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Sony, Warner Bros. deliver a stinging blow to Toshiba, HD DVD Group
Is this the final nail in the coffin for HD DVD?

The news just continues to sour for the HD DVD camp. Earlier today, DailyTech reported that Warner Bros. decided to go Blu-ray exclusive by the end of May 2008. Warner Bros. executives backed their decision by saying that the move was beneficial for consumers.

"A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry," stated Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group President Kevin Tsujihara.

Toshiba, clearly stunned by the announcement, issued a press release of its own stating its disappointment with the decisions by Warner Bros.

"We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and valuate potential next steps," said Toshiba in a statement. "We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer."

It looks as though the fallout from the Warner Bros. move is coming fast and furiously. The DailyTech inbox was just moments ago greeted with the following message from a Toshiba representative regarding CES press meetings and the scheduled HD DVD press conference:

Based on the timing of the Warner Home Video announcement today, the HD DVD Promotional Group has decided to cancel 1:1 press meetings at CES, in addition to the press conference that was scheduled for Sunday evening. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause…

We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps. We believe the consumer continues to benefit from HD DVD's commitment to quality and affordability -- a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on new developments around HD DVD.

It looks as though HD DVD may be on life support considering this latest series of events. Many consumers have been disheartened by the whole HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war, but it looks as though a white flag may soon be planted.

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The "consumers" made this inevitable
By KingOfOldSkool on 1/4/2008 11:26:11 PM , Rating: 1
@jpeyton and ATC - Couldn't have said it any better myself

Bottomline, the Blu-Ray sales numbers over the holiday season (even in spite of $99 HD-DVD players) were the writing on the wall of the HD-DVD group.. I'm not saying HD-DVD will go away completely.. but fanboys need to come to terms with the fact that Blu-Ray is the "consumers" choice.. and unless HD-DVD fanboys start buying thousands of HD-DVD discs themselves.. there various rambling in tech forums do not hold the same weight as the sales numbers.




RE: The "consumers" made this inevitable
By daBKLYNdoorman on 1/4/2008 11:32:42 PM , Rating: 1
poor HD-DVD. t'was a good format.


RE: The "consumers" made this inevitable
By computergeek485 on 1/4/2008 11:45:14 PM , Rating: 4
With the death of widespread HD-DVD means the death of affordable High Def players for the masses if sony has anything to say about it. If HD-DVD completely disappears look to see the Blu-ray players price double just because sony can and will do something like that.


RE: The "consumers" made this inevitable
By jpeyton on 1/5/2008 12:16:14 AM , Rating: 5
Did the death of Beta double VHS prices?

Did the death of DIVX double DVD prices?

*If* Sony doubles their prices, buy a Samsung, Sharp or Panasonic instead. Blu-Ray has wide support from manufacturers who will compete for your dollar.


By Master Kenobi (blog) on 1/5/2008 12:18:24 AM , Rating: 2
Toshiba could hit back by dropping the licensing cost for HD DVD to bedrock prices, causing a shit ton of knockoff players to hit the market. This would push market penetration.


By jpeyton on 1/5/2008 12:23:38 AM , Rating: 5
Of course they will. Either that, or take warehouses full of HD-DVD players to the desert and bury them.

The only problem, of course, is convincing a consumer electronics company to invest a significant amount of money behind a movie format that is destined for failure. R&D costs, materials/manufacturing costs, marketing costs, and then having to compete with Toshiba's unbelievably low retail prices...I'm not sure if any company wants to bite that bullet.


RE: The "consumers" made this inevitable
By reader1 on 1/5/2008 11:11:03 AM , Rating: 2
That wouldn't matter. At this point it's clear everybody wants one format. People would rather have one format fail then have both on the market. HD-DVD is now under a lot of pressure to withdraw as a drawn out war will only continue to confuse and irritate customers.


RE: The "consumers" made this inevitable
By omnicronx on 1/5/2008 12:53:14 PM , Rating: 2
Although it probably won't, it very well could make a difference. RCA/Phillips dropping licensing fees on VHS put the nail in the coffin for BetaMax, could happen again.


By Mach Omega on 1/6/2008 4:03:51 AM , Rating: 3
But VHS had the edge and just drove the nail in the coffin of Beta. HD-DVD is the BetaMax in this scenario.

Not to bring up an old argument, but people have forgotten that Beta was significantly superior to VHS. For that matter, MiniDisk kicked the sh!@ out of cassette from a technical standpoint. Proprietary formats may suck but the majority of Sony's have been significantly superior to the competition (except Memory Sticks, which I have always thought sucked ass). MS doesn't catch near as much crap as Sony and it pushes a load of proprietary formats (MS Office, WMAnything). The Internet has just made it impossible for any of them to gain overwhelming traction.


