p2pnet - rss feed: Toshiba abandons HD DVD
p2pnet news | Products:- Toshiba Corp has thrown in the towel with HD DVD, effectively ceding victory to Sony and Matsushita Electric’s Blu-ray.
Wal-Mart said on Friday it’d stop selling HD DVD players and recorders.
Commented Free Thinker in a Reader’s Write:
It’s obvious why the studios went Blu-ray: DRM, pure & simple.
It has the stronger BD+ protection and the aweful region coding*. HD DVD had neither of those and had better features, such picture in picture and better content, despite the smaller capacity.
As usual, shit floats.
*The fact that region free players and workarounds exist isn’t the point. Something like this should be illegal.
According to “sources close to Toshiba,” the firm will, “hold a board meeting in the near future to formally decide to abandon production of HD DVD recorders and players and other related accessories,” says the Yomiuri Shimbun, going on:
“Toshiba is likely to maintain sales of HD DVD recorders and players for a while, but is expected to stop producing players for personal computers and recorders for televisions, and drop the development of new products.”
Also See:
Yomiuri Shimbun - Toshiba to abandon HD DVD, February 17, 2008
stop selling - Wal-Mart dumps HD DVD, February 16, 2008
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February 17th, 2008 at 9:46 am
now lets all wait 6 months for a upgradable full spec full compatable blueray player
other than an overpriced console
ohhhhhh we already had that it was called hd dvd
bunch of sony morons
February 17th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Yep, HD DVD should be taken over, because it is cheaper to produce.
Then we can use it, sans DRM (because unmaintained)
February 17th, 2008 at 10:25 am
It was toshiba’s greed that hurt hd dvd. The whole point of HD DVD was that it cost the same to produce as regular DVD. So when they put msrp’s of 35$ or more of course no one’s going to buy. It should be the same price as a DVD. HD DVD is in the hands of the indie and foreign film industry now. Maybe if toshiba learns from its mistakes and gives free HDDVD licences to Nintendo’s Wii, they might have a chance in the future.
February 17th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
1) Blu-ray has only 3 region codes, the entire Western Hemisphere + Japan included in region 1
2) BD+ protection has already been broken
3) Blu-ray does support features such as picture-in-picture, early incompatible players aren’t the discs’ fault
Sony is the lesser of two evils. I for one don’t want Microsoft anywhere near my content.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Here are all people from the Copy Protection Technical Working Group, many of them were involved in creation of the AACS and other C.R.A.P. content protections:
list is coming from the web site of Copy Protection Technical Working Group.
Ted Abe
Panasonic
tedabe@arl.drl.mei.co.jp
Sandra Aistars
Weil, Gotshal & Manges
sandra.aistars@weil.com
Kosuke Ajima
Pioneer
kosuke_ajima@post.pioneer.co.jp
Takao Arai
Hitachi
takao-arai@em.tookai.hitachi.co.jp
Michael Ayers
Toshiba
michael.ayers@tais.toshiba.com
Al Baker
Thomson Multimedia
bakera@tce.com
Mary Jean Barr
Warner Bros.
mbarr0648@aol.com
Alan Bell
Warner Bros.
alan.bell@warnerbros.com
Patrice Birot
Canal U.S. Technologies
pbirot@CanalUS.com
Glynis Brooke
Cache Vision Inc.
gbrooke@cachevision.com
Jim Burger
Dou, Lohnes & Albertson
jburger@dlalaw.com
John Card
Echostar Communications
john.card@echostar.com
Jeff Carr
Broadcom Corp.
