HD-DVD era ends; Blu-Ray wins next-gen format war

[dg]

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content


TOKYO--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 full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

Source: Toshiba (http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2008_02/pr1903.htm)

[CrAsHOvErRide]

Surprise...surprise...

[Kornman00]

just great :|

[STLRamsFan]

That sucks, at least I have have both so I'm good for awhile..

[Warsaw]

I have neither, and I haven't a High Definition TV to go with them, so I don't really care :haw:.

[Cortexian]

Fuck this. I refuse to endorse Sony.

Downloaded movies, here I come.

[Sel]

omfg.

Blu ray is a waste of money.

You have to pay like 600$ to get a drive that can read them, and theres little to no change in quality.

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

and you need a wicked expensive tv to watch them with the quality any ways

w2g toshiba :(

[Warsaw]

http://www.h2vista.net/forums/images/customavatars/avatar1207_2.gif

That says it right there. :p

[Amit]

Fuck this. I refuse to endorse Sony.

Downloaded movies, here I come.

Fuck Blue-Ray. I completely despise all the companies that not only allowed this to happen but contributed to fucking CONSUMERS, such as myself, over. Never gonna forgive them for that. They sentenced a whole freakin technological advancement to the noose for what reason? I'm not even going to bother looking for it. Now WTF do I do with my HD DVD Drive? At least it'll become a piece of furniture that I will keep forever to show how good it performed yet it was deemed inferior(otherwise WB wouldn't sign onto to Blu-Ray) to another form of technology.

[Random]

I still don't get what is wrong with DVDs.

[Phopojijo]

Fuck Blue-Ray. I completely despise all the companies that not only allowed this to happen but contributed to fucking CONSUMERS, such as myself, over. Never gonna forgive them for that. They sentenced a whole freakin technological advancement to the noose for what reason? I'm not even going to bother looking for it. Now WTF do I do with my HD DVD Drive? At least it'll become a piece of furniture that I will keep forever to show how good it performed yet it was deemed inferior(otherwise WB wouldn't sign onto to Blu-Ray) to another form of technology.If you follow the *sound* advice from a PR lady from Walmart <sigh> -- "Retire it to a bedroom to make room for a BluRay player"

I still don't get what is wrong with DVDs.Not enough resolution to feed your eyes if your screen is very (large/close).

The point of HDTV is to fill the angular resolution of your eye and remain close enough that the edges of the TV fit your peripheral vision.

[Amit]

If you follow the *sound* advice from a PR lady from Walmart <sigh> -- "Retire it to a bedroom to make room for a BluRay player"


Who says I bought it within recent months? I've had it for about a year.

[itszutak]

:gonk:

[Emmzee]

:smithicide:


I still don't get what is wrong with DVDs.
People have too much money and want to spend $35 on a movie they bought two years ago for $15.

[Phopojijo]

:smithicide:

People have too much money and want to spend $35 on a movie they bought two years ago for $15.Want to play all your videogames at 640x480?

[thehoodedsmack]

Gah! If you ask me, it's all consumer-based crap. The quality between the two are close enough that nobody seems to care about spending more for a lesser product, just because a) They know who Sony is more than Toshiba, b) Blu-Ray is a cooler name, and c) Blu-Ray DVDs come in a nice shiny package. The whole thing is likely because stay-at-home-moms with the husbands who work for big software companies figure they have to have the prettiest looking, most expensive home theatre products. Gentlemen, I hope we can do better.

[InnerGoat]

Good to see the superior format prevail!

[Sel]

Want to play all your videogames at 640x480?

Sure.

[ImSpartacus]

I disagree with the thread title. There was never an hd dvd 'era'. It was turmoil, and then BluRay. That's it. hd dvd will be like the betamax.

[Skiiran]

Blu-Ray is a worthless technology anyways and no one with half a wit will pay attention to it.

I mean, for reals people, we just invented fucking people-charged CLOTH. It isn't long, in my opinion, until chemical computers or a similar advancement.

[Terin]

Want to play all your videogames at 640x480?Sure, it gives me an awesome FPS of 23, totally worth it.

I think discless high-definition will prevail over any kinds of physical HD content in the coming years, with all Cable, Satellite, and a rapidly increasing market for downloaded movies. I never really planned to get HDDVD or BluRay players unless I had some extra money to burn for the Xbox 360 one.

[jngrow]

Ugh, HD-DVD LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER FOR MOVIES. Whatever, I don't own an HD set anyways. And also, I was watching this Blu-Ray preview of Pirates of the Carribean, and it was really weird. Like ridiculously weird. Why? For some reason, at completely random intervals, the frame rate would skyrocket from the standard FPS of most American motion pictures (25FPS) to like, 70FPS. It looked terrible/odd/creepy/like some shitty cardboard cutouts. I hope other Blu-Ray isn't like that.

But really, it is ALL HD-DVD publisher's fault. I never ONCE saw them advertise that the 360 can play HD-DVDs with an expansion, and for every, say, 100 Blu-Ray commercials, there would be one HDDVD commercial with that random bitch ass guy who thinks he's famous.

[Monopoly]

Fortunately, all the movies that have came out lately sucked pubes :haw: So no reason to jump on the bluray bandwagon just yet.

[Amit]

Blu-Ray is a worthless technology anyways and no one with half a wit will pay attention to it.

I mean, for reals people, we just invented fucking people-charged CLOTH. It isn't long, in my opinion, until optical computers or a similar advancement.

