BREAKING NEWS: The War is Over - Toshiba Gives Up on HD DVD

[viperkid]

TOKYO - Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders, handing a victory to rival Blu-ray disc technology in the format battle for next-generation video.

"We concluded that a swift decision would be best," Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters at his company's Tokyo offices.

The move would make Blu-ray — backed by Sony Corp., Matsucrapa Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, and five major Hollywood movie studios — the winner in the battle over high-definition DVD formatting that began several years ago.

Nishida said last month's decision by Warner Bros. Entertainment to release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format made the move inevitable.

"That had tremendous impact," he said. "If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win."

Warner joined Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox in that move.

Nishida said his company had confidence in HD DVD as a technology and tried to assure the estimated 1 million people, including some 600,000 people in North America, who already bought HD DVD machines by promising that Toshiba will continue to provide product support for the technology.

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray deliver crisp, clear high-definition pictures and sound, which are more detailed and vivid than existing video technology. They are incompatible with each other, and neither plays on older DVD players. But both formats play on high-definition TVs.

HD DVD was touted as being cheaper because it was more similar to previous video technology, while Blu-ray boasted bigger recording capacity.

Only one video format has been expected to emerge as the victor, much like VHS trumped Sony's Betamax in the video format battle of the 1980s.

Nishida said it was still uncertain what will happen with the Hollywood studios that signed to produce HD DVD movies, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation.

Toshiba's pulling the plug on the technology is expected to reduce the number of new high-definition movies that people will be able to watch on HD DVD machines. Toshiba Corp. said shipments of HD DVD machines to retailers will be reduced and will stop by end of March.

Sales in Blu-ray gadgets are now likely to pick up as consumers had held off in investing in the latest recorders and players because they didn't know which format would emerge dominant.

Despite being a possible blow to Toshiba's pride, the exit will probably lessen the potential damage in losses in HD DVD operations. Goldman Sachs has said pulling out would improve Toshiba's profitability between 40 billion yen and 50 billion yen ($370 million-$460 million) a year.

The reasons behind Blu-ray's triumph over HD DVD are complex, as marketing, management maneuvers and other factors are believed to have played into the shift to Blu-ray's favor that became more decisive during the critical holiday shopping season.

Once the balance starts tilting in favor of one in a format battle, then the domination tends to grow and become final, said Kazuharu Miura, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo.

"The trend became decisive I think this year," he said. "When Warner made its decision, it was basically over."

With movie studios increasingly lining up behind Blu-ray, retailers also began to stock more Blu-ray products.

Friday's decision by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the largest U.S. retailer, to sell only Blu-ray DVDs and hardware appeared to deal a final blow to the Toshiba format. Just five days earlier, Netflix Inc. said it will cease carrying rentals in HD DVD.

Several major American retailers had already made similar decisions, including Target Corp. and Blockbuster Inc.

Also adding to Blu-ray's momentum was the gradual increase in sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 home video-game console, which also works as a Blu-ray player. Sony has sold 10.5 million PS3 machines worldwide since the machine went on sale late 2006.

HD DVD supporters included Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 game machine can play HD DVD movies, but the drive had to be bought separately, and Nishida said about 300,000 people have those.

Worldwide sales of personal computers with HD DVD drives total about 300,000 worldwide, including 140,000 in North America and 130,000 in Europe, he said.

Recently, the Blu-ray disc format has been gaining market share, especially in Japan. A study on fourth quarter sales last year by market researcher BCN Inc. found that by unit volume, Blu-ray made up 96 percent of Japanese sales.

Sony said it did not have numbers on how many Blu-ray players had been sold globally.

Toshiba's stock slipped 0.6 percent Tuesday to 824 yen after jumping 5.7 percent Monday amid reports that a decision was imminent. Sony shares climbed 2.2 percent to 5,010 yen after rising 1 percent Monday.

Also Tuesday, Toshiba said it plans to spend more than 1.7 trillion yen ($15.7 billion) for two plants in Japan to produce sophisticated chips called NAND flash memory, which are used in portable music players and cell phones. Production there will start in 2010.

