Toshiba HD DVD price cut a swan song?
Toshiba announced yesterday it was slashing prices of its HD DVD format players by up to 50 percent, effective immediately.
Toshiba announced yesterday it was slashing prices of its HD DVD format players by up to 50 percent, effective immediately.
Tis is perceived by many as a strategic move to boost sales in the wake of news that the biggest Hollywood studio, Warner Bros., will be abandoning HD DVD for its high-def disc rival, Blu-ray, joining the likes of Sony, MGM, Fox, Disney and Lionsgate.
Still committed to the HD DVD format, however, is Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks, though the recent Consumer Electronics Show proved Blu-ray has a lot more hardware to support the high-definition discs than the couple of new HD DVD players from Toshiba.
"While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer," said Toshiba executive Yoshi Uchiyama in a statement.
Toshiba’s players will now start as low as US $149 going up to US $399 for the top-of-the-line player. Stay tuned to Sync for new Canadian pricing.
The company says it will also continue with its ongoing promotions, including giving away five HD DVD titles for free with any of its HD DVD player.
The problem with some of the statements is that they say consumers chose Blu-ray… back room deals and envelopes of money were choosing the winner, not the consumer (on both sides, not just one of them). One statement MGM/Warner made to justify their abandoning HD-DVD was that blu-ray discs were out selling HD-DVD 3 to 2, but noted those numbers didn't include Planet Earth, which had a much bigger HD-DVD following. Seems fishie to me to not include a series of discs that cost $80 and is selling very well.
I am an early HD-DVD adopter, and am sad to say this, but Toshiba is too late with their price cut. They probably should have done it in the fall, when Paramount/DW switched exclusively to them. People would have flocked to stores to get Transformers and Shrek 3 with a player for Christmas.
I am not sure why you would really want to move your existing DVD collection to HD-DVD, or use your old movies to decide which format. Older movies are not going to look all that much better in HD, at least not enough to justify buying the movie twice. DVD will be around for atleast another 5 years.
I am surprised the porn industry hasn't weighed in yet, since they would be the deciding factor, like they were in VHS and in DVD (remember, there were other digital solutions like DAT competing with it).
DRM or Digital Protection is a joke.. any solution will not last more then a month before someone out there breaks it. The money they spend on attempting to make things uncopiable (is that a word?!) could be saved and they could make the prices lower on the movies and more people would just buy them. I think the music industry is finally starting to catch on to this and moving to get rid of it.
I am rambling.. just thought I would get my two-cents in… I would say "Let the best format win", but it isn't looking too good.
I paid $700 for an HD-X1 when it first came out. Blue Ray wasn't out yet and they were projecting a price of more than $1,000 when it did. I was about to spend $650 on a high-end upconverting machine from Sony so I thought, hey for $50 bucks I also get HD for whatever that's worth – turns out, it's not much.
The disappointment started pretty much from the beginning. The system takes forever to turn on, the controls are completely unresponsive, it takes nearly two minutes for the front loading drawer to open and god help you if you accidentally touch the open button twice – once the tray finally comes half way out it goes right back in and you're looking at another 2 – 3 minutes before you can get it back out again. Then there's the remote, black background with black text and no lighting. Makes trying to find the right key difficult in a lit room and pretty much impossible while watching a movie in the dark. In their defence when you finally get the movie into the machine and get it to start playing, it does an excellent job of upconverting and makes standard DVD's look great although I can probably purchase a $100 upconverting player that will do the same thing.
Then there's HD. It's like a crap-shoot trying to get them to actually play. Half the time it puts some lame error message up on the screen and then needs to be shut off to try again. After 4 or 5 attempts it usually plays but then I'm usually so frustrated that I don't want to watch anymore. I've rented HD movies three times and they absolutely will not play on my machine – no idea why. About the best thing that I can say about HD movies is that many of them have non-HD version on the other side so I can actually watch the movie – albeit at lower resolution.