FTFY.

We were talking about optical computers in my Physics class yesterday and how they can take about 3-10 seconds to decrypt a 128-Bit code which would take the newest quad core CPU quite literally forever to unlock the code unless it just got lucky on the 1st-101st tries.

[dg]

My prediction was that Microsoft was going to pick up production of HD-DVD to help the format war "stalemate" so digital distribution would win out.

I guess I was wrong. :-(

[StankBacon]

i was wrong as well, i thought for sure bluray would lose.

oh well, i dont have a high def tv anyway, so no point in bothering with high def players and such.

and phopo, current dvd's, while being at a lower res, still look pretty damn good to me, so im fine with standard dvds.... at least until the tech becomes more affordable.

[Kornman00]

Fuck this. I refuse to endorse Sony.

Downloaded movies, here I come.
To the Napster Cave!

[n00b1n8R]

I see no difference between HD-DVD and failray, failray costs a huge amount more.
I don't care how many dots it has, if you can't tell a fucking difference, it doesn't matter.

[dg]

I don't care how many dots it has, if you can't tell a fucking difference, it doesn't matter.

Well it obvious does matter if one format is now going to be discontinued.

[n00b1n8R]

then discontinue the one that costs more.

[Cortexian]

To the Napster Cave!
That costs MONEY now though... Who uses that shit. I use HABBO credits for everything now-a-days.

[Bodzilla]

are you serious?

wow napster really fell from Grace.

[jahrain]

I hate to be the big fat douche to tell everyone "TOLD YOU SO..." but I don't see this as any big deal at all.

I knew that blu-ray would be the next standard descendant to DVD, and it won't be long before it becomes the mainstream optical storage standard and it is made an open format - not tied to sony and sold super cheap like DVDs and CDs today. So you can quit your whining about it because this wont effect anyone until maybe 5 years from now when you are buying your games on blu-ray disks, and using them to burn backup storage.

Movies, like the music industry are soon to ditch the optical formats and they will soon fully adopt direct to TV, on demand digital cable, and internet based sales anyways. Music on CDs and Movies on DVD have been going downhill for the past couple years now. Blu-ray will only be getting on that same sled for movie sales. So even though HD-DVD is done for, neither will win any movie format war because movie formats will be done for sooner or later in the rise of faster internet speeds.

[klange]

I disagree with the thread title. There was never an hd dvd 'era'. It was turmoil, and then BluRay. That's it. hd dvd will be like the betamax.
Remember that VHS only won because it had more porn.
That's a serious comment for you perverted freaks who think it's just me trying to get the word "porn" into the discussion.

[343guiltymc]

Remember that VHS only won because it had more porn.
That's a serious comment for you perverted freaks who think it's just me trying to get the word "porn" into the discussion.
What, are you saying blueray because it had more porn? :rolleyes:

[Dr Nick]

'Guess I'm buyin' a Ps3.

[n00b1n8R]

NO DON'T DO IT D:

[Phopojijo]

What, are you saying blueray because it had more porn? :rolleyes:No.

VHS won "because it had more porn" -- basically means that porn production companies are cheap. Betamax had strict licensing fees to Sony... JVC gave up all licensing fees for VHS making it a free (less obviously the cost of the tape itself) format... the porn companies jumped to VHS because it was cheaper. However -- EVERYONE jumped to VHS because it was cheaper. Sony lost.

In this case BluRay won because it's harder to pirate and it already has an acceptable sized user-base.

So yea -- the only reason why BluRay won -- is because the MPAA are scared, anal-retentive, jerk-offs.

[Kornman00]

That costs MONEY now though... Who uses that shit. I use HABBO credits for everything now-a-days.
But it started a revolution, so therefore the cave should be named after it, fu !:maddowns:>

[dg]

No.

VHS won "because it had more porn" -- basically means that porn production companies are cheap. Betamax had strict licensing fees to Sony... JVC gave up all licensing fees for VHS making it a free (less obviously the cost of the tape itself) format... the porn companies jumped to VHS because it was cheaper. However -- EVERYONE jumped to VHS because it was cheaper. Sony lost.

In this case BluRay won because it's harder to pirate and it already has an acceptable sized user-base.

So yea -- the only reason why BluRay won -- is because the MPAA are scared, anal-retentive, jerk-offs.

You always say things better.

[odseraphim]

I'm probably going to pick one up today. The 5 free HD-DVD's deal only lasts till tomorrow. I figure since the 360's drives are only 50 bucks, it comes with a media remote (which unfortunately, I already have) and King Kong, I won't wear out my 360's drive watching movies on it, so it's not that bad of a deal.

Funny I would have never considered touching a HD-DVD drive till the 'drop.

[dg]

I'm probably going to pick one up today. The 5 free HD-DVD's deal only lasts till tomorrow. I figure since the 360's drives are only 50 bucks, it comes with a media remote (which unfortunately, I already have) and King Kong, I won't wear out my 360's drive watching movies on it, so it's not that bad of a deal.

Funny I would have never considered touching a HD-DVD drive till the 'drop.

That's an awesome idea. I'm picking one up to use with my PC.

[JDMFSeanP]

Haha.

I knew sony would win as they bought so many companies into it at teh start. Who gives a shit, digital downloads will rape them soon anyways.

Microsoft doesn't give a shit really (not really they do but whatever) because they have the live marketplace. They are happy now.

And wtf is this buy shit.