Tokyo (Japan) – Toshiba may have lost the high-definition format war to Sony, but the company is not yet ready to build Blu-ray players, at least not officially. In a rather surprising turn of events, Toshiba reverts back to the DVD: According to a newspaper article, the company plans to release a DVD player capable of displaying high-resolution video by the end of this year.

The high-definition format war may not be over after all. Even if Toshiba decided to pull its HD DVD out of a costly format battle with Sony earlier this year and the fact that Toshiba has the necessary resources to market Blu-ray drives and players through its 51% stake in Toshiba Samsung Storage Technologies (TSST), the company said that it does not plan to release Blu-ray players under the Toshiba brand.

According to an article published by the Japanese Daily Yomiuri, “Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said his company will not market DVD players that are compatible with Blu-ray.” Instead, Toshiba decided to compete with upgraded DVD players that are described to be capable of displaying “high resolution images from regular DVDs.”

DVD video content is based either on MPEG-2 encoding with up to 9.8 Mb/s or MPEG-1 at up to 1.856 Mb/s. In its NTSC specification, the frame rates of DVD videos are 29.97 or 23.976 fps, while the native resolution can be 720 x 480 (full D1), 704 x 480, 352 x 480 or 352 x 240 pixels. HD DVD as well as Blu-ray content is typically encoded in 1920 x 1080 pixels (and varying bit rates, depending on content and country).

At least on paper, Toshiba’s new high-resolution approach is at a disadvantage. We also wonder how this new DVD player will differ from 1080p upscaling DVD players and if the difference in image quality can be significant. If Daily Yomiuri’s sources are correct, than Toshiba’s new DVD player may actually not be much more than an evolution over current upscaling DVD players. The publication indicated that Toshiba wants to compete against Blu-ray in terms of price – which is not really a bad idea as long as Blu-ray players continue to be priced in the $400 range for entry-level devices.   

Toshiba declined to comment on the report.

Good on them.

Jun 02, 2008 13:08     

After all the backstabbing, back-door deals, and invasive DRM Sony whipped out the public still bowed down and took it up the butt, letting them win, Toshiba shouldn't build their players just because they had some freakin' dignity and respect for the rest of us.
Revrant report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

........Good on them

Jun 02, 2008 14:01     

...plus, with any luck, this might just prolong good old DVDs' life span! The hell with Blu-ray. Cheers
Anthony Tower report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -2

Oh please

Jun 02, 2008 14:10     

Stop trying to fracture the market...compete in the hardware not software space toshiba.
Oh please report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

affordable alternative to blu-ray?

Jun 02, 2008 14:19     

It seems that Toshiba has taken the affordable alternative to blue-ray(?). I want to hold onto my DVD collection and this will help to do so.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

DVD upconvertion call it whatever you want.

Jun 02, 2008 14:30     

what it is is still DVD upconvertion. like it or not, it could be a better formula...but still doing the same thing. from low-res to guess what the rest of the pixels should be and display them...it's still not HD...still different from the original HD image...just a better guess. Dignity? it's a business decision. the volume of machine sold in blue ray is still slow...they don't need to be in it now. they can always come back to make it when it got popular. since they don't have no HD to compete anymore..there is no need to hurry and make blue-ray now...since it could also die if price didn't drop. You will be a sucker to buy a toshiba again for a "better" upconversion that is going to cost so much more than a regular upconversion DVD player that is dirt cheap. it's just a cheap way out...

wow report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

ummm

Jun 02, 2008 14:54     

ummmm....yea, that's like awesome or something. Hope it works out for them cause enhanced DVD is all we need!
Frank report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -2

Another losing strategy for Toshiba

Jun 02, 2008 15:03     

Some people seem to have a vested interest in the defeat of particular companies, however market demands, good business strategies, and industry support have all voted and Blu-ray has won hands down. Companies that do not offer value to consumers ultimately pay the price and do not thrive/survive. Sony seems to be doing ok on both of those fronts... Thanks!
Dan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -5

LG Blu-Ray Burner w-HD-DVD ROM Now $300

Jun 02, 2008 15:20     

At Newegg, you can now buy an LG Blu-Ray burner, HD-DVD ROM, DVD burner, CD burner for $300. Reading the reviews, it seems to be a good drive. However, the included "Cyberlink Studio Producer" software doesn't seem that good. Anyway, it's nice to see Blu-Ray drive prices dropping. It's cheaper to use your computer as your Blu-Ray player instead of buying a home player. Maybe I'll buy one...
Cypherdude report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Go for it...

