It's Official: Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

[Shane]

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...

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2008/02/its_official_toshiba_announces_discontinuation_of_hd_dvd_businesses.php]Read the Full Article[/url]

[DavidEC]

Will the studio's go ahead and release their anounced titles on HD-DVD till the end of May?

Many Paramount and Warner Bro movies that have been anounced that I am waiting for!.. {and have on pre-order}

American Gangster 02/19/08 <-got shipping notice on this one..
The Invasion 02/19/08

The Brave One 02/26/08
Beowulf Director's Cut 02/26/08
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 02/26/08

Michael Clayton 03/11/08
In the Valley of Elah 03/11/08

The Jack Ryan Collection 03/25/08

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 04/01/08

I Am Legend 04/08/08 <- If Warner does not release on HD-DVD they better offer a HD for Blu exchange for the 'Omega Man'!!

Twister 05/27/08


--David

[hharris4earthlink]

For someone like me who championed Betamax over VHS tapes so long ago, this is cheering. For once, the technically superior format won, due in no small part to information provided by Internet sites like this one

[jordanm]

The articlle, by Toshiba, is here http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2008_02/pr1903.htm

[jordanm]

The technically superior format? That must be why Samsung is being sued in a class action for selling knowingly defective BR players? You can read the complaint here:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/02/0 ... Newark.pdf

[BuddAdams]

The title says it: we all paid, just some more than others. HD DVD was cheaper to make and to buy, better from the get-go, and the player design was further developed. I suppose Sony's leg in the content provider area was the edge, but still the whole process just delayed adoption and we will all pay more now for everything. And the pace of development will slow: "Hey man, what's the rush; we won!" Screws will tighten on supporters, and $$, not time or quality will drive all decisions. It's , "Let's make back all that lost cash time".It's not much of a victory for consumers; just a jump in a new direction, I don't see as rosy as hharris4. Well, On to the next event! BAdams

[rfowkes]

Yes, the in-fighting between various HD formats is now officially over and that is definitely a good thing. But let's never lose sight of the bigger picture (and the real struggle) - the "war" between SD and HD media. While those of us who are early adopters with a passion for movies concentrated our efforts on procuring HD content wherever it was offered (I myself own 5 HD players and over 300 titles in both of the formats) most of the buying public has sat on the sidelines, still needing to be convinced of any real advantage of HD over SD (at least to the point where they would open their wallets.) HD sales are still a very small percentage of the total DVD, etc. media market at this point and having two formats out there can't have helped with consumers sitting on the fence. The important thing now is for all concerned to concentrate their efforts on educating the public regarding the higher quality of sight, sound and capacity offered by HD media.

As a power user of both HD formats speaking from a position of authority as an actual user of the technology I have to disagree with the notion that the "superior" format won since the jury is still out on on that one. My personal experience has shown me that both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats produce nearly identical picture and sound - given the right media and proper equipment. It's also a fallacy to claim that Blu-ray would have an advantage over HD-DVD in terms of storage, because the 50G to 30G Blu-ray "advantage" was about to become a non-issue with the introduction of 51G HD-DVD discs. And before any Blu-ray zealots point out that the 51G HD-DVD discs were just at the introductory stage let me point out that very few, if any Blu-ray titles were taking advantage of the extra 20G of space on that format. Besides, if one compares the actual delivery of features to the current market, Blu-ray had an abysmal record in that regard because of an indecisive set of standards that brought chaos to the marketplace. My only misgiving regarding the end of the format skirmish is that I fear that Blu-ray will drag their feet even further without any competition. A Profile 1.0, then 1.1 then 2.0 scenario without any backward compatibilty is a absolute nightmare for the average consumer and an insult to early adopters. Which is also why my Blu-ray player of choice is still my original PS3.

But that's now all in the past and I'm crossing my fingers that things will work out. But it's not going to be as easy as some people think. Blu-ray discs are still much more expensive to produce because factories have to be retrofitted practically from the ground up. And this can't take place overnight without making it economically infeasible. Already there have been indications that some of the studios who want to offer more Blu-ray content are talking about moving their schedules back because there are limited procduct facilities. And the "economies of scale" arguments seem to forget that we were dealing with a market where Blu-ray media prices were artificially deflated (in order to compete) so there will be quite a time lag before prices drop. I'm actually noticing a slight increase in HD media pricing (the "street" price - which is a true indicator and not the MSRP) and I hope that this changes soon.

So yes, I applaud the end of this skirmish but not because any so-called "superior" format won. With a united front there is actually a chance that the HD camp might be able to wage a successful battle against SD media for domination and proliferation in the HT marketplace. Otherwise it's going to be another example of the LD, SACD and DVD-A scenarios playing out again and to this old-timer (and I suspect many others here) that's not a good thing.

[Shane]

Will the studio's go ahead and release their anounced titles on HD-DVD till the end of May?

I have not seen anything official, but I can't imagine Toshiba enforcing their existing studio contracts. I expect announcements from the HD DVD exclusive studios soon. Anything already in production runs will likely ship what has been produced, but can't speak to back-orders.

- Shane

[Shane]

Sony's PS3 integration of Blu-ray with a game machine was a not insignificant factor here...

I have to disagree with this point. Regardless of the "actual" effect of this marriage, it weighed heavily on the minds of consumers and studios alike every time figures came out regarding "player penetration". Whether true or not, it gave Sony the appearance of dominating the market.

- Shane

[akirby]

I think hharris4 was agreeing with you - he said NOT INsignificant, meaning it was very significant as you pointed out.