AfterDawn: Tech news

Toshiba denies it is dropping HD DVD

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Feb 2008 4:18 User comments (35)

Toshiba denies it is dropping HD DVD Despite rampant speculation and rumor, it seems that Toshiba is not dropping HD DVD, or at least not for the time being.
The corporation has released a brief press release this morning in an effort to put a damper on the rumors that have been spreading since the giant retailer Wal-Mart decided to go Blu-ray exclusive beginning in June.

"The media reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business. Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment,"
read the complete statement.



This latest statement could simply be a way to stall before the decision to drop the failing format is officially made, but for now HD DVD fans still have some hope.


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35 user comments

118.2.2008 16:38

Give it up already. The retailers made their decision. The consumers made their decision. HD DVD is a viable format yes, but in the end Blu Ray has a better longevity due to its larger volume. Dvd proved this with going from single layer to dual layer in a short time period.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:39

218.2.2008 16:39

This is just PR for them to sell off the rest of their players. If they "officially" dropped HD-DVD right now then no one would buy all of the players sitting on shelves right now and Toshiba would lose even more money than they are right now.

Also I was watching the news today and all major media outlets (Fox, CNN, MSNBC) are reporting that Toshiba has dropped the format and telling consumers to buy Blu-Ray. Face it, it's over.

318.2.2008 17:00
Ntolerant
Inactive

Originally posted by ZeusAV:
This is just PR for them to sell off the rest of their players. If they "officially" dropped HD-DVD right now then no one would buy all of the players sitting on shelves right now and Toshiba would lose even more money than they are right now.

Also I was watching the news today and all major media outlets (Fox, CNN, MSNBC) are reporting that Toshiba has dropped the format and telling consumers to buy Blu-Ray. Face it, it's over.

Good point......and very likely.

It's also possible that this was a b.s. rumour to begin with. Who knows.

I'm inclined to think that your initial response is most likely.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:01

418.2.2008 17:01
UkWizard
Inactive

In ur face blu-ray. Comebacks are always a good thing. I'm sure hughjars will be chuffed

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:03

518.2.2008 17:05

Now would be a good time to invest is Sony stock.

618.2.2008 17:05

Now would be a good time to invest in Sony stock.

(sorry, accidental double post) ><

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:06

718.2.2008 17:09
vinny13
Inactive

I bet they need more time to go over their exit strategy with everyone involved :P

818.2.2008 17:23
res2cue
Inactive

the consumers did not make this decision, Corporate America made it for you.

918.2.2008 17:26
camaro17
Inactive

well i made this decision and i would consider myself a consumer, im sure same with all of the other Blu-ray supporters here.

Peace

1018.2.2008 17:27
vinny13
Inactive

Originally posted by res2cue:
the consumers did not make this decision, Corporate America made it for you.
Yes of course. In fact, "Corporate America" sent me a letter just yesterday about why I should buy a Blu-Ray player over HD-DVD.

WTF??

I'm pretty sure whatever I do is my decision, as it is my head and my money after all...

1118.2.2008 17:31

Originally posted by UkWizard:
In ur face blu-ray. Comebacks are always a good thing. I'm sure hughjars will be chuffed
Comebacks? Barely any of the studios are on there side, oh yeah and they're pretty much screwed for selling them besides off the Internet now. Jesus know how to accept defeat already cripes.

1218.2.2008 17:45

Where's hughjars?

1318.2.2008 17:49
goodswipe
Inactive

Originally posted by limelight:
Give it up already. The retailers made their decision. The consumers made their decision.
I don't know why people always say this. Yes retailers made up their minds to stock only one format, or shall I say "push" one format but, consumers never had a say in this, which is sad. The big studios made their decision and in turn, this made up the consumers "decision" on which format to back.

Toshiba denies they are dropping HD DVD, of course they are going to say that, duh! That doesn't matter anymore, by now people should see which format is going to take this, regardless of what Toshiba says.

:0(

1418.2.2008 17:49

Doesn't really matter... the damage has been done with all the news and headlines. Not to many will buy into HD-DVD after seeing all of that.

1518.2.2008 17:56

If they persist on holding out then you can bet their share price will plummet after today's rally.

Toshiba's share price rose to a 7-week high today after news of their imminent exit from HD DVD.

http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocks...ndChannel=10005

1618.2.2008 18:01

Who cares if corporate America made the decision or not. Does it really matter? It's not like they are deciding if your family should live or not.

This high def war has been fun, but i'm ready for it to end. Give it up HD DVD.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 18 Feb 2008 @ 6:05

1718.2.2008 18:17

of course they are denying that they are dropping hd dvd.they have a lot of stock to flog.any of you old enough to remember vhs versus betamax know that the denials were flying then too.

1818.2.2008 18:52

Wrong! If any of you bothered to read any of the articles pronoucing hd-dvd demise,they all had one thing in common it was a from a "reliable source",not an official toshiba announcement unless someone can point me to a link where toshiba did admit defeat & were pulling it from shelves etc,then again saying that i'd say hd-dvd is gooooooooone..lol..

1918.2.2008 19:16

how many knifes do they have to put into HD DVDs heart to make toshiba understand its dead!!!!!

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 18 Feb 2008 @ 7:18

2018.2.2008 19:40

Toshiba has scheduled a press conference for Tuesday afternoon at 5PM Tokyo time, 12 midnight on the west coast. The announcement should come at that time.

http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/main/20080219AT1D180DU18022008.html
http://www.digitalbits.com/#mytwocents

2118.2.2008 21:25
jony218
Inactive

Anyone remember the betamax? that beast live for 10 years after it was declared dead. Eventually people stop buying them, but it died a slow painful death.

