It's official! Toshiba quits the HD-DVD format

**Luclambert** · **02-19-08, 02:15 PM**

Well it's everywhere now. Blu-ray has won. Even though i really like the HD-DVD i guess i will have to look for a better Blu-ray player (i own a Samsung BP1400).

I kind of feel sad though. Weird ain't it?

Quote:

WAYNE, NJ - FEBRUARY 19, 2008
TOSHIBA Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Business
Toshiba to Redirect HD DVD Investments Towards New Digital Business Strategies

Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C. (“Toshiba”) today announced that it has completed a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and as a result of recent market developments, the company has decided to discontinue sales and marketing of HD DVD players. Accordingly, Toshiba will begin to cease shipments of its HD DVD products to retail channels.

”While we continue to believe HD DVD is the best format for consumers, based on its technological advancements and the value and quality inherent in our player offerings, recent market developments have led us to the decision to choose new and different paths,” said Yoshi Uchiyama, Group Vice President of Toshiba’s Digital A/V Marketing Group.

In an effort to contribute to the sound development of the audio-video market and bring the full benefits of new digital technologies to consumers, the company will shift its resources into the creation of new business strategies that leverage the vast technological resources of Toshiba.

Furthermore, Toshiba will remain committed to standard DVD business, and the company will continue to market their leading line-up of DVD players.

Ongoing Customer Commitment
Dedicated to customer support, Toshiba will continue to provide full product support and after sales service. Customers can contact, 1-888-MY HDDVD (1-888-694-3383) for answers to general questions and operational assistance for HD DVD.

**joe1983** · **02-19-08, 02:19 PM**

I kinda had a feeling all along that blu-ray would win out.It's just a shame because now the prices of the blu-ray players that were subsiding some are now going up again in price.I still think the PS3 is the best bargain out there!

**Luclambert** · **02-19-08, 02:23 PM**

I`m not sure if the PS3 is compliant with the new version (1.1 i think) coming up though. Does anyone know?

**joe1983** · **02-19-08, 03:04 PM**

The PS3 is compatible even with the newer versions.I don't remember specifically where I read that at,but I am certain that it is!

**SteveCallas** · **02-19-08, 07:24 PM**

Maybe NOW HD DVDs will come down to prices I actually feel comfortable paying for.

**hyghwayman** · **02-19-08, 07:38 PM**

This stinks, DRM, non-regin free!

hyghwayman

P.S. I haven't bought into either format and w/ Sony at the helm I may not ever!

**Sheep** · **02-19-08, 09:05 PM**

Hip Hip, Blu Ray!

SheepStar

**imbeaujp** · **02-19-08, 09:08 PM**

Great news for HD DVD owners like me ! We now have access to many verry cheap HD DVD titles on ebay !

JP

**Luclambert** · **02-20-08, 06:21 AM**

I wonder how long we'll have to wait to see a new Blu-Ray DVD player from Toshiba???

**wbassett** · **02-20-08, 08:03 AM**

That's hard to say, but probably a long time to never.

Toshiba is working on large capacity memory cards, hard drives, and CPU's. I keyed in on the large capacity memory card comment... A lot of people (myself included) feel the next true 'format' that really is revolutionary will be media cards. Movies on a card the size of a credit card or smaller... and no moving parts to fail.

That is much different than On Demand or download-able content technology which tends to be slightly lower quality than a hard copy of the same movie in HD on a disc.

Bluray won the High Def disc war, but the bigger war is the High Def vs SDVD 'war', and then looming on the horizon is some technology that will ultimately replace both BD and SDVD.

My gut feeling is now that the war is over, we won't see prices of Bluray players come down as fast as they were when there was a competing format. By the time Bluray players get to the price where the average consumer will do an impulse purchase, I think we're looking at several years. HD DVD was on the cusp of reaching that price break through this year I think.

So like I said, a couple of years is a long time and by then I really do think we will be looking at a new content delivery method (not necessarily a change in the codecs used, just the manner of delivery)

Who knows... the irony could be that BD won the HD DVD vs Bluray war, only to be replaced by media cards and players built by... Toshiba. I am definitely not saying that is what is going to happen, nobody can say what will come down the pike with any certainty.

Whatever happens though, DVD will still be around in some form or another for the next 20-30 years. If that sounds unlikely, look at VHS and the fact there are people that still have and use VHS players. I think there will be a newer content delivery system a lot sooner than the 20-30 year prediction of DVDs life span, and that will be the life span on Bluray- when the next format medium comes out, plus 2-3 years.

So even though it is trumpeted as winning the war, Bluray won a major battle, but the real war is still out there. As much as I love High Def movies on both HD DVD and Bluray, I really think that ultimately Bluray will join HD DVD among the ranks of all the other defunct formats, like Laser disc for one...

