Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

Toshiba, Japan (article in Engrish) ^ | 19 February 2007 | Toshiba Corporate Announcement

[Vigilanteman]

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."

[Emperor Palpatine]

The latest Play Stations all play Blu-Ray.

[dfwgator]

Years ago Sony’s Betamax was superior but lost out to VHS.

Guess this time Sony didn't have to deal with the porn industry, since today it's mostly distributed online.

[Revolting cat!]

The day after the Toshiba announcement, the HD-DVD section was removed and the BluRay display area was doubled.

Tomorrow?

[Myrddin]

My HDTV is a 37" 1080p Mitsubishi. Ordinary DVDs upconvert nicely. The standard 5.1 audio sounds fine on either the Sony or Toshiba devices. I can definitely see an improvement in the video quality with BluRay vs standard DVD on the 37" screen. The uncompressed PCM audio offering on BluRay is much better than any of the bitstream formats.

[MaxMax]

I've been wondering if the "HD Video Cards" will need to change format also
in order to read the data from BR disks?

[Mr. Jeeves]

So, can somebody who knows this stuff tell me if the better format won?

It did - for a change.

[southlake_hoosier]

Since Sony owns most of the media, probably not long.

[LS]

Does this in any way affect the televisions? Or is it only the players? (i.e., do you have to have something “compatible?”)

[Myrddin]

The announcement hit the wires last Friday. My son received the news as an alert on his cell phone. When we arrived back in Pocatello on Saturday evening, the BluRay section had already been updated and doubled. The official meeting occurred today with the official announcement. Clearly, people in the industry were already aware of what was happening.

[Eva]

Blu-ray is amazing, but only if you have a ultra, or full HD set (1080p), which cost about $3000 on up. Then there is the Blu-ray player which costs between $400 and $500, not to mention the additional cost of the DVDs.

If have anything less than the ultra high definition tv, there is not much difference between HD and Blu-Ray. Now, you have to realize that you do not receive even regular high def. over your cable or satellite, so other than watching dvds, there is not much purpose in buying an ultra high definition set. If you are a big movie fan, or play a lot of video games, it might be worth it, but for us, I’ll just depend on the DVR and regular high definition.

[southlake_hoosier]

Since Sony owns most of the media, probably not long.

[RockinRight]

Just the players - it has nothing to do with your TV itself, just what kind of disc the player will play, if you in fact have an HD-DVD player.

[Syntyr]

“A typical DVD player with an upconvert 1080i or 1080p and a monitor with the appropriate 1080i or 1080p gets you the same picture as a”

I did a comparison of Aeon Flux Regular DVD, HD-DVD and BLU-Ray DVD on a Sony XBR Bravia 52” Flat Panel LCD.

Samsung UpConvert DVD player connected via HDMI
Toshiba A300 HD-DVD player connected via HDMI
Samsung BP-1400A BLU-Ray player connected via HDMI

I tested stills by pausing all three units at the same scenes and used an HDMI switch to pop back and forth. I also ran the same scenes on all three.

All three had a great picture.

The Regular DVD had slightly better color than the HD-DVD player

The HD-DVD player has slightly better picture than the upconverted DVD during motion scenes. I was disappointed that I almost could not tell the difference between the upconvert and the HD-DVD during stills. I chalked this up to the fact that the Toshiba HD-DVD player was only outputting at 1080i

The Blu-Ray player had a better freeze frame and motion than the upconvert DVD and HD-DVD. The difference in the motion scenes was significantly better. It also seems like the black are a little blacker with the Blu-Ray player on my Sony TV.

At the end of the day I returned the HD-DVD player and sold my Upconvert Samsung and kept the Samsung Blu-Ray. I paid $299.00 for it at the CompUSA going out of business sale.

Just my 1 and 1/2 cents worth and my old eyes. Your milage may vary...

[Eva]

I have a question about how this will affect the computers. I have read that some of the new computers are coming with Blu-ray. Will they have DVD writers in Blu-ray, too? This is all confusing and frustrating.

[Vet_6780]

How long until you won’t have a choice but to rent or buy Blu-Ray movies, instead of regular DVD?

LOL average screen size is barely 30", everybody already has a DVD player and we are going into an economic downturn.

Connect the dots.

[Azeem]

“The latest Play Stations all play Blu-Ray.”

And a bunch of crappy games.

Hopefully the Xbox360 will have a cheap BluRay add-on soon.

[RandallFlagg]

The HD-DVD is very sensitive to any fingerprints compared to the BluRay disks played on the Sony device.

I remember reading a few years ago that Blu-Ray disks are made with a special coating that basically eliminates the need for DVD sleeves. That they can be rubbed on a sidewalk and still be playable. Is this the case?

[Cobra64]

Will these new gadgets play regular old standard DVD movies?

Or do we just buy new ones, and forced to throw out the old ones?

[southlake_hoosier]

A single layer Blu-Ray disk (25GB) costs from $15-$20 a piece, and a dual layer (50GB) about $35 each.

Dell already offers Blu-Ray, and Nero 8 support writing to Blu-Ray.

[river rat]

Proving once again, the folly of purchasing “leading edge” technology..

They call it “leading edge” because it is a sword that cuts deeply into the pocket book...

The blood from millions of “leading edge” purchasers is left upon the sword of “leading edge” technology.