Toshiba Rejects Blu-ray's Victory Claims

Toshiba has rejected claims made yesterday at a Blu-ray press conference at CeBIT that its own HD DVD format is failing. Olivier Van Wynendaele, Deputy General manager of HD DVD at Toshiba Ltd said the claims were "propaganda" and then proceeded to dispute them point by point in a call to tech.co.uk

[kewlkat007]

And to think PS3 fanatics thinking this format war is over, I think it's just beginning..Toshiba sounds serious about this price competition.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Blu-ray stand alone players aren't being bought, the PS3 is. HD-DVD because it doesn't exist in a game system as mandatory is being bought by movie enthuists for the pure purpose of watching movies (not gaming). These numbers, like any others, can be twisted with deals, promotions, and simply twisted to show whatever you want (I can use statistics to show how video games lead to drug usage lol). This war will go on for quite some time, and I will stick to DVD's until their is a side admitting defeat.

PS if you wish to show me attachment rates, please find a real source, and not a single website's sales rates, we can all make Amazon graphs, lol I own over 200 DVD's and not a single one did I buy through Amazon. Tell me please, how many of you truely get all your entertainment needs through Amazon?

[ReconHope]

can't say i wasn't expecting that

[XxZxX]

Amazon.com Blu-rays to HD-DVD sales proof otherwise but then again it's just amazon. Can't say that Amazon.com trend represent the whole US Blu-ray vs HD-DVD sales.

[Ludwig]

Who does buy "online" stuff? .. Rich people who have a PC and know well how to use it.

I believe it doesn't speaks for the huge masses who actualy matter. And until now, most of this masses don't even "know" what HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is.....

Sony runs, sell a couple more for the early adopters and claim victory? its like saying you won a race because in the 1st 5 laps you was ahead .. when the race has 500 laps o_O

[timmyp53]

of course the manager that makes hddvd would say that....

[eques judicii]

just like of course the president of the bluray association would say that bluray has already won. both are spinning facts. Time will tell which one really wins.

[Tut]

Actions speak louder than words, so we'll see how it plays out.

As far as I am concerned it's been decided for me unless otherwise forced. =)

[Maddens Raiders]

Is that why Toshiba stated the following:

http://news.softpedia.com/n...

and why Hi-Def Digest and Nielsen both stated the following:

http://www.highdefdigest.co...

I mean c'mon. Toshiba sees the writing on the wall. They will fall on their sword and move on as is the proper thing to do in all respect. =]

[OldSchoolGamer]

"Universal VP Ken Graffeo cautioned against drawing long-term conclusions based on recent sales data, saying "You can’t look at the last two months as a trend or as what the consumer wants to do in this format... It’s really an artificial, short time period."

Graffeo went on to suggest that Blu-ray numbers are getting a boost from two-for-one specials offered by some retailers, pointing out Amazon's Blu-ray sale, offering 50% off select Blu-ray discs."

LMAO do you read the stuff you link and post. Otherwise thought it was a valid point, till I read that in your link.

[XxZxX]

OldSchoolGamer,
but you didn't know, Amazon.com did have special deals on HD-DVD as well. http://forums.highdefdigest...

[OldSchoolGamer]

supposedly debunk an article, while doing the opposite, lol. I check my sources, nor do I think Amazon is the only DVD sales source in existance, lol. No need to get defensive, just love pointing out stupid irony. =)

[gogators]

It's just too bad there isn't enough movie studio support for HD-DVD. I have both player formats, though the later is in the form of a PS3. I have no complaints with either format in terms of picture quality, it's just that Blue Ray will win if they continue with such a large studio support.

[Says you]

I doubt that consideirng HD DVD doesn't have nothing to have a
atattchement rate with lets see Blu Ray has more studio's backing
them up while one of Toshibas PR is talking smack saying they sold 200,000 well thats impressive but not nearly as impressive as the PS3 and its Blu Ray that has way more movie's on its side right now while HD DVD is just all talk lets see there pie charts or there stock market HD DVD charts in how many HD DVD Movie's they have.

