Toshiba expected to announce death of HD DVD tomorrow, stop sales by March

Despite Red's inability to make any real public statement, Japanese publication Nikkei has it that Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida will be announcing the final discontinuation of HD DVD tomorrow, as well as halted sales of hardware and media by March (as in days from now). Apparently Toshiba will pull its units from retail shelves, but has no intention to give burned early adopters any refunds (no kidding?); it sounds like the ceasefire will include the bare PC drives as well, so those hoping to keep using HD DVD as a personal data storage medium probably won't have much luck. Apparently the announcement will come alongside Toshiba's plans to build new semiconductor fabs, which we're sure they'll try to spin as an advancement that far overshadows the hill of beans (read: hundreds of millions) they've lost in the format war. [Warning: subscription required.]

Update: Nikkei also has it that the press conference is scheduled for 5PM in Tokyo, which is Midnight PT, and 3am ET. We'll let you know what turns up. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

[derX @ Feb 18th 2008 2:06PM]

"Toshiba will pull its units from retail shelves, but has no intention to give burned early adopters any refunds (no kidding."

xDDDDD Two words: Nice jab. If only I could vote you up.

*light bulb goes off*

*diggs*

[Minky @ Feb 18th 2008 2:40PM]

What Toshiba should do is give the million people that bought an HD DVD machine a discount on the BR machines they are going to build now.

[LondonConsultant @ Feb 18th 2008 3:43PM]

Toshiba should just give the early adopters a Sony gift voucher...

[Ed @ Feb 18th 2008 4:04PM]

Speaking of burned, I'll be that's about how the people who bought computers with HD-DVD drives in them (especially laptops)

[Ed @ Feb 18th 2008 4:06PM]

*I'll bet that's how he people feel who bought computers with them.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Feb 18th 2008 4:06PM]

Given that the current HD-DVD owners are the only people who would buy combo players, it's easy for them to give "discounts" to HD-DVD adopters who want to move to BluRay.

They'll just make a combo unit, charge a "mere" $600 and say it's a courtesy discount and it would have been $800 otherwise.

[teej @ Feb 18th 2008 5:04PM]

business is business...other than customer loyalty, which doesn't seem to matter considering Toshiba loses, I do not think Toshiba should give a refund. sure, i like money and would like a refund, but anyone purchasing into this format war should have known the possible consequences. they've already spent so much into pushing a great format (for the consumer), and unfortunately, they lost.

it's just like an election- you put money towards your candidate, and they either win or lose. if your candidate drops out, you will not get a refund. either way, business is business. i doubt the lack of refund will prevent Toshiba from losing any consumer loyalty. if Toshiba has BD players on the market a few years from now, i believe the lack of refund will not stop someone from purchasing Toshiba's player down the road; they still make quality products.

[Wayne @ Feb 18th 2008 5:47PM]

Exactly, teej. Anyone dumb enough to pick a side in the format war before it was decided had to know the risk. Toshiba owes early adopters a big fat nothing.

[Shadow08 @ Feb 21st 2008 8:02PM]

I agree, teej.

Toshiba doesn't owe anyone any refunds, or even discounts. Toshiba gave you everything you paid for when you bought HD-DVD. It's not their fault that it lost. People should have known that picking a format during this war came with a risk.

[meme @ Feb 19th 2008 3:28AM]

toshiba!! why hast thou forsaken me???

[Yayyyy @ Feb 19th 2008 12:00AM]

I was one of those Black Friday Walmart purchasers and even though HD DVD is going down the drain, to me it was a pretty wise investment...

Purchased the player for $100 and got 5 free HD DVD's, then soon as Warner backed out, eBayed the player for $150. And just a few days ago got the 5 free DVD's and eBayed those for $50.

HD DVD's over and I sure as hell didn't want to be stuck with a worthless player, however for me was a good run being able to use it for a few months and still make out a worthwhile profit!

[ogscorpion @ Feb 18th 2008 2:06PM]

FIRST!

I mean, come on, why not announce now? What's the big f___ difference?

[Andy Man @ Feb 18th 2008 2:08PM]

Dumbest is above this post!

[jared @ Feb 18th 2008 2:08PM]

I love the dumb-fucks who think they are posting first only to be second+ down the line.

[derX @ Feb 18th 2008 2:14PM]

Sorry, dude, beat you to it.

Oh, I looked at your profile, you're new, here.
Okay, you'll see what Engadget thinks of people who post "First!" (especially when they aren't) accompanied by some pointless comment--though every opinion is important!

