Next-Gen HD Disc War is Over.
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:45 am
Though it may be a sad disappointment to some Toshiba has announced it is ending its HD-DVD line of products. Toshiba has said they will begin to phase out HD-DVD, completely removing it from shelves by March.
"We concluded that a swift decision would be best," Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters at his company's Tokyo offices.
Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said the decision made by Warner Bros. last month to move exclusively to Blu-Ray Disc made the choice inevitable.
"That had tremendous impact," he said. "If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win."
The Warner Bros. move to Blu-Ray also brought forth a few other major production companies such as Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox to make the same switch to Blu-Ray only making it even worse for Toshiba.
"Frank Simonis (Blu-ray Disc Association's spokesperson) said: "Of course we have always said that Toshiba and Microsoft, and any other company, is more than welcome to join the Blu-ray Disc Association. We are an open organisation, with an open disc standard. If Toshiba decides to drop HD DVD we would extend the hand of friendship to them, they are always welcome to join,".
"Microsoft could easily put Blu-ray inside the Xbox," said Simonis. "From my understanding Microsoft did an early evaluation and the Xbox has a similar processor to the PS3 so it will be perfectly capable of decoding a Blu-ray disc.
"So technically it could do it. All Microsoft would have to do is acquire a BD licence," he said.
Simonis dismissed the notion that Sony might be uncomfortable with Microsoft joining the Blu-ray camp. Some say that it's unlikely that Sony would want Microsoft to put a Blu-ray drive in the Xbox - because then it would be an even bigger threat to the PS3.
But Simonis said that Sony would not be able to stop such a move." -TechRadar.com
The question still remains what will now happen to the production companies such as Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation? Well so far nobody knows, Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said he is uncertain.
And most importantly what will happen to the more than a Million people who own a HD-DVD player, about 300,000 people who own a Xbox360 HD-DVD drive, and personal computers with HD DVD drives that total about 300,000, making up a total of almost 2 million HD-DVD players worldwide? We'll that one I can answer... Your all screwed.
"We concluded that a swift decision would be best," Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters at his company's Tokyo offices.
Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said the decision made by Warner Bros. last month to move exclusively to Blu-Ray Disc made the choice inevitable.
"That had tremendous impact," he said. "If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win."
The Warner Bros. move to Blu-Ray also brought forth a few other major production companies such as Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox to make the same switch to Blu-Ray only making it even worse for Toshiba.
"Frank Simonis (Blu-ray Disc Association's spokesperson) said: "Of course we have always said that Toshiba and Microsoft, and any other company, is more than welcome to join the Blu-ray Disc Association. We are an open organisation, with an open disc standard. If Toshiba decides to drop HD DVD we would extend the hand of friendship to them, they are always welcome to join,".
"Microsoft could easily put Blu-ray inside the Xbox," said Simonis. "From my understanding Microsoft did an early evaluation and the Xbox has a similar processor to the PS3 so it will be perfectly capable of decoding a Blu-ray disc.
"So technically it could do it. All Microsoft would have to do is acquire a BD licence," he said.
Simonis dismissed the notion that Sony might be uncomfortable with Microsoft joining the Blu-ray camp. Some say that it's unlikely that Sony would want Microsoft to put a Blu-ray drive in the Xbox - because then it would be an even bigger threat to the PS3.
But Simonis said that Sony would not be able to stop such a move." -TechRadar.com
The question still remains what will now happen to the production companies such as Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation? Well so far nobody knows, Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said he is uncertain.
And most importantly what will happen to the more than a Million people who own a HD-DVD player, about 300,000 people who own a Xbox360 HD-DVD drive, and personal computers with HD DVD drives that total about 300,000, making up a total of almost 2 million HD-DVD players worldwide? We'll that one I can answer... Your all screwed.