[OldSchoolGamer]

"... doubt that consideirng HD DVD doesn't have nothing to have a
atattchement rate..." lets stop right there, if you want I can make a pie chart out of how many spelling and grammatical errors demand that you go to this website immediately:
http://www.hookedonphonics....
Again run don't walk to the website. Please post something insightful, new, or with some links to some information backing up your point. Finally for the love of god spell check, reading your posts, hurt my brain!

[ArmrdChaos]

This is exactly why Sony released their system before there were any games for it. They spun the hype machine and when their buyers didn't have any games for their Blue-Ray player what did they do...went out and bought Blue-Ray movies. What do you think will happen when PS3 actually starts getting games. PS3 users will start spending their money and time on gaming and then it will come down to who has the most stand alone players because the people who buy the stand alone players will be the ones consistently buying & watching movies. If you think for a moment that all these Blue-Ray studios won't start making HDDVD movies if the demand is there then you need to crawl back under your rock, because it is all about the money. When it comes down to the movie players people will either buy the cheaper (HDDVD) or the safer (Dual-Format), and either one will keep HDDVD around. This war is far from over no matter how much these self proclaimed prophets think they know.

It won't really matter anyway when Holographic discs eventually get to market and swallow these formats whole.

[VirtualGamer]

Yes because one can't be a movie watcher and a gamer you have to be one or the other but you can't do both.

/sarcasm off

[ArmrdChaos]

But in the end if you have $60 to burn on a game you want really bad or buy 2 Blue Ray movies which one are you going to choose? Those who buy the stand alone players won't give a crap about gaming and thus will devote that choice/money towards movie purchases.

/no sarcasm needed...

[DJ]

and rightly so. With Blu-ray sales consistently beating HD-DVD (and millions of PS3 owners on the way) things aren't looking good for the inferior format this time around.

[fenderputty]

as far as blu-ray is concerned, it's about to get another huge "artifical" boost when the PS3 launches in Europe this Friday. What's the HD market look like in Europe? It seems most of Europe is fairly Sony friendly.

I see people making posts about this and that. About how the PS3 buyers of movies will stop since games are coming. I don't know where any of you get this. Most people I know who own a PS3 like the blu-ray functionality. Furthermore, most of these people, including myself will continue to buy movies for their system.

[PS3n360]

PLEASE OH GREAT BLURAY FANBOY please tell me what makes bluray format superior because as far as I can tell the HDDVD format has more interative features and better video quality as reported in many reviews and comparisons. If you say space I will laugh at you.

[VirtualGamer]

Been battling with Xbox 360 fans who say the PS3 is nothing but a glorified movie player with no games to play. Now I have to listen to Toshiba say that the PS3 doesn't count as a movie player since a person could use it to play games!

[ArmrdChaos]

is how the Sony fans were pi$$ing and moaning about MS using numbers shipped as numbers sold. That was a big whine fest. Now here we are with the Blue-Ray camp doing the exact same thing by including a great number of free give-aways into their total number to con the public into thinking the war is over. That is ok though right? You Sony/Blue-Ray backers can't have it both ways.

I'm not saying HDDVD or Blue-Ray will win...I am merely stating that that the war is far from over.

[smitty]

it's over HD-DVD, and sorry for the Xbox owners that bought the soon to be brick add-on.

[JasonXE]

if you retards could hear yourself battling over a format. You guys should take the label of MS or Sony off your heads. It's just a stupid 'GAMING CONSOLE', not your lives. I wonder if you guys are paid by MS or Sony themselves and if you are then carry on.

[Torch]

Most notably ludicrous is his reference to the 200,000 HD-DVD machines in comparison the relatively miniscule 30,000 <ahem> "true" Blu-Ray gigs. I wonder if he was actually able to get through this declaration with a serious face. Whether Toshiba (or anyone else for that matter) considers the PS3 to be a genuine player or not, there is absolutely no denying PS3 sales have, are, and WILL CONTINUE to be influenced by the inclusion of the Blu-Ray player (which can easily hold its own, by the way).

Let's be ultra-conservative and assume that a measly 10% of PS3's existing customer base of 2 million purchased one primarily - or even partly - with the intention of using it as a BR movie player: Such a a scenario would already put the PS3 on par with its competitor. And this goes without even considering the ongoing purchase of "true" Blu-Ray players, or the format's (critically important) heavily superior studio support.

