AfterDawn: News

November launch for Toshiba HD-DVD

Tech manufacturing giant Toshiba has confirmed that it will launch its first HD-DVD player in Europe on 15 November - just two days before Sony drops its Blu-ray featured Playstation 3.

The HD-E1, which will retail at around 599 euros (approx. £400), will be closely followed by a second Toshiba HD-DVD player to be released in December, the company said.



Toshiba and Sony are backing rival formats, but the competition between the two could seriously damage the market for next-gen DVD equipment, according to analysts.

While Toshiba showed off its new HD-DVD machines at IFA in Berlin, Hollywood studio Twentieth Century Fox gave its backing to Blu-ray by announcing plans to release films for that format only. "We have no plans to release on HD-DVD. Consumer-wise Blu-ray is the best proposition," said Mike Dunn, global president of home entertainment for the studio. And according to Reuters, Time Warner has also confirmed its plans to release films on Blu-ray.

However, Toshiba's digital consumer chief, Yoshihide Fujii, questions whether Hollywood films will require the greater storage capacity Blu-ray offers.

"The question is: who needs this," he told Reuters, referring to Blu-ray's capacity.

But he did concede that the major film studios could be the key factor in determining which format will be most popular.

Source:
BBC

Written by: Ben Reid @ 5 Sep 2006 13:00

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• 42 comments

• 21Q

  I vote blu-ray

  5.9.2006 13:23 #1

• MrMexican

  Blue ray for me.

  5.9.2006 13:39 #2

• plutonash

  You guys need to go over to the avs forums. Saying Blu-ray is under-performing would be an understatement at this time.

  5.9.2006 14:41 #3

• themind

  I think its funny that sony and toshiba went together on developing the cell chip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_microprocessor yet we are supposed to beleive that these two huge companies are going to compete with each other (for the consumer) in an indestry that is supposed to be loseing tons of cash due to piracy.
  There is also another thing that you never see, a news artical saying toshiba to luanch HD-DVD for $600.00 competing with the DVD player that is now out and only $100.00.
  Even if i had a HD TV i would still stick with DVD. Nether HD-DVD or Blue-Ray will be a success like DVD was because, I along with most others, will not go out and buy the movies on a new format that i already have, like i did with vhs to dvd.

  5.9.2006 15:01 #4

• MrMexican

  Yeah but bluy ray will start to get more succesfull when people buy the ps3 and see how different bluy ray is compared to dvd and hddvd.
  
  With the ps3 bluy ray comes standard and you will later learn to use it more.
  
  But for HD-DVD is only sells as a standolone player or as an addon for the 360 and I really don't like addons or how it looks in the 360.
  
  But sooner or later we will need one of these formats but for right now its still to early to start guessing a clear winner.

  5.9.2006 15:07 #5

• ZippyDSM

  hey its been fixed,this is ncie and all but I want to know about that daul drive richo is working on!!!

  5.9.2006 15:34 #6

• oofRome

  Quote:Even if i had a HD TV i would still stick with DVD. Nether HD-DVD or Blue-Ray will be a success like DVD was because, I along with most others, will not go out and buy the movies on a new format that i already have, like i did with vhs to dvd.Why not? The quality and resolution difference between HD-DVD and Blu-ray and regular DVD are pretty apparent, and we're not even a year into things. Why get a HDTV if you don't watch anything in true high definition?

  5.9.2006 15:48 #7

• Lethal_B

  Quote:Why not? The quality and resolution difference between HD-DVD and Blu-ray and regular DVD are pretty apparent, and we're not even a year into things. Why get a HDTV if you don't watch anything in true high definition?I tend to agree there..

  5.9.2006 15:53 #8

• themind

  those last two post was beside my point.

  5.9.2006 16:03 #9

• ZippyDSM

  The only real difrance between HD DVD and Blue ray is space the more space the higher the resolution.
  Thats basically it right?
  
  Lethal_B
  Any word on the dual drive richo is working on that can do BR and HD DVD?

  5.9.2006 16:07 #10

• themind

  Plus the two resons I went to DVD was, one the image doesnt fade and two the extra's. BluRay and HD-DVD do not add to that. So, I have no reason to get ether. I dont care for clarity. If I did i would think my five TV chanels suck cause im still watching off an antena.

