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NEWS: Toshiba UK insists "it's business as usual" for HD DVD, despite speculation on format's demise

Andy Clough 15 February 2008 09:51

Toshiba UK has no comment on fresh, widespread speculation that the company is just weeks away from pulling the plug on the HD DVD format, other than claiming "it's business as usual."

A spokeswoman for the company's London PR agency, Nelson Bostock, told us: "We are aware of the speculation, but have no comment – there is no information I can give you at the moment."

Speculation is mounting of a final decision on the format's future after a report by The Hollywood Reporter that Toshiba is close to dropping HD DVD.

But Jodi Sally, vice-president of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products, said: "Based on its technological advancements, we continue to believe HD DVD is the best format for consumers, given the value and consistent quality inherent in our player offerings."

Following the decision in January by Warner Bros to drop HD DVD in favour of Blu-ray, Toshiba slashed the price of its players in the US and UK.

Earlier this week two major US retailers, Best Buy and Netflix, increased their support for Blu-ray, and Harman Kardon announced it would unveil a Blu-ray player at the IFA Show in Berlin this September.

Technorati Tags: Blu-ray, HD DVD, Toshiba

Comments

Nick From Philly February 15, 2008 11:24

"It's over Johnny...........IT'S OVER!!"

clayts February 15, 2008 12:20

And yet this is countered by news that Warner will still be releasing the odd new HD-DVD title or two after their supposed 'defection' to BD.

I'd also refer readers to an article at

www.dvd-intelligence.com/.../2_olivier.htm

which seems to show HD-DVD is doing great in Europe.

Who do we believe ?! The Hollywood spin machine is revolving like mad....

Bullseye February 15, 2008 12:24

WB will only be pressing new discs of already released films on HD-DVD if asked by retailers which is highly unlikely at this stage.

PiperUK February 15, 2008 12:26

Well, I've just bought a HDEP30 for £119 and so have many other people by the looks of it. It's an absolute bargain and gives great performance.

lbwdevoer February 15, 2008 12:28

And again it's the consumer that suffers from a format war. HD DVD offers the same quality as Blu-ray, is much cheaper to produce, the hardware is way cheaper than comparable blu-ray players, it's final in its spec so you don't have the hassle with 1.0, 1.1 or 2.0 spec discs and players and the only plus to Blu-ray in terms of technology, it's higher capacity, is only filled with extra's nobody ever looks at anyway.

PiperUK February 15, 2008 12:30

I agree - the Sony Spin Machine wins everybody over yet again.

lbwdevoer February 15, 2008 13:16

I recently bought the Toshiba HD-EP35 for only 250 euro (= GBP 185) which is a brilliant machine. The real plus could be that due to recent developments I could build up a large HD library for very little money. I already bought HD DVD's for 12,99 euro (= GBP 9,60) !!

Bullseye February 15, 2008 13:28

I have to laugh at the Sony hate. You do realise that every other CE company is making a BD player. Only Toshiba and Ventura (Onkyo toshiba rebage) are making HD-DVD players.

Sony is the bad guy and Toshiba/Microsoft are beacons of truth and juctice lol.

mattym February 15, 2008 13:34

axel music in denmark show BD 78.22 for the year to date and 95/5 for the month, i hardly think that counts as hddvd doing well.. No smoke without fire for these types of story, so maybe time buy BD

rapsey February 15, 2008 14:09

this battle was won and lost by the game console its microsofts fault that hd dvd is going down. If they had put more stock into the xbox-hd dvd player then they may have had a chance there have been 3 xbox's non of which have a built in player ok there is an add on but its £130 plus £299 for an xbox elite and they dont match now there is talk of another but people who want an xbox will already have one. The ps3 done so well and was a focused peace of kit all the bd player you need for £299 well done sony.

niftynigel February 15, 2008 17:11

Business as usual for Toshiba = losing money on every player sold!

Who'd want to be a Toshiba shareholder?

Who'd want to be one of the bosses of Paramount and Universal trying to justify to shareholders and top levle bosses why they don't release titles in Blu-ray, when they know they would at least sell twice as many copies in Blu-ray compared to HD DVD!

Toshiba, Universal and Paramount - Time to throw in the towel and admit defeat, rather than continue to make fools of yourselves and mugs of people still championing HD DVD.

Toshiba, Universal and Paramount - Time to join the Blu-ray revolution!

kacey68 February 16, 2008 09:43

Well i'm enjoyiny my upscaling EP-35 player very much and as i'd budgeted £600 for a decent BD player i found that the only one to support profile 1.1 at the time was the PS3 so i got both formats for under £500. I am also enjoying building my new library of high def movies with both formats. I especially like the fact that (apart from a few new ones) i have payed no more than £11.00 for any of my HD DVD's so far and i got over 30 now with the 5 free ones arriving today. Its a shame that they bcant both exist though but hey thats market forces for you... (oh and lots of multi million dollar back handers of course)

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