Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

[Dark Drakan]

Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

Toshiba has now officially confirmed it "has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders" and has given up in the format war with Blu Ray. Microsoft have also issued a statement saying that it will have no effect on the Xbox 360. Could this mean a stand alone player really is on the way for the Xbox 360 after all?

It's all about the games, Microsoft has said in a statement on the end of the HD-DVD format war.

"We do not believe the recent reports about HD DVD will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace", the company has said.

"As we've long stated, we believe it is games that sell consoles and Xbox 360 continues to have the largest next-gen games library with the most exclusives and best selling games in the industry.

"We will wait until we hear from Toshiba before announcing any specific plans around the Xbox 360 HD DVD player.

"HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room along with playback of the DVD movies they already own."

Yesterday we reported that Microsoft could be planning a stand-alone Blu-ray player for Xbox 360, which might release as early as May 2008. Time to bring those plans forward...

 

[Solus]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

No HD DVD? :'(

 

[Dark Drakan]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

No HD DVD? :'(

Nope, seems they are just dropping it altogether. Seems very unfair on people who have just purchased HD DVD players and now just own an expensive lump of plastic with no more HD DVD's being manufactured for it. I would have thought that should they decide to stop production of them, they would have phased them out instead of just dropping it straight away but it seems not.

 

[Solus]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

I just blew $300 on one

 

[Dark Drakan]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

I just blew $300 on one

Many people are in the same situation unfortunately, just heard lots of people on radio who are also unhappy about this move. Toshiba should have gave some notice to people that they were planning this, as its not an overnight decision.

 

[Solus]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

It is quite unfortunate, really. I have just recently bought it, if I would have had some kind of warning I would have went with a Blu-Ray player :noexpression:

 

[Dark Drakan]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

It is quite unfortunate, really. I have just recently bought it, if I would have had some kind of warning I would have went with a Blu-Ray player :noexpression:

Yeah it wasnt a very good move to just drop it outright like they seem to have done and simply stop support and manufacture. Very disappointing for people who put faith in the format and Toshiba.

 

[XXXREAPERXXX]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

I'm sure Id be super-sayan 6 :realmad: if I just bought one of those.

 

[DrZoid]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

I don't get it..
whats the difference?

I hadn't even heard of blu-ray until I heard about the Toshiba incident..

 

[Dark Drakan]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

I don't get it..
whats the difference?

I hadn't even heard of blu-ray until I heard about the Toshiba incident..

Thats just it, a lot of people dont even know what Blu Ray is. Only that the PS3 uses it for its games. Blu Ray discs hold more than five times the data of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc.

 

[Steve]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

Well, that sucks for Toshiba and HD-DVD owners.

I'm glad I held out before buying that HD-DVD player add-on for my Xbox 360 now, though. As soon as I'm ready to make the shift to Blu-ray I'll probably just invest in a Sony PS3. I'm not really in any hurry to upgrade to Blu-ray yet, though, I'm still happy with my last-gen DVD player.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Re: Toshiba Drop HD DVD Format

Well, that sucks for Toshiba and HD-DVD owners.

I'm glad I held out before buying that HD-DVD player add-on for my Xbox 360 now, though. As soon as I'm ready to make the shift to Blu-ray I'll probably just invest in a Sony PS3. I'm not really in any hurry to upgrade to Blu-ray yet, though, I'm still happy with my last-gen DVD player.

Movies are steering more towards downloads now anyway, with the Xbox Live Marketplace pushing HD downloadable movies for cheaper than price of DVD's. So its not a big deal really, Microsoft have pushed the download system much more than they ever pushed the HD-DVD player add-on for the 360. Shame with the UK's low speed Internet it takes us an age to download things as the size of the movies in HD is huge.