RSSToshiba Plans HD DVD Marketing Blitz
By Ed Oswald | Published March 2, 2006, 2:56 PM
Hoping to drum up consumer interest in its next generation DVD format, Toshiba revealed details of a plan to traverse the United States through April to promote HD DVD. The tour will stop in over 40 cities and include live demonstrations of the technology, as well as aiming to train and educate retail salespeople on the benefits of the format.
Toshiba's first players based on the technology, the entry-level HD-A1 and its higher end HD-XA1, are due to be released later in the month at prices of $499 and $799 USD, respectively. While HD DVD's list of supporting movie studios is smaller than competitor Blu-ray, backers of the format hope its lower equipment price will help to increase sales and give it a head start on its rival.
Both players will include iHD, an advanced navigation language that has become the center of the fight between the two formats. So far, Blu-ray has declined to support it, citing its Java capabilities as a superior alternative.
Blu-ray players, due in May, are expected to cost up to $1,800 USD at launch.
Additionally, Toshiba plans to supplement the marketing campaign with an extensive print, online and television component. "We realize that not everyone can attend an in-store demonstration of HD DVD," Toshiba marketing vice president Tina Tuccillo said. The ads would run during the duration of the promotional tour.
Toshiba also plans to have a strong retail presence by providing its partners with special displays that would enhance HD DVD's exposure within the store. The company's HDTV line would be promoted in conjunction with the new products, Toshiba said.
"With our strategic, integrated marketing initiative and the support of our many promotional and retail partners, we are poised to lead the way into consumers' homes with a next generation of DVD technology," Toshiba Digital A/V marketing vice president Jodi Sally added.
More information on the players, as well as the tour dates and locations can be found on the HD DVD Web site.
HD-DVD is kind of getting depressing now, does anyone else see this?
A couple months ago they were lieing about Blu-Ray, and now they are kind of giving up because they see they are going to lose.
They said they have more than half of all movie industry support, but BD has a lot more, they said that BD has a poor number that survive manufacturing, but then everyone found out it is the same if not better.
Toshiba is kind of accepting the lower quality and quantity than BD.
All they have going for them is being cheaper and going out sooner.
This will be the same with the Xbox 360, even though it's cheaper, they won't really get anything, probably because of the limited quantities made, and simply because they both are crap.
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|Here's BetaNews going only for HD-DVD again, "Blu-ray players, due in May, are expected to cost up to $1,800 USD at launch."
They leave out the Samsung one for $1,000 and the Sony one for $1,200, as well as the PS3.
They say HD-DVD is between "$499 and $799 USD" instead of rounding up that extra dollar like they do with BD (Blu-Ray Disc).
$500 and $800.
BetaNews is completely biased FOR HD-DVD.
Just look at their articles, they don't have any that are for BD, except short little things that talk about the most expensive ones and a couple of the 100+ movies that are going to be out.
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|The crazy person is back.
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|I think they should leave the PS3 out - pricing is not announce for a version that will actually play BlueRay movies, but I agree with your other point - there are some cheaper Blue-Ray players, although they are still a bit pricier.
And as far as movie studios are concenered, if they start to see HDDVD take off faster than BlueRay, they'd quickly start printing up HDDVD discs. Just because they are on one side now, doesn't mean they won't switch or do both.
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|It is evident by your comments that you're a Blu-ray fanboy. You're crying about betanews not rounding up the HD-DVD players'prices? Now that's just nitpicking. By your statement, you paint out HD-DVD as an inferior technology, when the only technological advantage Blu-ray possesses is larger capacity. I don't know what Betanews would have against Blu-ray--they're not making a penny by being biased against it. You're just insecure.
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|So the PS3 is going to require HDMI? That's going to piss off PS3 owners. lol
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|I'll wait until they can convert HD-DVD and Blue-ray to fit on a DVD, like you can now when you convert DVD to CD using Divx/Xvid.
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|There is already a company that is working on drives for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc, but you can't really do that because it would take up too much space for a DVD, but because HD-DVD is so crappy and small, you could probably do it with that.
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|Yeah, but what's the loss in quality?
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|I imagine it'd be about the same as it is from DVD to CD. 9GB => 0.7GB is similar to 30-100GB => 9GB.
The quality loss is noticeable, but not overly. And given most people are STILL plugging things like these into CRT TVs or low-def plasma, LCD and projector TVs, I don't think it's that big a deal. More important question is, "How freakin long would it take to recode a 100GB quad-layer Blu-ray disc?" :P
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|Eh, I know that no matter what compression is used, both will look the same when compared side-by-side. Theres no need to spend $1000 dollars for a player, when I can spend half of that.
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|Hollywood is digging their own grave. HD-DVD & Blu-Ray discs are going to be hacked and the hacked copies are going to be more valuable than the retail copies to get around the stranglehold of their copy protection.
The more they tighten their grip, the more consumers will slip through their fingers.
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|I feel bad for any owners of older HDTV's.
I feel bad for myself because I only have one HDMI input and it's taken up by my Oppo DVD player.
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|None of this new or even old hardware will work with HD-DVDs until the AACS copy protection support is added. So keep yer cash in yer pockets.
http://gear.ign.com/articles/691/691408p1.html
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|That is a good read. Thanks for the link.
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|I agree with Kompressor. Great Read!
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|From other articles I've ready, it's been my understanding that this feature can be enabled or disabled by disc. So at the launch, they could be less stringent on hdmi requirements and later as more people have hdmi, become more restrictive.
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|Who cares? I'm still waiting on this.
http://www.optware.co.jp/english/what_040823.htm
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|All these holographic disc articles are old. I haven't heard anything new about them in years.
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|You know what sucks?
My 60" Panasonic Plasma won't work with the new formats. My Yamaha Receiver won't work with the new formats. Or at least, I won't be able to view the DVDs in their native format.
Well that sucks. I would love to have one of those new Tosh units, or even a (shudder) Sony unit, but I won't be buying either until they have a unit that will output component video.
How many other people feel the same way? I'm sure it's tonnes. Do the studios expect people with 2 year old TVs to go out and buy a new one for their new format? Unlikely.
I hope both formats flop until they start doing what the consumer needs not what the studios need.
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|Where did you find this info? It seems hard to believe that there will be no way to connect the new players to older or even current televisions. I think you may have gotten some bad information somewhere.
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|I'll just stick with my DVD player until I can afford a HDTV and DVD player.
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|My understanding from "reading newsgroups" is that they will downconvert to SD via the component outputs and you will need HDMI for HD.
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|How about DVI?
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|http://gear.ign.com/articles/691/691408p1.html
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|Get an HDMI to DVI converter.
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|Skyfrog doesn't know what he is talking about. I just bought my HDTV and I have only one DMI and now they are saying that we need multiple. HDMI switchboxes still will only allow one device at a time, but if I were to purchase a HDMI compatible receiver, separate DVD Player, and the P3 - I am screwed. No one has finalized anything, but it seems to be driven by Hollywood.
The consumer is getting screwed! And, when will be the right time to purchase?
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|By that time, they will have moved onto something else.
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|Well here's the way I see it. I don't have a HDTV. Me buying one of these would be a waste of money as I would not see any benefit from it unless I do have a HDTV.
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