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Toshiba gets ready to pull the plug on HD DVD?
Reports are emerging that HD-DVD’s number one backer, Toshiba, is about to throw in the towel and surrender the format wars to Blu-ray potentially as soon as next month. This comes after a couple of months of constant victories for the Blu-ray format, including Warner ditching HD DVD, as well as Netflix, Best Buy, and just recently Wal-Mart.
Publicly, Toshiba continues to support HD DVD and has often issued statements touting the value of the format, though when asked by The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview, Jodi Sally, VP of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products, hinted that a change is coming:
"Given the market developments in the past month, Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players."
Despite Toshiba’s recent efforts, including slashing the price of players by up to 50% (taking a substantial loss on each player sold) and a $2.7 million superbowl ad, Blu-ray is still clearly selling more content and players. Ultimately, it all comes down to studio and retailers’ support, so it’s hard to see what the HD DVD camp can do right now to stay alive. It seems like just a matter of time before Toshiba calls it quits.
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User Comments (11)
Post a comment| allc0re on February 15, 2008 12:31 PM | Sad. I liked HD-DVD for it's lower cost, ease of backwards compatibility, and less complicated DRM scheme (though I hate DRM overall). I'm still sticking with DVD for now though. Everything is still too expensive to switch. 
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| phantasm66 on February 15, 2008 1:05 PM | I hate to say I told you so. But I did. So I will.
I told you so.
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| howzz1854 on February 15, 2008 1:27 PM |
but the mass consumer at least is not going to switch untill we see a decent sub $100 blue-ray player. this is just how people are. you can force the manufactures and retailers, but you can't force the consumer if they don't wanna spend $400 on a player.
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| ColdFusion1990 on February 15, 2008 2:42 PM | This is probably the only reason the PS3 will sell better than the 360
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| howzz1854 on February 15, 2008 5:31 PM | this is so sad.... we're once again forced into another mass DRM infected product.
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| canadian on February 16, 2008 12:29 AM | I am kinda ok with the players being the price they are, but the movies them selves need to come way down in price.
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| peterwippel on February 16, 2008 7:18 AM | Blue-ray and HD-DVD are almost there, but are already on the last boat.
"2 dogs where fighting for a bone and the the third will run away with it." Solid state mem cards are in the doorway, why using old expencief device like blue-ray and HD-DVD ??? Look up: sony website: http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/markets/10014/xdcamEX_family.shtml Believe me, its bye bye to BR and hd dvd. Solid state is much much faster, very low energie and no mechanic parts.Why using a vw rabbit if you can use a porshe??? Now there is already 64 MB and more in solid state mem cards, where will it stop? much much above 64 MB. We will use the SSM or SxS cards like SD-cards in a photo cam or walkman or ...... try to fit a dvd or blue-ray in your walkman, photocam or mobile phone. Sorry for the guys how put a bet on the 2 disks, forget it, its monney in the water, its just good for the campagnies transer to SxS. Ofcourse, for some consevatief pricks, the will use Blue-ray and(or) HD-DVD, but ok, commerce need thos to, lol. I still know the time of betamax, video2000 and VHS. long discusion, but vhs won. and the others lossing the money. So, a good avice, follow sony system, not for the brand, but for the future. Sony want to put HD on his future portble systems, cam's, gps, cell-phones, tv's, home Entre.. and so on. And don't forget, sony has a very big deal in the movie industy, so a stick or card is the only solution, not a disk. Thats progres guys, if you want it or not. ;-) greetings from belgium :-)
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| peterwippel on February 16, 2008 7:24 AM | Sorry almost forgot to say, hard disks are also on the last boat, will be replaced by Solid state mem. And also sorry for my bad english and spelling. I wish everyboddy a nice day 
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| canadian on February 16, 2008 11:37 AM | Honestly, I think it will transfer to buying downloads before the flash capabilities are at the point it would be cheap enough to make a large enough drive to store the movie in HD. And HardDrives do still have a while yet, flash might be the future someday, but it wont be soon.
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| 9Nails on February 18, 2008 9:33 AM | With the exit of HD-DVD, the war is now squarely between DVD vs. BR-DVD. Unfortunately Blu-Ray packs in very little consumer appreciable enhancements, and this war will be likened to the battle between VHS and S-VHS. And thank God for the future failure of BR-DVD; consumer hostile DRM should never win the battle. I look forward to the news towards the end of this year when Blu-Ray disc's being dropped from retail shelves due to lack of strong sales.
Downloads FTW! Able to shift your video's to other formats FTW!
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| icye on February 18, 2008 4:04 PM | IMAO, porn on Blue-Ray will be its savior.
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