Official news coming soon! Two more hours!

http://www.engadget.com/...-dvd-tomorrow-stop-sale/

Toshiba expected to announce death of HD DVD tomorrow, stop sales by March

Posted Feb 18th 2008 2:01PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Despite Red's inability to make any real public statement, Japanese publication Nikkei has it that Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida will be announcing the final discontinuation of HD DVD tomorrow, as well as halted sales of hardware and media by March (as in days from now). Apparently Toshiba will pull its units from retail shelves, but has no intention to give burned early adopters any refunds (no kidding?); it sounds like the ceasefire will include the bare PC drives as well, so those hoping to keep using HD DVD as a personal data storage medium probably won't have much luck. Apparently the announcement will come alongside Toshiba's plans to build new semiconductor fabs, which we're sure they'll try to spin as an advancement that far overshadows the hill of beans (read: hundreds of millions) they've lost in the format war.

Circuit City is having a nice fire sale for HD-DVD.

It's only nice, if you were foolish enough to end up with a HD DVD player, and wants to build up your collection before obsolescence.

For people like me, who made the correct decision, circuit city and best buy have drastically dropped the price of most of their blu-ray movies.
$20.00 for a movie is not that bad.

They also have some great DVD's for $5.00. The Godfather 1 and 2 for $5.00 each at Best Buy.

Dropped most to $20 that is not correct. They dropped a hand fun to that price. There are hundreds of blu ray disk yet they dropped a dozen. Don't get me wrong it is a good start but more is needed.

Nothing more is needed. HD DVD is dead.

You are right the average consumer will buy movies for $35. That goes for both the formats one of which is dead. If you think that bluray will become mainstream with movies at $30 and $35 you are smoking something. DVD remains popular to this day since movies can be purchased at $4. Look at this weeks Bestbuy add, tons of very good movies for $4. But then again HD DVD is dead so the consumer will pay what ever bluray movies cost since they won the war. That is what you are saying and frankly is a bunch of garbage. BB did have some $15 and $20 movies but more need prices like that. Maybe you don't understand that part.

With DVD at $5 for some movies, and netflix + broadband HD at $3.99-$4.99 for HD rentals much more is needed.

No regular consumer is going to buy $35 videos when the "good enough" edition is less than 1/2 that.

Thanks.

SGD, you are right about the price. The PS3 does a great job of upconverting. Transformers on DVD still looks good.

I'm on my way to Best Buy right now to buy one $20.00 Blu-Ray (Cars) and the two Godfather movies at $5.00 each. I have no problems buying Blu-ray versions of movies that I really want to have.

I agree with you that Mainstream will not pay $30 for a movie.

Netfix should stream to the PS3 and Xbox soon. They are trying to make that happen.
http://tech.blorge.com/S...ing-to-ps3-and-xbox-360/

Both the PS3 and XBox need to update their browser to play videos from NBC's Hula and even ABC's web site.

I love my 12 GB connection with my gigabyte ethernet connection and my new router and my cat6e wiring in my house.
I only wish I could watch Hula videos through the PS3 browser, even if it doesn't look 100% perfect. It is still good enough for me, since it is free and I have a beta membership.

Blu Ray looks great on my 52 inch Sony XBR4, so does up-converted DVD's running on my PS3. That is why I am glad that prices on DVD are so low, and that Netflix is not that expensive for what they offer.

Foolish, yes, foolish. People should have done more research before buying their stupid HD DVD players. I do not feel sorry for the fools who bought one at wal mart for Christmas. Those were people who have never visited a web site like this and had no clue what they were doing.

*rub my hands together* I am going to pick up boat load of movies for cheap. I hate to see the format go, before the price of Blu-ray got pulled down under the $200.00 mark. Oh well, such is life.

Let me sing something cuz I'm in the mood.

"How do I say goodbye to what we had?
The good times that made us laugh
Outweigh the bad.

I thought we'd get to see forever
But forever's gone away
It's so hard to say goodbye to MY HD!"

Still no official statement from Toshiba Japan (16:10 Local time)... it appears someone must have leaked the good news to Reuters/NHK....

Latest Reuters update:

http://www.reuters.com/a...T34593320080218?sp=true

242 comments - not bad for a "niche Product" - record for BetaNews?

242 posts for a article titled Wal-mart won't stock hd dvd movies?
I'd say this thread has been turned into a pile of childish insults and producing hardly anything worth while reading.
I've heard of sore loosers but sore winners? Get a grip people its not like the result dictated your life...