Personally I'm glad that Warner Brothers pulled out, and that Microsoft / XBOX is indicating that they may support BlueRay. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that I will be switching to BlueRay when I purchase my next machine. Given that I haven't tested or even read any feedback on BlueRay systems, I hope that I'm not getting myself into a position where I'll be equally disappointed with that.
R.I.P. HD-DVD, I know mine will (rest in pieces that is ;-) the next time I get frustrated enough with it – 2008.
If you guys shop for a Blu-ray player recently, you should know that the cheapest one lists for $499 and on sale for $399 at Future Shop.
For the price of an upscaling DVD player, Toshiba is now giving you a HD DVD player. Sounds like a good deal to me.
If Toshiba can cut their prices in half, that tells me that they have been overpriced, and we have been getting the shaft when we buy them
WHO CARES WON'T BUY HD OR BLU DON'T SEE THE POINT DVD GOOD ENOUGH.
I hate to say it, but it seems Sony has waited just long enough after all…Just long enough that those of us old enough to remember Betamax, and willing to take the time to remind our youth, are far fewer than the millions of technosheep who have posted on blogs such as this, such nonsense!
Blu Ray is NOT the be all and end all. Sony had a winner with Betamax due to its superior quality. Unfortunately the cost was prohibitive and VHS lowered prices significantly enough to choke off even the sound of the Sony Betamax choking on it's own flegm.
Think about it. HD and Blu Ray side by side are 95% the same quality! With HD half the price AND 5 free movies thrown in, Sony either needs to match the offer dollar for dollar or throw in the towel.
Let's face it, economics will win yet again. Those too poor to buy into Blu Ray for $400 FAR outweigh those rich enough to say "it's pretty cool, it's the best and it only cost me $400"…
I myself could buy either, but I"ll my smart money on the $149 HD player and spend the other $250 on a movie renting spree. The smart movie studios will hop back on board and provide a the product that will sell millions, not thousands…
I think the relevant point is that as of June 1, 2008, only two major studios support HD DVD. And Neilson sales data just out for the week after the announcement by Warner show that sales of high definition discs were 85% Blu-ray and 15% HD DVD. That shows that the consumer has seen the trend away from HD DVD. (Before the announcement the sales ratio was about 65:35 for Blu-ray.)
Personally I don't own either format as I was waiting for the format war to end first and I'm guessing this was the same for many others. Now that Blu-ray has won, I'm eager to enter the hidef market sometime this year.
My Samsung DVD player as a USB port which helps me to elimante discs somewhat altogether. Why don't they make players that support files like a computer so formats are changeable and updateable for memory devices. We can purchase movies online or at a store on a memory device that fits in your pocket. Whatever new format comes out would able to fit on a SD card or memory stick. Plus all these CD's wouldn't end up in a land fill like our VHS tapes.
Hey DrVex007… I'm one of those 'idiots' that bought a PS3 and not one of crappy made xbox 360's… so by default i obviously use blu-ray simply because i use the system…. and last i saw, the normal DVD is still on the market so cry me a river about people not having a cheaper yet still mainstream option….
besides, when the majority of major studios are pro- blu ray… well lol, that must mean something….
off topic but just so you know, ps3 is a far superior piece of hardware compared to shitbox 360….
Beware the cruddy bus-stops on the road to finality. The physical medium (dvds) with which to transfer the message (movies) is a cash grab before the ultimate form comes about (downloading to your set-top). Netflix is already doing this. You don't buy cd's anymore because you're quite content to download the songs you need, so why have a dvd collection? To impress your friends? Smarten up people.
Many of us have been waiting for this to happen, and finally it has. One of the reasons Sony PS3 isin't doing all well is because of the blue ray connection. Nobody waited in line to purchase this console when it came out. Nothing like when it's predecessor or the X360 made their apprearanced. As for the fact of having more storage, the majority of consumers out there have no need for this feature. This war is still too early to make definitive choices, but I think the price drop will definately turn the tide over. Many have waited for this moment to make a decision, and after all it is the consumers purchases that control the outcome of this war. Sony is the company responsible for the Beta catastrophy in the past, who know's they do say history repeats itself.
