Toshiba Making Funeral Plans for HD DVD

Blue Light Special writes "With HD DVD on life support, Toshiba is reportedly preparing to bow to the inevitable and allow HD DVD to expire quietly. 'While denying that a decision on the fate of HD DVD has been made, a Toshiba marketing exec left the door wide open. "Given the market developments in the past month, Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players," Jodi Sally, VP of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products, said.'" A few folks have also noted that Wal-mart is joining the Blu-ray train, further lowering the stock of HD DVD.

Funeral Plans?

[pavon]

So does that involve excess stock being quietly disposed of in an Alamagordo, NM landfill?

betamax, minidisc, 8-track

[irtza]

Wasn't Sony on the wrong side of all these battles? What gives? Sony may actually win a standards war? What's next, other companies will use memory stick?

They never had a chance

[Amorymeltzer]

Their competition is called Blu-Ray. It's shorter to say, it has the word "Ray" in it (which is awesome), sounds new and different from DVDs, and even has a "cool" misspelling of a word. It's the same reason Yahoo! will never succeed - people simply like saying "Google" too much.

Re:betamax, minidisc, 8-track

[RDW]

'Wasn't Sony on the wrong side of all these battles? What gives? Sony may actually win a standards war?'

Yes, apparently the mood in the opposing bunker is pretty grim:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB2e7pfZmGA [youtube.com]

Re:PS3 now viewed as "more attractive"?

[Chyeld]

Actually what it means is we'll be seeing a press announcement in the next few months that the latest revision of the PS3 will be dropping the bundled Blu-Ray drive and moving to DVD drives as a cost cutting measure. The expected drop in price will be $20 and those who want to purchase an add-on drive can do so for $300.

The add-on will be a complete blu-ray player but can only output to the PS3, which will then pass the signal along to the display.

Re:That's a Shame

[Ucklak]

Hey, this is Slashdot.
When you boast of a Zenith DVD player that upscales nicely, please indicate the model number.

Re:That's a Shame

[Citizen of Earth]

(more than just upscaling), the picture quality from existing DVDs could be *far* improved

Yes, they should implement the CSI filters you see on all those forensic-investigation TV shows. There'd be no need for Blu-ray at all.

Re:That's a Shame

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

underwear ? why do you need underwear ?

Re:betamax, minidisc, 8-track

[Anonymous Coward]

They may have to, since it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a working Xbox360.

Re:BD+

[VisceralLogic]

It's ok... the mods believed you. :)

And their name

[jjrff]

Might as well put that one to rest too; Toshiba - sucks; sounds like shit and tofu collided.