It's Official, Toshiba to Enter Blu-ray Market

[spartanstew]

Not much info, but apparently official.

http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2009/08/its_official_toshiba_to_enter_bluray_market.php

[hdtvfan0001]

It's been rumored now for 6 months...but seems official now.

I'm actually glad - they made very solid and reliable HD DVD units, with superior upconverting quality of SD disks, so it will be interesting to see their Blu Ray unit specifications.

[Stuart Sweet]

HDTVfan0001 I must disagree with you somewhat.

I do agree that the upscaling was excellent but ironically not quite up to the level of my $40 Toshiba DVD player. Also, while I found the picture quality good at the time, my Blu-ray player is better, and does not take 90 seconds to start.

I will not be likely to run out and buy their Blu-ray products.

[hdtvfan0001]

HDTVfan0001 I must disagree with you somewhat.

I do agree that the upscaling was excellent but ironically not quite up to the level of my $40 Toshiba DVD player. Also, while I found the picture quality good at the time, my Blu-ray player is better, and does not take 90 seconds to start.

I will not be likely to run out an buy their Blu-ray products.
Really? Hmmmmm.....

I'm a bit surprised, as while HD DVD was in its hayday, the Toshiba HD DVD units were regularly cited as having some of the best SD upconverting of any devices on the market, and better than all Blu Ray units at that time.

I know that I have 2 Blu Ray and 1 HD DVD unit, as well as a 1080i upconverting DVD recorder in my Home Theater rack, and the HD DVD unit (Toshiba) is the best upconverter of them all.

In addition, my Toshiba HD DVD unit loads in about 26-28 seconds with the v4.0 firmware running on it.

Hmmm....I'll try to drum up some of the old articles/reviews on that topic if I can...gotta hop a plane shortly...maybe tonight.

Based on my experience using one for over 2 years, I'd surely consider a Toshiba Blu Ray - but need to see the specs first.

More recently...the OPPO BD83 seems to be getting the highest ratings. I'm following that one too....so far High Def Digest and Home Theater Magazine both rate its Blu ray and upconverting very high.

[Stuart Sweet]

The specific point I wished to make was that my inexpensive Toshiba DVD player was an even better upconverter than the HDDVD player. I think the upconversion on the Sony Blu-ray is somewhat less impressive, but then again I think that there's Blu-ray quality, and there's ... not.

As regards startup times, I heard they improved with subsequent firmware but honestly when the BD player I wanted became available I couldn't unload the HDDVD fast enough.

[hdtvfan0001]

The specific point I wished to make was that my inexpensive Toshiba DVD player was an even better upconverter than the HDDVD player. I think the upconversion on the Sony Blu-ray is somewhat less impressive, but then again I think that there's Blu-ray quality, and there's ... not.

As regards startup times, I heard they improved with subsequent firmware but honestly when the BD player I wanted became available I couldn't unload the HDDVD fast enough.
Gotcha.... :)

I also noted they came out with an new inexpensive new SD player just 2 months ago that used the same video chip (for upconversion) to produce 1080 imagery that was found in earlier HD DVD units...you are most certainly right on that this would be a cheaper solution.

Also, the startup times on the HD DVD units originally were indeed over a minute, but improved with firmware updates some time ago.

Having seen the "insides" of both my (much more expensive) Blu Ray player and the Toshiba HD DVD unit....I like the construction on the Toshiba units as well. That's why I'd consider a Toshiba Blu Ray as well.

[Alan Gordon]

Based on my experience using one for over 2 years, I'd surely consider a Toshiba Blu Ray - but need to see the specs first.

More recently...the OPPO BD83 seems to be getting the highest ratings. I'm following that one too....so far High Def Digest and Home Theater Magazine both rate its Blu ray and upconverting very high.

I'll consider the OPPO BD83 whenever I get around to getting a stand-alone, but I'm currently more interested in the Sony BDP-S560.

I like Toshiba products (though my last product from them, a Toshiba DVD recorder broke within less than a year), but I would buy either a Sony or Panasonic before I'd buy one of theirs.

My only experience with Blu-ray players has been the PS3, so I won't be making any comparisons between it and the Toshiba HD-A2 I used to have.

~Alan

[Stewart Vernon]

This isn't a big surprise to me really... it's a good place to make money, so why would they continue to be stubborn and cut off a segment of potential revenue?

Now, if they really want to make "news" they should (as owners of the technology) build-in HD-DVD compatibility as a bonus and try to encourage all those folks to keep with Toshiba. It would also be a final smack to the movie studios who have been hoping to resell Blu to HD owners.

[Stuart Sweet]

It would be a nicely spiteful move, but I wonder if the additional cost, even if it was just a few dollars, would be recouped.

[hdtvfan0001]

It would be a nicely spiteful move, but I wonder if the additional cost, even if it was just a few dollars, would be recouped.
Agree.

I highly doubt they will take that approach - they have publically and repeatedly acknowledged "losing the war", and are moving into today's Blu Ray world.

[BattleZone]

Now, if they really want to make "news" they should (as owners of the technology) build-in HD-DVD compatibility as a bonus and try to encourage all those folks to keep with Toshiba. It would also be a final smack to the movie studios who have been hoping to resell Blu to HD owners.