  5.9.2006 16:09 #11

• ZippyDSM

  themind
  if you are happy with current dvd is ok with me *L*
  I mean DVDs will be made for Mmmm another 5 years then the new format will take over like dvd did for VHS.

  5.9.2006 16:12 #12

• themind

  Thank you ZIppyDSM,
  My post was to show that it should be a yes no question on next gen video not BluRay HD-DVD because they are two companies working together to get DVD out.

  5.9.2006 16:18 #13

• Lethal_B

  themind, nobody is saying you shoudn't stick with DVD :-)

  5.9.2006 16:18 #14

• themind

  I never said they did.

  5.9.2006 16:21 #15

• ZippyDSM

  themind
  ^^
  Ya DVD aint ging anywhere anytime soon ^^
  even in 10 years like VHS it will still be around so meh and with richo working on a dual drive...even the new DVD formats might not have a big winner 0_o

  5.9.2006 16:22 #16

• Lethal_B

  ZIppyDSM - The last I heard, diffraction plate was still in development for that HD-DVD Blu-ray combi drive. If I'm honest though, I don't think any such device will be the make or break of either format ;)

  5.9.2006 16:35 #17

• ZippyDSM

  Lethal_B
  
  Mmmmm only if hollywood jumps on one fromat asap,altho if it takes 3 years for the drive to come out it might be to late then but meh,its nice to see they are working on it NOW and not later ^^

  5.9.2006 16:38 #18

• neo1000

  Sorry `bout that one...By the way i`ve read in several magazines and sites that HD-DVD has a better picture than Blu-ray....sound & vision comes to my mind.

  5.9.2006 16:54 #19

• ZippyDSM

  neo1000
  Mmmmm unless MS has made some uber codec in the hardware to turn smaller amounts of data into better picture quality ..I just dun see it 0-o

  5.9.2006 16:59 #20

• Andrew691

  The reason Bluray looks so crap (compared to HD-DVD) is because its still, correct me if this has changed, its still not using high def codecs. From what i heard it was using standard MPEG-2 which is whats in current DVDs.
  But when the PS3 comes out a LOT of people are going to have bluray forced upon them, and i highly doubt any of them are going to go out and buy a HD-DVD player when they've already got a nextgen format player.
  The dualplayer will only really be good for early adopters of the new tech and will only stay around while the formats are waring, as soon as a winner shows it wont stay around long. The losing format will just fade into nothingness over time.

  5.9.2006 17:28 #21

• Kazi

  What if Sony bundled a Blu-ray movie with the PS3

  5.9.2006 19:15 #22

• Ghostdog

  Looks like Toshiba´s head-start will be a bit more than two days...
  
  
  The european launch of Playstation 3 has been pushed back to march.

  6.9.2006 00:24 #23

• Andrew691

  where did you read that about the release date. I thought it was the same day worldwide. Ive already seen advertisements here in NZ with the release date at 16th Nov

  6.9.2006 00:45 #24

• Ghostdog

  http://www.scee.presscentre.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=4268&NewsAreaID=2
  
  I might be wrong, but last time I checked New Zealand wasn´t a part of Europe.

  6.9.2006 01:24 #25

• marsey99

  i vote blue ray too on paper, but in the real world price and availabilty will win the day.
  nz is a PAL area and english so usualy gets screwed like the uk, and its true the first generation of "br" players aparently have weak video playback but, have better sound. the thing to remmeber is these are the first gen and they will improve, my first dvd player would only play silvers and bog standard cds now they play DivX, wma, wmv, mp3s and jpegs

  6.9.2006 03:11 #26

• Andrew691

  Quote:PAL territories of Europe, Russia, Middle East, Africa and AustralasiaNZ is Australasia so its part of this, which really sucks. Generally there are 3 areas of release, first Japan, then USA, then Europe which is basically everywhere else.

  6.9.2006 04:49 #27

• dblbogey7

  Quote:
  The only real difrance between HD DVD and Blue ray is space the more space the higher the resolution.
  Thats basically it right?
  The resolution of HD-DVD and BluRay is the same: 1920 x 1080.
  
  Current HD-DVD discs are dual layer 30 Gigs. Current BluRay titles are only single layer 25 Gigs.
  
  HD-DVD uses a more efficient and advanved codec (VC-1) which gives it the advantage in picture quality.