Are you familiar with the blogospherian word 'flaming'?

[BladeSling @ Feb 18th 2008 2:20PM]

What amazes me is that anyone on engadget cares.

Numerous times have a seen a double post where the first is highly ranked and the second is low ranked.

The rankings are almost pointless. I wonder if I'll get 5 stars for this one! :-o

[insertAlias @ Feb 18th 2008 2:21PM]

@derX
He already knows. He did the "first" thing in an article earlier today. Several people called him on his bullshit, and he even responded. He obviously doesn't care.

Seriously, does being first and calling it make you feel good? I mean, aside from the fact that you made an ass of yourself twice today by being wrong about it, nobody cares, and you shouldn't either. Anyone can refresh Engadget over and over to get a first post on any article, but why would you? Grow up, or take your meds, or something.

[TrevynPaige @ Feb 18th 2008 2:31PM]

I, for one, welcome our Doom-playing, second place "First!" Overlords.

I welcome their ridicule more.

[derX @ Feb 18th 2008 2:47PM]

Dude, ogscorpion, how do you start this off by making a stupid comment (FIRST!!) and then being upset that people are flaming you for it? That's like falsly yelling fire in a theatre, causing chaos to ensue, then yelling at the cops for making such a big deal out of it.
[Big problem with this analogy: It's making this seem like this "incident" is much bigger than it is but analogies are fun.]

Want to know what Toshiba might announce it tomorrow? Here are some possible answers:
--Because it wants to.
--Because it's probably, somehow, in the company's best interest to do so.
--Because they want to annoy Ogscorpion.

Now that your question has been answered (though shabbily, I admit and intend), back to the flaming.
FOR SPARTA!!!!!


------------------
BTW, per usual, I'm just joking around here; don't take any of this personally.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Feb 18th 2008 2:49PM]

@ ogscorpion:

Okay, so if you're playing the whole "I may have started it, but YOU guys are being childish by continuing it" card . . . then does that mean you're going to stop "firsting" on Engadget so we won't have to put up with your bullsh17?

I get enough of the Firsties on The Onion. I don't need it here.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Feb 18th 2008 2:51PM]

. . . and magically . . . all of ogscorpion's replies have been erased. Thank you, whoever that was.

(I wrote that just in case anyone coming later doesn't understand why we continue flaming him.)

Carry on.

[insertAlias @ Feb 18th 2008 2:51PM]

Ok,
Toshiba isn't making the announcement immediately because they are a multinational corporation, with all the pressures and obligations that being a publicly traded company comes with. When you make such a large investment in a technology like they did, you can't just one day decide to say "we're through!" There's all kinds of internal processes they have to go through before they can make that announcement. For example, they probably have to get their legal department's go-ahead that everything is legit. They have to go through layers and layers of business bureaucracy to even set a date for an announcement. They couldn't care less about all the internet geeks like us who just want to see an end to this.

There's your argument. You can't complain about that anymore.

[ogscorpion @ Feb 18th 2008 2:54PM]

(Yawn)...zzzzzzzzzz

[insertAlias @ Feb 18th 2008 3:02PM]

Yawn about what? You start off with stupidity, then complain that the people calling you on it are getting sidetracked and attacking you instead of the topic of the article. So we respond on topic, and you revert to childishness again.

I've only read your posts on two stories, and I already can't stand you.

[teej @ Feb 18th 2008 5:18PM]

the fact that all of you have taken even a minute of your life to reply to his obviously irrelevant and inane comment (especially the fking paragraph responders), makes your lives even more pointless than our initial poster.

you may be thinking, "wow, that's ironic considering you're replying to our responses, making your life pointless to the 3rd degree." on the contrary, it isn't pointless. i'm hoping you all realize you're idiots; this realization may give you the power to enjoy such things in life as girls, people, social interaction, friendship, relationships, family, etc. if not, then quit the internet and die in a fire because you're ironically worthless.

[DWells55 @ Feb 18th 2008 7:48PM]

Can someone at Engadget please ban this troll?

[ogscorpion @ Feb 18th 2008 9:43PM]

Dwells: Are you done crying?

[Robert Kieffer @ Feb 18th 2008 2:06PM]

Thank god.

[MrFuNKy76 @ Feb 18th 2008 2:09PM]

First!!!...ohh....damn

[Michael @ Feb 18th 2008 2:11PM]

I wonder how this (if at all) when officially announced will change the HD Landscape, particularly the Playstation 3, and of when we might be hearing from Paramount and Universal?

