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nathsgames
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 Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:25 pm Post subject: IT'S OFFICIAL - Format war OVER! Announced finally!! |
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NEWS: 19 February 2008 8:40 GMT by Stuart Miles
Toshiba has given up its fight in the high-def format war against Sony's Blu-ray format.
The news, announced on Tuesday, signals the end of a format battle between the two companies and gives consumers a single choice for high-definition content on a disc.
In a statement Toshiba said:
“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.”
The company will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.
Toshiba blames recent major changes in the market, presumably the move by Warner Bros to ditch the format first and then a string of announcements from retailers in the US to not stock the product.
Toshiba says it will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players to retail channels, aiming for cessation by the end of March 2008.
The company says it still 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.
Source:
http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/12894/13918/Toshiba-ditch-hddvd-format-blu-ray.phtml
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nathsgames
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| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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At a board meeting today in Tokyo, Toshiba decided it would abandon the HD DVD format. A rival blue-laser optical disc technology to Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD was locked in a struggle with Blu-ray to become the next-generation heir to the booming $24 million DVD business (see our timeline of the format war). The format war stretched back to the year 2002, when backers of both formats unveiled their plans for blue-laser-based optical discs.
Toshiba's chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida, addressed assembled media in Tokyo after the board meeting during which the company pulled the plug on its HD DVD support. At the press conference, Nishida noted that the decision to pull out of the HD DVD market was a difficult one, "but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence."
Existing HD DVD players will continue to have support, says Toshiba, although for how long was unclear. (Even more unclear: How long Universal Studios might keep up its support of those nifty interactive features) introduced last year.
Toshiba did not announce any plans to produce its own Blu-ray drives, although it's impossible to imagine that the consumer electronics company will completely abandon the market for movie disc players.
Some historical trivia: HD DVD was initially introduced in 2002 as the Advanced Optical Disc (AOD) format. Toshiba and NEC together proposed this technology to succeed DVD by way of the DVD Forum, an industry forum for governing the standards of the current red-laser DVD technology. For years, that the DVD Forum approved the technology was presented as a strength of the HD DVD format over Blu-ray. (And, in the end, as I expected, it was Toshiba's withdrawal from the market--and not any announcement from the DVD Forum or the HD DVd Promotion Group--that marked the end of the HD DVD format itself. That underscores just how Toshiba was single-handedly propping up the the HD DVD format; without Toshiba's support, the format cannot, and has no reason to, exist.)
By contrast, the companies behind Blu-ray opted from the get-go to bypass the DVD Forum. Instead, Blu-ray's backers formed their own governing body to oversee the developmenet and implementation of the standard--much like the DVD+RW Alliance had done with its non-DVD-Forum backed DVD+R/RW format before it. Blu-ray was initially developed by Sony and Pioneer, but the technology has been championed from the outset by large consortium of consumer electronics companies.
The thing about Blu-ray has been its clear support within the industry from the start. At the International Consumer Electronics Show in 2006, Blu-ray Disc Association head Andy Parsons noted, "The legions of engineers who have been working on this is just astounding. I’ve never seen anything like it. Companies that usually duke it out--competitors--are working together."
Parsons, himself based at Pioneer, went on to say, "It’s been fun to watch it all come together." At the time of these comments, Blu-ray's technical spec had just been finalized.
Now, with Toshiba's announcement, Blu-ray's path is complete. And I can add that this has been one wild ride to observe.
Source: http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006508.html
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nathsgames
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| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Toshiba Corp. abandoned its HD DVD technology, surrendering the high-definition video market to Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray in the entertainment industry's largest format war since VHS beat Betamax in the 1980s.
Toshiba, the leading promoter of HD DVD, will shut the business by the end of March, the Tokyo-based company said today. Its shares have gained 5.1 percent this week on speculation the electronics maker would scrap the unprofitable operations.
Sony's victory raised optimism it will spur sales of high- definition players by removing the uncertainty over which technology would prevail in the $22 billion market. U.S. retailers decided to stop sales of HD DVD products after Warner Bros. Entertainment, the largest DVD publisher, said last month it would side with Blu-ray.
``That's it for this battle,'' said Naoteru Teraoka, who helps oversee $21 billion at Chuo Mitsui Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. ``Consumers will no longer adopt a sit-and-wait attitude for upgrading their DVD players.''
Sony shares in Frankfurt rose 10 yen to the equivalent of 5,020 yen, from the close of 5,010 yen in Japan earlier today. Toshiba fell 11 yen to 813 yen in Germany, from the close of 824 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange before the announcement.
Toshiba's format is backed by 135 companies, including Microsoft Corp. and Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, according to the HD DVD Promotion Group's Web site.
