best choice, but, it could have easily been the wrong choice if Warner and Fox had gone the other way. For myself, I was buying as many HD DVD's as I could right up to the Warner announcement. Now I don't see the point. If we're going Blu, we might as well just go and be done with it. When my parents and friends want to borrow a movie, they'll simply be able to play it.

We heard all this talk about format survival oh so many times before: kflex vs x2 modems, DVD+R vs DVD-R, etc and in all these cases market found a perfect solution thanks to free market economy. Should this HD/BD battle went on longer it would not have determined survival of HD as many studio execs try to make you believe. They would have come up with some compromise to make sure that they don't lose all these billions of $$ they are about to get from selling you and me the movie that I have already bought on VHS and DVD once again.

You're right, of course, in that dual formats COULD survive. That would require getting a dual format player down to a reasonable price more quickly. If you've read anything I've written up to the point where Warner bailed on HD DVD, you'd know that it was my belief that the war would end only when that happened and that we'd be stuck with both formats permanently. I was wrong on that theory, obviously. That could have worked, though, and I won't argue that. In reality it's not much different than the console wars I suppose, except there is the possibility of a machine that plays them all. The problem with this is that it didn't come fast enough nor hit at a price that consumers would buy at. I truly believe that if there was a dual format player out there for under, let's even say 500 bucks, this past Xmas that we'd be having a very different conversation. But that didn't happen and now we're faced with Blu being the winner...for good or bad.

And yes, DVD is monopoly, and their region codes suck. Same applies to future BD monopoly. At least with HD DVD we did not have region coding.

If we're strictly talking about the best consumer format, NO QUESTION HD DVD was the best. And I supported it right up to the point where it made no more sense to do so. I have quite a few HD DVD's in my collection and they're not going anywhere. Unfortunately, the market decided that Blu was going to win. Now we're stuck with a format that does indeed have more anti-consumer friendly technologies in it. I guess you can call the BD format a monopoly, but, I'm not sure that's exactly right. Besides, as I said before, it still has to beat DVD and so far it ain't doing so well. There is a REAL chance that the plug could be pulled on BD, as well, if consumers refuse to buy into it. When I said the "HD" market could fail, I didn't mean HDTV in general, I meant the BD/HD DVD technology. And it really could still fail. Miserably.

Respectfully disagreeing with your opinion. ;)

LOL. :) No problem there so long as we keep it cordial. ;)
 
Very True HD formatted DVD will face a uphill battle

Numerous articles have been posted about why it will fail. One of the biggest points made is that it is not totally the same as VHS to DVD. True it was an upgrade in video quality but a major factor was the convenience and the size of the media. DVD were much more storage friendly and convenient to carry
________
Herbalaire
 
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Numerous articles have been posted about why it will fail. One of the biggest points made is that it is not totally the same as VHS to DVD. True it was an upgrade in video quality but a major factor was the convenience and the size of the media. DVD were much more storage friendly and convenient to carry

Yup. Add to that the fact that people can upscale regular DVD's and you have a very ugly situation. The difference isn't big enough for a lot of people. It's going to be very difficult to get people to change their mind about BD.
 
LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray/HD DVD Reader Price Drop

This is both good news and possibly bad news. LG just dropped the price on the GGC-H20L Blu-ray/HD DVD reader. It's available for 229.99 USD from newegg.com. Hope this is not an indicator that they're going to drop HD DVD as well. IMHO you better get one while you still can if you want to maintain HD DVD compatibility and prefer an internal solution.
 
This is both good news and possibly bad news. LG just dropped the price on the GGC-H20L Blu-ray/HD DVD reader. It's available for 229.99 USD from newegg.com. Hope this is not an indicator that they're going to drop HD DVD as well. IMHO you better get one while you still can if you want to maintain HD DVD compatibility and prefer an internal solution.

Crap! They better not discontinue it. I'm not ready to get another one yet and I want to build another HTPC using that drive. SIGH.
 
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