I'm a satisfied PS3 owner, who's purchase decision was heavily influenced by the inclusion of the Blu-Ray player. And I have no doubt that I'm abundant company. And I absolutely can't wait to start renting my flicks in lovely HD!

I'm sorry, but I can't help but get the feeling that Toshiba's really reaching and blowing thick, heavy smoke on this one. I venture to call Toshiba's bluff and assume that they're really scrambling at this point, and this interview is nothing more than a feeble attempt at damage control.

[neogeo]

I live in a lil country call America. Over here we have a big movie rental company called Blockbuster Video. To my point. At my local store we rent HDDVD and Blueray movies. I personally rent about two per week, When i'm shopping around I always remember this site and think to myself hmmm? whats really selling? Everytime I go rent a blueray movie its sold out. Later after my frustration passes I look over at the HDDVD section..The result is always the same. Blueray is rented out while almost every HDDVD movie is in stock. My friend that works in the store tells me that they almost never rent HDDVD movies. This is the honest to god truth. So I don't care what liers say about whats selling, I belive what I see in real life.

[Booneral]

Yeah, also wanna compare it to VHS and DVD rentals to see the bitter truth? DVD is still the preferred format, this will change within time. But not right now, besides you are talking about a local Blockbuster store, not a nation-wide statistics.

It's truly too early to give away the winner prize to either one of the disc-formats.

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

They count that stoopid add on then they can count the ps3 sales as players..

[tomfoolery]

Sony disciples have their movie player,
MS followers have their GAMES.....NOW!

[ChefDejon]

even if people are only buying Ps3 to play games on when all of Ps3 games are on blu-ray every disc that is pretty much used on Ps3 is blu ray so i can see how blu ray disk are beating hd dvd 3:1 ratio

[Marty8370]

Having both Games & Movies using the Blu-ray media with push sales and prices will then fall in line with DVD. Blu-ray is the clear winner thx to PS3 sales and Hollywood studio support.

[The Cloud Theory]

With PS3's games and movies running on blu-ray, there's no need to buy exta things like hd-dvd's and dvd's to run ur games on. Everything's just there and soon, movies will all become blu-ray making hd-dvds an old thing. This then leaves u wondering y u didnt buy a PS3 when u could've.

[BIadestarX]

With the PS3 losing exclusives left and right, xbox 360 having a better online experience, better game it let you wonder if a gamer should spend $600 just to gamble on a new movie format that may or may not become mainstream.

[SIX]

It's simple. Every PS3 sold is a Blu Ray sold. Do you know how much leverage this is? If you where a movie studio who would you support? Try to see it from a business stand point and not a fanboys.

[Torch]

It's not rocket science.

I don't know why so many people can't or refuse to understand it.

[tk]

So Toshiba hopes that people buying a PS3 will not be using it as a Blu-Ray player? Quite absurd. Every PS3 player will be used as a BluRay player. The reason for it is so simple that I can't believe someone did not mention it before.

Answer the simple question - do you buy a HD TV for games, and then another one for watching videos? Or do you buy one HD TV and use it for games and video? Of course you use it for both. So if you use it for both, then the device connected to it that is capable of playing a HD format will be used for it. And if it can be used for games - then great - for those who bought it as a HD video player. For those who bought it as a games machine - why buy another HD video player? What would be the point?

I hate switching between players / games machine / VHS player etc. I like one device to take care of it. My first DVD player was a PS2. My first HD video player will be a PS3. I have over 50 PS2 titles - my kids played our launch system to bits - and now we are on the second one (slimline). Bought another player for DVD's - as the PS2's dvd playback capability sort of - sucks at this point compared to cheapy dvd players. But to be able to clear the mess of cables at the back with a player that replaces the dvd player, PS2, and adds two new formats (PS3 and BluRay) - well that kind of appeals to me.

I will be getting a PS3 because it will give access to BluRay titles when I replace my TV with a HD set. Toshiba is wrong on this one. I am not planning on getting two HD sets - I choose the PS3 over the XB360 because it gives me games and HD playback. Simple really.