Toshiba pulling the plug on HD DVD already?

[Geekyfanboy]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/16/toshiba-pulling-the-plug-on-hd-dvd-already/

Toshiba pulling the plug on HD DVD already? - Yup it's over.

Posted Feb 16th 2008 8:29AM by Richard Lawler

Japan's NHK has followed up The Hollywood Reporter's earlier indications Toshiba was ready to dump its money-losing HD DVD business, with news that the company is prepared to cease manufacturing software and hardware, at a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. This caps the worst week ever for red, when HD DVD was dumped by Netflix and Wal-mart, pushed to the background by Best Buy and put on -- an apparently incredibly short -- deathwatch right here. Toshiba is mum on the subject right now, but we hear there's plenty of cheap players and movies in a dumpster around back of the HQ.

Update: Along with an English translation of the NHK's article (Thanks sfditty!) comes additional confirmation from Reuters sources, it's a wrap. Toshiba is shutting down its DVD manufacturing facilities in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, while official word is expected "soon".

[Ktrek]

All I can say is that it's about time! I mean what were they waiting for? The second coming?

Kevin

[X]

This means I can pick up more HD DVDs that I want cheaper.

[Ktrek]

This means I can pick up more HD DVDs that I want cheaper.

This is very true but it also means that you have a limited amount to be able to purchase. Which if I remember right is less than 300 movies and exactly how many of those would you be interested in?

Kevin

[X]

Amazon has over 500+ titles in HD DVD. If I'm only interested in 10% that's still a nice collection.

[Ktrek]

Amazon has over 500+ titles in HD DVD. If I'm only interested in 10% that's still a nice collection.

That's more than I thought! I guess you better get on the ball and make your purchases since once stock is liquidated there will be no more.

Kevin

[X]

I'm still waiting for the official anouncment and it's not like we've won any big prize with blu ray. It's not a format is is really friendly to the middle class with a buy in that's more than some people's car payments.

I think that the competition was serving both well and causing both to offer sales on the disks.... with that gone, all we have left is a monopoly and no motivation to offer the sales that were being offered.

With "wins" like that, only the consumer loses and that's saying a lot when the only thing the people that were backing bluray wins is the right to pay more money and say that their format won.

I'd rather save money thanks.

Bluray winning also doesn't mean that the better format won. Again that's just me, but I think that in the long run, the only people that will suffer is the consumer. With the cost of the Bluray to make compared to the HD DVD disk, expect prices to either become more expensive, have less feature, or fewer sale prices.

But if you're happy it's over, congrats. I don't think many people's walets will be.

[Ktrek]

I think you have a non-argument. DVD was the only format for quite some time now and you can find sales on DVD discs anywhere from $2.99 to $16.99. Players are priced at or below $100.00. You can expect Blu-Ray to go the same way. I have seen many sales recently on Blu-Ray discs for as little as $14.99 to $19.99. There were many many people who spouted the same opinon you just did when technology went from VHS to DVD. If you object to high prices (and I don't personally think prices are unreasonale) just wait a couple of years. No big deal because eventually you will be able to afford a Blu-Ray player.

Kevin

[X]

It's not about an ability to afford a blu-ray player or not. I can. I just rather the HD-DVD format. I also know about the costs of DVDs because I was an early adopter of that tech and got hosed on the prices. I learned from that mistake the hard way. Same goes for VHS and microwaves ... I think that prices only went down when more people had the systems.

I was paying 35 bucks a DVD when they first came out and it wasn't until the players were cheaper that the disks became cheaper.

[Blackride]

I'm still waiting for the official anouncment and it's not like we've won any big prize with blu ray. It's not a format is is really friendly to the middle class with a buy in that's more than some people's car payments.

They are just selling the product at what the market can bear. It will fall eventually though once more and more companies start to produce them(hardware).

[X]

UPDATE:Toshiba Pulls Out Of HD DVD Operations; To Invest In Chips

February 19, 2008: 05:03 AM EST

TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Toshiba Corp. (6501.TO) formally announced Tuesday that it will discontinue its next-generation DVD business, a move that will likely close the books on what had become one of the consumer electronics industry's biggest format battles.