**joe1983** · **02-20-08, 12:48 PM**

Why would you want to buy movies on a machine that is going to be obsolete? And you won't be able to find anymore new movies for it.Woopeee let's go buy all the HD-DVD movies on e-bay for $1 each,not being rude,just doesn't make much sense to me.

**bonehead848** · **02-20-08, 12:54 PM**

Quote:

joe1983 wrote:

Why would you want to buy movies on a machine that is going to be obsolete? And you won't be able to find anymore new movies for it.Woopeee let's go buy all the HD-DVD movies on e-bay for $1 each,not being rude,just doesn't make much sense to me.

Most people are keeping their hd dvd players as upconverting so why not by cheap hd dvd movies. The movies are not going to stop playing just because they are not in production any more...

**tonyvdb** · **02-20-08, 01:31 PM**

You think that Toshiba making a BluRay player is a long way off but if you read my post here it may make you wonder if Toshiba and Sony have known it would end this way a long time ago and that Sony and Toshiba are not as bad enemies as you may think.
I fully agree, Buying HD DVDs now is a great thing to do and you still get the great HD picture quality. Toshiba has already said that they will continue to support all curent players with firmware updates etc.

**conchyjoe7** · **02-20-08, 01:43 PM**

You had to love BBs ad in Sunday's paper for the sale on BD discs...they were down to between $24.99 and $34.99 ON SALE!!! Nice sale...they can keep them!

**Luclambert** · **02-20-08, 04:31 PM**

Quote:

joe1983 wrote:

Why would you want to buy movies on a machine that is going to be obsolete? And you won't be able to find anymore new movies for it.Woopeee let's go buy all the HD-DVD movies on e-bay for $1 each,not being rude,just doesn't make much sense to me.

I own a HD-XA2 and a Samsung BP1400 and by far the upscaling done by Toshiba exceed the quality of the Samsung. There is still quite a bit of movies made in HD-DVD. I will definitely buy everything i can put my hand on expecially if they are cheaper or on liquidation sale. It makes a difference to me since i own over 700 SD-DVD. Even if the HD-XA2 becomes obsolete, I will not get rid of it because it is a well build piece of technology that delivers the goods. Besides, every new piece of technology eventually becomes obsolete but it doesn`t mean they are not to be used for that reason. The best example is the car industry, a new model every year with parts that do not fit the earlier ones. Technology moves forward and it's a good thing. Even HD is doomed to something better as seen here:

Quote "The new format with a resolution of 7,680 × 4,320 pixels is four times as wide and four times as high (for a total of 16 times the pixel resolution) as existing HDTV, which has a maximum resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will be starting a public-private partnership to develop technology for UHDV in the hopes of setting an international standard for Super Hi-Vision in addition to broadcasting with it beginning in 2015".

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_H...finition_Video

Also, I can't wait to see what format they will use because as seen here:

Quote: "Eighteen minutes of uncompressed UHDV footage consumes 3.5 terabytes of data and one minute of footage consumes 194GB."

URL: http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquir...igh-definition

I imagine by then I will have moved on some better gears than my actual HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players. Time will tell.

**imbeaujp** · **02-20-08, 06:16 PM**

Quote:

joe1983 wrote:

Why would you want to buy movies on a machine that is going to be obsolete? And you won't be able to find anymore new movies for it.Woopeee let's go buy all the HD-DVD movies on e-bay for $1 each,not being rude,just doesn't make much sense to me.

How much time are you thinking that bluray will be on the market ?

**Ayreonaut** · **02-21-08, 08:14 AM**

Here's a look at how Blu-ray bested HD DVD.

Oct. 5, 2000 -- Sony and Pioneer unveil DVR Blue at Japan's Ceatec show. The format would go on to form the basis for Blu-ray Disc BD-RE.
Aug. 29, 2002 -- Toshiba and NEC propose to the DVD Forum the next-generation optical disc format that will become HD DVD.
April 10, 2003 -- Sony puts on sale in Japan the world's first Blu-ray Disc recorder, the BDZ-S77. It costs ¥450,000 (US$3,815 at the time).
Jan. 7, 2004 -- Toshiba unveils its first prototype HD DVD player at CES. The player includes backwards compatibility with DVD.
Sept. 21, 2004 -- Sony announces the PlayStation 3 will use Blu-ray Disc.
April 21, 2005 -- Sony and Toshiba begin discussions on the possibility of a single format. The talks ultimately go nowhere.
March 31, 2006 -- Toshiba launches the world's first HD DVD player, the HD-XA1. It cost ¥110,000 (US$936 at the time) in Japan.
Dec. 29, 2006 -- Hackers report success in breaking through part of the AACS copy protection that's on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Jan. 7, 2007 -- LG Electronics unveils a dual-format player, while Warner Bros. shows a prototype disc that holds both an HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc layer.
Feb. 16, 2008 -- Ayreonaut buys a PS3 Blu-ray player.
Feb. 19, 2008 -- Toshiba announces it will phase out the production of HD DVD players and recorders by the end of March. The format war is over.

