Toshiba quits HD DVD business

Tribune-Star ^ | Feb. 19,2008 | By Yuri Kageyama

[Military family member]

TOKYO — Toshiba's decision to no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD DVD players and recorders will mean consumers can start feeling more confident about buying the victorious rival technology — a Blu-ray disc player.

Analysts say competition is expected to heat up among the manufacturers of Blu-ray players and recorders, which include Japanese makers Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Sharp Corp. as well as Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea.

In making the announcement, Toshiba Corp. President Atsutoshi Nishida said he wanted to avoid confusion among consumers.

[Spktyr]

VHS won out in the consumer marketplace, but Beta was technically superior and won in the pro marketplace. SuperVHS came along to try to make up the tech difference, but it never was as good as Beta.

This time around, the technically superior one won, partially because there was never going to be a way to record HD-DVD at home (even with a computer) and there already are BluRay burners on the market.

[untrained skeptic]

Congratulations to your hometown.

Blu-Ray is the superior technology, at least if they have been able to increase yields on disk manufacturing which I believe had been considerably lower than for HD DVD disks at one time.

I'm still a bit surprised that HD DVD is just going away. I would have expected players that played both formats would have become common first and then have the one format die out.

I guess that implementing both in the same player was more difficult than I thought it would be.

[Locomotive Breath]

Beta was technically superior to VHS but lost out.

The critical factor was that VHS could put an entire movie on a single tape.

[listenhillary]

What is your hometown?

[ExSoldier]

I don't get it. What's the difference?

My wife and I got a DVD recorder/player a few months ago (it's yet to be actually USED even once) so what does this mean for us? Should we dump it?

[swain_forkbeard]

“Blu Ray is technically superior...”

Do you mean the specification theorectically allows for higher audio and video resolutions, greater color depth, more audio channels, more info in general? Because my understanding is that they’ve done a pretty poor job of rolling out the early players (probably to respond to and head off HD-DVD). The standard is evolving, and some players are missing things. I understand that not all Blu-ray players play all Blu-ray discs.

[MediaMole]

I always pick the Betamax. Heck, I still have two Beta decks.

$179 for the HD DVD add-on for my Xbox360 didn’t hurt all that much, and the remaining disks should be really cheap. It’s not like they become trash in two months.

I’d still warn people to avoid standalone Blu-Ray players until the profile 2.0 players hit stores in the fall. The only current player that is assured of being updated to the 2.0 spec is the PS3.

[Spunky]

"Eventually, it's believed that your standard dvd will become less and less available."

I still don't understand the whole thing. I thought I heard that NetZero, Best Buy, Walmart, (I may be mistaken on some of these) will only be carrying blu-ray DVD's. If this is case then I wouldn't be able to play them on my regular DVD player would I?

I absolutely do not understand hi-tech stuff.

[Prokopton]

I'm gratified to hear that and will certainly be looking forward to enjoying the high-def experience on my 50" HD TV! :-)

You'll love it. I just had a 65" Plasma delivered Friday. Now I'm waiting for Panasonic to come out with their Blu Ray 2.0 player.

[Phantom Lord]

The critical factor was that VHS could put an entire movie on a single tape.

That, and it was the choice of the porn industry.

[Phantom Lord]

I still don't understand the whole thing. I thought I heard that NetZero, Best Buy, Walmart, (I may be mistaken on some of these) will only be carrying blu-ray DVD's. If this is case then I wouldn't be able to play them on my regular DVD player would I?

A Blu Ray disc will not play on a regular DVD player. Regular DVDs will play on a Blu Ray player.

And with regardes to "only carrying", that is in reference to the Blu Ray vs. HD DVD battle. You will still be able to buy all the regular DVDs you could ever want.

There are only like 435 movies out on Blu Ray, while the DVD Movie catalog is in excess of 60,000. They will not be going away for a long long time.

[Phantom Lord]

Just get a PS3.

[Prokopton]

Do you mean the specification theorectically allows for higher audio and video resolutions, greater color depth, more audio channels, more info in general?

Blu Ray discs hold 50 GB vs. 30 GB for HD. Blu Ray bandwith is 48Mbit/sec vs. 30 Mbit/sec for HD. Blu Ray discs also have a protective hard coating.

You are correct in that Blu Ray players have gone through the three versions of Blu Ray 1, 1.1 and now 2.0. 2.0 is the last spec for full use of all of the potential in the Blu Ray discs. From now on most Blu Ray players will be full 2.0 specs and will be able to perform all Blu Ray functions.

[Phantom Lord]

My mistake in previous posts. DVD titles are in excess of 90,000.

And on getting a Blu Ray Player, here is an interesting piece from Crave. They strongly suggest the PS3 as your Blu Ray player. Five reasons you shouldn't buy a Blu-ray player yet

[Sig Sauer P220]

Blue-Ray? Izzat some kind of salt water creature?

[comebacknewt]

Final nail in the coffin I would think.

[mmichaels1970]

I thought I heard that NetZero, Best Buy, Walmart, (I may be mistaken on some of these) will only be carrying blu-ray DVD's. If this is case then I wouldn't be able to play them on my regular DVD player would I?

If this WERE true, you'd be correct that your regular DVD player would become nothing more than an end table. However, I think they mean that Walmart etc. won't be carrying BluRay's main competitor: the HD-DVD. These moves by the large resellers are a big part of HD-DVD's imminent death. I'm sure your standard DVD's will be carried at your local Wal Mart for a long time to come since standard DVD's will still be in high demand for at least several years.

I absolutely do not understand hi-tech stuff.

Think about what it was like in Blockbuster during the transition from VHS to DVD. The shelves were full of VHS tapes with a small DVD section in the beginning. Soon, it was 50-50. Now, you can't find a VHS tape anywhere. There was very little if any outrage to VHS offerings disappearing because adequate time elapsed to allow just about everybody to naturally transition over to a DVD Player. I'd project the same type of future for BluRay.

[Military family member]

Terre Haute Indiana

Maybe now we'll be know for something other than the home of the Federal Death Chamber

[Prokopton]

Just get a PS3

Current PS3s probably cannot be made 2.0 compliant. Also, the upconversion quality of the PS3 is not the greatest.

[mmichaels1970]

Current PS3s probably cannot be made 2.0 compliant. Also, the upconversion quality of the PS3 is not the greatest.

Thanks for p***ing on my Cheerios. Just when I thought I had this all figured out.