Jun 02, 2008 15:37     

After Toshiba losing a lot on HD-DVD (but still having better upscaling processing) why not leverage that development and put it in less expensive players (sans blu Laser)... Makes economic sense... Also, after the alienation of the folks used as cannon fodder in the format war, it would only be logical to compete on price. Where is the market going to be? With the economy the way it is, will people be buying many $400 players, or $100 - $200 players?

Dawntreader report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Blu-ray or GTFO!

Jun 02, 2008 16:53     

*yawn* What's the saying? You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig? Upscale standard DVDs all you want Toshiba, it still wont come close to Blu-ray. And I'd love to see you upscale the audio to Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA lossless quality. Blu-ray or GTFO! lul.
P report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

To Revrant (Good on them)

Jun 02, 2008 19:41     

Toshiba's HD-DVD format was also full of drm crud and their position on drm is really no "better" than Sony's. I am astonished that someone reading a tech site could be so misinformed and misguided. Toshiba has no more and no less "respect" for the consumer than Sony - everyone can choose what the level is, as it really does not matter anyway. Toshiba's decision to not build blu-ray (at present) has nothing to do with dignity (surprised it even came up) and everything to do with royalties and manufacturing readiness. When they gave up on HD-DVD, Toshiba indicated they would have blu-ray drives out "shortly" - clearly something (eg royalties) has gotten in the way of that initial position. I am neither a Sony or a Toshiba fanboy and I despise all things DRM due to the limitations and degraded experience that is forced upon legitimate users of content (and in the case of Vista - systems).

BarkingMad report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

Short films only

Jun 02, 2008 22:40     

Someone help me with the math here... A Dual Layer DVD can hold 8.5 GB right? With 9.8 Mbit/Sec that would equate to 588 Mbit/Min. So that math would work out to be something like 8,500 / 588 = 14 Min 27 Sec of High Def on DVD content. Or, you would need to flip through about 7 disc's for a 90 minute film. 8-0 I give Toshiba props for trying, but this doesn't sound like Tech that consumers are looking for. Perhaps I got it all wrong - I welcome clarification.

9Nails report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Compression on DVD?

Jun 03, 2008 01:53     

I have always thought playing a compressed (mp4,divx) HD movie from DVD might be a viable alternative. If you have a decent enough video processor in the machine, this shouldn't be a problem, maybe slightly more expensive than a regular DVD player. You might not be able to fit all the extras onto the disc, but some of the HD movies I've watched were anything from 2 to 8GB, in either avi/wmv/mkv containers. Quality seemed fine, 5.1 was intact. Movies were either 720p or 1080p. I know its not the same quality as blu-ray, but it should be much cheaper, and consumers don't really care about quality, they see price first. I remember reading about something like this a few months ago. Your toughts on compressing movies onto DVDs??

Syn report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Blue Ray movie

Jun 03, 2008 04:26     

I dont really want to pay 25 dollars to buy a blue ray movie. There is really no reason to buy anything other than dvd's atm. They look fine even on a hd-tv.
scott report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

@ BarkingMad

Jun 03, 2008 08:41     

Although you are right about HD-DVD having DRM, it was nowhere close to what Sony has with BR. The fact that they can brick your player alone was enough for me. And HD-DVD was an open format.
09 F9 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

re; pigs

Jun 03, 2008 09:29     

wats thet ol sayin? u can feed a pig pikls but it wont poop purls i think upcanvurtd dvd is good enuff POPCORN
POPCORN report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Consumers didn't choose blu-ray

Jun 03, 2008 09:35     

Remember that Sony bought all the movie studios. They've got to get some of that back so they're going to stick it to the consumer. I just can't wait for a new update to the blu-ray profile and bricks all the current players including their PS3's.
Headward report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Re: Compression on DVD?