Adapted from PCWorld.

**joe1983** · **02-21-08, 10:12 AM**

Quote:

Luclambert wrote:

I own a HD-XA2 and a Samsung BP1400 and by far the upscaling done by Toshiba exceed the quality of the Samsung. There is still quite a bit of movies made in HD-DVD. I will definitely buy everything i can put my hand on expecially if they are cheaper or on liquidation sale. It makes a difference to me since i own over 700 SD-DVD. Even if the HD-XA2 becomes obsolete, I will not get rid of it because it is a well build piece of technology that delivers the goods. Besides, every new piece of technology eventually becomes obsolete but it doesn`t mean they are not to be used for that reason. The best example is the car industry, a new model every year with parts that do not fit the earlier ones. Technology moves forward and it's a good thing. Even HD is doomed to something better as seen here:

Quote "The new format with a resolution of 7,680 × 4,320 pixels is four times as wide and four times as high (for a total of 16 times the pixel resolution) as existing HDTV, which has a maximum resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will be starting a public-private partnership to develop technology for UHDV in the hopes of setting an international standard for Super Hi-Vision in addition to broadcasting with it beginning in 2015".

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_H...finition_Video

Also, I can't wait to see what format they will use because as seen here:

Quote: "Eighteen minutes of uncompressed UHDV footage consumes 3.5 terabytes of data and one minute of footage consumes 194GB."

URL: http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquir...igh-definition

I imagine by then I will have moved on some better gears than my actual HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players. Time will tell.

I can understand that,and I would have to say that makes sense.However,what doesn't make sense is to go out and buy more movies for a machine that is obsolete.Once it breaks(and at some point you will have problems with it!)you won't be able to find anyone to replace it and I would imagine it would be difficult to repair since parts wont be made for it because they are throwing in the towel for that technology.Then you're going to be stuck with a truckload of movies that you won't be able to watch because they aren't compatible with blu-ray.I guess I am thinking more long term about this rather than short term.

**joe1983** · **02-21-08, 10:15 AM**

Quote:

imbeaujp wrote:

How much time are you thinking that bluray will be on the market ?

I am thinking it will be around for a minimum of 7-10 years.I am sure something else (media cards) will come about that will be better but I think the blu-ray will be around long enough to justify the expense of owning one.

**wbassett** · **02-21-08, 11:29 AM**

Quote:

joe1983 wrote:

I can understand that,and I would have to say that makes sense.However,what doesn't make sense is to go out and buy more movies for a machine that is obsolete.Once it breaks(and at some point you will have problems with it!)you won't be able to find anyone to replace it and I would imagine it would be difficult to repair since parts wont be made for it because they are throwing in the towel for that technology.Then you're going to be stuck with a truckload of movies that you won't be able to watch because they aren't compatible with blu-ray.I guess I am thinking more long term about this rather than short term.

For someone getting into the High Def arena now, yeah I agree it wouldn't make sense to buy an HD DVD player or movies now. Some though already have a large HD DVD library already.

I have two HD DVD players and a nice selection of titles, not the biggest collection in the world...

I plan on buying a third player when I see one for around $100. Not to use, but to stick in the closest incase one of these break. What will be interesting is if one does break, how will Best Buy cover that with the extended warantee? I figure it will probably be a gift card, but what value?

Call me nuts, but I just recently bought 3 HD DVD titles as well!

I also have a Bluray player too and buy titles for that. I will say though, that most of my shopping now is looking at Bluray titles. If I see a great price on an HD DVD title though, I'll snag it!

**bubbs16** · **02-21-08, 12:07 PM**

I say if you already own a hd dvd player and you want titles, go ahead and grab them. The players still work flawlessly and lets face it look better then the other side over there . Few places already giving out amazing deals on players and now titles.

**Luclambert** · **02-21-08, 04:06 PM**

The HD-XA2 will definitely drop in price. I intend to grab another one for safe keeping. It is an awesome unit. Toshiba will respect the warranty on the units so i`m not worried about it. But still, after the warranty is over, it will be nice to have a backup. In any case, what am i to do? Throw away what i already own? Every owner of HD-DVD materials have also lost the war. It is not something we wanted. We bought HD-DVD because we believed in the quality of the players. I intend to enjoy my HD-dVD as much as i can. I will look for a better Blu-Ray player and i will buy most of my movies in BD but i will buy bargain HDD everytime i get a chance though. Besides, since i owned both format, I knew that one would eventually lose so i knew that this day would come. It's all good!

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