It actually saddens me since I own a HD-DVD player but then again my PS3 will be in my possession on April so yeah.

[stickfighter]

When something like this happens....you know what's next???

SARS ALERT...SARS ALERT...SARS ALERT!!!
Upgrade to Bluray...

[darkwing]

lols no need to rub it in =P anyways its funny but it turns out Warner may be the one supporting HD-DVD the longest lols

[odyopayl]

When something like this happens....you know what's next???

SARS ALERT...SARS ALERT...SARS ALERT!!!
Upgrade to Bluray...

No comptitor? Blu ray can now manipulate their price. Anyway, we can focus to BR for our next upgrade for HD movies

[nels76]

Ok ba CD Playback quality ng HD DVD Players? As in Audiophile grade ba?
Di yan masasayang. You can use them to play CDs and upscale DVD Movies.

[SiCkBoY]

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/02/19/xbox-360-blu

WE THOUGHT GAME DEVELOPERS might be the first to out this kind of info but noooo.

It seems cunning hacks from Aussie site Smarthouse have obtained a confession from a Microsoft insider claiming that the Vole may hatch a Blu-ray spawn for its gaming console, as early as May 2008.

According to Smarthouse, apart from the obvious dead-end that HD-DVD will become in no time at all, several Volish business partners have already informed the console-dabbling software firm of their intention to opt for the Sony format, forcing the Vole’s paw in the matter.

In all fairness, La Vole’s, “we’re committed to the HD-DVD camp” argument didn’t fly (or is this 20/20 hindsight?) – the fact that Xbox 360 didn’t ship with a HD-DVD unit was a dead giveaway.

Let’s see if Tosh buys a Blu-ray licence, now.

[electrohaus_lp]

 What if our muslim brothers in Quiapo start selling P*** HD DVD disc  . Would this signal that war is not yet over here....

Possible ? who knows

[Clondalkin]

What if our muslim brothers in Quiapo start selling P*** HD DVD disc  . Would this signal that war is not yet over here....
Possible ? who knows

Based on the thread "Pinoy High Def Adopter", what we have here is not a war but more like an isolated incident IMO.　Besides, I think downloadable r*ps are much more reliable than P*** HD DVDs or BDs.

[antikryst]

sad sad news for everyone as i think BD will start imposing its higher prices to everyone.

still stocking on cheap hd dvds for now

ill get a BD player when it hits 200$ or so.

[jmigs]

Hopefully there will be a comeback...Toshiba can recuperate their loses when they bring HDDVD-Rs and drives to the masses. On the other hand that's quite funny you can back-up all your HDDVD movies then

[juneaki]

Now that the bluray camp emerged as the winner in the hd-format war, i am now contemplating on buying my first bluray player in February 29, 2012. When the player is more matured and complete (standardized). And when the SRP is in a level comparable to DVD player of today. My Samsung upscaling DVD player still delivers so there's no need to rush besides i am not going to buy a Php 45K incomplete player.

[darkwing]

really? i found a BD player for P18.5k here

[Ctlim]

Japanese stores taking HD DVD off shelves--officials


Agence France-Presse
First Posted 16:38:00 02/22/2008

TOKYO -- Major Japanese electronics stores have stopped selling HD DVD machines after their maker Toshiba conceded defeat to Sony's Blu-ray in the battle to set the next-generation DVD standard.

Toshiba Corp. announced it was throwing in the towel after Blu-ray won crucial support from leading Hollywood studios and large US retailers. The decision banishes HD DVD to the way of Betamax, the relic once marketed by Sony Corp. that lost out to JVC-developed VHS as the standard for videocassettes in the 1980s.

As of Friday, six major Japanese electronics retailers -- Yodobashi Camera, Kojima, Nojima, Edion, Best Denki and Joshin Denki -- had suspended all sales of HD DVD, company officials said. The chains are in talks with Toshiba for the electronics giant to take back its stock either fully or partially.

Edion, which operates 1,000 stores across Japan under various names, announced an offer for any customer who bought HD DVD hardware from Toshiba to switch for a Blu-ray machine sold by Sony, Panasonic or Sharp. The offer is available only in March, with customers expected to pay any price difference if the Blu-ray machine was more expensive.

