[Greg]

Please post here regarding Toshiba's decision to drop HD-DVD.

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.

[hooray33]

I've been dual format for ages (PS3 and 360 HD DVD Drive). I think the decision is ultimately good for everybody, there should be one format.

However it's disappointing that as someone who has imported a fair few HD DVDs that region coding becomes an issue again.

Does anyone think HD DVD disks will become cheaper or be promoted in BOGOFs etc to get rid of stocks?

[Greg]

My quick thoughts

Pro's
One format makes it easier to grab interest of the mass market
Shops may start stocking more Blu-rays, thus removing the current rip off price
More consumers = more releases

Con's
No Star Trek!
No competition between formats could mean releases slow down or we just get substandard releases
Prices remain at their ripoff current level
Region Coding more enforced, meaning cheap Blu-rays from The US are no more

Clearly some of my pro's and con's go against each other, but just my quick feelings at this time.

[Rasczak]

Well HD DVD is dead. Disappointing but not unexpected given recent announcements. I think it is a real shame though. The benefits of a single format remain to be seen - the price is already being paid such as in the cancellation of the restoration work on Star Trek: The Original Series.

Blu-ray is a strong format that can do everything HD DVD owners have come to expect. But I fear without HD DVD in competition the normality of Profile 2, the highest quality transfers, lossless audio etc are all battles that will be difficult to fight.

[KeanosMagicHat]

Originally Posted by Rasczak

I fear without HD DVD in competition the normality of Profile 2, the highest quality transfers, lossless audio etc are all battles that will be difficult to fight.

I don't know about that.

One thing the format war has done (and the introduction of Hi-Def in general) is to make the average consumer more aware and considerate of Picture and Audio Quality.

With the marketing from both parties, this has been strongly emphasised over the past couple of years.

As a result, I think going forward people will be far more selective on the movies they buy and if it is an awful transfer, or has sub standard audio, people will be less likely to purchase.

On another subject related to the announcement, I wonder when there will be official statements by Paramount and Universal on their plans going forward?

There are many movies from these studios I'd love to own on Blu-Ray.

[Marc]

disappointing, but been coming for a while now. I'm hoping that retailers will all have a 'fire-sale' now and sell off their hd-dvds at heavily reduced prices as i'll be happy to pick them up if they do. Doesn't matter if the format's dead as long as my player isn't! And i'll get a PS3 (or perhaps a bd-rom drive) in a while so that i can start buying blu-ray as well

does anyone know if a bd-rom drive is region free btw? i read somewhere that all the encoding is done in the software and that you can use anydvd hd to bypass the region protection, which might make a bd-rom drive for my htpc the best option (and nvidia are bringing out a hdmi 1.3a motherboard with audio and video over hdmi in a month or so)

[Nic Rhodes]

An inevitable conclusion, long delayed by poor decisions on both sides by hardware and software manufacturers however it is one to be welcomed by many for the greater good of the market, even if many have a soft spot for the quality product that was HD DVD. Now the big question I have is if Blu ray really starts to take off, and deliver the hardware people are asking for, can they meet the demand with disc numbers? Rumour had it Fox have been stung more than once with BD50 production hold ups.

[lgans316]

http://gizmodo.com/344680/the-real-r...r-went-blu+ray

[HummerUK]

I assume any second now the price of the PS3 will go up...
Will Blu-ray movies also go up in price with no competition?

How long will it take for the XBOX360 to go Blue?
Any reduced price upgrade if you bought the XBOX external HD drive?

Will any of the studios offer a disc swap HD-DVD for blu-ray copies?

HummerUK

[eiren]

Really sad day for next gen high definition.

The finalised, region free, cheap hardware option lost out to the non-finalised, region coded (and they will do more so now there's no competition), and expensive hardware option.

I really fail to see how it benefits the consumer.

Chalk another one up for the fat cats in suits.

Going to keep buying both formats until HD-DVD dries up.

[KeanosMagicHat]

Originally Posted by eiren

Really sad day for next gen high definition.

....

I really fail to see how it benefits the consumer.

I really don't see it that way at all.

If there is to be a successful disc based HD format then this "war" had to end sooner rather than later.

If by some miracle it had carried on for another couple of years, HD disc may have never taken off with the masses because advancements in the bandwith availability for home internet connections are being made all the time.

Like it or not subscription based on demand downloading will be the way the music and film industry goes eventually.

