Forum - View topicNEWS: Toshiba Discontinues HD DVD Business
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DClark
 Posts: 110 |
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The HD DVDs are most likely already made, or at least the contract with an HD DVD authoring company already signed, so I highly doubt any already made or negotiated HD DVDs will be written down as a loss if they can still sell them. The reason Paramount pulled Blu-ray titles was because they signed a $150 million agreement with the HD DVD group to do so; Warner didn't sign an agreement with the Blu-ray group and just last week mentioned the possibility of future HD DVD titles should the demand be there (though as a general rule they'd release their titles in DVD and BD only). Also remember that this is Toshiba announcing that they're stopping production of their HD DVD player lineup, not the HD DVD group dissolving (similar effect, but there's a difference); whether Universal and Paramount can go Blu-ray largely depends on the wording in their respective contracts to HD DVD. For all we know Universal never signed an exclusivity contract with the HD DVD group so can go to Blu-ray immediately while Paramount/Dreamworks may have to go through some sort of legal 'breach of contract' against HD DVD (though I suspect they would have had wording in the contract freeing them should events occur similar to what happened). |
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mistress_reebi
Posts: 735 Location: Canada |
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There are people who embrace change and would like the latest technology. I still use my VCR and DVD player and I wouldn't convert to HD yet, (because I'm a student) but there is a niche for HD. Hooray for Sony! It lost the consumer market in the 80s to VHS but won the broadcasting market with Beta. Now they can satisfy both markets. EDIT:
Same, that's why I use a Mac. I guess the 360 now has to make a blu-ray player, which sucks for them since the PS3 already has a build-in blu-ray player. I'm not a 360 gamer so I don't know how those fans would react. Last edited by mistress_reebi on Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mistress_reebi
Posts: 735 Location: Canada |
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oops double post.
Last edited by mistress_reebi on Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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GATSU
Posts: 15299 |
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No one really likes MS nowadays, but I don't feel like paying $400 for a paper weight from Sony, either.
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jdnation
Posts: 1996 |
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Regarding the blu-ray scratch issue, the TDK scratch resistant tech that coats blu ray discs is amazing! You can search for youtube videos of people taking steel wool and other sharp and pointy items like screwdrivers etc. to a blu-ray disc and it still works! If course they're not totally indestructable, but you'll have to try really really hard! In fact you'd have to be trying it on purpose and even that is difficult... The simplest solution is to literally try and break it in half.
I bet it's only a matter of time until you see Freedom on blu-ray. It's nice though of the company to continue to uphold it's commitments to HD-DVD buyers, even WB will continue to uphold their end of the bargain until the middle of the year. As for the DVD issue, it's pretty much inevitable... over the course of years DVD will be giving way to blu-ray just as VHS gave way to DVD. DVD ain't going away anytime soon but it'll one day be relegated to the same position as VHS is today. It's a matter of time until manufacturing prices for blu-ray players and discs drop to that of DVD. Given that many people wil lstill buy DVD at its current price, studios won't drop the price of new DVDs to compensate. So it'll be like the VHS/DVD days when new releases on VHS cost just as much as DVD, and those that stubornly continued to stick with the former format would begin feeling silly paying the same amount when others are getting a better experience. It's precisely this method that will get people to adopt the newer technology. Also once blu-ray players can be manufactured and sold for the same price as DVD players, manufacturers will simply stop making DVD players immediatedly and there won't be any problems because blu-ray players play and upscale DVDs anyway... |
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NiceAndBlue
Posts: 16 |
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Since both the United States and Japan are both in Region A for blu ray discs, it will be interesting to see how that affects the sale of anime, as well hollywood films in Japan. Japanese consumers could now import american releases. Perhaps this might force down the price of discs in Japan.
