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Tag: hd-dvd

  • Toshiba Enters Blu-ray Group

    Toshiba announced that the company has applied for membership of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) and plans to introduce products that support the Blu-ray format.

    Almost seven-year format war is over. Toshiba, the primary backer of the HD DVD format, which has been defeated after a number the largest movie studios (e.g. Warner Brothers) and U.S. rental services and retailers announced the exclusive support for Sony backed Blu-ray products, finally decided to join Blu-ray group.

    “In light of recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers alike, Toshiba has decided to join the BDA,” says the company’s brief statement.

    Toshiba aims to introduce digital products that support the Blu-ray format, including BD players and notebook PCs integrating BD drives, in the course of this year.

    The first rumors of the company’s new HD strategy appeared in June this year, when the Toshiba’s president, Atsutoshi Nishida, told shareholders at the annual shareholder meeting in Tokio, that the company is considering making Blu-ray products.

    Later, at the end of July, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun raported that Toshiba would introduce a Blu-ray player called BD-18 before the end of the year. Thus the latest company’s announcement didn’t surprise anyone at the HD market. The decision to support Blu-ray format is considered a good (and the only logical) business move.
     

  • Toshiba Blu-ray Player By Year End as Format Sales Grow


    More flesh has been added to Toshiba’s plans to bring out a Blu-ray player – it is likely to be called the BD-18 and could be available as soon as the year end.

    The company, which backed the HD DVD high-definition format that eventually lost to Sony’s prevailing Blu-ray, had stubbornly maintained it would not bring out a Blu-ray player and instead focused on its XDE DVD-upscaling technology.

    Then it emerged last month at its annual shareholder meeting in Tokyo that Toshiba had finally accepted it could no longer ignore the opportunities Blu-ray products offer.

    Now the Japanese electronics giant is planning a Blu-ray player, for its home market initially, according to the Japanese paper Yomiuri.
    A Blu-ray recorder is also being considered.

    A rumored USD $1B financial hole caused by the HD DVD failure appears to be a big motivation for Toshiba’s shift in stance to Blu-ray.

    The development comes as the Consumer Electronics Association publishes a reports pointing to burgeoning shipments of Blu-ray disc players in the second half of the year.

    These are expected to contribute to a 112 per cent increase in unit sales by the end of 2009.

    The growth in unit shipments should take the total to nearly 6 million for the year, which despite falling prices will ensure revenues top USD $1 billion, an increase of 48 per cent over 2008.

    Average Blu-ray player unit prices have falled closer to the USD $200 price point.

  • Rising Demand Makes Toshiba Reconsider Blu-Ray Products


    Ever since losing the high-def format war to Blu-ray, Toshiba has resolutely refused to join the enemy camp and start manufacturing Blu-ray products.

    Until now that is. According to reports coming out of its annual shareholder meeting in Tokyo, Toshiba is considering making Blu-ray products.

    The company’s president, Atsutoshi Nishida, told shareholders that Blu-ray recorders in particular appear to be a viable option, reports CrunchGear.

    The logic appears to be that with demand for Blu-ray recorders increasing (especially in Japan) Toshiba cannot afford to miss out on a slice of that market.

    There is also Toshiba’s current financial plight – although for the current fiscal year, Nishida said his company is expected to save USD $3.5 billion after a poor 2008.

    The company’s change of attitude comes as a survey by Harris Interactive suggests the picture for Blu-ray is still far from rosy.

    It shows that the percentage of American adults with a HDTV is up from 35 in May 2008 to 47 per cent today.

    But the only 7 per cent of Americans own a Blu-ray player – up from 4 per cent a year ago. By comparison, 11 per cent of Americans own a machine that plays the now-defunct HD DVD format.

    Milton Ellis, VP and senior consultant for Harris Interactive, said only 7 per cent of non-Blu-ray owners is considering buying a Blu-ray disc player within the next year, down from 9 per cent in May 2008.

    He said Blu-ray adoption is being hampered by competition from alternative technologies, such as cable and satellite TV and the Internet, all of which offer HD content.

    "Consumers today can easily watch high-definition TV channels or use the Internet or video-on-demand to access high-definition movies," he said.

    "In the near future, access to high-definition movies may be a download or streaming delivery of one’s favorite movies to a home media server that eliminates the need for a Blu-ray player and Blu-ray disc."

    However, the Blu-ray Disc Association has challenged the accuracy of the Harris Poll.

    It said the Harris survey doesn’t chime with actual shipping and sales numbers for Blu-ray.

