As I predicted in the previous posting, Toshiba made an announcement about their Blu-ray player right on time for the IFA show.
There will be pictures and interviews at the gadget sites, but here’s the scoop on what Toshiba included in their press release:
- Model: BDX2000
- Available in November for $249
- BD-Live Profile 2.0 and Bonus View
- SD card slot so that you can store any downloaded content
- does not play HD DVD discs
I did not expect availability in November, however none of us should be surprised that the BDX2000 supports the complete interactivity of the platform, since this kind of feature was already available on HD DVD players. The $249 price is pretty amazing, and is likely to catapult Toshiba towards the top of the list of popular Blu-ray players.
What do you think? Are you miffed about no HD DVD compatibility? I think it would have been nice to include, but would have confused some customers about HD DVD discs, and would also have made the player a little more expensive.
UPDATE: CNet points out that competing players in this price range offer Netflix and YouTube. I suspect these can be added via firmware updates. We’ll find out soon enough as more technology sites start picking up this story and begin to interview Toshiba reps.
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I am not miffed, but disappointed. I mean Toshiba owns the rights to the HD DVD format, you think that they would have included a decoder for free in the firmware upon release of their first player(BD). It all comes down to why now, and why not? I still own twice as many HD DVDs as BDs but I still have to have two players?!? What gives Toshiba? Maybe Microsoft will release an add on BD player with HD DVD compatability. I know most of us here are die hard fans of HD DVD, well those of us that have stayed here checking the site everyday, will always love HD DVD and our collections. So with that said maybe Tosbiba will remember the good old days of new releases in the HD DVD format and include a combo unit in the near future.
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Like the old saying “If you can’t beat them…then join them”.
I too would have like to see a combo player, but I suspect maybe Toshiba can’t produce HD DVD as they might have written off that part of the business for tax purposes????? I’m not sure it would’ve confused consumers since it pretty hard now to find HD DVD at retail.
BTW…Whatever happen to XDE??? I thought it was supposed to be the next best thing??????
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Actually, Toshiba hasn’t given up on the XDE front. They showed the XDE600KE which has a USB port to allow you to view DivX movies and pictures, and a slimmer look.
September 4th, 2009 at 5:01 am
I, too, am disappointed having no HDDVD playback. It’s like having a BD player not being able to play regular DVDs, CD music and VCDs. But then again, you never know in their future model releases. This is just their first so let’s hope that in their future release that they’ll have HDDVD playback compatibility. In the meantime, I’m happy with my A35.
September 4th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Damn.
Really wnated the HD-DVD playback from the Toshiba BD player, damn,…….
Guess I won’t be buyin this……..
September 4th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Toshiba really messed up on this. They could have shown support for all of us that bought in to the HD DVD format by just making a model that was compatible. How hard would that have been? Basically they are saying “Hey, we messed up, but we do not really feel like helping you out”. I wonder what will happen to me and my huge HD DVD library when my players die. Can you say Ebay?
September 5th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Pravin, you should make a post about this: http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Anthem_Films/Disc_Announcements/Deadlands_2:_Trapped_on%E2%80%A6_HD-DVD!!/3382
September 5th, 2009 at 9:20 am
I received a copy of the press release directly from the filmmakers and our own article is going up soon. Anyone in a hurry can follow through to the high-def digest link you provided (which the comments editor does not seem to like because of the punctuation marks in the link).
September 11th, 2009 at 11:15 am
I am very disappointed at Toshiba. For the price, there should of been HD DVD compatibility.
September 11th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I’m glad to see Toshiba has realized 480i upconversion is nothing compared to native 1080p video. Getting into Blu-ray is an excellent move, and perhaps they’ve applied all their research on upconversion to the DVD-playing part of this player. That’d make it a pretty sweet Blu-ray rig.
Do I wish it also played HD-DVDs? Of course! I’m not surprised it doesn’t though; it was probably a requirement of joining the BDA that they no longer make anything HD-DVD. Either that, or it was required to write off the HD-DVD losses. Or it was excluded to keep the expenses down. Whatever the case, I didn’t expect them to support HD-DVD in this player. Maybe if we’re vocal enough, they’ll put out a combo player… but I doubt it.