The Last Act
by Pravin on February 19th, 2008 in news.
Toshiba will cease developing and marketing HD DVD players and recorders, and their HD DVD business will be over by the end of March — that’s the announcement that Toshiba’s president Atsutoshi Nishida made at a press conference that HD DVD fans were hoping would only come in around 10 years or more.
A press release (listed below) came out at about the same time as the announcement, and thanks to Engadget’s live blogging from Tokyo, we know at least the following was also discussed at Q&A session after the announcement:
- Sales numbers going into December were strong, and they were extremely surprised by Warner’s CES announcement
- No immediate plans to make Blu-ray machines
- Nothing to announce about any other next-gen optical discs at this time
- About
730,000units were sold worldwide, 600K of them in the US and 100K in Europe
This number was corrected after the press conference to 1.3 million: 600K standalones and 300K Xbox 360 add-ons in the USA, and 300K PCs worldwide with HD DVD.
You can read more of the Q&A directly at Engadget’s report.
Here’s the official press release:
Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses
19 February, 2008
Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content
TOKYO–Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.
“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 Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”
Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.
Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.
This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.
Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.
It’s likely that we’ll be hearing from the other HD DVD related companies pretty quickly. I’m sure we all want to know how Universal, Paramount, and DreamWorks movies will be released or phased out, and Blu-ray owners are probably interested in finding out when they can look forward to movies from these studios on their format.
Microsoft already made a statement about the exit of HD DVD not necessarily being significant for the Xbox since no games ever relied on the technology, but I’m sure people will be curious about what to expect in the immediate future for the 360’s HD DVD add-on drive.
We’ll also want to hear from retailers about how they’re going to be phasing out HD DVD from their shelves. It will be especially important to learn about how the movies will be handled. Will they continue to be stocked and sold (at least online) until everything runs out, and beyond this end-of-March date that Toshiba has set for their own HD DVD cessation?
The weeks ahead will probably bring out more stories (or theories) about how things really went down behind the scenes with the various companies inside and outside the HD DVD camp, and some of those will be interesting to read.
We’re still planning on being around at this site for a while, though there’s obviously going to be less to cover in the HD DVD world. There’ll be those insider stories, for example, and probably some useful information about different kinds of sales.
UPDATE: The first of Toshiba responses from outside of Tokyo comes from Olivier van Wynendaele in Europe. Nothing significantly new in his remarks, but you might want to read them over at WHAT HI*FI. He mentions that Toshiba will continue to support their existing customers in terms of servicing the players both in hardware and firmware. He also spoke to Pocket-Lint.co.uk, and you might want to read that just to get van Wynendaele’s whole story for the day.
UPDATE: As people start getting to their offices in the US, we now have a little report from UPI about Toshiba’s Yoshi Uchiyama, group VP of the digital A/V marketing group reiterating the news from Japan, “recent market developments have led us to the decision to choose new and different paths.”
UPDATE: It’s starting to be time for people in Hollywood to get to their offices this morning, and we now have quick word via High-Def Digest that Universal has announced that they will be releasing titles on Blu-ray. Craig Kornblau, President of Universal Studios Home Entertainment said, “While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray.”
UPDATE: British site, Pocket-Lint is reporting that LG wants to continue their dual-format efforts, despite Toshiba’s exit from the HD DVD scene. I’m sure they’ll reconsider in another month, but you can read more about it over at Pocket-Lint.co.uk.
UPDATE: In an unexpected act of compassion, Warner says they have no change in plans after Toshiba’s announcement. This means they’ll go right on ahead with their scheduled releases including I Am Legend and Twister. The same article over at Video Business also quotes a Blockbuster spokeswoman saying they’ll keep carrying HD DVD titles “so long as there’s demand.” I’m not sure if that really means much considering they only carried them in a few stores, but it might be good news if it carries over to the online operation since we already know Netflix is bailing.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:47 am
I’m sure many people have something to say on this occasion. As usual, the discussion is geared towards HD DVD owners, so detractors should not be too surprised if their comments aren’t being allowed through.
February 19th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Kinowelt: planned “Terminator 2″ on HD DVD is still comes out in march
Maybe Interessting..
@Pravin
I hope you still keep up the hddvd.com for a while, and thx for all neutral news we was able to read hier.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:29 am
I am sorry to hear this. As a past owner of items like Atari 1200XL and Amiga computers, I know the financial pain when a product has the legs pulled out from underneath. It will be interesting to see if the HDDVD owners will continue their loyalty to while Toshiba has clearly turned it’s back on them.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:33 am
I know I’ve said it before, but I will say it again… Thank you Pravin for your hard work on the site. Despite the sad news, will you still be doing the weekly movie release updates? I hope so. Thanks again!
