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Hi-Def Media Lovefest: The war is over and we can all go home.

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K

Keyser Soze

Member
5xlw3.jpg
 
O

OokieSpookie

Banned
The Main Event said:
http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20080218PD215.html



The clock is ticking.
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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.
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Hey TheMainEvent....I've got two words for you....
 
B

BoboBrazil

Member
There we go. No mention of buying back the stock though from stores...Also says they plan to keep Universal and Paramount as collaborrative partners. What the fuck does that mean? They better be able to release in blu-ray....
 
V

VOOK

We don't know why he keeps buying PAL, either.
Now that is out of the way, Universal, Speilberg etc STOP HOLDING YOUR GOOD SHIT BACK

I want good more movies to watch in HD Damnit
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
M3wThr33 said:
Well, this ended quicker than I expected. In a few years, I think we'll all laugh about these memories.
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Seemed like the Warner announcement was the clincher.

Now the real question is, when will Blu-Ray outsell DVD?
 
M

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
ZealousD said:
Seemed like the Warner announcement was the clincher.

Now the real question is, when will Blu-Ray outsell DVD?
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It'll be a while, but Blu-ray will get a lot more exposure. I think it's confusing for people when they walk into a store and see all sorts of different discs and players, whether it's blu, HD-DVD, or upscaling players. The HDM total sales can also be combined now to bluray, which also helps with word of mouth.
 
B

B-Ri

Member
BoboBrazil said:
Yeah, I've heard Paramount can start selling discs immediately that they've already manufactured...Hope it is true.
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they all need to.

Im ready to give them all my money, question is, is how fast do they want it?
 
M

M3wThr33

Banned
ZealousD said:
Seemed like the Warner announcement was the clincher.

Now the real question is, when will Blu-Ray outsell DVD?
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I imagine the movie industry is going to push that a little more themselves.
Being that there's the higher profit margin and the ability to encourage a fresh purchase.
Plus over the next few months, consumers will realize Blu-Ray IS the future and adoption will move on.

How many of you hold off buying the cheap $10 DVDs because you want to wait for a BRD version?
 
Xisiqomelir

Xisiqomelir

Member
Paramount has played everyone like fools. I think they've made out the best in all this. $150M for warehousing your BDs for a few months? Easy money.
 
D

DarkJediKnight

Member
Expect Universal and Paramount to make an announcement sometime this week in support of Blu-ray.

This thread has been fun. A rollercoaster ride at times, no matter which side you were on.

I remember disecting the Departed Blu-ray and HD DVD sales numbers in March. Laughable, really, thinking about it.
 
D

Duderz

Banned
Xisiqomelir said:
Paramount has played everyone like fools. I think they've made out the best in all this. $150M for warehousing your BDs for a few months? Easy money.
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No kidding. I'd say I hope they really get burned for this, but there are a lot of Paramount movies I want on Blu Ray.
 
M

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
BoboBrazil said:
Yep, 1 format with an industry wide push will be huge. Should be a huge sales year for blu-ray...
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Yeah it'll be in the news quite a bit, which leads to word of mouth. I expect a bump in ps3 hardware for the next months. I think the big push will come with the holidays. It's only one format now, it'll have a lot more exposure, a lot more ps3s sold, and everything goes HD next year.
 
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