"242 posts for a article titled Wal-mart won't stock hd dvd movies?
I'd say this thread has been turned into a pile of childish insults and producing hardly anything worth while reading."

And you being a major contributor.... Ahhh the hypocrisy...

Pretty big coming from a resident internet troll.
Sorry but f for fail. You only proved my point

Troll? Ahhh the hypocrisy is so thick you can even bludgeon it with your cursed (-3 to hit) club. You're the only one here who shows up late in the thread randomly adding your 2 cents (make that half a cent) worth of drivel to each user. Sorry but you get a big S for SORE loser.

"You're the only one here who shows up late in the thread randomly adding your 2 cents (make that half a cent) worth of drivel to each user"
Lol and you want to try and claim that hypocrisy title on me? Nice try
And I think you know what i mean by troll. You've done your fair share of hit and run on forums in the past.

Would you like me to design you a nice and easy to read spreadsheet containing my comments in this thread and their context? Then all you have to do is mark each one with a nice red conditional format cell to show us the insults pouring out of my mouth.
Once again proving my post. Why do you even boffer?

Dungeons and Dragons? What a dork.

If blu-ray is the winner, do the terrorists win???

Even Al Jazeera is reporting on this topic.

http://english.aljazeera...3-9004-917AA95BAA87.htm

Why is that news? Al Jazeera is a news company, like CNN, BBC, ITV, etc. so of course they'll report on this.

http://ap.google.com/art...sNuyFH1SbFNkOgD8USGOQO0

Toshiba will have a board meeting on Tuesday. It is already Monday in Japan. That meeting should take place about 22 hours from now.

Chia-homer should be 100% correct.

There are stories that Circuit City has the SKU# for Transformers in the Blu-Ray format.

I fought in the format war. I was on the winning side. Does that make me part of the evil federation? I can hardly wait to see some brown coats in Blu-Ray....

I've seen that on most of the Paramount DVDs that I have purchased recently, such as Next. At the end of the Transformers preview, it shows availability for Blu-ray and HD DVD.

CHIA-HOMER's Format war predictions for the week of 2/18.

Monday or Tuesday: Toshiba confirms it will stop hddvd production.

Thursday or Friday: Paramount and or Universal announces it will begin making Blu-ray.

This is going to be the second best week ever!

hardly your predictions now is it :) Half the internets is saying the same thing

Wow you read the news then all in a sudden it is your predictions talk about reaching. Sorry but your predictions have been all over the net long before you claimed them as your own.

Who said they were his own?

Hater.

Still not official in Japan. But Toshiba's stock has gone up as investors cheered the death of HD DVD.

so who was responsible for deleting my response to Hollywood?

I have also had two comments deleted.

this happens to me too. funny that only comments that don't agree with the ms propaganda machine get deleted. veeerrryyyy interesting.

Tried less insults and more constructive commenting?
Might work a treat in your case. This isnt some free for all kids forum

Nate Mook censors anything he disagrees with.

I thought the US had freedom of speech...

US: Yes
Privately-owned web sites: No (constitutionally, anyway)

damn i didn't even say anything bad....just said that they brought the gloating on themselves by telling us for months that blu ray was dead and hd-dvd was getting Warner at CES and yadda yadda...

poor guys...

BSF,

Do you have a link to your story?

It's officially dead.
Toshiba just announced in Japan that they will stop HD-DVD production in one of the biggest production plant in Japan.

Do you have a link to your story?

http://www.reuters.com/a...s/idUSL1627196120080216

from someone below.

youre welcome

http://www.reuters.com/a...s/idUSL1627196120080216

That is not an official announcement. Again, the Toshiba board will not meet until Tuesday, about 22 hours from now.

Isn't it funny how the HD-DVD official web site has not updated their news since 12/13/07? While the Blu-Ray official site updates every few days?

How sad...

I can't wait for HD-DVD to be oficially dead so BetaNews will stop posting news about it. If you look closely, the only sotries with more than 5 comments have Blu Ray or HD-DVD in the title.

Even the XBOX360 and PS3 stories don't get very many comments compared to this dead format war.

Lastly I would like to point out people like Benjamin / Dave who's format won and they still continue to post childish idiotic comments rubbing it everyones face who is upset over HD-DVD going south.

It's been months and this drooling loser with nothing better to do makes his rounds on about 20 different forums posting the same exact thing, trying to get all of the HD-DVD fans to argue with him and start a huge fight.

