Toshiba applies for BDA admission, Blu-ray players and laptops coming soon
By Darren Murph 
posted Aug 10th 2009 3:20AM
posted Aug 10th 2009 3:20AM
"In light of recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers alike, Toshiba has decided to join the BDA. Toshiba aims to introduce digital products that support the Blu-ray format, including BD players and notebook PCs integrating BD drives, in the course of this year. Details of the products, including the timing of regional launches, are now under consideration. We will make announcements in due course."
ehh, im all about digital distribution.
Not for 50 efffing gigs
Most the 720p movies i download in mkv are only about 6-10 gigs depending on the length of the film so within a few years i think downloading 1080p video will be reasonable. I can tell a difference between playing HD content from a blu-ray player and playing downloads from my PC but thats due to the loss of quality during compression and some are definitely better than others depending on how it was ripped and converted.
"ehh, im all about digital distribution."
Blu-Ray IS digital. If you're talking about downloadable media, then you're cheerleading for even shittier quality than what Blu-Ray provides. Nice going.
He thinks that every country has uber speed internet service.
Speed is not a problem, bandwidth is specially at america, download 5 blu ray movies "That's 250GB" and your isp will call you to inform you that they will cancel your connection
if it looks anything like that it should go well right UNDER my HDA3... but not on top :-)
Ha, that image is a mockup, for sure.
That's got to be the best fucking 'shop I've ever seen.
That Blu-ray logo looks TERRIBLE!
It'd be quite funny if Toshiba's Blu-ray products turn out to be much better than the current members'.
So it's pretty much down to Blu-ray and CBHD now?
Dont be stupid CBHD is nothing, in or out of China.
@James: Not entirely true. See this: http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/25/blu-ray-reportedly-trailing-cbhd-in-china-the-second-theater-of/
Ouch Toshiba feels the burn on that one, sadly I was hoping they would win
If you can't beat them, join them.
And stop peddling horseshit "up-rezzing" DVD players and acting as though they're just as good.
the end, move along move along...
So does that mean they will be making Apple's blu-ray drives?
Why would it suddenly mean that, especially when Pioneer has already been a drive provider for Apple?
I can has bag of hurt??
Since there are plenty of other sources of drives for Apple, I doubt that was the holdup.
I suspect Apple won't get on board with Blu-Ray until they can be sure there is a bulletproof software solution. Instead of the 12 car pileup there is now on the PC side of things.
Apple had been a board member right from the get go
damn. walk of shame. good to have 'em though.
about time
Maybe Toshiba will come out with a $30 BRD player and try and kick Sony in the nuts that way?
Yes, that would be a great business strategy. Let's lose money making BD players and give the royalties to Sony et al for the license just so we can spite them. You wouldn't happen to be the CEO of GM would you?
Well I think it is a good move for Toshiba since the tech for decoding of h.264 and the various audio formats has already been paid for and is not at better price points. Beyond that, Toshiba has the Cell processor for decoding as opposed to going to a 3rd party like Broadcom so Toshiba can do a lot to make sure it has class leading video performance at better price points that other PC or even CE makers.
And to those who think some how Digital Downloads for 1080p/24 content makes Blu-Ray somehow less relevant consider that as of now quality online video cannot be delivered to everyone across the world yet since internet speeds and accessibility coupled with the wide variances between the speed of peoples PCs will not allow for it.
It will take years for 1080p/24 w/ dolby or dts 5.1 or better to be a viable option outside of pockets of high population areas that have the network infrastructure to support it. You cannot say that a 6 gig Blu-Ray rip is the same thing. Even if a movie is not 50Gb of content on a disc a re-encoded copy is not what content providers are able to offer.
They give 720x480p or at best 1440x1080p and it is only in stereo and in much lower bit-rate than a Blu-Ray. It might look good but the technology has to be as good or better than what someone could get on Blu-Ray for it to be considered a replacement, otherwise digital downloads will be a alternative to blu-ray to those people for whom it is good enough and do have enough bandwidth to access it.
"KNEEL BEFORE ZOD"!!