jcarr@broadcom.com
Jong Jin Chae
Mark Any
chaejj@markany.com
John Choi
MarkAny
juchoi@markany.com
William Coats
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
wcoats@orrick.com
Jeffrey Cunard
Debevoise & Plimpton
jpcunard@debevoise.com
John Dawson
Arcam
johnd@arcam.co.uk
Maddalena DiGiura
ST Microelectronics
maddalena.di-giura@st.com
Richard Ditzik
Panasonic
ditzikr@panasonic.com
Louis Domshy
Aiwa
Ldomshy@adt.aiwa.com
Robert Finger
Matsushita Electric
Fingerr@Panasonic.com
Yoshihisa Fukushima
Matsushita Electric
fukucima@isl.mei.co.jp
Takekazu Fukuzawa
Thomson Multimedia
fukazawat@tce.com
Brett Gaines
Silicon Image
bgaines@siimage.com
Seth Greenstein
MWE/Hitachi
sgreenstein@mwe.com
Jeff Hamilton
CableLabs
jeff@hamiltondtv.com
Stephen Heil
Microsoft
sheil@microsoft.com
Jun Hirai
Sony
jun.hirai@jp.sony.com
Mark Hollar
Macrovision
mark@macrovision.com
Ikuko Horikawa
Sony
ikuko.horikawa@jp.sony.com
John Hoy
LMI
john.hoy@lmicp.com
Brad Hunt
MPAA
cbhunt@mpaa.org
Jordan Isailovic
Advanced InterActive
jordan@advancedinteractive.com
Solen Jaboulet
Thomson Multimedia
jaboulets@thmulti.com
Whit Jackson
Secure Media
wjackson@SecureMedia.com
George Joblove
Sony Pictures
joblove@imageworks.com
Taku Katoh
Toshiba
taku.kato@toshiba.co.jp
Junichi Kawahara
Toshiba
junichi.kawahara@toshiba.co.jp.com
Jong-Weon Kim
MarkAny
jwkim@markany.com
Kirby Kish
Macrovision
kkish@microvision.com
Donald Leake
IBM
leakede@us.ibm.com
Marty Levine
iVast
mlevine@ivast.com
Assaf Litai
Vidius, Inc.
assaf@vidius.com
Dale Mohlenhoff
Thomson Multimedia
mohlenhoffd@tce.com
Yoshiaki Moriyama
Pioneer
mori@crdl.pioneer.co.jp
Marc Mueller
Toshiba
marc_mueller@toshibatv.com
Takahiro Nagai
Matsushita Electric
tnagai@mei.co.jp
Maryann Nicoletti
MPAA
maryann_nicoletti@mpaa.org
Noriko Ninoseki
Sony
noriko.ninoseki@jp.sony.com
Seamus O’Sullivan
Irdeto Access
sosullivan@irdetoaccess.com
Akio Ogawa
Toshiba
akio1.ogawa@toshiba.co.jp
Lyn Oswald
Secure Media
loswald@SecureMedia.com
Jean-Jacques Raynal
ST Microelectronics
jean-j.raynal@st.com
Mike Ripley
Intel
michael.ripley@intel.com
Hugo Sakkers
Philips
hugo.sakkers@philips.com
Moto Sato
NEC
m-sato@media.sj.nec.com
Bob Schwartz
McDermott
rschwartz@MWE.com
Alex Scott
Digital Media on Demand
ascott@dmod.com
Mitch Singer
Sony Pictures
mitch_singer@spe.sony.com
Robert Smith
Viacom
Roberti.Smith@viacom.com
Glenn St. Marie
License Management International
glenn.st.marie@LMICP.com
Michael Stelts
Thomson Multimedia
steltsm@tce.com
Joop Talstra
Philips Electronics
joop.talstra@philips.com
Kouya Tochikubo
Toshiba
kouya.tochikubo@toshiba.co.jp
Geoffrey Tully
Geoffrey Tully, Inc.
geoffrey@tully.com
Bruce Turnbull
Weil, Gotshall etal
bruce.turnbull@weil.com
Hisashi Yamada
Toshiba
hisashi.yamada@toshiba.co.jp
February 17th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Blu Ray is the technically superior format. The number of regions has been reduced which is a good thing. I think that the studios will probably over play the DRM hand and eventually give it up like the music industry when it came to DRMed digital downloads.
February 17th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
The biggest shame, is that Toshiba, along with Hitachi, had developed an interesting capability on their HD DVD recorders, which allow for the users to record up to two hours of HD video on a single DVD-R (H.264+AAC, using the HD DVD format). Th initial problem with this idea, was that you could only play the DVD-R on compatible players, but there were some talks that people had been able to play the disks on PCs with HD DVD players.
This would have brought about an important go between from SD to HD, yet it looks like it will be killed off for a anti-consumer product, which looks like it may flop before it “really” flies.
No matter what happens, it looks like the consumer is going to be left on the side of the road, while the few content holder mess it up for the rest of us.
Just my two cents.