Toshiba climbs on 'HD-DVD exit'

[Lt-DavidW]

Shares in Toshiba have gained more than 5% as speculation intensified that the electronics giant was set to pull the plug on its high definition DVD format.

The firm said it had made no decisions but admitted that it had started a review of its HD DVD business.

The format has suffered from the defection of most of the major film studios to Sony-backed rival Blu-ray.

Analysts said that an end to the war meant Toshiba could refocus on other areas and the industry would gain too.

"It doesn't make sense for Toshiba to continue putting effort into this," said Koichi Ogawa, a chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments.

"It needs to cut its losses and focus its resources on promising businesses."

Swift resolution?

Blu-ray and HD-DVD have fought to become the pre-eminent high definition format to help revitalise the $24bn global home DVD market.

But the two formats are incompatible with each other and so consumers have had to choose between machines that played only one type of disc.

As a result, many have held back to see which would become the industry standard and, like the battle between Betamax and VHS video recorders in the 1980s, this has been damaging to the industry as a whole.

The video machine war lasted a decade, so the prospect of Toshiba abandoning its HD DVD just two years after launching the player have been cheered by investors and analysts.

Toshiba shares surged 5.7% to 829 yen, topping the benchmark Nikkei 225, which rose 0.1%.

Source: BBC News

[Boeing 787]

I doubt they will drop it completely, they might drop Japan and USA where sales of BluRay are much stronger. In Europe HD-DVD has been stronger.

I still think not having a HD-DVD burner for the computer on the market is the biggest mistake and where Toshiba should have begun.

[MGS4-SS]

I doubt they will drop it completely, they might drop Japan and USA where sales of BluRay are much stronger. In Europe HD-DVD has been stronger.

I still think not having a HD-DVD burner for the computer on the market is the biggest mistake and where Toshiba should have begun.

Proof?

[DrCheese]

In Europe HD-DVD has been stronger.

Not a chance. HD-DVD is pretty much non existent here, the total of ?5 that they spent on marketing really didn't help:pp

You only have to see the big woolworths thing last week to see how how bad HD-DVD does here.

[Coldgunner]

I doubt they will drop it completely, they might drop Japan and USA where sales of BluRay are much stronger. In Europe HD-DVD has been stronger.

I still think not having a HD-DVD burner for the computer on the market is the biggest mistake and where Toshiba should have begun.

Must be another Europe, this one has had next to no 'face time' with the general public, whereas BD/PS3 has had ads all over the place.

sales of BD have been strong worldwide

[Guest]

I havent seen a single HD-DVD player anywhere, then again I have only seen one or two BD players. The PS3 imo was the deciding factor. It might have been a different story had MS but a HD-DVD drive in their 360's.

[v.57]

I was in England, France, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Italy...and I haven't seen a single HD-DVD player anywhere...

[conan_2000]

I doubt they will drop it completely, they might drop Japan and USA where sales of BluRay are much stronger. In Europe HD-DVD has been stronger.

I still think not having a HD-DVD burner for the computer on the market is the biggest mistake and where Toshiba should have begun.

As with the other replies, I would love to see where you saw this information, as far as I am aware the only decent sales HD-DVD was was in the US, it's pretty much non-existent anywhere else I have been. Although saying that I did see an HD-DVD player in a shop yesterday (New Zealand), first time I have ever set eyes on one! Quite impressive considering they have been available for what, 18 months now?

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

its not about the war anymore.. its who has the best exit plan!!!

[torrentthief]

lets just hope the exit FULLY tomorrow, read on a website they will make some sort of announcement tomorrow, cant remember which website.

I just hope toshiba make some bluray players to bring the prices down and get bluray movies to become cheaper, its a shame bluray won with the stupid region coding.

[Rappy Veteran]

My Toshiba laptop I bought in October has a HD-DVD drive...haven't bought any movies and it seems I won't be :laugh:

[sundayx Veteran]

I miss the debates. There used to be 85% of the people on Neowin swearing how much HD-DVD is going to win, and how Sony will fail. I hope these members fulfill their promises and do whatever they said would do if BD won. :D

[+wd40 Subscriber²]

Already posted 2 days ago here: https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?s=&a...howtopic=620206

[Danrarbc]

I miss the debates. There used to be 85% of the people on Neowin swearing how much HD-DVD is going to win, and how Sony will fail. I hope these members fulfill their promises and do whatever they said would do if BD won. :D

Why are you so happy?

Having region coding and useless DRM sucks. I mean BD+ didn't even work on a player or two until firmware updates were released (which thanks to lack of ethernet ports very few people would know to look for them).

Regardless, I made no bets so I have nothing to do.

[sundayx Veteran]

Well I'm not happy about the war being over, but what kind of things poeple have said in here about how Sony and the BD group will fail and things they would do if the group wins. Certainly if these people kept their promises, physical laws will be broken.

[krasch]

Blu-Ray has region coding and DRM... and?

When you have AnyDVD HD such issues are moot anyway.