Some stores, notably the major chain Bic Camera, continue to sell, at a reduced price, HD DVD machines that can record television shows. HD DVD blank disks are expected to remain on the market. Next-generation DVDs offer cinematic-quality images and multimedia features, but at a much steeper price than current DVDs. Blu-ray swept 90 percent of sales of next-generation DVD recorders in Japan in the last three months of 2007, although HD DVD fared somewhat better in the US market where it was supported by software giant Microsoft Corp.

Toshiba said it has sold 30,000 HD DVD decks in Japan, accounting for only five percent of its HD DVD sales across the world.

[Mouldingo]

Interesting editorial eproductwars.com...

The war ends...

Walmart goes with Blu-ray, and as of today (2/18/2008), Toshiba is saying different things to different people (ranging from "we haven't made a decision" to (paraphrasing) "we may give up really really soon." I'd say this is akin to the moment when Rudy Guliani's top strategists saw the writing on the wall and played football (instead of working) shortly before exiting the campaign. I'll leave it to others who spent much more time on this than me to figure out when the tide turned (of if it ever did), but I'm sure the HD-DVD team at this point is looking back at the last few years of their lives and wondering the same thing.

One thing I did learn from managing this site is that a first-mover advantage (as HD-DVD had for a few months) is nice, but it doesn't mean much when no one's watching and no one cares. Back when HD-DVD was winning, far fewer people had HD TVs, and there were very few HD DVDs available. Toshiba was winning all the games in the preseason (with noone watching) while Sony was preparing for the regular season (recruiting their team, working their "relationships" with the umpires, etc). By the time the regular season (covering Q3/Q4 2007) ended, Sony clearly won, and won big.

Another thing I learned is that price isn't everything. HD DVD always had the less expensive players and often the less expensive DVDs. They also had extensive giveaway sales and packaged HD DVDs with regular DVDs. Still Blu-ray won. Why? Because, for these particular decision makers (those with HD DVDs who even considered buying HD DVDs), price wasn't nearly as big of an issue as the answer to the questions of "what movies are available?" and "who will win?". Of course, price reductions would (and did) result in temporary hits to the blu-ray lead, but these answers were the only thing that (I believe) could fuel a sustainable lead.

http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/

[iiinas]

What if our muslim brothers in Quiapo start selling P*** HD DVD disc  . Would this signal that war is not yet over here....

Possible ? who knows

only for those movies that have been encoded in hd dvd, and i think that's not a whole lot, because since the format is dead no new movies in that format will come out, and i think that is not lucrative for the P*****S. because for them to exist, they need new materials to P****E.

[iiinas]

sad sad news for everyone as i think BD will start imposing its higher prices to everyone.

still stocking on cheap hd dvds for now

ill get a BD player when it hits 200$ or so.

i personally think its not in sony's interest to jack up the prices, because now that they are alone as the only disc based hd content provider, their next challenge is how to make people in the u.s. adopt to this tech faster, their main concern now should be how to shift people from buying dvd (players and content) to bluray (players and content). but, we will have to find out what sir howard stringer and his cohorts are thinking....

ps3 is now at 399$, almost all video game insiders are saying it may hit 299$ by november this year. but i think buying now is already a good option. @ 399$ bluray player (firmware upgradeable, with high-def games player pa!)

[antikryst]

i personally think its not in sony's interest to jack up the prices, because now that they are alone as the only disc based hd content provider, their next challenge is how to make people in the u.s. adopt to this tech faster, their main concern now should be how to shift people from buying dvd (players and content) to bluray (players and content). but, we will have to find out what sir howard stringer and his cohorts are thinking....

ps3 is now at 399$, almost all video game insiders are saying it may hit 299$ by november this year. but i think buying now is already a good option. @ 399$ bluray player (firmware upgradeable, with high-def games player pa!)

sonys interest is  to make money. with hd dvd out of the picture... price dropping has already been reduced. they are not threatened anymore with hd dvd price drops everywhere. i agree that the ps3 is a good deal at 399 if you like games. but i prefer the games of the xbox 360...which i already have. 399 for a BD player alone is still too high for me.

