Toshiba says it may end HD DVD
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Toshiba may pull the plug on its high-definition DVD format but no decision has been made, the Japanese electronics maker said in a statement Monday.
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Toshiba shares gain more than 5% on speculation the firm is about to shelve its high definition DVD format.
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Toshiba with NEC and Sanyo, are backing the next-generation DVD&#39;s called HD-DVD or High-Definition DVD. According to Toshiba and a disc maker, they have developed a dual-layer ROM disc which stores data in
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Toshiba struck another blow for its high capacity DVD technology yesterday when it announced a new disk which supports both the existing DVD and the HD-DVD format.
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Japan's Toshiba Corp  waved the  white flag in the high-definition home movie war on Tuesday,  giving up on its HD DVD format after losing the support of key  studios and retailers to the Blu-ray technology backed by Sony  Corp .
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Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD products, it said Tuesday, handing victory to rival high definition disc format Blu-ray Disc.The company will no longer develop, manufacture, and market HD DVD players and recorders.It will reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail markets and aims to cease the businesses altogether by the end of March.But the Japanese electronics giant pledged to provide full product support and after-sales service for owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.Recent changes in the market prompted the decision, Toshiba said. Early this year,&#160;Warner Bros. said it would stop issuing movies on HD DVD&#160;in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. The Hollywood studio was one of three major studios remaining in the HD DVD camp, and its defection created widespread belief that the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc was now over.More recently, major U.S. retail chain&#160;Wal-Mart announced it would phase out the sale of HD DVD products, moving to exclusivity with Blu-ray Disc. Electronics retailer Best Buy also said it would back Blu-ray Disc, but it did not say it would stop offering HD DVD.Warner made its decision based on consumer confusion and indifference to high definition movies, an indifference that cost Hollywood in lost revenue, it said. Wal-Mart said U.S. customers preferred Blu-ray Disc movies and hardware. Blu-ray Disc is the high definition disc format championed by Sony.&quot;This once again shows why incompatible and mutually exclusive formats should be avoided at all cost by the industry,&quot; said Carl Gressum, a senior analyst at Ovum. &quot;It reduces profitability and delays customer adoption.&quot;&quot;The big question is, however, the impacts on Toshiba as an electronics company,&quot; he added. &quot;It has after all bet its disc media business on HD DVD, as well as gone for HD DVD integration into some of its laptop PCs. The channel has inventory to clear, and demands from owners of HD DVD players.&quot;Toshiba said its decision came after careful analysis of the long-term impact of continuing the format war, and said a swift decision was called for to help the high definition market develop.The company also pledged to remain a player in the high definition market. Developing HD DVD created many assets for Toshiba and its partners, which include Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Universal Studios, the company said. Toshiba plans to work with these companies to seek future business opportunities.&#160;&#160;
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Japan's Toshiba Corp (6502.T) will  announce plans to cease production and sales of HD DVD players  on Tuesday, the Nikkei business daily said.
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Toshiba Corp is planning to give up on  its HD DVD format for high-definition video, conceding defeat  to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp, a  company source said on Saturday.
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The entertainment industry publication Daily Variety is reporting this morning that Universal is preparing to gracefully back out of its commitment to the HD DVD format.
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Not even a day after it had boasted about rapidly increasing player sales, Toshiba said Tuesday it would lower its sales target for HD DVD players in North America.
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Toshiba Corp  said on Sunday  its HD DVD high-definition video format is not dead despite  being dealt a big setback by Warner Bros studio's decision to  exclusively back Sony Corp's  rival Blu-ray technology.
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TOKYO, Feb. 18 -- Toshiba appears ready to ditch its HD DVD business, positioning Sony's Blu-ray technology as the likely winner in the format battle for the next generation of DVD players.