But in a sign of its determination to bounce back quickly by investing heavily in other business areas, the Japanese electronics company at the same time unveiled a plan to spend together with its partner SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) of the U.S. more than 1.7 trillion yen (US$15.7 billion) to build two new NAND-type flash memory plants in Japan.

The Tokyo-based electronics conglomerate said it will cease research and production of HD DVD equipment and will stop selling such products around March 31. Toshiba has so far sold about 1 million units of HD DVD equipment worldwide including players and recorders.

"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 Toshiba President and Chief Executive Atsutoshi Nishida. " It was a tough decision. But it would have a big impact on our management if we continued" the HD DVD business.

The decision represents the defeat of the HD DVD format developed by Toshiba to the rival camp, led by Sony Corp. (6758.TO), whose DVD players and recorders operate on the Blu-ray Disc standard.

The high-definition DVD market is key for both the movie business and the consumer electronics industry, with sales of players and discs likely to provide a lucrative stream of revenue for years to come. Both Sony and Toshiba have poured significant resources into their efforts to win customers over to their formats.

Sony is part of a Blu-ray consortium that includes Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (6752.TO) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) of South Korea. In addition to Toshiba, HD DVD backers include Japan's NEC Corp. (6701.TO) and Sanyo Electric Co. (6764.TO), as well as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Intel Corp. (INTC).

Toshiba said it still doesn't know what impact from its decision to pull out of HD DVD activities will have on its earnings.

"We are reviewing our earnings outlook for this fiscal year ending March and will release details once the review is determined," the company said in a release.

In the battle for a high-definition successor to the current generation of DVDs, both parties have gone eye to eye to promote their own formats after they failed to avoid a repeat of the VHS-vs-Beta battle of the early 1980s.

But the Blue-ray format recently gained traction. Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX) Warner Bros. movie studio decided last month to support Blu-ray exclusively. Warner's announcement was effectively a death blow for HD DVD technology. In the past week, major retailers such as consumer-electronics giant Best Buy Co. Inc. and Wal-Mart all sided with Blu-ray.

"The change in Warner Bros.' decision was a real bolt out of the blue. The impact was large as U.S. retailers reacted to this" decision, Nishida said.

New Flash Memory Chip Plants

Toshiba said the new flash memory chip plants are slated to kick off production in 2010, with each designed to churn out chips based on 300- millimeter wafers.

The new plants will be located in Yokkaichi, central Japan and Kitakami, northern Japan.

Toshiba, whose NAND flash memory operations have become an important driver of profits, said it will jointly invest and share output of chips with SanDisk at one of the new plants.

Flash memory is used to store data in electronic gadgets such as portable music players and mobile phones, and is starting to replace hard disk drives in laptop PCs.

Toshiba is the world's second-largest NAND flash producer by revenue after Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea.

Shares in Toshiba fell 0.6% to Y824 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Tuesday after gaining 5.7% Monday.

-By Hiroyuki Kachi, Dow Jones Newswires, 813-5255-2929, hiroyuki.kachi@ dowjones.com


  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  02-19-08 0503ET
  Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

[Ktrek]

So I guess all we have to do now is wait for Universal and Paramount to throw in the towel. I hope Paramount will move quickly to get TOS on Blu-Ray.

Kevin

[Rico]

Time for the sales!  Already got the player.  Plenty of HDMI inputs on my TV.  Bring it on!!!  ;) 

[jedijeff]

Yes, hopefully a lot of sales on Discs, which is not bad. Did not pay to much for the player, so at least one format going forward will be best for everyone. Bad week for me, this will be the second things this week I have fallen on the losing side of things, I think I will go hide under a rock for the remainder of the week  ;D :'(

[X]

This is a win win for people with HD-DVD. You got a great system and now you get cheap discs. After you set up your library, you can comfortably wait until Blu-ray prices stabilize.