Jun 03, 2008 10:12     

I too have wondered why nobody has tried mpeg4 or equivalent (divx?) on regular DVD media. It shouldn't be that hard or expensive to implement a hardware decoder that can handle regular DVDs and mpeg4 too. The hard part would be getting content, but if this was built there are probably plenty of people who would buy just so they could rip their own disks and play them.
jsc report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

@Headward

Jun 04, 2008 02:06     

First off, all the studios that Sony supposedly "bought" have categorically denied it. No ifs, no buts, they've said they took no money to back Blu Ray. Contrast that with the studios who talked about "marketing incentives" when asked if they accepted money to back HD DVD, then confirmed they were paid off after Toshiba flushed HD DVD down the pan. Secondly, the PS3 has already been upgraded to profile 2.0, their ain't no more profiles after that. And no PS3s bricked. Sorry, I guess you'll have to wait for another opportunity to offload all that fanboi/burned HD DVD owner angst. Boo-hoo.

Whatjasmokin report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -3

I Can't Believe This Is Even News!

Jun 04, 2008 08:26     

Really? Why? Kind of like a kid who's a sore loser. Won't admit he's lost! Goodness grief, Toshiba, give it up already! They can come up with the greatest compression techniques the world has ever seen, but at the end of the day, guess what? IT'S STILL COMPRESSED!!! Why is there even any discussion about this? Lossless > Lossy
Big Willie report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

@Whatjasmokin

Jun 04, 2008 13:54     

Of course Sony denies it, just like the rootkit never existed. The studios were bought. It always come down to money. If you want keep your head in sand and be ignorant be my guess. Blu-ray still hasn't been widely accepted. "Secondly, the PS3 has already been upgraded to profile 2.0, their ain't no more profiles after that." "their ain't no more" You are a true blu-ray fanboy. How can you even be sure? Are you secretly the CEO of Sony or is that pillow talk between you two? The fact is that they can brick all the players if they feel that their DRM is broke. Keep that in mind. That is a scary fact. I'm just hoping for a better format to knock blu-ray off because the price is too expensive. They would have to sell $100-150 players with new movies no great than $25. Until then downloadable content is the way to go for me or upscaling DVDs.

Headward report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

Nothing New

Jun 04, 2008 16:34     

I have had a DVD player Capable of playing HD Content for over 2 years already, its called the neodigits helios x3000, go get one tell them johnvid sent you, you may get a discount.
johnvid report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Toshiba will stomp blu-ray with DVD 2.0

Jun 05, 2008 07:51     

Have you seen this tech? It is fantastic. Coupled with multilayered DVD tech (Tosh just got a patent on June 3rd, and network interactivity (Netflix downloads anyone?) the Tosh player will stomp the daylights out of blu-ray, whether Sony fanboys like it or not.
mcm report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

Where can I buy one tomorro?

Jun 06, 2008 03:41     

I have been wanting to buy something, anything, that would allow me to store my DV tapes losslessly for ever. I need something to put about 15GB and that can be read by a computer, preferebly a stand alone player too. Why the hell nobody builds a DVD player that plays back Microsoft DV avi files? Decompressing DV video is easy cake. Anyway, Before I buy blu-ray a couple of things MUST happen. The players must playback "divx" avi's, must playback DV microsoft avi's, must have recorders for PC under $200 and, this is the most important, blank discs must cost under $3.5 per disc. I'm in for a long wait, so no hurry. I might most definelty consider this Toshiba thing, whatever it is, meanwhile. I already bit $100 HD-DVD and second-hand $10 movies as an interim solution.

whocares report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Blu-ray may never go mainstream

Jun 06, 2008 15:36     

Keep this in mind that downloadable content and on-demand is growing faster than blu-ray. If it gains more market share not to mention this technology to extend the life of your DVDs for an inexpensive solution, I'm all for it. I see this player really taking off, fast. When DVD's sell at $20 and blu-ray are $30-40. Not to mention how large the DVD library.
Headward report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1