pakyaw muna ako dirt cheap hd dvds in the meantime

[iiinas]

sonys interest is  to make money. with hd dvd out of the picture... price dropping has already been reduced. they are not threatened anymore with hd dvd price drops everywhere. i agree that the ps3 is a good deal at 399 if you like games. but i prefer the games of the xbox 360...which i already have. 399 for a BD player alone is still too high for me.

pakyaw muna ako dirt cheap hd dvds in the meantime

its everybody's interest to make money, but in the case of bluray, as i said their challenge now is dvd, which is dirt cheap and everywhere. they don't want to win the war on hd but remain in the niche market. i think they will keep the pressure on by maintaining prices even lowering it (for players) to get adoption rate faster.

Gran Turismo 5 Prolgue bundle confirmed for March 28th

Sony have confirmed confirmed that a 40 GB PS3 bundle that contains Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and one Sixaxis controller will be available at European retailers on March 28th for €399(GT5 Prologue is also scheduled for release on the same day in Europe). Also France will be getting a 40GB PS3 Blu-ray movie bundle with one Sixaxis controller and Blu-ray movies Casino Royale, Spider-Man 3 and 300. The bundle will be available on MArch 19 th for €399 and it might also be released is Spain and Italy with different blu-ray films.

time will tell whether sony will jack up price or not. 

 

[darkwing]

too bad its only for the EU market 

[Clondalkin]

too bad its only for the EU market 

Too bad for EU market, they're paying the equivalent of $598.

[oReOsHaKe]

Too bad for EU market, they're paying the equivalent of $598.

EU has always had expensive gears.. Normal sa kanila yan.. and they don't actually care.. Ganon kataas standards of living nila.. Lucky for us we don't live in the EU.

[darkwing]

also mas mataas talaga ang value ng Euro ngayon compared to the dollar

[iampoch]

sonys interest is  to make money. with hd dvd out of the picture... price dropping has already been reduced. they are not threatened anymore with hd dvd price drops everywhere. i agree that the ps3 is a good deal at 399 if you like games. but i prefer the games of the xbox 360...which i already have. 399 for a BD player alone is still too high for me.

pakyaw muna ako dirt cheap hd dvds in the meantime

Not unlike Toshiba. What, you think toshiba's a philanthropic corporation? They didn't fight for their format with the consumers' interest in mind. If they did, then they wouldn't have been bull-headed during the talks of merging the  BD and HD DVD format. Thinking that only Sony is evil in the capitalist market is living in Lala land. Toshiba's in it for the money, and billions of it, i might add, if ther format had won.

Also, BD is NOT an monopoly, since, it's not one corporation. unless you're willing to acknowledge that Toshiba will monopolize the HD market if the HD DVD was the one who won.  For those who would say otherwise, please explain how come DVD came out differently? Let me cut out the work for you: it's because different companies still need to compete with each other in marketing their own DVD players.

Hmm, you say Sony will abuse prices? How did the 3.5 floppy format and the CD format, both of which are Sony-originated formats, fare in that regard?

I'm not a Sony lover, but I don't get blinded by FUD.  The fact of the matter is companies will still compete to have their merchandises top the competition, regardless the format. If you find Sony's BD player more costly, then pick up one made by Pioneer, LG, Panasonic, etc. THAT's where the competition is.

[antikryst]

Not unlike Toshiba. What, you think toshiba's a philanthropic corporation? They didn't fight for their format with the consumers' interest in mind. If they did, then they wouldn't have been bull-headed during the talks of merging the  BD and HD DVD format. Thinking that only Sony is evil in the capitalist market is living in Lala land. Toshiba's in it for the money, and billions of it, i might add, if ther format had won.

Also, BD is NOT an monopoly, since, it's not one corporation. unless you're willing to acknowledge that Toshiba will monopolize the HD market if the HD DVD was the one who won.  For those who would say otherwise, please explain how come DVD came out differently? Let me cut out the work for you: it's because different companies still need to compete with each other in marketing their own DVD players.

