Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

19 February, 2008

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.
Information in the press releases, including product prices and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current on the date of the press announcement,but is subject to change without prior notice.

I knew it.

Where's the blu-ray HD thread at?

Blah blah blah...

___________________
BEATPORT

more analog, more sidechain

didnt care and still dont for either format although they each have/had their own pluses and minuses. physical discs will be gone soon once the US fully gets wired anyway... e.g., Netflix/Apple store

quote:

Originally posted by rizo didnt care and still dont for either format although they each have/had their own pluses and minuses. physical discs will be gone soon once the US fully gets wired anyway... e.g., Netflix/Apple store

wrong dude... have u ever watch BLue Ray??? can't compare physical disc to the quality of Netflix and apple store downloadable movies...

___________________
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mecca82
web: http://www.djapsara.com

This is actually terrible for "consumers".

Sony is once again up to its dirty tactics.

Remember that this company took the Secure Digital memory cards... changed the pinouts, and the form factor, and called it "Sony Memory Stick"

Also anyone remember BETA vs VHS? Beta was far superior, but Sony killed it because they wanted to keep it closed, and proprietary. They sought heavily to restrict the format with licensing fees, and exclusionary licenses. Looks like they didn't learn that time, and they are starting down the same path again.

They obviously want whats best for technology.

Poor little Toshiba didn't win this one, but hopefully will come out with something better next time.

you forgot to mention minidiscs

___________________
Listen to my Rainy Nights (TL)

quote:

Originally posted by HotDogWater you forgot to mention minidiscs

Wow I totally forgot about those. But during that time, I knew what was happening, and didn't want to support them during that bullshit "war" either. No wonder I completely forgot, I blocked it entirely from my mind.

But you're right. Yet another notch on Sony's belt of endless anti-consumer products.

quote:

Originally posted by Mecca82 wrong dude... have u ever watch BLue Ray??? can't compare physical disc to the quality of Netflix and apple store downloadable movies...

ya i have and im not spending $4k plus on a tv. not like theres a lot of good tv shows or movies anyway... and im not comparing current netflix/apple store releases but just wait a few years or even worse a decade when the US is fully wired and youll be streaming 1080/4K quaility video (i think japan has this already or at least under development) and that blu-ray collection is pointless much like vhs/dvd collections... then again im not that materialistic

quote:

Originally posted by rizo ya i have and im not spending $4k plus on a tv.

$4k??? Good god man, what kind of TVs are you looking at?

quote:

Originally posted by rizo ya i have and im not spending $4k plus on a tv. not like theres a lot of good tv shows or movies anyway... and im not comparing current netflix/apple store releases but just wait a few years or even worse a decade when the US is fully wired and youll be streaming 1080/4K quaility video (i think japan has this already or at least under development) and that blu-ray collection is pointless much like vhs/dvd collections... then again im not that materialistic

Agreed.


Movies these days suck hardcore. They are just "movies". What happened to all the "films"?

Also, the US needs to, and will catch up to Japan on residential internet bandwidth. Our current internet infrastructure needs to be upgraded before we can think about bringing fiber into our homes on a mass scale. But once that happens... video will become streaming @ 1080p and even beyond. Physical discs will become a historic artifact (like vinyls) left for those who like to collect the tangible item for no other reason than preserving the "look and feel" of using the disc. At some point the pro's out weigh the con's.

DJ's love to use vinyl (superior analog sound), but hate to travel with them. So they use CDs purely for convenience.

People love to consume the hollywood garbage on a physical disc (but are too lazy to goto the store, so they netflix), but once its just a click away at the same basic quality, it becomes easier, and widely used in that method. So yes, this bluray BS is just another product along the way that makes someone waste their money on what they think is important, but on the short term.