Saturday, February 16th 2008
Toshiba to Give Up on HD DVD
Following closely on the heels of news that both Netflix and Wal-Mart plan to drop HD DVD support, it looks like Toshiba, one of the key firms behind the format, is planning to do the same. A company source is being reported as saying:
Update: Toshiba denies the reports:
"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."
Source:
Reuters
We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business.An official announcement is expected to come within the next few days, and it is estimated that the move could see Toshiba suffer losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. This is likely to put an end to the HD format war, with Blu-ray, backed largely by Sony, looking almost certain to overcome HD DVD, which had powerful names including Toshiba and Microsoft supporting it.
Update: Toshiba denies the reports:
"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."
81 Comments on Toshiba to Give Up on HD DVD
By crushing a competitor, they no longer have to pussyfoot around with what kind of royalties they set on their hardware. The "winner" gets a bigger paycheck, and everyone else kinda eats up the losses. I personally feel like there should have simply been two formats for high definition. IMO, we're all pretty screwed. Prices could have been so much better...
Siverel: That's actually not true, and is a misconception. Companies are reporting record Blu-Ray sells and more and more revenue is being reported from companies everyday. Sony isn't going to rip people off, and that's what people are scared of. It just won't happen that way.
You guys are just speculating about what could happen instead of talking about WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING. Total nonsense, time will tell.
If there were choices, those initial costs would end up lower over time as both companies promote their tech, and try to outsell each other. Therefore lowering prices on the manufacturers not having to pay out as much, and in return lower prices for everyone.
One license, one cost. No wiggle room.
We all get screwed.
But wait, HDM experience is not just higher definition picture quality but also the artistry, presentation and creativity that brings the whole HDM experience together. For example PiP, creative on demand menu screens that interact with the movie, downloadable content, etc. This is what makes buying a high definition movie more enjoyable over DVD movie. Don't let some fanboy dictate corporate mantra that has nothing to do with you as a consumer.
After you concluded your own research and realize that all BR offers is movies with higher definition that may or may not be on par as a true HDM expereince. Is it worth the premium of $400+ at $30 a movie?
-they weren't willing to pay that much just to watch a movie
-they would simply come to my house to watch it (ironic...I know)
-there wasn't much difference when all they were interested in is the movie itself more then how it looked.
The last one is a big eye opener for me since I consider them the average joe. They aren't interested in HDM because of the eye candy but wanted to see a particular movie they liked. So, what does that mean? If they aren't interested in a particular movie, regardless if it's on DVD or HDM it's not going to sway them into buying BR if it's not of interest to them. Also, if all they want to do is just watch the movie...HDM offers very little incentive to go out and buy a $400 (thereabout) dvd player just to watch it.
Therefore ultimately, in the minds of how consumers think, they may in fact lose the war. Remember, HDM is still around 1% of the entire movie market on disc. Their hope is to eliminate competition for better brand recognition. However, they fail to realize that consumers are aware of them but just not interested. As with anything, time will tell how all of this turns out.
The copy protection and paranoia of Sony is ridiculous. I am of course not advocating piracy of any kind but why can't I make a legal backup of a movie I already own? I have a CD wallet that has nothing but burnt copies of the movies I already own simply to keep my originals from getting damaged and for travelling. I also encode them to watch on my Zune as well. Sony on the other hand would rather you pay for the same movie 3 or 4 times: 1 $40 BD, 1 $10 Zune encoded copy, 1 $10 copy to work on a laptop, and I could go on... This copy protection and how Sony feels the need to change it whenever they want thereby bricking some players and causing newer discs to not work with others is also a big concern. Remember this was the same company who was installing rootkits onto people's computers when they ripped CDs...
Sony wants to keep absolute control of the market and push their moral agenda onto everyone. They refused to allow the porn industry to release videos on BD at first (Im not sure if they have allowed them to now or not) which was a big reason HD-DVD stayed around at first that no one liked to talk about. The same thing happened with VHS and Beta, the porn industry was the one who tipped the scales in favor of VHS because of Sony's moral agenda.
I think Blu-Ray's war isn't over. Digital downloads are the wave of the future IMO. They will become their biggest threat in the long term. SD-DVD will be around for years to come and BD will be there too, but eventually digital downloads will be replacing physical media.
More to thank Sony for.