Waiting for Toshiba
``We will wait until we hear from Toshiba before announcing any specific plans around the Xbox 360 HD DVD player,'' Microsoft said in a statement yesterday.
Sony's camp counts Samsung Electronics Co. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. among 176 members, according to the Blu- ray Disc Association's Web site.
Worldwide sales of DVD players, including high-definition machines, rose 4.9 percent to 2.4 trillion yen ($22 billion) in 2007, Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd. estimated last month. Masayo Endo, a Sony spokeswoman, said global shipments of next- generation DVD players and recorders will triple to 6 million units next fiscal year.
Toshiba, which doesn't plan to make or sell Blu-ray players, pulled out of the business because of Warner's defection, President Atsutoshi Nishida said at a briefing in Tokyo. The company is calculating the cost of ending the operations, he said. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. yesterday said Toshiba may book charges of as much as 51 billion yen from its exit.
Adding to Earnings
Scrapping HD DVD may add 50 billion yen to Toshiba's earnings next fiscal year, according to Nikko Citigroup Ltd. estimates.
Shares of Toshiba rose to a seven-week high yesterday on speculation it would limit losses from a prolonged battle with Sony to focus on its larger semiconductor business.
Toshiba, Japan's biggest chipmaker, said today it will spend more than 1.7 trillion yen with SanDisk Corp. to build two semiconductor factories that will make flash memory used to store data in consumer electronics.
A unified standard benefits both consumers and the industry, Sony spokesman Shigenori Yoshida said. Samsung and LG Electronics Inc., which make players that support both standards, plan to continue making the machines, they said separately today.
A Blu-ray disc player sells for at least $399.99 while an HD DVD version retails for as low as $149.99, according to the Web site of Best Buy Co., the largest U.S. consumer-electronics chain.
``Lowering prices to a level acceptable to customers is a must-do to stoke demand,'' said Akio Mizutani, a Tokyo-based researcher at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. ``There is no clear winner yet in the Blu-ray camp, and real competition among members, including South Korean makers, will start now.''
Storage Data
Blu-ray discs can store 50 gigabytes of data, while HD DVDs can store up to 30 gigabytes, or six times more than conventional DVDs, according to the Web sites of the two video standards.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, Netflix Inc. and Best Buy said this month they will stop selling HD DVD products. Warner Bros. on Jan. 4 said it will drop HD DVD at the end of May, a decision that Macquarie Group Ltd. analyst David Gibson described at the time as ``game over'' for HD DVD.
Sony's triumph is a reversal of its defeat two decades ago, when its Betamax video tapes succumbed to Victor Co. of Japan Ltd.'s VHS-based systems.
Unified Format
Matsushita and Sony, leaders of the Blu-ray association, and the Toshiba-backed HD DVD group had been in talks to unify their formats since the beginning of 2005. Negotiations broke down by May that year, with officials from both sides saying a unified standard was unlikely.
Toshiba got a head start by selling HD DVD players from March 2006, almost three months earlier than the first Blu-ray machine.
Toshiba ``concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,'' Nishida said. ``While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net; Hiroshi Suzuki in Tokyo at hsuzuki5@bloomberg.net.
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dbarrade
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| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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/cheer
So how long do we think Paramount will hold out... they have movie downloads for XBox 360 in the US and UK now, maybe they will attempt to skip Blu Ray altogether and go straight to digital distribution...
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gahooleys
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:07 am Post subject: |
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| dbarrade wrote: |
/cheer
So how long do we think Paramount will hold out... they have movie downloads for XBox 360 in the US and UK now, maybe they will attempt to skip Blu Ray altogether and go straight to digital distribution... |
Well Universal has just come out and officially stated there support of Blu-Ray, thus i suspect Paramount to do the same.
Time now everybody to jump in with Blu-Ray cause HDM is so so good
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dbarrade
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:49 am Post subject: |
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Games on Blu Ray are pretty good too :)
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Wad
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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Toshiba: Tough luck for HD DVD adopters, play CDs or standard DVDs on players instead
Toshiba doesn't seem to have too much sympathy for those who bought a HD DVD player. "There is nothing wrong with the products so we aren't accepting returns from customers'' Toshiba Australia general manager Mark Whittard said. He went on to say that customers understood there were two competing formats and that one would prevail, and that they made the decision to go with HD DVD. He said HD DVD player owners could still use them for playing CDs and DVDs, which could be upscaled to near High Definition quality.
quote:
Today, it has also ruled out taking unsold stock back from retailers and will instead "assist customers in understanding the benefits of the products'', Toshiba Australia general manager Mark Whittard said.