You can't even be gracious in victory as we all know this is the central preoccupation of your dull and boring life. Let me give you some perspective. I have about 80+ HD-DVD movies valued at about $2000 dollars and three total players, 2 of which I already gave away (the XA1 and 360 add-on which never got used).

I have spent more money that your entire "home theater" system cost (according to that sad picture you posted months back) and I couldn't care less. Do you know why? Because it's only money and I have way more important things to do right now.

It's been a month since Warner went BD and you are still at it with name calling and rubbing it in everyones faces. Please answer my question and tell us all what is wrong with you?

Are you so desperate to be a part of something to feel important that you grasp at any straw and keep blathering about it for years? You were posting about BD and the PS3 in mid 2006 all over the place.

It's now 2008 and every day, you have the same routine of posting garbage on dozens of websites. This must take hours and hours to accomplish.

You are one strange, bored little insignificant nothing.

"I have about 80+ HD-DVD movies valued at about $2000 dollars and three total players, 2 of which I already gave away (the XA1 and 360 add-on which never got used)... Because it's only money and I have way more important things to do right now.
if only all the hd-dvd customers thought the same way as you maybe you wouldn't have 2gs in useless technology. next time donate it to charity if its so meaningless to you.

Someone got out of bed the wrong side this morning.

Has it ever occured to you that you are wrong, and these are all (or at least mostly) different people?

I know you are convinced I am Dave Peterson, but I am not. It's another one of your miles off guesses, just like the Warner going HD DVD at CES08, and Walmart buying cheap Chinese HD DVD players.

"Has it ever occured to you that you are wrong, and these are all (or at least mostly) different people?"
I used to think Holly was a bit crazy in that regard but it became quite clear over a period of time we were dealing with the same idiot over and over.

You may not like what he says but that person did sink to low levels during this debate.

Good post. Someone with intelligence here.

ah that's bs HD-DVD will win, just wait and see, Toshiba has a trick up their sleeve i bet

How the market was rigged.

It's amazing they even got 1 million+ HD DVD players sold - and it makes the poor Blu-ray numbers look even more sad.

A new J.D. Power and Associates mystery shopper study has found that retail salespeople across the country are strongly recommending Blu-ray Disc players over HD DVD to their customers.

Chris Denove, J.D. Power and Associates VP, said that less than 1-in-10 retail salespeople recommended HD DVD to survey takers posing as shoppers for the syndicated, independent field study.

The HD disc study was part of the Television Retail Insights report, which is jointly produced by J.D. Power and Associates and Market Force Information. Over the course of the year it will be sending over 5,000 mystery shoppers into 30 different retail chains on a regular basis to shop for HDTVs and HDTV peripherals and components.

Also included in the study will be 2,000 to 3,000 telephone shops, and about 1,000 facility audits of what retailers are stocking and displaying to evaluate which brands and categories are getting preferential treatment.

The current study covered electronics salespeople in over 200 storefronts in January. Mystery shoppers posed as people who had just purchased an HDTV and were looking for a nameless dedicated HD disc player.

The survey found 25 percent of all salespeople chose not to recommend one platform over the other. But of those who did, 89 percent recommended Blu-ray, and most of them “very strongly recommended Blu-ray, to the point that a typical customer would have had to think long and hard before buying HD DVD in the face of what salespeople are telling them about the two platforms,” Denove said.

“Best Buy just issued a press release saying it’s going to recommend Blu-ray. But, our data shows that they’ve been recommending Blu-ray all along, in fact, more so than the national average,” Denove told TWICE. “In fact, in January, we didn’t come across a single Best Buy salesperson recommending HD DVD.”

Denove said that typically CE retail sales people were quick to point out to their customers that there was a technology war similar to what occurred back when VHS battled Beta.

“Without even being asked about the battle for DVD supremacy, half the salespeople told our shoppers that there was a battle going on and Blu-ray either was already the winner (or would become the dominant player in the end),” he said.

“About a third of all salespeople said our shoppers should choose Blu-ray because of the strength of the companies behind Blu-ray,” Denove said.

Only one retailer – Rex – had salespeople that were split approximately 50/50 in steering shoppers toward Blu-ray and HD DVD to customers, Denove said.

The study did not bring up gaming consoles with HD DVD or Blu-ray playback ability, but gaming devices were factored into the study if suggested as a consideration by the salesperson.

Denove said that some retail chains – Best Buy in particular – had salespeople that seemed to be more focused on cross selling, where they were more likely to tie in the TV elements of the disc formats with computers or gaming.