2218.2.2008 21:56

Update: The Toshiba Board of Directors has voted 19 - 0 to end HD DVD production/promotion:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/2008/02/19/d20080219000025.html

Roughly translated:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=...n&hl=en&ie=UTF8

The official announcement to come at their 5pm (Tokyo time) press event.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 18 Feb 2008 @ 9:56

2318.2.2008 22:36

Quote:
Originally posted by limelight:
Give it up already. The retailers made their decision. The consumers made their decision.
I don't know why people always say this. Yes retailers made up their minds to stock only one format, or shall I say "push" one format but, consumers never had a say in this, which is sad. The big studios made their decision and in turn, this made up the consumers "decision" on which format to back.

Toshiba denies they are dropping HD DVD, of course they are going to say that, duh! That doesn't matter anymore, by now people should see which format is going to take this, regardless of what Toshiba says.

:0(
I say this because one format is obviously selling better than the other. So much so that it doesnt make sense to stock the "losing" format because the low profits/shelf space arent worth it for retailers.

Let me ask you this: HDdvd is a great format, but what about when videogames for example, start to get bigger and bigger in size? HD-dvd may be suitable now, but in 5 years from now it will be established, have a load of movies out, and then there would be another format coming out. Dont you think so? Blu-ray bypasses all that, giving developers almost 50gb to work with for both videogames and movies from the get go.

Another thing is, you can only compress so much data on a dvd. While it was cost efficient for Microsoft in the short term, pretty soon the magic white box may be hindered by a lack of data storage more and more games demand nowadays. Look at Mass Effect. When I played that, I noticed textures popping in and out as I went through the world, with frame drops to boot. Simply because either bad programming, (which I dont think is the reason at all), or too much data compressed on the disc, and the 360 cant uncompress all those textures fast enough to provide a smooth experience. In a year or two when the ps3 starts to show some graphics heavy games, the 360 cant compete. Which means youll have to fork out another $400 for another system when the ps3 already does it. Sony was bashed about saying the ps3 has a "10 year life cycle", but it makes complete sense: Give the consumer tommorrows technology today, and it will still prove to be a good investment years and years from now.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 18 Feb 2008 @ 10:40

2418.2.2008 23:35
vinny13
Inactive

Originally posted by error5:
Update: The Toshiba Board of Directors has voted 19 - 0 to end HD DVD production/promotion:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/2008/02/19/d20080219000025.html

Roughly translated:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=...n&hl=en&ie=UTF8

The official announcement to come at their 5pm (Tokyo time) press event.
Wow... Not even one objection... I guess they can handle defeat real well...

But then again, the sooner the better, right? For them anyways. The faster they jump on the "Sony Fanwagon" the sooner they'll make more profit...

2519.2.2008 00:48

This Battle reminds me of Monty Pythons Battle between the White Knight and the Black Night. After the Black Knight had both of his arms and legs chopped off, He was yelling at the White Knight to come back and Fight!

2619.2.2008 02:59

Meh its in its death throws or at least the start of them....

2719.2.2008 03:30

Originally posted by rarthurb:
This Battle reminds me of Monty Pythons Battle between the White Knight and the Black Night. After the Black Knight had both of his arms and legs chopped off, He was yelling at the White Knight to come back and Fight!
Engadget got your cue!

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/19/off...at-war-is-over/
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 19 Feb 2008 @ 3:34

2819.2.2008 05:28

well that's a relief - I mean seriously folks, who wants a format that sounds like a digitally modified version of an incurable sexual disease ? imagine the scenario...

cute girl : hey dude, have you got blu ray ?
guy : No, but i've got HD-DVD

think about it huh ?

2919.2.2008 05:31

Originally posted by domie:
well that's a relief - I mean seriously folks, who wants a format that sounds like a digitally modified version of an incurable sexual disease ? imagine the scenario...

cute girl : hey dude, have you got blu ray ?
guy : No, but i've got HD-DVD

think about it huh ?
HD DVD sounds more like a ungraded to DVD than blu ray which sounds like the rays new lazier pistol :P

3019.2.2008 16:18
hughjars
Inactive

We'll all be sorry.

3120.2.2008 21:32
BluKiller
Inactive

I cant believe this whole war was even started. Sony made both formats and stuck to Blu-ray because it was better for the profit and consumer

3220.2.2008 23:17
vinny13
Inactive

Originally posted by hughjars:
We'll all be sorry.
Maybe you will... Nobody else really cared as much as you :P

Personally I could have cared less if HD-DVD won... I'd just go out and buy a player after a year or so once it settled in... No biggie for me.

3327.2.2008 19:45

Originally posted by hughjars:
We'll all be sorry.
Nope just you, told you so way back when.

I must say though it is too bad that Toshiba is throwing the towel in so soon, if that is what they are doing. If this is true then BD will not drop in price much more for a while so I hope that HD hangs in there. It is nice to see that corporate america is backing the better format at least we are going foreward.

349.4.2008 17:15

Quote:
"The media reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business. Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment," read the complete statement.

This latest statement could simply be a way to stall before the decision to drop the failing format is officially made, but for now HD DVD fans still have some hope.
We will just have to sit and wait for the outcome of this.

359.4.2008 17:21
goodswipe
Inactive

Quote:
We will just have to sit and wait for the outcome of this.
LOL, sit back and wait for what? HD DVD is dead.



This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 09 Apr 2008 @ 5:30

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