February 19th, 2008 at 5:56 am
I have always come to HD DVD.com for neutral information, and felt had the war been on the otherside you guys would have accepted victory a little more tactful than the bluray guys. I hope you keep hddvd.com for a while just to keep us up to date on price changes and what not. In my opinion its still a great avenue for HD content that you probabley won’t see come out on Blu for some time. Thank You for giving us the complete story instead of a one sided rumor.
-Justin-
February 19th, 2008 at 5:58 am
At least the end of the format war will make more consumers a little less apprehensive about upgrading from standard DVD, which is what progress is all about. I also think this happened really quickly, considering that even a day before Warner Bros. decided to abandon their ‘format neutral’ stance, the numbers could have gone either way.
All in the Game.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:39 am
That sucks. I guess it was inevitable though. They went up against blu ray which has multiple big manufacturers and Sony owns one major studio with partial control of another.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:01 am
I just feel like yet again the consumer is screwed, im actually a blu ray guy but i have good mates who brought hd-dvd and now it jus sucks as now or eventually its jus gonna be a expensive paperweight, these people are all good hard working peoplw who now will have to buy everything again, you would think in this day and age b4yjey bring something like these machines they would decide like dvd that there wud b one major format!!
February 19th, 2008 at 7:13 am
I have one question I haven’t seen answered in any of the coverage. What about the offer for free movies when you a buy a new player? Will that still be honored for players already purchased? Will it still be honored for players purchased later this month? I’m still thinking about buying an HD DVD player if the prices drop enough (we’re talking, if they get to $100 for an HD-A35). I’d like to pick up some Universal titles in High-Def now instead of waiting for their eventual release on Blu-Ray. As some of the titles I want are older, catalog titles (from the 80s), I’m still not sure if Universal will ever (re)-release them on Blu-Ray.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:14 am
K Bill: I have my Ataris and Amiga stored away in the garage, and going through those experiences in the past, as well as other kinds of stuff in life makes a lot of things about the format war be fairly predictable. Even down to how you keep going on after your side is out.
Toshiba has not turned their backs, they’ve simply done what was going to be done by whoever had to exit. In fact, they’ve said (though not at this press conference) that they will continue to support their HD DVD hardware for 8 years, though production is officially halted.
Bill: The free movies offer expires at the end of this month, and the HD DVD phase-out will be completed by the end of next month. I am sure that they’ll continue to honor those rebates for the 9 days left in the rebate program.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:32 am
A sad day indeed. I do applaud Toshiba for making the announcement as quickly as they did. They could have dragged this out a bit further, but didn’t. I like to think that Toshiba was looking out for its customer’s best interests when this decision was made. And yes, I’m sure that the financial side was important. You don’t get to be a major company by ignoring that.
@ Pravin: Although I’ve been coming here for awhile now, I’ve not been very active in the comments. Just want to say thanks for having one of the most unbiased site I’ve ever been in. Definitely a breath of fresh air.
@ everyone else: I’ve learned alot just by reading the comments here, so thanks for taking the time to post them.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Any chance of changing your domain name to betamax.com
February 19th, 2008 at 10:12 am
That name’s already taken. First by Sony and now by some German telecom operator.
But you’re welcome to bid on it and see how well it works out for you.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Hrmm.
I’d not settled on either format, for this very reason. From a technical standpoint, yes, I’d always considered Blu-Ray to be superior. A higher capacity and bitrate, and essentially support for all the same codecs. Of course, even with the technical edge, the incomplete specification and the region coding are both marks against Sony’s baby and the free movies offer had me tempted to invest in HD-DVD.
What now? Well, hey, I might scour the sales, get myself a cheap HD-DVD player and enjoy some discounted movies that are bound to follow at the major retailers as they eradicate their stock of red media. I’m getting a wealth of available HD content at a great price, and eventually I can simply by myself a Blu-Ray player to go with it. I might just pick up both at once.
At the end of the day, of course, it sucks for the early adopters who had picked the losing format and invested heavily; it was destined to suck for one group of early adopters from the beginning, it just wasn’t clear which group. Kudos to Toshiba for doing the right thing and offering eight years of support on these players; you can at least take solace in the fact that the content you’ve already purchased will play for many years to come, even if you’re going to be required to make an extra outlay before you can enjoy any new releases.
The whole freakin’ industry should have agreed on a format before going to launch. Waging a war where the biggest casualties were loyal consumers did no-one any favours.
Past experience teaches me to know better, but here’s hoping a good twenty years before the next holy war!
February 19th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Well this is a shame, but we all saw it coming I guess. I really liked this site as it gave a very balanced and rational view of things from the HD DVD owner’s perspective. Not any of that rabid fanboyism seen elsewhere. Thanks for that.