Blu-Ray is now the stop gap until that time.

[enablerbro1]

Time to grab some HDDVD bargains then.

[eiren]

Originally Posted by KeanosMagicHat

I really don't see it that way at all.

If there is to be a successful disc based HD format then this "war" had to end sooner rather than later.

If by some miracle it had carried on for another couple of years, HD disc may have never taken off with the masses because advancements in the bandwith availability for home internet connections are being made all the time.

Like it or not subscription based on demand downloading will be the way the music and film industry goes eventually.

Blu-Ray is now the stop gap until that time.

Well you could be right on the first point, but I feel the inferior product for the consumer came out on top. C'est la vie.

Not sure about downloads replacing physical media though.

I certainly would never pay for mp3s when I can get them for free. I do however pay for CDs and vinyl, as I feel the packaging is all part of the whole experience. The same goes for my movie purchases.

I agree they'll take a large certain market share, but it will impact more on the rental market than the retail.

[Ger]

It will be interesting to see where BD goes next. I doubt they will increase disks prices or stall development as its biggest competition, DVD, is still out there. If they want to make money from BD, they need to convince EVERYONE that its better than DVD.

[tonyk79]

I only bought into HD-DVD last summer when I bought the Xbox 360 add-on for £120 iirc. I decided on HD-DVD for two reasons.. It was a cheap introduction to optical HD movies via the 360 add-on. The other reason was HD-DVD is region free and I could choose where to get my discs from.

I wont consider buying a Blu Ray player until they come down to around £130-£150, I am also now limited to the expensive UK market for the majority of the discs available.

I cant see the price of Blu Ray coming down much if at all for the next year or so. If BDA has paid out the sum's of money mentioned in the link above then they will want to recoup that money somehow.

It will be interesting to see how things develop over the next six months or so.

[lfc1394]

Originally Posted by HummerUK

I assume any second now the price of the PS3 will go up...Will Blu-ray movies also go up in price with no competition?

How long will it take for the XBOX360 to go Blue?
Any reduced price upgrade if you bought the XBOX external HD drive?

Will any of the studios offer a disc swap HD-DVD for blu-ray copies?

HummerUK

The PS3 is competing against the 360 not HD-DVD.
I backed a horse the other day and he came dead last, I asked the bookie if I could swap my bet for the horse that came first

No one can complain, there was always going to be a risk that one of the formats was going to die.

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by lfc1394

The PS3 is competing against the 360 not HD-DVD.
I backed a horse the other day and he came dead last, I asked the bookie if I could swap my bet for the horse that came first

The bookie did concede that one jockey paying other horse owners off so they didn't compete was perhaps grounds for a stewards inquiry though

I laugh otherwise I would be crying

I can understand the Toshiba decision but I had hoped they would announce a dual player along side a dedicated Blu-ray player as their first release after this news.

[JamesL]

Originally Posted by Starburst

I can understand the Toshiba decision but I had hoped they would announce a dual player along side a dedicated Blu-ray player as their first release after this news.

Toshiba didn't handle this very well from the consumers perspective, they killed the format outright. It would have been better for HD DVD owners if they had basically given them an upgrade path. If dual players wasn't/isn't feasible they could at least have a dual format PC drive. Instead they killed it leaving Samsung and LG the only HD DVD producers.

[lfc1394]

Originally Posted by Starburst

The bookie did concede that one jockey paying other horse owners off so they didn't compete was perhaps grounds for a stewards inquiry though

I laugh otherwise I would be crying

I can understand the Toshiba decision but I had hoped they would announce a dual player along side a dedicated Blu-ray player as their first release after this news.

but to be fair, isn't that what MS did with Paramount?

I know Samsung have had their Dual player ready to go since at least September, but Tosh were not allowing them to release it. No idea what's going to happen to it now.

[JamesL]

Originally Posted by lfc1394

I know Samsung have had their Dual player ready to go since at least September, but Tosh were not allowing them to release it. No idea what's going to happen to it now.

LG and Samsung both have dual players out in the US now

[Decadence]

To be fair the whole High Definition DVD format is niche anyway, similar to laserdisc. DVD as a storage method is old hat and bulky. Soon most High Definition content will be downloaded direct to your Digibox and deals will be done between Sky and the rental companies such as Lovefilm. Sony might have won the battle but the war is pointless anyway.