It's only a matter of time… I really dont see tha point of buying an HD-DVD player even for $50 if I can't get anything to play on it in the future exept for my old DVD's. We all know that companies need to make money and if they ever said that "we built our product's with the consumer in mind" is pure B.S.! I don't see the deal at all in here. Let it die so we can move on… I'll bet ya we'll see you agian in 7-10 years debating about Super High-Def at 4000 lines of resolution and of course same issues… And for all you naive people who think that Consumers dictates what in or out…. I have one word for you guys!! "MICROSOFT"
He Gerry, you got to get your facts straight.. When the PS3 was launched last November 06, Someone was actually shot trying to butt in line that was started a week before. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2006/11/17/playstation-rowdies.html?ref=rss
It actually happened in Canada!!
My experience with Sony has never been good. Ranging from the Beat VHS days to today's DVD players. A $70 generic has more functionality and flexibility(PAL NTSC) than a Sony player. Why are we letting Sony gain the market here?
With the new PS3's going for 399 thats a good deal for what you are getting. And even if HD loses, blu-ray won't shoot up thier price…….find me an example where electronic goods go UP in price …………I would love to see crap box 360 eat crow and have to supply a blu-ray add-on. NOW THAT IS FUNNY.
I was on Maui over Christmas and saw a Sony Blu-Ray player at Costco for $269 (and should have picked it up). Also, it is not just HD-DVD that is offering free movies. If you go to the Sony website you can print the form to get 5 free Blu-Ray movies if you purchase your player (or PS3) before Jan 31/08.
Paramount has signed over with blu-ray as well; it was on the finincial page last week. Toshiba IS trying to dump it's stock and the sales of HD has been sluggish at best. Whether blu-ray is better then HD it doesn't matter now because if it only has the support of one movie studio it will die. GJ sony this time your beta max won! for those who remember the battle for vhs vs beta ;)
I agree with TJ…The cheaper more viable option will win out. HD DVD will now entirely flood the market with the players by lowering costs, there are many movies out there in HD DVD versions and when the production companies see the movement in sales as well as the amount of players out there they will undoubtably support them. Money has no allies and those companies who strive for it will go to wear the action is and not wait for it to hopefully even out.
My business 2 cents.I would say HD will be strong soon enough…Not a fire sale whatsoever…this is a "Flood the Market" sale
I find it remarkable that most comments I read about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are based upon PRICE. It seems a lot of end-user seem to feel the BETTER system is the cheaper one.
It is much simpler for movie companies to produce HD_DVD software because there is not much different technically between Standard Definition and H.D. DVD’s. I know I am simplifying a lot but if you change a red beam laser to a blue beam laser you have HD-DVD’s. Most duplications companies said great. They could still use most of duplicators with minor changes. The companies that produce product for Blu-ray invested in new technology.
I suppose if you purchased a 42“ Display from a Chinese manufacturing company you NEVER heard of before and at a price that was 25% lower than a SONY or a Panasonic. And you are of the believe that image size is all that matter and not resolution or performance, Then maybe a HD-DVD is the perfect format for you.
I got impressed with Blu-Ray because it offered newer technology. I was impressed that it offered Blu-ray software (movies) and Blu-Ray data disks. I have looked at Sony computers that have a Blu-Ray drive that store 50 Gb. of data. (HD-DVD is just 37 Gb.)
I am very disappointed that Apple did not offer any new units with a Blu-Ray Drive at Macworld this week. I hope at the next Apple event ( mid April) they show a computer with a Blu-Ray drive. I wonder if Apple is waiting for the 4 layer media that will offer 100 Gb. on ONE disk.
BETA,DAT,LASERDISC,3 SIDE LP's?… Sorry Toshiha… the dance is over.