    The BDA cited Adams Media Research data that puts the numbers closer to nearly 8 per cent for Blu-ray and less than 1 per cent for HD DVD.

    Calling the Harris data "grossly inaccurate", the news release states that by the end of 2009, Blu-ray players will be in nearly 15 per cent of American TV homes.

    Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research, suggested the Harris survey findings were a result of consumers’ inability to identify what exactly is next to their TVs.

    "Some people believe a DVD player on an HDTV is high-def," he said.

    "There’s just so much confusion out there. Everybody makes mistakes, but we have models that show those numbers just can’t be true."

  • Warner Offers Blu-Ray For HD DVD Trade-in


    More than a year after the high-def format war ended Warner Bros has launched a new HD DVD trade-in program in the US that allows its HD DVD titles to be exchanged for the same film on Blu-ray for a small fee.

    Called Red2Blu, it allows consumers to get the Blu-ray titles for USD $4.9 (USD $9.95 for boxsets), without needing to trade in the actual HD DVD discs, just the cover art (with UPC code) from the red HD DVD cases.

    Shipping costs a flat rate – and hefty – USD $6.95 and the offer extends to a maximum of 25 films per household.

    Warner has all 128 titles available for "upgrade" and return delivery time is between 4-5 weeks.

    Warner is also launching its first Blu-ray Disc customer loyalty program.

    The WarnerBlu Get 5 Get 1 Free scheme enables consumers to receive a free Blu-ray movie for every five featured titles they buy up until 6 April, 2010.

    Among the first eligible titles counting towards the five purchases are Yes, Man, which was released this month, He’s Just Not That Into You and Gran Torino.

    The selection of free Blu-ray movies includes We Are Marshall, Rush Hour 3 and Pan’s Labyrinth.

  • Chinese rival to Blu-ray squares up for fight

    Odds stacked against Blu-Ray competitor despite cheaper production costs and lower royalties

    Volume production of China’s self-developed high-definition optical disc format – China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) – is to begin in the fourth quarter of 2008.


    Shanghai United Optical Disc has completed its first production line and its output is initially expected to sell only in the Chinese market.

    Until recently CBHD was known as CH DVD (China High-definition DVD) – the Chinese version of the Toshiba-supported HD DVD format that lost out to Sony-backed Blu-ray last year.

    Yet while the costs of setting up a CBHD manufacturing facility and royalty fees to produce players are lower than those for Blu-ray, Taiwanese drive-makers are not optimistic about the format’s prospects.

    A report in the Chinese-language enorth.com.cn says that CBHD will find it difficult to compete with Blu-ray Disc (BD) in the Chinese market.

    This is despite the costs for refitting a DVD production line to manufacture CBHD discs being only US$800,000 – much lower than the US$3 million needed to set up a BD disc production line.

    Royalty fees to produce licensed CBHD players will be about 55 yuan (US$8.10), are also much lower than BD licensing rates.

    However, the enorth.com.cn report suggests that these cost advantages will not be sufficient to impact upon BD’s increasing market penetration.

    It points out that members of the BD Association have reduced retail prices for their entry-level Chinese-made BD players in the North American market to around US$299 and prices are expected to drop further.

    This would leave CBHD players facing challenging price competition once they are launched in the China market.
    The reports also notes that CBHD has not won support from leading movie studios in Hollywood and this is expected to render the format at a significant disadvantage in competition with BD.

  • Blu-ray recorder sales rising fast in Japan

    Sales of high definition Blu-ray recorders are increasing rapidly in Japan as consumers take to the new generation of home movie entertainment.
    Last month the more expensive Blu-ray recorders topped the old generation recorders in the value of sales for the first time.
    The research firm BCN Ltd said that around a third of machines sold now carry the new format.
    Shigehiro Tanaka, BCN chief analyst, said: “Full high-definition picture quality has become a main stream for big-screen TVs, and camcorders with higher picture quality are getting popular, too.
    “From the input of data to output, high definition is taking root in Japan.”
    The country was at the heart of the format war, which pitted the Blu-ray discs championed by Sony Corp against Toshiba Corp’s HD-DVD discs.
    Analysts believe sales of Blu-ray players have been held back, first by indecision over the outcome of the format war and then by high prices.
    However, the BCN survey showed April sales for Blu-ray in Japan were almost three times the 12.4 per cent share for both formats in January, before HD-DVD’s demise.
    The researchers expect sales of the Blu-ray will rapidly expand in coming months as makers such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd are likely to cut down prices in a lead-up to the Beijing Olympics.