Toshiba's new HD DuD angle.

[Kayne314]

I was just on the Canadian training site for Toshiba.

http://getsmart2.toshiba.ca

They have some videos recorded from CES for the last few days. Other than there is almost nobody in their booths,( too funny!) they have a whole new angle on the HD DVD player that they are pushing.

Apparently starting later this year, all existing HD DVD players will be able to receive streaming HD content including full length HD movies. I have no idea how they plan to make this work or how crappy streamed HD content will look, but there is their new strategy.

Looks like HD DVD is already trying to make the move away from optical disks and are jumping straight to VOD.

Anyone else hear about this?

[Thegide]

So...what's the disc-reading portion of the drive good for then? Drink coaster? Not like it's an HD DVD burner...

[Kayne314]

Funny. I was just thinking the same thing. Sounds like desperation on their part, but that's just me.

[Shin-Ra]

Existing players lack the storage or connectivity for external storage to make this work.

[Kayne314]

According to the video, it is streamed video, not downloaded. No storage space required.

As for the Bandwidth required... ???????????????

[blindcat87]

If this is really where they plan to go with this, then all of us that have talked about HD DVD as DIVX 2.0 are going to be doing the I Was Right dance. Just the method of delivery is different.

Chris

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Kayne314

According to the video, it is streamed video, not downloaded. No storage space required.

As for the Bandwidth required... ???????????????

People have an average 2-3Mbps broadband? That would barely do a decent DVD quality, with a modern codec.

And streaming would imply rental.

[IvanDrago]

So they are going to stick an entire movie on the 128MB internal flash chip?

Wow! I didn't know VC-1 was THAT good!!!!!

[Kayne314]

I wonder. The Toshiba has 2 USB ports on the front of this thing that I never really took notice of before.

Maybe an external Hard Drive or two?

[JohnGalt]

Originally Posted by Kayne314

I wonder. The Toshiba has 2 USB ports on the front of this thing that I never really took notice of before.

Maybe an external Hard Drive or two?

Could be but would the average consumer buy an HD DVD player after hearing, "Oh sure our optical disc format is extinct but if you buy our player, and a $200 add-on external HDD, you can experience almost-better-than-DVD movie downloads which will eventually expire, crash, or be erased to reclaim space for future downloads for about the same price as purchasing a Blu-ray disc! And if you're really lucky your ISP won't boot you for excessive bandwidth usage either!"