I feel the better product simply got out maneuvered and out PR’d here. It offered a complete spec at prices the average consumer could enjoy. It’s truly a loss for everyone. I hope you continue the site in some fashion. I’m afraid it will be a long while before I want to invest in Blu because a playstation just isn’t my thing and most of the affordable players are already dated. I would think this site to be a great place to track new players and hardware releases for those HD DVD owners that do want to continue in the Hi-Def market and perhaps onto Blu at the right time.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:47 am
A sad day. Such good technology. I enjoyed my time with my HD DVD stuff and will keep enjoying it hopefully telling my son about the format war
in the future. I had a good time coming here and will stay to do so. hopefully Blur profile 3.0 will use some of the Toshiba patents 
February 19th, 2008 at 10:56 am
@Pravin I have only been visiting the site for a short time. I visit this site basically because it is not overrun by “fanboys” of either side. It’s fair and balanced. You don’t see that very much anymore. I appreciate the work you have done. I hope that the site can be maintained. I think there are quite a few of us who will still support your efforts.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I’m truly flattered to hear the kind words from everyone. The plans are to stick around and talk about whatever is relevant to the HD DVD community. Obviously, there’s going to be less and less to cover, but there’s bound to be something to discuss now and then.
It’s a good time to subscribe to the postings via email or RSS so that you can at least know when something interesting might be happening.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Hey Pravin,
Just wanted to stop by and drop some words. Thanks for the website, and I have to echo others in saying I hope you keep it going for a little while longer still. It’s been a great resource and I know we all appreciate the hard work and dedication you’ve shown by keeping it going this whole time, despite all the countless negativity that I’m sure you’ve received. Much respect to you.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:21 am
I have to chime in here and thank you Pravin for all of your good work. You have been informative an balanced in your writing and I hope you continue to stay with it for as long as you find it worth your while.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I am sorry to hear the announcement. Although I am a blu fans, I have to admit, without HD DVD, the cheapest BD player would be about $600 (PS3). Competition is good, but it turned bad when the price is low enough for general public to adopt it. However, I had to admit that I was often annoyed by the use of attach rate (counting PS3 on it) by HD DVD PRG, while exclude PS3 when counting the number of players sold. But it’s over now, and we should get along. Transformers on HD DVD was my first experience connecting online, and hopefully with BD Profile 2.0 will do the same or even better. (I am always a blu-ray supporter, but I was neutral buyer for a very short period – less than a month)
Please keep the site, as this is the only site that I know that is dedicated to HD DVD.
My condolence
February 19th, 2008 at 11:49 am
The funny thing is that this is actually the best time to buy an HD DVD player. Im sure the best players will be $100 soon, and you’ll be able to find movies at bargain bin prices. an you imagine $5-$10 movies? $20-$30 for Tv series?
February 19th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Re: Nutman
I certainly plan on upgrading mine when some of the nicer players drop in price. I have way too many discs not to justify having something top notch to play them on for years to come (and plan on getting more!).
February 19th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I dont think anyone actually beleived that HD-DVD was going to be around for another 10 years, dont know what the author ment by that.
While there isnt a big difference in the capabilities of an HD-DVD and a Blu-Ray, HD-DVD only has about 30% of the market for HD movies. And with store after store deciding to drop HD-DVD there was no way to remain open… how can you sell a product that Best Buy etc refuse to put on shelves?
Oh well anyone who has an HD-DVD player or combo drive will be able to pick up some cheap movies if they move quick enough… I wonder how fast I can get Transformers on Blu-Ray?
February 19th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
…and now my HD dollar is officially with held until 2009 thanks to expensive, obsolete players. Here’s to hoping 2009 holds a profile 2.0 sub-$300 Blu-Ray player. DVD player with component hook-ups, were heading to Blockbuster!
February 19th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I will never buy Blu-ray, the only question is when and how will Sony put their rootkit in Blu-ray?
February 19th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Actually for technically unbiased commentary, movie stuff – this place is the best.
Why not stick around and talk about HD AV technology in general, and even (gasp) Blu-ray.
I mean that seriously and with no disrespect. In due course the wounds will heal, profile 2 players
will be available and cheaply and we’ll still need a website that digs thru’ all the hype and fanboyism.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Why should Pravin talk about Blu-Ray? This is HDDVD.COM is it not? If anything he should focus on the HD underground / digital downloads on Microsoft.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
This site’s name is very specific and strongly implies a certain topic. I’m pretty sure that this place won’t stray too far from its original subject matter. If a topic is reasonably related to something that HD DVD owners might find interesting, then I’m sure it will be discussed. I wouldn’t count out a mention now and then about Blu-ray stuff, but that’s probably not going to happen very frequently.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Toshiba fought a good fight. I do give them a hands off on this one. There is nothing to be ashame of owning an HD DVD. I, as a matter of fact, bought another one today from Costco online (Toshiba A30). I bought one as a tribute and respect to HD DVD. I do have a question though. Will Toshiba still honor the 5 free HD DVD promo? Since it should not end until end of this month, I do hope so but does anyone know more about this officially if they will still honor it?
