Toshiba Strikes Back With Sales

gadgtfreek

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May 29, 2006
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I don't believe it is universally accepted that the 51GB disc works with all players sold to date. Moot point, anyway.

We'll never know. Or care, a year from now.


True, my post was vague. It was specualted to work with all, but I believe it did work with some.

Like you said, moot.
 

gck105

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HD DVD Players selling well on Amazon

Looks like the price drop has increased sales somewhat. The A3 is #1 in DVD Players, and the A35 is #3.
 

JohnL

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Sep 23, 2003
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Or maybe they know that more players = more movie sales.:rolleyes:

Vurbano,

Look whatever the reason for the drop in price, this is NOT going to save them, WHY you ask.

The answer is simple no other Electronic companies are going to build their own HD-DVD players.

The VHS/Beta war was won by VHS for several reasons; 1)More brands of VHS machines at various price points with different features taking up VASTLY more space on the Stores shelves 2) More Storage capacity of VHS.

Sony learned their lesson which was they needed as much industry support as possible to cement the Standard platform.

With 90 percent of the soon to be released Movie Content available on Blu-Ray and only 20 percent for HD-DVD, coupled with decreased presence of HD-DVD on the store shelves, coupled with losing money on both the Hardware side and Software side of the HD-DVD equation, they are on borrowed time. Short of some "rabbit out of the hat HD-DVD miracle" HD-DVD is fighting a losing battle that will bleed more and more money from Toshiba until they have no choice but to strike a deal with the Blu-Ray consortium to end HD-DVD production of Software and Hardware in return for marketing consideration or other such monetary settlement.

I'd hazard a guess that Toshiba has or is already considering such a move, all the while continuing to try to smooth the waters to current HD-DVD owners and HD-DVD supporters.

If either Paramount or Universal go exclusive BD or even Neutral in the next month or two then HD-DVD is DOA, regardless of the fervor of the HD-DVD player owners.

John
 

diogen

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Apr 16, 2007
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The answer is simple no other Electronic companies are going to build their own HD-DVD players.
Based on this logic, where are iPod sales suppose to be?
Sony learned their lesson which was they needed as much industry support as possible to cement the Standard platform.
Is this a generic statement?
Can you name another company that came close to Sony in pushing for new formats without industry support?
Case in point: MemoryStick and UMD to name just two. I think one of Sony's motto is "F*ck industry support!".
...coupled with losing money on both the Hardware side and Software side of the HD-DVD equation...
Where does this come from?
Since when studios publishing in HD were loosing money?

Diogen.
 

mike123abc

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Sep 25, 2003
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Based on this logic, where are iPod sales suppose to be?
Diogen.

Ipod had the major record labels on board. Yes there were a lot of problems at first (legal rights had to be obtained), but the lables were all supporting the ipod, the labels just had to work to get the digital rights to many songs. Plus any CD that you owned or bought could be moved to your ipod, even if the record labels did not sell the digital downloads.
 

gadgtfreek

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May 29, 2006
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Ipod and the others are only a fraction of cd sales because you have so many players and formats competing against each other. If everyone would have just sold mp3's and made mp3 players, may have come after the cd faster.

This is why I still think people who claim movie downloads are coming faster than a speeding bullet are full of it. Mp3's cant even replace cd's yet.
 

SatinKzo

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May 22, 2004
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amazon prices down again this morning. Just waiting for a couple more drops to jump on a spare player.
 

gck105

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Sep 17, 2005
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Slippery Rock, PA
The answer is simple no other Electronic companies are going to build their own HD-DVD players.

I think this is one of the biggest problems. People like to see more than one brand selling a product. While Toshiba has a pretty good reputation, I had never bought a Toshiba product until my HD DVD player. People want to see the Samsung and the Panasonic and compare the two models, having only one name brand really hurts.

Best Buy is now showing the lower prices by the way, and the A35 is sold out online.
 

vurbano

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I think this is one of the biggest problems. People like to see more than one brand selling a product. While Toshiba has a pretty good reputation, I had never bought a Toshiba product until my HD DVD player. People want to see the Samsung and the Panasonic and compare the two models, having only one name brand really hurts.

Best Buy is now showing the lower prices by the way, and the A35 is sold out online.
Samsung? When was samsung ever associated with quality?
 

SatinKzo

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Samsung? When was samsung ever associated with quality?

yeah, I agree here. Samsung almost single-handedly turned people OFF to blu-ray with the crap they put out initially. Only the 1400 seems to be working right and that took alot of time to get going. I tried 3 samsung models and all were returned within a few days. Finally ended up with a 2nd PS3 and I can't see how I will ever regret that.
 

diogen

SatelliteGuys Pro
Apr 16, 2007
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Ipod had the major record labels on board.
What does software have to do with this?
JohnL claimed that one of the reasons of HD's downfall is just one hardware manufacturer, Toshiba.
If this is a reason, iPod would be stillborn. But the opposite is true.
Hence, number of hardware manufacturers has nothing to do with the success or failure of a format. At least taken by itself.

Diogen.
 

gck105

SatelliteGuys Family
Sep 17, 2005
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Samsung? When was samsung ever associated with quality?

I didn't say it was, I was just using it as an example.

I think if Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, and Pioneer were making HD DVD and only one company was selling Blu-Ray alone, I think the sales break down would be better than the 50% for HD DVD standalone players we have now. The fact that Toshiba has been able to get 50% of the standalone sales on their own is pretty amazing.
 

vurbano

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yeah, I agree here. Samsung almost single-handedly turned people OFF to blu-ray with the crap they put out initially. Only the 1400 seems to be working right and that took alot of time to get going. I tried 3 samsung models and all were returned within a few days. Finally ended up with a 2nd PS3 and I can't see how I will ever regret that.
Samsung has a horrific repair record on DLP's or used too. They manufactured my 56" model and made design changes afterwards. 750 dollar light engine had to be replaced because they used adhesive tape to hold mirrors in place in the light tunnel. :rolleyes:
 

mike123abc

Too many cables
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Sep 25, 2003
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Toshiba is probably contractually bound until the end to promote and sell the players. Plus there is nothing worse than warehouses filled with merchandise they cannot get rid of, at these prices they will probably be able to clear out everything. Hopefully they run out of product before studios announce BD support.
 

navychop

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Why do I have images running thru my head of PC Jrs being bulldozed under at a land fill? ;)
 

WalksInDarkness

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When are the actual HD-DVD disc prices going to drop? If they get to the fire sale level, I might just pick a few up anyhow. It will still be cheaper than trying to take a family of 5 to the movies!
 

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