  6.9.2006 05:06 #28

• ZippyDSM

  Ah so HD DVD dose have the codec advantage interesting so in some ways its more advanced than BR but BR has more space..mix the 2 and you'd have godly results...mmmmmm
  

  
  
  I have a brain...I think......
  I fuzzy braind mew =0_o=
  FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A.
  "Music And Film Industry Association of America.."
  "Hollywood the 4kids of comic moives."

  6.9.2006 09:17 #29

• Ghostdog

  Except they didn´t manage to mix those two. The talks broke down.
  
  My opinion: they should have just delayed both formats and worked on for a unified format. One format; everybody wins. Consumers don´t need to worry about one standard loosing the fight and becoming obsolete and companies would eliminate the bad kind of competetion, instead focusing on perfecting their products.
  
  Quote:Generally there are 3 areas of release, first Japan, then USA, then Europe which is basically everywhere else. Sorry, didn´t catch that. I guess most of us here are in this together then.

  7.9.2006 02:12 #30

• alklop5

  However, Blu-ray information too close to surface(0.1mm), while HD-DVD 0.4-0.6mm),so, Blu-ray will be scratchable and loosing data on it

  8.9.2006 23:38 #31

• hughjars

  Blu-ray does not have a higher resolution than HD-DVD.
  
  The facts are that both methods of High Def DVD are fully capable of the highest standard(s) currently required by any HD TV's produced today (720p, 1080i and 1080p).
  
  To date HD-DVD movies have looked the better with Blu-ray only recently matching them in image quality.
  So, similar quality at a much higher price, that doesn't sound particularly attractive to me - and claims that even more tedious 'extras' can be fitted onto a Blu-ray disck isn't my idea of a great 'feature'.
  
  HD-DVD disks have been demonstrated to 60gb (DL 15gb double sided) and although Blu-ray has been demonstrated to 200gb in the lab they have had terrible problems mass-producing the 'old' 50gb disc that was demonstrated in the lab a while back.
  I don't think these problems have been resolved even now.
  
  There are also question marks over the catastrophic effects of a Blu-ray disc warping (as discs can do)due to heat and rpm's with the laser lens so close to such a hard surface.
  
  IMO the idea that PS3 is the answer to the BR problems is rubbish from the blinkered fan-club (weird, blind brand loyalty for a foreign multi-national); similarly the HD-DVD XBox add-on will not do much more than cancel out the 'boost' the other lot get from their game box.
  
  Either 'version' of High Def DVD will be a slow burning technology (with annoyed and disappointed investors as profits are similarly slowed), simply because each 'camp' has been too stupid and greedy to sort out a consumer-friendly compromise.
  
  

  9.9.2006 10:02 #32

• gulfratt

  I was reading the postings on the two formats. I have a HD TV but finding disks and players is a pain. I have settlied for the fact that regualar DVD play fine. This debate of one being better will in the end have no impact. As much as some may like to change to new ways its the choice of the best bang for the buck. What ever way the industry goes will be driven by those who buy the product. As for me I changed to DVD format when they first came out. To save space and they lasted longer than VHS. Would I do it again? Only if it was a benefit to me. (cost and benefit of a change over) And that I am not sure of.
  Thanks for the good reading but I bet my view will really drive who the winner will be.

  9.9.2006 12:47 #33

• Radtek2

  quote: "its true the first generation of "br" players aparently have weak video playback but, have better sound".
  
  Just recently Toshiba issued the latest firmware for HDDVD and it now supports TrueHD 5.1 sound. Which is just awesome to hear.

  9.9.2006 13:15 #34

• ZippyDSM

  hughjars
  true but HD DVD us's a better "codec" MS did go thru all that trouble of making a high def codec and all *L*
  
  HD DVD dose seem to have the edge as far as sharpness/clearness of picture but BR will catch up no doubt its just unlike DVD +/- this whole mess is founded on groups companies wanting to become "format king" and not really about who's better.
  Its a bad time to update to one format or another as far as the PS3 goes it wont matter because its game machine and BR makes for a nice Game format..altho get your D-skins handy I wouldnt want a scratch on them 0-o
  

  9.9.2006 13:48 #35

• ZippyDSM

  Ghostdog
  witch is a shame they should have done whats best for all and not try and pummel each other with buggy media...witch is basically what they are doing.
  BR has the space but might have issues with scratching ,HD DVD seems to have less issues,oh well they might give up and join together in acouple years better to join than to lose.