In light of recent developments with Warner Bros. endorsing Blu-ray exclusively, “we had expected that salespeople would focus on the title wars in making their recommendation,” Denove said. “Many did, just not quite as focused on titles as we expected. Overall, a little more than a third talked about Blu-ray either having more titles now, or would end up having more titles in the future.”

According to the study, the only advantage of HD DVD mentioned by more than a few salespeople was price.

“Out of nearly 200 mystery shopping experiences, not one salesperson suggested that HD DVD would become the dominant format,” Denove said.

Denove said the survey indicated that the sales push toward Blu-ray “was not related to technical features, instead the focus of most pitches were on the following: 1) there is a format war going on and most salespeople felt that Blu-ray had already won the war or would be the eventual winner of the war; 2) the companies backing Blu-ray are the stronger players, with Sony mentioned most prominently; 3) Blu-ray had the strongest studio support and title selection.

The study concluded that if a change in direction is possible at this stage, the companies supporting HD DVD must do one of the following: either do something to create demand from the consumer up front, so that the consumer is going into the store looking specifically for HD DVD, or do something to sway the overwhelming recommendations of sales people, such as introduce or boost spiff programs or some similar incentive, Denove said.

As for Toshiba’s recent promotional price cuts on HD DVD players, Denove said: salespeople are pushing so heavily in the favor of Blu-ray that only a small percentage of them are even talking about the price advantage of HD DVD, and right now that’s the only thing they seem to want to rally around.”

Even dual-format players failed to leave significant measurements, Denove said.

“Given that our shoppers were trying to decide between Blu-ray and HD DVD, we were surprised that only 7 percent of all salespeople even offered up the option of a combo player so that our shoppers didn’t risk choosing the wrong format. This likely reflects the fact that salespeople seem fairly confident that Blu-ray will win out in the end.”

Denove said the trend suggests that "combo players need to create demand upstream in the decision process to get traction, because salespeople sure aren’t doing anything to drive demand out on the showroom floor."

By brand, salespeople focused almost exclusively on Sony for Blu-ray (Sharp and Samsung came in a distant second and third, respectively), J.D. Power & Associates said. Not surprisingly, of those recommending HD DVD, Toshiba was almost always the recommended brand, said Denove.

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6532944.html

come on Hokus! things can't be that bad in your little world....its over man...just embrace the new format and enjoy HD content... you sound like a child now....

"It's amazing they even got 1 million+ HD DVD players sold"

Compared to 11 million Blu-ray players sold, 1 million is pathetic, many of them have already been returned already...

Well, for as much homework as those who wrote this article seemed to have done, you would have thought that they would have at least made some mention of how Sony and others in the Blu-ray camp intentionally defrauded and mislead ALL of their "early adopter" buyers of Blu-ray stand alone players by not even MENTIONING the fact that every single non-PS3 Blu-ray player sold couldn't be upgraded to any future BP Profile versions beyond v1.0.

I wonder when they are going to bring that little tid bit up? Hmmm....must be when the class action law suits that are in the works now against companies like Sony actually hit the courts.

Blatent fraud and intentional customer deception along with obviously misleading marketing materials always makes for really juicy law suits good headlines.

Stay tuned. Much for fun and excitement to come here soon I'm sure.

Actually that's down to the player manufacturers, not the Blu-ray consortium, the manufaturers knew the score from the beginning. And a minority can be upgraded, if you actually care to do your research.

im surprised, but im hearing serious rumors of Toshiba preparing to announce that they are ceasing further production of HD-DVD hardware within days...

we shall see...im not sure i buy it, but come monday or tuesday of this week we should have some idea...

Another site is using the link (from the Japanese news site) saying that it's already a done deal.

It's a shame, really. I honestly enjoyed to format, and wanted to see it take off. Such is life...

Ah well...at least we'll get some really good deals on the equipment and discs.

well Actually NHK (The Japanese National Television Company) today in News was saying that Toshiba announced they're ceasing production in one of the biggest HD-DVD plants, and they're estimating that the net loss of HD-DVD to be around 500million USD

However, Toshiba commented that HD-DVD is not over yet, just awhile ago.
Despite whatever's on Media.

You know you could just post the link like everyone else around the world has :)

I've been posting links but people's been complaining that they're in Japanese.

Where the hell am I gonna find English links?

i wonder why this has not been reportd here? i think maybe so to not upset everyone.

its ok hddvd peopl [pats head], its ok. the sun will shine for you again. go buy a ps3 and it will all be better now.

or everyone could go buy obsolete samsung players and they will all get rich in class action lawsuits

I could have sworn you said you refused to post here again...

