DailyTech - Toshiba to Join Blu-ray Disc Association

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Blog: Gadgets Toshiba to Join Blu-ray Disc Association
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - August 10, 2009 8:58 AM

8 comment(s) - last by wallijonn.. on Aug 13 at 4:51 PM

Toshiba will offer BD Players and computers with BD drives this year

The HD format war was hard fought by both Blu-ray and HD DVD camps. Ultimately, it was the moviemakers that decided what format would win when Warner Bros. defected from the HD DVD camp and went Blu-ray only. After the defection, Toshiba quickly closed up the HD DVD shop.

After the defeat, Toshiba stayed out of the HD format disc player market, which many though hurt its business considering how competitive its DVD players are in some markets. Toshiba announced in July that it would be building its own Blu-ray players and entering into the Blu-ray device market.

As hard as it had to be for Toshiba to decide to go into the Blu-ray market, it would be very interesting if its Blu-ray products become some of the more popular ones available. Toshiba has announced today that it has applied to join the Blu-ray disc association and further confirmed it plans to offer Blu-ray products.

Toshiba says that it decided to join the Blu-ray Disc Association based on increasing market demand from retailers and consumers. The company will offer digital products supporting Blu-ray in both standalone BD players and computers that feature Blu-ray capability. Full details on the timing of product release and the products are unavailable at this time. Toshiba says that it plans to launch the products this year and more details will be offered closer to launch.

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HD DVD rebranded & sold as CBHD

By crystal clear on 8/10/09, Rating: 0

By crystal clear on 8/10/2009 9:27:03 PM , Rating: 0

Toshiba says that it decided to join the Blu-ray Disc Association based on increasing market demand from retailers and consumers.

At the same time they promote their HDDVD techonolgy in China.

They rebrand their HDDVD techonolgy as CBHD !

CBHD, formally known as CH-DVD, is a Chinese version of Toshiba's HD-DVD format.

The advantage of CBHD is manufacturing price. Apparently, a production line of DVDs can be fitted to make CBHD discs for a mere $800,000, compared to the $3m needed to do the same for Blu-Ray.

Vendors also pay a royalty of 55 yuan (about $8.10) to make a CBHD player, which beats Sony's Blu-Ray fee.

Retail cost of CBHD discs worked out to about US$7.40, while Blu-Ray discs cost US$29.60—close to what they do in the USA.

Meanwhile, the discs are almost as cheap to press as DVDs.

TV Tokyo visited Gome, a major retail chain in China, where CBHD discs and players were flying off the shelf, while Blu-Ray players and discs languished. They also visited a factory for one of the largest CBHD manufacturers. Sources in these companies tell TV Tokyo that, in the China market, CBHD already constitutes some 30 percent of all disc players sold, while Blu-Ray accounts for 10 percent, similar to its penetration in the USA. DVD is responsible for the remaining 60 percent. That China has achieved 30 percent CBHD penetration, the sources say, reflects the strength of the format, as well as the determination of a nationalistic Chinese government and industry seeking to avoid foreign licensing fees on DVD and BD technology and make a greater profit on domestic sales.

Indeed, if the CBHD scaleup is so rapid, and costs so low, why not take the new format beyond China's shores? The engineer interviewed at the CBHD factory believes there's a strong market for the player in other emerging countries, and that the new format could come to dominate HD sales in other parts of the world, and possibly even in western strongholds where Blu-Ray is currently the only physical HD format in town.

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/08/homeg...

Expect CBHD to kil B R in a year or two due to their cheap prices that B R will not be able to offer.

All the major studios will soon offer their contents in CBHD format for the Chinese market as it is the only format that really sells there.

The content providers cannot afford to see their contents sold on pirated version of CBHD,so they have NO choice but to provide the contents in CBHD format.

Once that is done then CBHD will be sold all over the world at prices so cheap that nobody can compete with them.

RE: HD DVD rebranded & sold as CBHD

By SSDMaster on 8/11/2009 1:25:03 PM , Rating: 2

Wrong.
Blue Ray sounds cooler.
That's all that matters.

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RE: HD DVD rebranded & sold as CBHD

By crystal clear on 8/12/2009 9:40:26 AM , Rating: 2

Wrong !

Blue Ray is expensive !

CBHD sounds cooler for the pocket !

PRICE !!! a major deciding factor for mainstream buyers.

Price That's all that matters.

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A jagged little pill

By Chaser on 8/10/09, Rating: -1

RE: A jagged little pill

By Fox5 on 8/10/2009 1:26:19 PM , Rating: 2

Well, it's a few years later, blu-ray players have come down in price, now if only the disks would.

Still, had HD-DVD been the chosen format, we would have seen hd disks take off in 2007 instead of 2009. The slightly more expensive format caused a slight delay, but with digital distribution still being a rather lame duck, it looks like blu-ray might actually succeed.

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RE: A jagged little pill

By bplewis24 on 8/10/2009 2:38:24 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
Still, had HD-DVD been the chosen format, we would have seen hd disks take off in 2007 instead of 2009.

Wrong. Which is party of the reason your "if" scenario never materialized in the first place.

"If" HD DVD had pulled off some sort of miracle victory in the format war and convinced Fox, Disney and Warner to go HD-DVD exclusively (assuming Sony would stubbornly hold out longer), it would have taken them well into 2008 to start rolling out titles much the way it took Paramount & Universal to start rolling out BDs. They would have had the benefit of using existing production facilities for manufacturing, but offset by the sheer volume of releases with 3+ studios making the conversion.

Not only that, but Toshiba was virtually the only big-name manufacturer of HD DVD players. So Sony, Sharp, LG, Samsung, Pioneer and Panasonic (leaving out the higher end players like Denon, etc) would have taken a while to start ramping up production of stand-alone HD DVD players. During this time, Toshiba would have actually RAISED prices on their players since they had been selling them at a loss for almost the entire last quarter of 2007 while they were barely hanging in the format war by the skin of their teeth. Pricing of HD-DVD players at each quarter would have mirrored BD players at each quarter. That would not have gone over well at retail and with consumers, but with virtually NO competition until the other manufacturers ramped up production, there would have been no alternative.

The reality is that new formats always cost more out of the gate, the new movies on the formats always come at a premium and reasonably intelligent people always knew that eventually prices would come down on both. Expecting prices to be at the level of DVD (a decade-mature format) within 1.5 years on the market was simply unrealistic and mostly spread by people with an agenda. That is why the format with a poorly conceived business plan failed, and the one built for long-term growth prevailed.

Oh, and prices on discs have been coming down all year. Welcome to 2009: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=1696...

Brandon

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RE: A jagged little pill

By wallijonn on 8/13/2009 4:51:51 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
it looks like blu-ray might actually succeed.

The PS3 can still bomb. And with it will go the best BD player available. Hopefully Toshiba will be able to market a BD player with the same reliability and features as the PS3.

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RE: A jagged little pill

By therealnickdanger on 8/12/2009 4:10:31 PM , Rating: 2

Too expensive? Keep in mind, Best Buy has sales like this every week and also that Amazon is typically even cheaper. If you know where and when to shop, Blu-Ray doesn't have to be expensive:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharse...

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