"There is nothing wrong with the products so we aren't accepting returns from customers,'' Whittard said in a press conference announcing the discontinuation of HD DVD.
"They [customers] understood that there were two competing formats and understood that one of them would probably prevail ... so they made the decision to go with HD DVD.''
Whittard said HD DVD player owners could still use them for playing CDs and DVDs, which could be upscaled to near high definition quality. He said despite the death of the format there were still 1000 HD DVD movies worldwide that consumers could buy.
Yet despite denying the players were obsolete, Whittard said he believed that from as early as next year next-generation DVD technology would be leapfrogged by online movie downloads.
News Source: stuff.co.nz
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gahooleys
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| Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:37 am Post subject: |
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| dbarrade wrote: |
Games on Blu Ray are pretty good too  |
After just starting Uncharted i totally agree
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gahooleys
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| Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:38 am Post subject: |
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| Wad wrote: |
Toshiba: Tough luck for HD DVD adopters, play CDs or standard DVDs on players instead
Toshiba doesn't seem to have too much sympathy for those who bought a HD DVD player. "There is nothing wrong with the products so we aren't accepting returns from customers'' Toshiba Australia general manager Mark Whittard said. He went on to say that customers understood there were two competing formats and that one would prevail, and that they made the decision to go with HD DVD. He said HD DVD player owners could still use them for playing CDs and DVDs, which could be upscaled to near High Definition quality.
quote:
Today, it has also ruled out taking unsold stock back from retailers and will instead "assist customers in understanding the benefits of the products'', Toshiba Australia general manager Mark Whittard said.
"There is nothing wrong with the products so we aren't accepting returns from customers,'' Whittard said in a press conference announcing the discontinuation of HD DVD.
"They [customers] understood that there were two competing formats and understood that one of them would probably prevail ... so they made the decision to go with HD DVD.''
Whittard said HD DVD player owners could still use them for playing CDs and DVDs, which could be upscaled to near high definition quality. He said despite the death of the format there were still 1000 HD DVD movies worldwide that consumers could buy.
Yet despite denying the players were obsolete, Whittard said he believed that from as early as next year next-generation DVD technology would be leapfrogged by online movie downloads.
News Source: stuff.co.nz |
LO Toshiba are now stating movie downloads will leapfrog HDM. Ahh geez.
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nathsgames
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| Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:47 am Post subject: |
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| gahooleys wrote: |
LO Toshiba are now stating movie downloads will leapfrog HDM. Ahh geez. |
LMAO what else are they gonna do...
I tell ya though Australia had better do something about internet if HD downloads are to become a reality....
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dbarrade
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:54 am Post subject: |
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After all the talk about Movie and Music downloads, I did some research into ITunes and their downloads.
The iTunes music is pretty much 128 kbps AAC in an .m4a container so they can have all their digital rights management features. This is no where near CD quality and you can't on sell it. I like to get the covers and the ability to trade in old CD's on new ones.
The Apple Movie Store is even worse:
| AppleInsider wrote: |
While Apple promised 1,000 movie rentals for the iTunes Store in January, an in-depth search reveals that only 384 movies are available -- and that the rarer-still HD titles scarcely take full advantage of the format.
The catalog represents just 39 percent of the official target set for the end of February and includes just 91 high-definition titles -- 21 of which come from the 1980s and earlier, predating even basic surround sound and providing little actual benefit from the higher resolution or 5.1-channel surround sound that often come with Apple's 720p videos.
Some of these HD movies, such as the Kirk Douglas movie Lust for Life, date back as early as 1956 and predate most modern filmmaking techniques. Other movies, however, lack age as a reason for their stripped-down features: 40 HD movies (26 of which were released before 2000) lack Dolby 5.1-channel audio.
A few movies are even mistakenly labeled. Aliens and Dodgeball are labeled as HD titles but reveal themselves to be standard-definition upon a closer look. |
I'll stick with Blu Ray for a while.
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gahooleys
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| Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:53 am Post subject: |
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yep still a while to go before HD downloads replace HDM for me
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Wad
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| Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:37 am Post subject: |
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Another 10yrs before Digital Downloads are the norm i think.
The main problem is all this bloody DRM. I can get movies and music from torrents or newsgroups, free of any restrictions. I can change it to Ipod, CD, lend it to a friend whatever.
If i want to be a good person (according to RIAA and MPAA) then i pay for the same thing from Itunes or similar but then i find that the files are infected with DRM and i cant do squat with them.
Unable to convert or share the things you pay for.
DRM penalises legit customers and does nothing to stop piracy. It is a waste of time and money and until someone offers downloads without DRM im not paying.
Some sites are starting to run trial downloads without DRM with great success, mainly in European countries.
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