Ahh, give him a break... he's "new" here. :)

??? whats is yous talksings abouts. are you talking about the fact that hddvd lost?

oh yea youre right it did. Good point.

i had but nate begged me to come back because you people were boring.

Because BetaNews hardly ever posts anything on the weekends.

"??? whats is yous talksings abouts"

What the hell??

movie reference. it may be a bit too smart for you. thats ok. just nod your head and pretend you understand... thats a good lad.

"??? whats is yous talksings abouts"

Yes clearly that is too smart for me...

Maybe at some point you can write a post without insulting someone. You sound like you about 12.

In response to another post of yours tomorrow will be just like yesterday, meaning the sun will come up and it will be a new day.

Time to laugh at all the idiots who wasted their money on the inferior HD DVD format, just to spite Sony.

yea all the dolts out there should have purchased a samsung player that would quickly become obsolete

Ouch! lol

while i do enjoy that it seems i piked the winning format from the get go...

heck...i might STILL jump on a Toshiba XA2 if prices hit rock bottom any time soon....ill buy up all the Universal and Paramount HD-DVD's i can for next to nothing and enjoy them....

That's what I did, $99 + 5 free HD-DVDs = "free up-converter" with the movies I was probably going to buy anyway.

Playing HD was a benefit, but never a requirement.

blu=niche

HD DVD=dead

Both= Who cares!

bingo

SGD=Bitter

get paid for each letter of that post chia ?

Not even close I could careless as I have stated countless times before. You and all the others seem to forget what I have said in the past. Let me remind the idiots. I have both formats and understand that sooner or later one is going to fail. That is what happens when you get in early. So am I bitter not even close. Do I care, not at all. Goog try though idiot.

for someone who could careless, you sure do post a lot of "bloray" crap on here.

what are you bipolar? did you forget your meds?

Wow yet an other insult. I see how this works its ok for people to say HD DUD but its not ok to say bloray. I see no double standard there. Whatever..

And yes I could careless.

O this thread is hilarious!

Keep the insults coming!

On second thoughts, lets not.

Fantastic news!

******TOSHIBA JAPAN CEASES HDDVD PRODUCTION*****
The "war" is officially over in Japan.

This was the first story on the 7PM daily news program on NHK News today Feb 16th.

Web site link:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/ne...16/d20080216000104.html

Video Link:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/ne...v20080216000104_mh.html

Very poor translation using Babelfish:
(but you get the picture)

? SONY and the Matsus***a Electric Co. and Hitachi etc. implement centering on the next generation DVD who long haul can record hi-vision image of high picture quality, the "blue ray disk" and, the leadership dispute whose two systems of ? Toshiba and Microsoft etc. "HDDVD" are extreme was unfolded. But, offensive posture is strengthened e.g., the result of sale competition of the re-gray fabric and the video recording machine which materialize from the latter half of last year, in the Japanese country the blue ray camp grasps the share of 90% or more. In addition, thing to die even with supply of the software of the movie and the like, after entering, that major movie company "Warner ?????" of Hollywood unifies to the blue ray, the HDDVD camp had let stand in inferiority e.g., it announces. According to the authorized personnel, receiving such circumstance, directs "HDDVD" "Toshiba" presently, extensively to stop the production of the equipment which is being advanced at the factory inside Aomori prefecture, the policy of withdrawing from business was set. As for sale of the equipment with the shop front we assume that for the time being it continues, but with the policy also new development cancelling, the Toshiba loss which accompanies the withdrawal of business is estimated those which rise to several 10000000000 Yen. Because of this, it goes round the standard of at one time video, like "VHS beta war" the standard dispute of the next generation DVD whom the manufacturer unfolds became the prospect that it is standardized in fact by the blue ray.

it's always fantastic to see a company win a niche market :)

If Blu-ray is niche, what is HD DVD?

I find it laughable how people get when faced with defeat.

I concur.

You're joking right? Funny stuff. Niche markets don't make the top story of the evening news.... then again this is Japan so maybe where you live things are a little different. Well, at least you have internet access... good for you.

also niche.

Thanks.

Both have a tiny insignificant market share so that makes it niche.

Yeah, iPODs had a tiny insignificant market a few years ago too.

Some products make and some don't. You make it sound like every product is will be a hit. Frankly Apple did great with marketing to make that lame MP3 player to be recognized standard that it is.

"faced with defeat" not me as i have neither einstein

i've seen 1 ipod in my travels, and that is not an attempt at trolling, i've literally seen 1, so it must be a niche :)