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Two days after it lost an important ally in the high-definition format battle, Toshiba put on a defiant face at the Consumer Electronics Show and declared the HD DVD format is a long way from being dead.&quot;We remain firm in the belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of consumers,&quot; said Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products, at a news conference. He said Toshiba was surprised by the announcement, which came on Friday, that&#160;Warner Bros. was dropping HD DVD&#160;and exclusively backing Blu-ray.&#160; &quot;We are especially surprised that this decision was made in spite of the significant momentum that HD DVD has gained in the U.S. market and other regions.&quot;Warner was the only major Hollywood studio releasing movies on both formats and the decision to go with Blu-ray Disc meant Toshiba has only two major studios, Paramount and Universal, backing its technology.The decision also left Toshiba with a potential public relations disaster as it came just days before CES, the annual North American gathering of the consumer electronics industry that kicks off officially here on Monday. In response to the Warner news the HD DVD Promotion Group canceled its news conference, leaving some to conclude that backers of the format were ready to concede defeat.&quot;As you can imagine this is a tough day for me,&quot; said Jodi Sally, vice president of marketing for digital audio and video products at Toshiba America Consumer Products. &quot;It&#39;s difficult for me to read all the pundits declare that HD DVD is dead. Clearly the events of the last few days have led you to that conclusion but we&#39;ve been declared dead before.&quot;But Toshiba might have a hard time convincing the analysts and media that follow the battle closely that HD DVD is still in the race.&quot;It&#39;s interesting the CEO said he was surprised. I think that&#39;s an understatement. Devastated would probably be more accurate,&quot; said Peter King, an analyst at U.K.-based Strategy Analytics, who attended the Toshiba news conference.&quot;They really have an uphill battle,&quot; he said. &quot;They are left with a couple of the smaller studios but there is no doubt the major studios have voted with their feet. It&#39;s hard to see now what they can do. Maybe focus on the PC market as a format, but they have a major struggle and that was very clear today.&quot;King wasn&#39;t willing to call the battle over just yet but he said a lot would depend on comments made during CES by other industry leaders, like&#160;Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is scheduled to speak in Las Vegas Sunday evening.But if the battle is over then what&#39;s bad news for Toshiba will be good news for consumers and the consumer electronics industry, he said. &quot;Everybody in the industry can get behind one format [and] start promoting. The message will be simple and clear, prices will come down and it&#39;s a good thing for the industry.&quot;Toshiba said 1 million HD DVD players are currently in the market in North America.In a statement issued on Saturday the company also expressed surprise over Warner&#39;s move &quot;despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD.&quot; On Sunday it didn&#39;t elaborate on those contracts or what its next move may be in the march to make HD DVD the de facto replacement for DVD for high-definition content.
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Microsoft shrugged off HD DVD&#39;s demise on Tuesday, declining to say if or when it would support Blu-ray Disc for the Xbox.Microsoft steadfastly backed HD DVD, selling an external drive for the Xbox for $129.99. That offer was still on the U.S. Xbox Web site as of Tuesday, despite the news that&#160;Toshiba will scuttle the format. Toshiba had been the lead electronics manufacturer in a coalition of companies pushing that format but content producers have thrown their support to Blu-ray.Microsoft&#39;s decision to make the HD DVD drive external rather than within the console &quot;was quite a strategic move on their part,&quot; said Paul O&#39;Donovan, principal analyst with Gartner.However, it&#39;s inevitable that future Xbox versions, as well as other gaming systems aimed at tighter integration with entertainment systems, will incorporate Blu-ray Disc drives, said O&#39;Donovan. The Xbox currently has a standard DVD drive.Sony gained momentum for its Blu-ray player by putting it in its PlayStation 3 console, according to research company IDC.The PS3&#39;s &quot;dual roles as a gaming console and a next-generation DVD player have made it an important part of the format war,&quot; according to the report.Prior to Toshiba&#39;s announcement, Microsoft downplayed the rumors of HD DVD&#39;s death, contending buyers are more interested in gaming functions.&quot;We do not believe the recent reports about HD DVD will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace,&quot; the company said in a statement. &quot;It is premature to speculate but we do know from market data that HD movie playback is not a primary purchase driver for consumers buying video game consoles.&quot;Microsoft, which started selling the external drive for $199 in late 2006, has dropped the price twice, to $179 last August finally to its current price, which varies by region.O&#39;Donovan agreed the company likely won&#39;t face declining sales of its Xbox gaming console. But Microsoft&#39;s greater problem may be getting rid of the external HD DVD drives in its inventory.HD DVD is &quot;dead and gone&quot; now, O&#39;Donovan said.&#160;
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While the Xbox currently supports Toshiba's HD DVD format, a Microsoft official today said the company would consider changing over to Blu-ray if consumers want it.
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Toshiba Corp (6502.T) said on Sunday  its HD DVD high-definition video format is not dead despite  being dealt a big setback by Warner Bros studio's decision to  exclusively back Sony Corp's (6758.T) rival Blu-ray technology.
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Microsoft Corp  does not  expect sales of its Xbox 360 game console to suffer if Toshiba  Corp  discontinues HD DVD technology, Microsoft said in  a statement on Monday.