Toshiba projects $669 million loss on HD DVD (and $459 million more)
By Richard Lawler 
posted Mar 19th 2008 4:25AM
posted Mar 19th 2008 4:25AM
Update: That's actually 65 billion yen PLUS an additional one-time charge of 45 billion yen for a grand total ¥110b ($1.12 billion) going the wrong way in 2007's books. Hey Toshiba, uh, you guys want a Best Buy gift card?
Toshiba and Microsoft are now working on DVD 2.0,more interesting times ahead, maybe 'Format Wars II'
http://www.contentagenda.com/article/CA6539511.html
http://dvdforum.org/41scmtg-resolution.htm
Add new features to DVD? What, do we want DVD profiles now? Give me a break.
Format wars are never good for the consumer. I expect Toshiba to put up heavy barricades to Blu-Ray's success by utilizing its influence in the DVD market, but I'm pretty sure at this point that both Toshiba and the DVD Forum are well on their way out of the building.
With all the studio support Blu-Ray has now, I don't think DVD will be able to sway them back to just SD-DVD. While SD-DVD has a MASSIVELY larger install base, the promise of higher margins on movie prices will keep the big players in the high-def market. Remember: "Now on VHS and DVD!" only now it is "Now on DVD and Blu-Ray [high def]!"
Also: It is ridiculous to think that it was only the Blu-Ray camp that tried to make back-room deals. Paramount and Dreamworks pulled their Blu-Ray discs OFF THE SHELVES when they went exclusive. Warner wasn't even fully exclusive when the format war ended, so what the hell are you complaining about?
None of this makes any difference. I'll not buy another Toshiba product nor support any decision by the DVD forum. They quit on the consumers, and not this consumer is quitting on them.
Ease up, they coped a flogging in particular from sony and lost $669 big ones, primarily because they didn't fight as dirty as the opposition, didn't get involved in shady back room deals and corruption, but they genuinely tried to supply the better quality product to the consumer at a lower price point.
I think they deserve respect, the quality of the product is outstanding, and other than fighting to cleanly and advertising poorly, they did the best they could given their circumstances.
@HD4ME, "Ease up, they coped a flogging in particular from sony and lost $669 big ones, primarily because they didn't fight as dirty as the opposition, didn't get involved in shady back room deals and corruption, but they genuinely tried to supply the better quality product to the consumer at a lower price point."
Ever hear of the doctrine of unclean hands? Toshiba and Microsoft tried to sew up the HD market by bribing at least two studios, and trying to bribe two more. And that "lower price point" was achieved by massively subsidizing their players to undercut a rival format.
I'm sure Blu Ray promoters did their fair share of dubious things, and one day I'm sure the full story will emerge. It will be very interesting to see how things played out around CES since clearly HD DVD thought they'd bought Warner & Fox when they didn't.
One thing is certain though - Toshiba had unclean hands and you're making a fool of yourself by pretending otherwise. Toshiba's own incompetence at attracting partners (not least by ensuring zero profits in HD DVD hardware) and disastrous marketing had as much to do with their demise as any rival format.
@HD4ME
"primarily because they didn't fight as dirty as the opposition, didn't get involved in shady back room deals and corruption"
LOL! How nieve you are!
@ D@naliaswanker
You love having a crack at me on a regular basis don't you, why don't you STFU, your lame comments just shows what a F'Wit you really are!
Well maybe if you didn't type so much delusional crap then you wouldn't leave yourself wide open!
Oh and I'm sure you can fit some more expletives into your posts. Ha, no wonder the mods here delete the majority of them!
Universal lost it, plain pure and simple, if every single DVD Disc by Universal released with an HD-DVD side we would be wondering if the PS3 can survive saddled with it's dead format. In my mind HD was always a feature, never a new format. The next decade will prove if i was right or wrong.
So they lost just alittle more than the incentives the BRA gave WB to go exclusive. Not that bad i guess.
Not bad,
Some US auto companies have been losing that much yearly for a couple of years.
Too bad the 'war' ended so early. It'll be years till BR is cheap enough for me to consider 'upgrading' from my dvd upscaler (that also happens to play hd dvds ;).
And that will be just for new movies, since my old ones on dvd look pretty good. Maybe when I get a 1080p set my opinion will change, but most early adopters, (a lot have 720p since that's all there was other than sweet 1080i), won't see much different till they buy a new set too. It's a good thing there'$ $till plenty of competition in the flat screen hdtv market!
I wonder how much money Sony has lost on Blu-ray so far...
again... this has been WELL run into the ground. Sony spent WELL more than this on fighting this battle and it will be years (if ever)before they begin making a profit...and with how fickle technology is BD will be replace before it becomes a profitable market.