What will Toshiba say to the HD DVD consumer when they lose the format war?

[rexington]

Just think for a moment;

Over 100,000 consumers invested in Toshiba’s HD DVD, believed their hype and supported their gamble when things got tough. What do they say to their consumers about the thousands of dollars of useless equipment (HD DVD 360 add ons, stand alone players etc) and discs (Transformers, Bourne Ultimatum etc) they purchased that will suddenly become obsolete within the next year?

We all know that Paramount, Universal etc will try to win back support from the Blu Ray crowd by releasing previous HD DVD excusives as special editions with new content to butter up the multimillion strong Blu Brigade (does anyone really think we won’t be getting an all new Directors Signature Edition of Transformers or the Bourne series when they finally goe Blu?), but Toshiba will have another, arguably tougher battle to fight.

Toshiba will have to eat even more dirt and include Blu Ray in its future product design then market that fact; “Last year you believed us when we told you HD DVD was the future and you wasted thousands buying and supporting our HD DVD products only to watch us drop it like a donkey drops s#*t! But this year we’re asking you to buy OUR Blu Ray products!!”

How do you sell that? How do you admit such a colossal defeat after public bribery and other dirty tricks, then ask for consumer and retail support again?

I wonder how Toshiba will respond when it’s all over?

[Proteus]

They will say what is always said:

"The product performed as expected. There was content available for the product that can be viewed on the product to this day. The customer received exactly what they were promised."

In other words, they don't care who they hurt in this bid to control HDM patents and licensing.

It would be a grave day for consumerism if HDDVD wins. It would be the equivalent of genocide of consumer rights and perceptions. It would mean that quality no longer matters and that _anything_ can be sold if pitched right. Even if the pitch is full of misinformation. Isn't this exactly how things began in '1984' with Big Brother? HDDVD winning means choice was lost.

[aphex]

they'll probably go bankrupt being unable to make up the money they've been losing.

Or they just won't give a crap. They don't seem to now

[kowhite]

They will say:

"Buy our new model HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo player!"

[bazie]

I dunno what happened when betamax failed? Sony seems fine now.

companies move on and get ready for the next round i guess

[Kirsty_Mc]

Originally Posted by kowhite

They will say:

"Buy our new model HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo player!"

Then slowly phase it out for a Blu-Ray player.

[Kirsty_Mc]

Remember Toshiba is a VERY big company.

• Nuclear power stations,
• Air Conditioning
• Machine Tools
• White Goods
• Home Electronics
• Computers
• Components (I'll bet there are Toshiba components in our BR Players and PS3s)

etc... etc... etc...

[bootman]

Geez get a grip with the melodramatics.
Enough with the soap opera sketches.

They don't have to say anything.
When was the last time Sony apologized for any of it's failed formats?
You didn't buy any UMD movies with your PSP did you?

Consumers will just have to deal with it, just like betamax, laserdisk, vhs, minidisk, etc.

Last I checked HDM (both blu and red combined) barely showed up on DVD sales radar.
That is what ultimately determine the fate of any HDM format.

[westend]

Originally Posted by bazie

I dunno what happened when betamax failed? Sony seems fine now.

companies move on and get ready for the next round i guess

Beta only failed in the consumer market, but was a brilliant success in the broadcast/professional market.

[bootman]

Originally Posted by westend

Beta only failed in the consumer market, but was a brilliant success in the broadcast/professional market.

You are correct.. The same thing was true of minidisk.

[Flea77]

Originally Posted by bootman

Geez get a grip with the melodramatics.
Enough with the soap opera sketches.

They don't have to say anything.
When was the last time Sony apologized for any of it's failed formats?
You didn't buy any UMD movies with your PSP did you?

Consumers will just have to deal with it, just like betamax, laserdisk, vhs, minidisk, etc.

Last I checked HDM (both blu and red combined) barely showed up on DVD sales radar.
That is what ultimately determine the fate of any HDM format.

Beta is still being used in high end production facilities; Laserdisc (not disk), was just a niche market, it did not fail; if VHS failed sign me up for more failures!; my Minidisc (not minidisk) takes offense to that comment, as a matter of fact, my portable recorder, home recorder, and wife's portable player all take offense to that!

Heck, I am just getting ready to install Sony's new in dash car SACD player, surround sound in my car, maybe a good thing, maybe not.

Allan

[Digital Filmmaker]

D'oh!!!

[zombie]

Originally Posted by kowhite

They will say:

"Buy our new model HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo player!"

Originally Posted by Kirsty_Mc

Then slowly phase it out for a Blu-Ray player.

Bingo!

[Blu-Style]

What will Toshiba say to the HD DVD consumer when they lose the format war?

[bootman]

Originally Posted by Flea77

Beta is still being used in high end production facilities; Laserdisc (not disk), was just a niche market, it did not fail; if VHS failed sign me up for more failures!; my Minidisc (not minidisk) takes offense to that comment, as a matter of fact, my portable recorder, home recorder, and wife's portable player all take offense to that!

Heck, I am just getting ready to install Sony's new in dash car SACD player, surround sound in my car, maybe a good thing, maybe not.

Allan

point taken.

You guys do realize that my tongue was planted firmly in cheek.

That bush video had me rolling.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Proteus

They will say what is always said:

"The product performed as expected. There was content available for the product that can be viewed on the product to this day. The customer received exactly what they were promised."

In other words, they don't care who they hurt in this bid to control HDM patents and licensing.

I remember DiVX Armistice Day - June '99:
Circuit City, a week or two later, was forced to put out a public customer-info statement reassuring customers that all PPV disks would continue to function through X/X/00 date, encouraged customers to adopt "gold" full-view subscriptions by that time if they wished to continue to enjoy their movies, and apologized for the inconvenience.

Welcome to the world of corporate tact:
Where it's never anyone's fault, no one knows why a product's not being sold anymore, the company always promises something better in the future, and seeing the product you bought become obsolete is an "inconvenience" to the customer.

[bageleaterkkjji]

if hddvd wins i will either commit suicide by cutting my wrists with a blu ray or never buy another movie again i will download movies like a mother

[bhampton]

Quote

"if hddvd wins i will either commit suicide by cutting my wrists with a blu ray"

Yo, like that's not funny.

Anyway,.. My guess is they won't say anything since in my view they already lost some time ago and they haven't said anything yet.

-Brian

[JimPullan]

Originally Posted by Blu-Style

EXACTLY what Toshiba and Microsoft will do !!! This is the mindset of the monolithic corporations today - You suffer and we'll laugh all the way to the bank.

Funny image [Jim]

[dbs2]

Originally Posted by bootman

......
You didn't buy any UMD movies with your PSP did you?

........

As a side note, if i am correct UMD has sold more Discs as a format than HD-DVD.....