By mars777 on 1/6/2008 2:06:41 AM , Rating: 2
And if Sony responds with licencing pricecuts?

And remember that Sony has more room for price cuts than Toshiba, and that would add more to the fact that HDDVD is losing badly.

I'm not sure that at this point thay have a solution.

Damn cheap players didn't contribute to sales, why would a few % cheaper player make the difference?


RE: The "consumers" made this inevitable
By TP715 on 1/5/2008 1:42:44 AM , Rating: 5
At $400 to $1300 a unit street price, Sony, Samsung, Sharp, or Panasonic don't have to double their prices to keep me (and probably a lot of other people) away from high definition.


RE: The "consumers" made this inevitable
By Chaser on 1/5/2008 3:32:37 PM , Rating: 4
No surprise that scores a 5 in the HD love fest here at DT's forums. Wipe your tears friends. There's a full featured BD player for $299.00 and prices will continue to fall without needing desperate fireside Walmart sales.


By Spuke on 1/9/2008 6:29:00 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
There's a full featured BD player for $299.00
Too bad $300 is STILL too expensive. I'll wait for the $100 BD player then I'll get one.


By cochy on 1/5/2008 12:41:00 AM , Rating: 4
Silly comment. Blu-ray has more widespread manufacture support than HD-DVD. Prices will fall just like every other technology.


RE: The "consumers" made this inevitable
By EglsFly on 1/5/2008 4:37:28 AM , Rating: 5
If Sony was the only company making Blu-Ray players, your comment might actually be something worth reading, but in this case its the other way around.

There are more hardware companies making Blu-ray players than HD-DVD. Major Blu-Ray brands such as Panasonic, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp, Sony, LG, etc...
Major HD-DVD player brands..... Toshiba....

I'm just glad this format war finally appears to be coming to an end.


RE: The "consumers" made this inevitable
By djc208 on 1/5/2008 8:02:30 AM , Rating: 2
True but Sony does own the patents so they get to determine the license costs. If HD-DVD dies they'd be stupid not to retain or even increase those fees, it's not like you could go to another format.

It wouldn't be the first time a company has done so. I think Sony already showed this with the PS3, they wanted a fortune for their developer kit at first since it was the console to beat. They dropped the prices when the 360 and Wii beat them.

Something's keeping BD player costs high, if they use the same laser with different optics how come I can get a HD-DVD player for almost half what a BD player will cost me? Only recently has the PS3 been useated as the cheapest BD player (barely) and Sony had to take a loss on every system to do that.


By michal1980 on 1/5/2008 9:54:49 AM , Rating: 1
your an idiot. its not like sony alone worked on blu-ray.

that is one of the most wide spread blu-ray lies I have heard over and over again.

the fees and license costs are speard amoung a wide group of people. and even with 'high' fees its not like the fee will be 100 dollars a machine.

Prices on players will drop without hd-dvd in the mix. Those license fees mean jake if you only sell one or 2 machines. The point of these fee's is to sell millions. of copies, and make a fee bucks each time.

--

but back to the sony = blu-ray. What kool-aid are these people drinking.

If you want to be closer to the truth, the 'only' company behing hd-dvd is toshiba, they allone stood out, they made most of the players, including the 'chinese' players, and just let compaines stick their names on it.

the only other manufactures where those making dual-format drives


By BansheeX on 1/5/2008 12:06:39 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
if they use the same laser with different optics how come I can get a HD-DVD player for almost half what a BD player will cost me


They are both using blue laser, but blu-ray's lens aperture is more aggressive technologically, meaning lower initially yields than HD-DVD. It would be the same as if DVD, when it was first being sold, had a competitor that was cheaper than it to start with but only stored 2.7GB of data. HD-DVD fans of today would probably support that format citing faster adoption and affordibility, etc. Of course, we know now how long DVD lasted and how the initially high costs of products always go down. But DVD didn't have a competitor at that resolution, so there was no consumer perception of "oh, its more expensive, what a rip-off." They simply accepted it and waited until it was affordable for them.

Blu-ray also uses a for-profit model, which is one of the reasons they have all the industry support and Toshiba has none. Consumers always want the lowest price, but companies also want to make money. Go figure!


By encia on 1/5/2008 9:42:04 PM , Rating: 2
Emm NEC and Sanyo for HD-DVD group.

Samsung and LG sells HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo drives.