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Zoe
 Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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They've already been dealing with the Hollywood movies in part by making Japanese be the only Asian language NOT given as an option. |
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ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
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Well, given that most anime features are s/dub'ed it would take an amazing amount of jiggerypokery to dick over the JP customers
... Though i guess if sojitz take over ADV then theres not much an issue and it'll be the amerixan side that gets dicked over. Given that UK disks are some $40 anyway, this realy doesn't concern me. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I'm glad that they will release volumes 4-6 and was concerned that I would not get the rest of the series. I wouldn't mind if they released 4-6 on Blu-ray, but would be disappointed if the rest of the series only had a standard definition release. Fortunately I didn't buy the really expensive Star Trek season 1 (although I do own Battlestar and Heroes on HD DVD) and will most likely pick it up on Blu-ray. I suppose I will have a mixed format collection for Heroes and Battlestar which Universal will hopefully release the second seasons on Blu-ray soon. As far as the scratch concerns go I vaguely recall that more people had issues with HD DVDs from Netflix than Blu-ray discs. This of course could be format loyalists spewing nonsense on the AVS forums and should be taken with a grain of salt. I have not encountered any scratch issues in either format since I have never rented or bought used DVDs (except a handful of out of print standard definition titles) and my roommates are very careful when borrowing my DVDs. I'm really torn if I should splurge on HD-DVD titles at the moment since amazon has a bunch of titles at 50%. |
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Beruda
Posts: 114 |
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Isn't there another format on the horizon? I've read some info on HVD-Holographic Versatile Disc (capacity is 160 times that of a single BR disc) . Right now it's too expensive for the consumer but like any other format it will come down in price.
The problem is these formats seem to be coming fast and furious. What you buy now could be obsolete in 5 years. B. |
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daedelus
 Posts: 743 Location: Texas City, TX (ajd: 6/11/05) |
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I too go both ways.(HDDVD & BD) Whenever a title was released in both formats, I would choose the HDD version partly to support the format and partly because of the cool downloadable extras. My local Best Buy has a respectable HDD section and I'm hoping they will have some sort of clearance sale. There are still a few HDD only titles I'd like to get(Children of Men, Serenity,Waterworld, & Battlestar season 1) and if I can get a nice discount, mores the better. I'm also glad that BV will finish Freedom on HDD. That's some nice customer loyalty on their part. Just because Toshiba is DC'ing the players, doesn't mean tht it's time to box up or trash your player. Besides watching titles I already own, my player upconverts all my DVDs to beautiful 1080p. So it's not a total loss. |
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Zoe
Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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The question is whether that will really be necessary for movies. The gains over 1080p and the top sound tech probably aren't worth another format. |
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8JF
Posts: 88 |
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If music is an example of media developments how much longer are we going to cling to physical copies bought at stores instead of downloads and streaming from broadband Internet?
The digital music format of choice is MP3 and it's lower quality than CDaudio but successfully killed DVDaudio by convenience not by quality. |
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Primus
 Posts: 2760 Location: Toronto |
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I'm sure Sony has already shrugged(also known as payed) off the Immersion Lawsuit a while ago. And I actually blame Ken Kutaragi for the PlayStation 3's current situation in the console wars. Instead of sticking up for his machine, he turned tail, and retired. I don't blame him on the BD in the PS3, since I'm sure some Sony execs with higher power(Like Howard Stringer) forced it upon the machine. That's not to say I don't like the console, because, as of yesterday, I actually own the thing.
Seems that doesn't matter, as Paramount's Transformers is now apparently heading to Blu-Ray. So, Michael Bay and shut his yap, and concentrate on making sure the Sequel doesn't suck hard.
That's like saying Sony was stupid for going with OLED, it was a move for the future. |
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DClark
Posts: 110 |
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The problem is that we don't know if that listing is from before or after Paramount's HD DVD deal. If I remember correctly stores like Best Buy and Circuit City were taking preorders for both Shrek 3 and Transformers before the announcement, so it would stand to reason they had an SKU ready. I don't doubt that Transformers will be one of the, if not the first post HD DVD deal Paramount Blu-ray offering, but I think it's best to just wait for the official announcement. With regards to HD DVD owners, just a notice that Warner has said this news won't affect any of their releases (so the new Justice League and Appleseed titles will go ahead as scheduled, as will all their other announced HD DVDs). |
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