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Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses
Toshiba, Japan (article in Engrish) ^ | 19 February 2007 | Toshiba Corporate Announcement

Posted on 02/19/2008 9:02:21 AM PST by 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."

(Excerpt) Read more at toshiba.co.jp ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bluray; hd; hddvd; toshiba
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To: NewMexLurker
I have many standard DVDs that look great with the 1080p upconvert on the Sony BDP-S300. Just because the title is on a BluRay disk is no guarantee that the video will look better. The studios have been re-releasing old titles on BluRay. Some of them stink. The only extra value offered is the additional material from the gag reels, interviews with the stars and director and often background on how the movie was shot. The Italian Job on BluRay has a very fine background on how the movie was shot. The same goes for the release of Dante's Peak.
61 posted on 02/19/2008 10:00:26 AM PST by Myrddin
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To: TightyRighty

Probably will have other disagree with me, however:

Blu-Ray should have better sound quality. But, my question would be is how old is your sound system. Best Buy has the best on display, and positioned by professionals to make it sound great. Like having a bottled water stand in the desert.

My Denon 7Ch does much better then my Harmon Kardon 5.1.


62 posted on 02/19/2008 10:00:36 AM PST by southlake_hoosier (.... One Nation, Under God.......)
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To: Vigilanteman

The war between consumer’s wallets and what the bluray manufacturers charge for their players will continue on for a long time however.


63 posted on 02/19/2008 10:05:00 AM PST by SengirV
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To: Eva
Is your DVR really 1080i? I was told that they only really receive 780?

Yes. It depends on the channel, of course, as some only broadcast in 720p (I'm looking at you, Fox and ESPN).

64 posted on 02/19/2008 10:06:30 AM PST by kevkrom (Voters say they want substance, but then they just vote for the guy with nice hair instead.)
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To: Eva
You need to go shopping again. I paid $2200 for the 37" 1080p Mitsubishi HDTV last year. Prices are even lower now. I paid $499 for the Sony BDP-S300 last year. Fred Meyer had them on sale at Christmas for $299.

Look at lots of screens to see what you like best. Depending on the technology, some pictures favor blue hues, others favor reds. Watch out on the HDMI connection. Many vendors tout 1080p HDMI, but don't tell you they are only supporting the hi-res video. The device needs to support audio over HDMI as well. The higher rate bitstreams can't be accomodated over the coaxial or TOS (optical) paths. The really critical issue is synchronizing the video with the audio. Before I upgraded my receiver, the audio and video were not synced. It gave the appearance of a foreign movie dubbed into another language. The technical term used by the Pioneer receiver devices is "phase control".

65 posted on 02/19/2008 10:07:15 AM PST by Myrddin
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To: Eva
Blu-ray is amazing, but only if you have a ultra, or full HD set (1080p), which cost about $3000 on up.

I bought a 1080p 42" LCD in December for $950 plus tax.

66 posted on 02/19/2008 10:09:07 AM PST by Sloth (If you took an oath to support & defend the U.S. Constitution, can you vote for its domestic enemy?)
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To: southlake_hoosier

I don’t have any sound system - he showed us the Definitive Technology Procinema 60 5.1 with a Denon 525W 7.1 receiver. It sounded great but I have no clue about these kinds of things and began to wonder if I was going to lose the great sound by having a regular DVD player. The whole setup with a Denon Ipod Dock is going to be about $1300.


67 posted on 02/19/2008 10:09:38 AM PST by TightyRighty
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To: kevkrom

We haven’t traded in our old DVR yet, but I am planning to do so this week. FOX and ESPN are two of the most watched stations in our house. We really don’t watch that much tv.

We had no tv for about nine months, while we were building this house and just got out of the habit. We do listen to the XM radio on the tv, though. That’s most of what we watch, FOX, sports, old movies, and XM radio.


68 posted on 02/19/2008 10:10:24 AM PST by Eva (Benedict Arnold was a war hero, too.)
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To: Sloth

You did well, even COSTCO didn’t have those kind of prices.


69 posted on 02/19/2008 10:11:38 AM PST by Eva (Benedict Arnold was a war hero, too.)
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To: Myrddin

OK, I give up. Was post 15 in HD or BluRay? Or was it post 16? You’re right. You can’t tell the difference :-)


70 posted on 02/19/2008 10:13:02 AM PST by IrishCatholic (No local communist or socialist party chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing.)
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To: RandallFlagg
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?

I still treat all my optical media with care. The HD-DVD crashes all happened because of a fingerprint on the surface of the disk. I even had one factory fresh disk that arrived with a fingerprint. Very annoying. Cleaning the HD-DVD disk cleared the problem in every case. I haven't had a single crash of the BluRay disk. I will note that the initial firmware load on the Sony BDP-S300 had a terrible time switching from one chapter to the next on regular DVDs. That was remedied by upgrading the firmware. It's very simple. Just download the file from the Sony support site, burn a CDROM of the image and "play" the disk in the player. The BDP-S300 updates the firmware and hard disk images inside the device. It takes about 10 minutes. The device ejects the disk drawer upon completion. Very simple.

71 posted on 02/19/2008 10:13:13 AM PST by Myrddin
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To: Eva
You can already purchase internal BluRay reader/writer drives with backward compatibility to DVD and CD. Nero and other software packages already support the devices.
72 posted on 02/19/2008 10:15:27 AM PST by Myrddin
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To: 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.

Hmmmm, I bought a 42" 1080p LCD in June of 2007 for $999. VERY much lower than your $3000 price tag. Perhaps you should look to see what's out there now. You appear to be quoting prices from mid-2006 with respect to the TVs. Though you appear to be A LOT closer with the prices of the bluray players.

73 posted on 02/19/2008 10:16:26 AM PST by SengirV
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To: Eva
You did well, even COSTCO didn’t have those kind of prices.

That's where I bought mine as well. They do have sales.

74 posted on 02/19/2008 10:20:03 AM PST by SengirV
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To: SengirV

Ah, I note that you have LCD. The new sets are all LED, whatever that means. I was told that they weren’t going to make LCDs any longer.


75 posted on 02/19/2008 10:20:16 AM PST by Eva (Benedict Arnold was a war hero, too.)
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To: Sloth

“You need to go shopping again. I paid $2200 for the 37” 1080p Mitsubishi HDTV last year. Prices are even lower now.”

Much lower. I paid $1,360 for a Sony 40” 1080p a month or two ago.


76 posted on 02/19/2008 10:21:29 AM PST by Pravious
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To: SengirV

Maybe your Costco has better merchandizing than ours. We didn’t even have (p) sets.


77 posted on 02/19/2008 10:21:40 AM PST by Eva (Benedict Arnold was a war hero, too.)
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To: Eva

I think you need to investigate a little more. I think someone stretched the truth a little there. There are lots of “new and improved” tech coming out with respect to HDTVs, but it will be a while before they stop making LCDs.


78 posted on 02/19/2008 10:22:35 AM PST by SengirV
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To: SengirV

Well, I guess a Circuit City salesman might not be the best source of information. LOL!


79 posted on 02/19/2008 10:24:35 AM PST by Eva (Benedict Arnold was a war hero, too.)
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To: dfwgator

which brings up an interesting question.

How long till spinning disks are gone entirely?

You can by a 1gb sd chip for 5-10 dollars if you shop around.

4 gb chips are now 30 dollars and falling.

512 mb jump drives are freebie giveaways.

With high end monitors with sd slots why would we need a “player”?


80 posted on 02/19/2008 10:24:47 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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