Hmm, you say Sony will abuse prices? How did the 3.5 floppy format and the CD format, both of which are Sony-originated formats, fare in that regard?



I'm not a Sony lover, but I don't get blinded by FUD.  The fact of the matter is companies will still compete to have their merchandises top the competition, regardless the format. If you find Sony's BD player more costly, then pick up one made by Pioneer, LG, Panasonic, etc. THAT's where the competition is.

i was referring to sony's monopoly on the HD format now with HD DVD gone lack of aggressive price drops from the hd dvd camp will give BD players the freedom to not drop their prices as well.

sony's proprietary formats like the memory stick are still more expensive than the more "open" formats like CF and SD cards.

also... sony's aggressive push on BD had them incur cost..which they would want to get back. although im pooped that the format i chose to start with flunked (hd dvd)... im happy that the format war is over

[darkwing]

BD is not Sony's proprietary format, rather its their proprietary format, the BDA(Blu-ray Disc Association)

Apple Computer, Inc.
Dell Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsucrapa Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Sharp Corporation
Sony Corporation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
TDK Corporation
Thomson Multimedia
Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney Pictures
Warner Bros. Entertainment

plus 180 other member companies, blame them for the monopoly

[SiCkBoY]

Sony jacks up the price of Blu-ray

No competition

By Nick Farrell: Thursday, 13 March 2008, 8:39 AM

SONY appears to have jacked up the price of Blu-ray players now that it has killed off HD-DVD.

Tom's Hardware is reporting that Blu-ray disk players from Samsung, Sony and Sharp are the most expensive they have been all year.

According to Pricegrabber.com a few months ago the average price for a Blu-ray player was $300. Now it is $400.

Within just the last two weeks, the average prices for LG's BH200 player and Sharp's BD-HP20U have climbed significantly.

It seems that Sony has decided that punters have no choice and will pay through the nose to be on the next technology bandwagon.

However Sony has cocked up on pricing before, an example is its overpriced PS3 which sat on the shelves for ages and lost ground to the technologically less superior XBOX 360 and the Nintendo Wii gismo before the outfit realised.

Toms Hardware points out that the same thing seems to be happening with Blu-ray players now. Most sales for the technology have come from users who have accidently bought the technology with the PS3.

Even with the format wars over, most punters are looking at Blu-ray like boffins who predict that the world will end in several billion years.


http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/13/sony-jacks-price-blu-ray

[juneaki]

Sony jacks up the price of Blu-ray

No competition

By Nick Farrell: Thursday, 13 March 2008, 8:39 AM

SONY appears to have jacked up the price of Blu-ray players now that it has killed off HD-DVD.

Tom's Hardware is reporting that Blu-ray disk players from Samsung, Sony and Sharp are the most expensive they have been all year.

According to Pricegrabber.com a few months ago the average price for a Blu-ray player was $300. Now it is $400.

Within just the last two weeks, the average prices for LG's BH200 player and Sharp's BD-HP20U have climbed significantly.

It seems that Sony has decided that punters have no choice and will pay through the nose to be on the next technology bandwagon.

However Sony has cocked up on pricing before, an example is its overpriced PS3 which sat on the shelves for ages and lost ground to the technologically less superior XBOX 360 and the Nintendo Wii gismo before the outfit realised.

Toms Hardware points out that the same thing seems to be happening with Blu-ray players now. Most sales for the technology have come from users who have accidently bought the technology with the PS3.

Even with the format wars over, most punters are looking at Blu-ray like boffins who predict that the world will end in several billion years.


http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/13/sony-jacks-price-blu-ray

He he he! Ito pala ang sinasabing consumer friendly pag isa na lang format ang nasa maarket! 

[DVD_Freak]

Ayuz!  Of course take advantage of the consumers!

[Clondalkin]

Kayo naman.   Most of the BDA members are Japanese companies.  So perhaps what they actually wanted to say was  "friendly consumer" instead of "consumer friendly."   

That's why PS3 is the greatest BD player ne.

[barrister]

The whole point in developing a new format is to justify a new round of price increases.

Eventually, the time will come when Blu-ray prices will also drop.  And when that happens, expect the introduction of yet another new video format.