Toshiba CEO mentions the possibility of supporting Blu-ray
By Richard Lawler 
posted Jun 24th 2009 6:27AM
posted Jun 24th 2009 6:27AM
Though some iffy poll results & a Chinese spinoff may have you thinking HD DVD is just on the cusp of a comeback, Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida suggested today that the company might join the rest of the consumer electronics community and support Blu-ray. In the midst of defeat last year he said it had "no plans" to switch sides, focusing on flash memory and DVD upscaling tech instead, but after a few billion in losses that might have changed, as the prez indicated just losing the format war wasn't enough reason to skip out on the Blu-ray market and that Toshiba "would like to keep our options open." Besides enjoying the good news that our exes have found gainful employment as executive speechwriters, we'll be keeping an eye out for another Cell-based Blu-ray player to join the PS3, if not tomorrow, someday.
Final Nail in Da Coffin????
Maybe with HD DVD support!
Well, keeping their options open is one thing and any CEO would be stupid not to answer a question along of the lines of "Will you ever consider supporting technology X?" in the affirmative regardless of whether it's high definition TV, Blu-ray, or built-in baby mulchers, on the grounds that it's always possible it might become necessary to stay in the market.
But it sounds like Toshiba's words are measured enough to imply they're not jumping into this particular shark tank right away and almost certainly are going to wait for the technology to become popular, and profitable before taking the plunge - and have been holding off because they don't see either as particularly likely to ever happen.
Which is what most of us who aren't Darren Murph have been saying Toshiba is going to do for the last year.
Basically saying... "we want to get in on those BD monies."
Probably just as soon as there is any certainty of there being any 'BD monies'.
Blu-ray on-line movie prices are already being driven lower and stand-alones have come down a bit too.
I've yet to hear of anyone (besides the movie studios) making any money out of Blu-ray once R&D and production costs are taken into account.
So why would Toshiba bother?
I just hope it matches my HD-A3 player, so they look nice together.
C
Just rack your HT gear and hide it, problem solved... then you don't have to care about matching your gear.
Why bother, I think Blu-ray will be dead in 5 years I bet. Things are changing fast!
If they do, don't count on anything too fancy, maybe a couple of models with XDE upscalers and BD playback. One with analog audio out and one with just HDMI/Optical.
If they can pull off a player that rivals the PS3 in speed in for $200 (no analog audio), it might just have a chance.
They can't be stupid enough to think they are going to be making money off Blu-ray in the next few years.
Yeah, enter the market in a few years when the margins have fallen through the floor. That'll do the trick. Meanwhile companies like Funai are cleaning up.
That photoshop.... Just priceless... =D