[Rususeruru @ Feb 18th 2008 6:22PM]

When Toshiba officially announces the death of the format I'd expect Paramount and Universal to announce their switch likely the same day, at the longest within a week. Toshiba stalling could have something to do with those two studios, so good question.

As for the PS3, sales will probably remain strong being even with or slightly above the 360, but it's more interesting to think about the stand-alone players and how well they will sale now that the war is over and how soon price drops can be anticipated. I'd also expect an external Blu-Ray add on announced for the 360 very quickly after everything becomes official, likely built by Samsung unless Toshiba has plans we didn't hear about.

[Ron Smith @ Feb 18th 2008 2:13PM]

Enjoy your win for now Blu-ray, HVD is coming for you in a decade!

[octoberasian @ Feb 18th 2008 5:36PM]

Read about HVD on Wikipedia... man! 3.9 TB on a disc... *droools*

What to store...? What to store...?

[JuggleNuts @ Feb 18th 2008 11:09PM]

Some day a few years from now, someone will read your post and smirk ... "3.9TB? HA! How far we've come."

Uplifting and depressing at the same time ... *ponders life*

[FAT A$$ LADY @ Feb 18th 2008 2:18PM]

Finally!

now maybe we can get TrueHD + a movie on one disk. oh wait, blu ray was doing that already.

my bad.

(True audiofiles know the difference between DD+ and TrueHD. you don't have to drink DD+'s cool-aid. just listen. But, i guess, if you were supporting hddvd, then you were drinking poison to begin with--so, all your senses have been off kilter, eh??)
;{/D

[teej @ Feb 18th 2008 5:22PM]

just...no.

[andy @ Feb 18th 2008 2:18PM]

My insider also said that they were going to confiscate all sold hardware from people's homes.


Seriously, pull hardware? That just doesn't make sense.

Now if you said discontinue promotions and production, that would seem more believable.

[Stompntom @ Feb 18th 2008 3:35PM]

They make a cheap upscaling DVD player

[insertAlias @ Feb 18th 2008 2:27PM]

Pulling hardware is a good thing. You don't want people who don't know that it's dead to buy a player and then get pissed that they can't buy any new movies.

[andy @ Feb 18th 2008 3:03PM]

Why would Toshiba care about that again?

People would buy them because of their value proposition, not the ability to buy new movies.

When Toshiba releases a finalized, full featured, actualy working (no bugs) blu ray player, people will buy it for the same reason regardless.

People are dumb. They obviously don't care (or remember) that Sony does this with proprietary formats, why would they care/remember that Toshiba did it?

[insertAlias @ Feb 18th 2008 3:07PM]

You missed a key part of my reply: "people who don't know that it's dead"

People who know about that might buy it for the value, but people who don't know that their investment will be unsupported and never have new media come out for it will be very upset. Upset people tend to be bad for business.

But Toshiba can't pull the hardware from other manufacturers, so you should be able to find your value there.

[bob e @ Feb 18th 2008 2:18PM]

Wouldn't it be easy to sell Blu Ray circuit boards to replace the HD DVD format?

Then everyones players could be retrofitted to the new format. Seems wasteful to toss all those players away.

[Shane Lloyd @ Feb 18th 2008 3:18PM]

They use different lasers and circuitry and software. Way too expensive and impractical to replace those, and then still have a HD-DVD logo on the front. You'll have to buy a new player.

[Kasi Viswanath @ Feb 18th 2008 2:18PM]

Future can be predicted. After, Red & Blues lasers, time for Green lasers in about a decade or so. All the Best to Toshiba then!

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Feb 18th 2008 2:20PM]

I'd rather have the green lightsaber.

[insertAlias @ Feb 18th 2008 2:30PM]

No, green lasers would have come in the middle if they were coming at all.

[TeflonFong @ Feb 18th 2008 2:24PM]

so does this mean no Charlie Wilson's War in April? How quickly can Universal switch up to Blu-Ray facilities?

[kal326 @ Feb 18th 2008 2:24PM]

Well if Toshiba does actually announce this tomorrow, I wonder what that will do in relation to Microsoft's earlier announcement that they are waiting to hear from Toshiba.

If MS does start selling Blue Ray addons I wonder if I can send in my HDDVD drive to be "repaired" since it would be suffering from DDF (Dead Disc Format).

[Jake E. @ Feb 18th 2008 2:29PM]

RIP HD-DVD
2/19/08
You will be missed

[Quentin @ Feb 18th 2008 3:30PM]

Good night sweet prince.