  9.9.2006 13:52 #36

• Ghostdog

  It´s interesting that you brought up the thin protective layer-issue with Blu-ray. That´s something that I haven´t really seen discussed elsewhere. And if you buy a movie you probably want it to last for a long time. Wasn´t that one of the main reasons everyone switched from VHS to DVD?
  
  As far as storage space goes, BD-R seems superior. I don´t know about movie-releases, but the added space (compared to HD-DVD) might well come to use for things like PC-games. And at that point it doesn´t hurt if you´ve adapted to just one standard (consider the many uses of a DVD-R-drive).

  9.9.2006 14:14 #37

• ZippyDSM

  Ghostdog
  Well the BR is made just alittle differently than HD DVD HD DVD doesn't use up every bit of space the plater has to offer I worry about data longevity,to me it seems HD DVD was built for movies BR seems to have been made out of thin air and they are working on getting it unbugy 0-o
  
  Sure they can make scratch resistant stuff but thats adds to the price but...meh I prefer the cartridge design...of coarse they don't want to make cartridges it takes up space and triples the longevity and they lose money 2 fold I mean this is a game of rocket'em socket'em robots with the robots being made of of different parts the head are sony and MS body is samsung and Toshiba legs of paramount and fox ect,ect,ect its only a matter of time before the pp and someone will be holding the bag....any way you look at it its not a pretty sight...

  9.9.2006 14:24 #38

• hughjars

  It's not the disc surface of Blu-ray that's likely to suffer, it's much worse than that, it may be that the laser gets killed early in the life of the machine. Design flaw?
  
  Check this out -
  
  Jim Armour, from Toshiba’s Storage Device Division is interviewed.
  
  Now there'll be plenty lot of scope for 'well he would say that wouldn't he' comments but have a look and see what you think.......
  Quote::
  Blu-ray uses a 0.85 Numerical Aperture and, with their recording layer just 0.1mm below the disc surface, they’ve got to get the lens very close to the disc surface to be able to focus it tightly enough to give them a 25GB storage capacity.
  
  So now you’ve got a Blu-ray lens sitting somewhere between 0.1 and 0.3 millimetres from a disc coated with a substance almost as tough as diamond which, when it warps, can only warp downwards, towards the lens.
  
  Guess what happens when you run Zircon over glass at 2000rpm? Sure, your data will be safe but you’re going to need a new Blu-ray lens.
  
  
  http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6639&page=2
  

  9.9.2006 16:36 #39

• ZippyDSM

  hughjars
  *L*
  lovely ain't it,BR needs more deving and HD is almost ready for prime time.
  
  What issues do you see HD having unlike the 360 it seems ready LOL
  

  9.9.2006 16:51 #40

• hughjars

  Quote:What issues do you see HD having - The biggest one is the penetration of HD TV, obviously.
  It's clearly come on a lot but has it been enough and will enough of the gen public be prepared to make the switch?
  
  IMO SD DVD has only fairly recently become genuinely 'mass market and mainstream' and I think there is still a fair amount of residual resentment out there about the 'need' to replace movie collections etc when VHS turned it's toes up.
  A new DVD format so soon may not be what people want to know about - backwards compatable or not.
  
  (The true general public being about as far removed from the fan-boy phenomenon - or for that matter the 'geek' - as possible.)
  
  I also think price is going to work against the new machines until they drop into the £100 - £200 price point, which is clearly going to be a while yet.
  
  High Def for those reasons will be very slow to take off IMO and the format war just makes life even more difficult for all concerned (shame the flag-wavers and fan-boys seem utterly blind to this......cos I can't help thinking that their idiotic attitudes can only cloud reality and help twist the perceptions of the manufacturers).
  Quote: unlike the 360 it seems ready - TBH games machines (from any of them) long ago ceased to have any attraction for me.
  Although I do find the claims of some that the PS3 is also to be some sort of 'super-computer' (in a 'challenging PC' type sense) laughable.

  10.9.2006 08:07 #41

• Ghostdog

  Huhm... Toshiba is backing HD-DVD, right? I guess one could expect the different sides of the game to downplay each other. I´m not saying that Mr. Armour doesn´t have a point, but let´s not dive head on in to technical comments from the opposing force.

  10.9.2006 08:09 #42