February 19th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I made the switch today and went purple, but at the same time I bought american gangster on hddvd, the people and the store looked at me strangely. I must say my A30 is a far far better device than my samsung bd-p1400 (which is the only one in my price range) The hddvd player looks better, loads the movie much much much much faster (the blu starts up slightly faster) and the hddvd player upconverts much better, and it seems much more mature in design and technology. I’ll be able to watch hd content from now on but will still enjoy my hddvd collection and upconvert dvds on toshiba’s wonderfully made device.
Sad day, but great work on the site I’ll frequently check back for updates, hopefully there will be some good news about deals, and luckily we still have some hope LG still plans to keep making combo players…. (for now)
February 19th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I wonder if they will honor it to. I wish they would sale the media a bit longer.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I’m sure the rebate will be honored it because it’s not like the company is filing for bankruptcy and going out of business. That’s about the only case where they may not have any legal obligation to honor the rebate.
All of you who are getting players right now — just make sure you have your receipts and get those rebates mailed out fast. The offer expires on Feb. 28, and I think you get another month to mail it in. Work quickly before some loophole arises that prevents you from getting your movies.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Just picked up 3 new HD DVD’s today
American Gangsters
Terminator 3
Corpse Bride
February 20th, 2008 at 12:51 am
I sold my HDDVD player about 6 months ago to someone over eBay. I feel bad now.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:14 am
The absolute best next-gen consumer video optical format didn’t win, and that is a horrible day for consumers. I’m really upset. HD DVD is truly the best format, and it’s very unfortunate to see it end. I really hold WB responsible, and have blacklisted Walmart and Netflix from my good list. I will never do business with these companies ever. Again, 2/19 consumers around the world lost a great format that was very affordable, built for the consumer and truly next-gen. Such a shame that there is the potential for one company to control the medium, the media, the content, the movies, the music and the hardware. This should be illegal by all means. WB bad news for taking the $500M from Sony, and the retailers for accepting compensation from Sony to abandon HD DVD.
Anyway great site Pravin, and thank you.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Pravin, bravo and thanks for your cool coverage of a very hot topic. I became purple awhile ago (with a Panasonic profile 1.1 unit), but vowed – because the upscaling (particularly on the Toshiba A35) is so good, that I wouldn’t be quad/quintuple-dipped again – after all, VHS, laserdisc & DVD – plus the occasional DVD reissue/upgrade – is enough. So, for me, it’s only going to be new releases. I’ve got my RSS set up for this site, so I look forward to further discussions.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:46 am
One thing I still wish Toshiba would do is make a plugin blu-ray player that would basically read the disc, and feed it into an existing hd-dvd player for processing and distribution to the components. It would be great if I could still utilize all the capabilities of my A35, and even better to thumb our collective noses at those over-priced, less sophisticated blu-ray players. This is one quick market ready to exploit! It would also go a long way towards thanking the million+ customers for their support and loyalty!
February 20th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I am sorry to hear the announcement. This is a very sad day and I’m really upset. Such a good technology and the best next-gen optical format didn’t win just because they wanted to rip off people. But there is nothing to be ashame of owning an HD DVD and I am very glad I have HD DVD player.
I will not buy Blu-Ray and will continue with DVD since my wonderful HD DVD players upconvert them to almost near HD quality and still I can enjoy HD DVD movies selection I have. I am proud I never gave up and didn’t and will not give my money to companies like Sony or Apple.
Anyway we still will be here and talk about HD and HD DVD. Thank you Pravin for your hard work on the site.
Well what I can tell for now about HD DVD is goodbye my love!
February 20th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
i guess i’m one of those fanboys of bluray, and have been since i bought my ps3. Ive never been on this site until today, and i have to say that after reading your comments i truly feel bad about the folks who spent their hard earned cash on hddvd. I’m not rich so i know what its like to spend on something you really don’t need. I could’ve easily been on hddvd’s side if i bought a 360.
GOOD JOB WITH THE UNBIASED WORK
February 24th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Darien, I have no regrets and have enjoyed every single HD DVD purchased. The player will bring me years of entertainment. Nevertheless I am very much upset over this horrible news. HD DVD such an amazing format, it does break my heart. Pravin, thank you again for this site. I’m just still very unhappy with this. A terrible thing.