Toshiba's already lost well over a billion dollars on HD-DVD, and there's no new software being released, so how would they make money from this? People who already own HD-DVDs (and haven't sold them off or traded them in) already own a player.

The fact is that HD-DVD has been officially dead for 18 months already, so there is no justification for spending another penny on it.

Imagine how much Toshiba might have made already if it had supported Blu-Ray from the beginning, vs. their loss with HD-DVD...

[Steve Mehs]

Wonder how much Sony paid them :rolleyes:

[CoriBright]

If only we could exchange our Toshiba HD-DVD players for Toshiba BluRay players like the Red2Blu program, I'd be the happiest Toshiba customer ever. BTW, we have 3 Toshiba HDTVs, 4 Toshiba notebooks, 2 HD-DVD players and 1 Toshiba DBD player here! The rest are an assortment of Samsung and Panasonic.

[Dave]

The real catch here is that Toshiba has sold some of the technoligy/rights, or licenses to China. China is producing a very cheap HD DVD sort of player for there masses. They have more or less shut out Sony from selling in mass any Blu Ray players in China. @ Billion people make a lot of HD players going to be sold in China.

[Christopher Gould]

how long did it take sony to make a VHS player after the beta/VHs war

[Stewart Vernon]

It is correct that there would be no direct way for Toshiba to make money on HD-DVD... but since they hold the patents and could produce the player license-free (unlike the royalties they will have to pay to include Blu ray)... it would basically just be a nice piece of backwards compatibility.

And having that functionality... virtually anyone hanging onto a Toshiba HD-DVD player that hasn't already upgraded might could be enticed to buy a new Toshiba "combo" player... so in that way they might get to make some money.

I doubt they'll do it... but I can't believe it would cost them much to do it since the bulk of the money they lost to HD-DVD was in R&D and that ship has sailed.

I think of all the backward compatibility for things, like VCD, that are built into existing DVD/Blu players even though I'm not aware of being able to buy VCDs anywhere... and it just seems like a scenario where Toshiba is in a position to include something at little cost to them, but that might keep their old Toshiba HD-DVD customers happy at having to buy a new player.

For someone like me, I bought a Samsung combo player already... but would have bought a Toshiba had they made one... and if my Sammy ever fails, Toshiba could get my business again since no one else makes a combo player and I do have quite a few HD-DVDs still.

[bobukcat]

It is correct that there would be no direct way for Toshiba to make money on HD-DVD... but since they hold the patents and could produce the player license-free (unlike the royalties they will have to pay to include Blu ray)... it would basically just be a nice piece of backwards compatibility.

And having that functionality... virtually anyone hanging onto a Toshiba HD-DVD player that hasn't already upgraded might could be enticed to buy a new Toshiba "combo" player... so in that way they might get to make some money.

I doubt they'll do it... but I can't believe it would cost them much to do it since the bulk of the money they lost to HD-DVD was in R&D and that ship has sailed.

I think of all the backward compatibility for things, like VCD, that are built into existing DVD/Blu players even though I'm not aware of being able to buy VCDs anywhere... and it just seems like a scenario where Toshiba is in a position to include something at little cost to them, but that might keep their old Toshiba HD-DVD customers happy at having to buy a new player.

For someone like me, I bought a Samsung combo player already... but would have bought a Toshiba had they made one... and if my Sammy ever fails, Toshiba could get my business again since no one else makes a combo player and I do have quite a few HD-DVDs still.

I think there would be significant costs associated with s/w development and T&V of new releases, etc. that would never be recouped by enticing "red" owners to buy their BD players instead of someone elses.

[Drew2k]

I read this news a while ago and think it's smart of Toshiba to enter the BD market. As of now I'm content with my LG-BH200 SuperBlu in the bedroom and the Toshiba HD-DVD with Sony BD Player in the living room, but from now on I will never look twice at any player that doesn't include instant replay and some form of XX-second-advance. I've had that forever on my lowly SD players, lost it on the Toshiba HD-DVD player and LG-BH200, but found near-nirvana when I found the Sony BD player had it ...(near-nirvana because it's slow to respond).

[Stewart Vernon]

I think there would be significant costs associated with s/w development and T&V of new releases, etc. that would never be recouped by enticing "red" owners to buy their BD players instead of someone elses.

I don't entirely disagree...

...but the flip side of that is... everybody else already has a Blu ray or is looking at Blu ray from one of the manufacturers who have more mature Blu ray hardware since they were on board from the beginning.

Why would you look at a first-release Toshiba Blu ray at this point if you were in the market for Blu ray over the other alternatives?

[jwjensen356]

I love my BD60 Panasonic Blu-Ray player. But my Toshiba up-converting DVD player gave me excellent service over the last 3 years (cost me $80 then). And it also is region free (with a remote hack) which my BD60 won't do.

JJ

[steve053]

This sneak peak is already over a month old, but I haven't seen it referenced here yet:

http://www.gearlog.com/2009/09/first_toshiba_blu-ray_player_c.php#

Looking forward to the upcoming reviews if the November release date is correct.