Toshiba dances on HD DVD’s grave, gets in bed with Blu-ray
Following a long a grueling battle that forced the company to bury its now-defunct “next generation” home entertainment media tech, Toshiba was left bleeding worse than a naked cheerleader in an axe murderer flick. It’s been just over a year since we all attended HD DVD’s $1 billion funeral and now it appears that Toshiba is done grieving. A year is enough time, right? According to the the Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun, the beaten electronics giant plans to join the dark side and issue a Blu-ray player by year’s end. It’s first BD offering will reportedly play DVDs as well as Blu-ray discs, though the price point is still unknown. Tosh is supposedly considering a Blu-ray recorder as well but no time line was specified so odds are we won’t see it this year. The move makes sense of course — Toshiba has to keep up with the times and 1080p is hotter than Hansel right now. It’s going to have to sell a whole lot of players to make up for that $1 billion it lost in the format war, however. Best of luck to you, Tosh.
[Via HD-Report]
Et Tu, Toshiba?
Zoolander reference FTW!
SONY IS BACK!!!
just a year ago we all thought that sony is dead.
I still have an HDDVD player. LOL. big fail…
Hotter than Hansel…
Best line of the week
i dont know….i still say HD DVD had warmer colour that Blue-ray.
But my hd dvd player was a great big POS. RIP.
@ joetour.
Storm2 going to AT&T?
Very Truly Yours,
Techno Beaver, Esq.
@Phaberl: Please tell me you did not just say that. It is first and foremost a Julius Caesar reference. Not Zoolander.
I find it hard to believe that Julius Caesar went around saying things were “Hotter than Hansel right now.”
Sony has lost $5 billion jamming blu-ray into PS3.
Why Toshiba would want to fight to sell 10,000 blu-ray players at $99 against 10 other Japanese manufacturers is beyond me.
The technology wasn’t a failure – it was the marketing…
Would have preferred an internet connected media streaming HD-DVD device, most definitely – Staying away from Blu-Ray until things settle – DVD quality is still good enough for me…
Good luck with the move, Toshiba.
Eh, whatever. HD-DVD is a fail because of marketing/competition, not because it was bad tech.
And 2nd, BD just won by default… but what does that even mean? Not much really. I don’t know anyone w/ BD unless they got a PS3 and even then those friends don’t even bother. I have a BD drive in my laptop which I think I’ve actually watched a BD movie ONCE with.
I may get a standalone BD player if I can find one for real cheap, but I feel no need to pay full price for one. Not when 1080P + Dolby Surround Netflix streaming is due within the year.