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The death of HD-DVD?


D-Rex

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Toshiba Officially Drops HD DVD
Tue Feb 19, 2008 at
03:15 AM ET

Following several days of rumors, Toshiba has confirmed that
it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders,
effectively ending the high-def format war. In a just-issued press release, the
company said that it reached the decision following "recent major changes in the
market." Toshiba emphasized that it will continue to provide full product
support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD
products.

“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 said it will begin reducing shipments of HD
DVD players and recorders immediately, with the aim of pulling all HD DVD
players, recorders and disc drives from store shelves by March. The company went
on to say that it would "continue to assess" the long-term viability of notebook
PCs with integrated HD DVD drives.


Asked at a Tokyo press conference
whether his company had any plans to adopt Blu-ray, Nishida said Toshiba had no
such plans at the moment.


HD DVD first hit stores in April of 2006, and enjoyed
an early sales lead against rival format Blu-ray up until the release of Sony's
Blu-ray enabled PlayStation 3 later that year.


Though Blu-ray software outsold HD DVD throughout
2007, a series of tactical moves from the HD DVD camp kept the format in the
game up until early this January, when Warner Bros announced it would
drop its HD DVD support and
would release its titles on Blu-ray exclusively, beginning this June.


In the weeks that followed, HD DVD backers vowed to
fight on, issuing a series of price drops and
embarking on a new marketing campaign,
but it wasn't enough to convince retailers to stick with the fledgling format.
Faced with the prospect of diminishing prominence at such top US retailers as
Best Buy and Wal-Mart, insiders say it was only a matter of time before Toshiba
would pull the plug.

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Blu-Ray seems to be a better format for high-def content storage, and Sony pushed it effectively, especially through the PS3. In 2000, the PS2 was the cheapest DVD player on the market and they pulled the same marketing tactics then. As much as some hate Sony, they do make solid products and always put extensive effort into their R&D.

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Blu-Ray seems to be a better format for high-def content storage, and Sony pushed it effectively, especially through the PS3. In 2000, the PS2 was the cheapest DVD player on the market and they pulled the same marketing tactics then. As much as some hate Sony, they do make solid products and always put extensive effort into their R&D.

I will never understand why some people "hate" a company for being successful. (some truly do) I wish I were THAT fortunate. [:P]

Congratulations to those that are!!

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SONY has always led the way, like them or not, They lead, others follow .................

Sony has always led the way? In what? Beta? Mini Disc? The ATRAC fomat? Digital 8? Micro DV? Memory Stick? I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting. All they ever do is try to market a proprietary format for everything. Heck, when HDTVs first came out, they wouldn't even call their's HDTV, they called it "Hi-Scan." If you buy one of their computers and need a part for it, good luck. And let's not forget about the Rootkit Scandal.

I'm not trying to bash Sony, I just wouldn't say they lead the way. They are no better than any other electronics company. What they really lead the way in is name recognition. Try this: ask a few people who aren't into audio to name a couple of speaker manufacturers who make quality speakers. You might get a few JBL's or Infinity's but most people will name Bose and Sony. Which is funny, because how many people do you know that own Sony speakers?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've always been pleased with my Sony products, especially lately. I now have a 50" A10 and a 42" E2000 LCD rear projections TV's and both are great. I constantly get comments on the PQ especially after tweaking them by AVS Forum settings. Been away a while and just felt compelled to respond, I'll try not to stay away so long.

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