Archived: Insiders Thread

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Christmas is only going to be a really, really good day if I wake up with my *&%^ in your mouth and the kids are at Grandma's.

You're the best!!! LOL.

[BluOgre]

Originally Posted by Vonscoot

It's not Toshiba. Even at the $198 price, WM is losing 28% off what they paid for the players. With the drop to $98, it gets worse. They are losing quite a bit on these sales (including the $14.96 HD-DVDs).

Are you kidding me? You don't think Wal-Mart has a deal for POS rebates or something? There is no way they are going to eat the costs on a format they were going to DUMP back in August. Toshiba begged them not to drop HD DVD and my guess one of their talking points was they would GIVE them a great deal with these cheap players.

Trust me, I deal with this crap all the time. Wal-Mart is not stupid, they are not going to lose money on hardware. The only real time they do that is with New Releases although most of that is made up with ad money that stuidos give them. Wal-Marts not stupid....it's a flithy rich company for a reason.

[Hussla]

I'd love to hear the insiders POV on how in hell Toshiba can sell so many players at $98.

Are they are cutting corners somewhere to reduce costs? or are they massively subsidising them?

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by Aygie

i kinda agree but why would they waste money doing adverts?

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh..._Wal-Mart/1131

This is not a company that is Blu Ray supporter as suggested by others.

[Justjayn]

PaidGeek,

Was wondering if some of the delayed Sony titles are in the pipeline for 2008? Hidden Dragon..., Da Vinci Code & Meatballs come to mind.

[PaulGo]

I believe this is an act of desperation on the part of Toshiba. They see the handwriting on the wall and know if hardware / software sales do not pick up dramatically they will loose the war (that they are already loosing badly). The question is how much loses can they sustain before they call it quits.

[BluOgre]

Originally Posted by Justjayn

PaidGeek,

Was wondering if some of the delayed Sony titles are in the pipeline for 2008? Hidden Dragon..., Da Vinci Code & Meatballs come to mind.

I'll bet Da Vinci Code comes out near the release of their new movie "Angels & Demons" (due out late 2008).

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

I believe this is an act of desperation on the part of Toshiba. They see the handwriting on the wall and know if hardware / software sales do not pick up dramatically they will loose the war (that they are already loosing badly). The question is how much loses can they sustain before they call it quits.

LOL,
Paul, apparently I was typing the below while you were posting the above.
Great minds think alike ?

I know that like the Paramount deal, a three day fire sale won’t win the war for HD DVD (esp. when Wal*Mart buyers start comparing how much they will be spending on future HD DVD discs compared to the price of the player). If this latest HD DVD volley proves significant, it may extend the war (by possibly influencing WB)……….that’s all.

It may be a good time for the BDA to open up the war chest (whether physical or on paper) and respond with certain effective countermeasures this holiday season. It’s their money, they know how best to invest it in this process.

I just view this latest Toshiba gesture as another sign of desperation as it is not sustainable over time.

[mattym]

Penton any word on if warner have resigned with the BDA or if they are now off the board?

[Spankey]

I just view this latest Toshiba gesture as another sign of desperation as it is not sustainable over time.

I'm having a harder time seeing how this is even sustainable in the short term. How can HD-DVD be seen as a lucrative proposition by manufacturers or studios. If I were to get into HD-DVD today, I would not pay more than $100 for a player and would expect at least 10 free movies. Then I would not want to pay more than current DVD prices.

There has to come a time when cutting costs is detrimental to HD Media, and I think this is it.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Spankey

I'm having a harder time seeing how this is even sustainable in the short term. How can HD-DVD be seen as a lucrative proposition by manufacturers or studios. If I were to get into HD-DVD today, I would not pay more than $100 for a player and would expect at least 10 free movies. Then I would not want to pay more than current DVD prices.

There has to come a time when cutting costs is detrimental to HD Media, and I think this is it.

There has to come a time soon where the BDA simply and finally brings out the nukes and does whatever is necessary to end this nonsense and save HDM.

It's that simple.

[jkwest]

Quickie....

Nov 1st is upon us. Playstation 3 update? I don't know if we have an insider with that kind of information here.

[Spankey]

There has to come a time soon where the BDA simply and finally brings out the nukes and does whatever is necessary to end this nonsense and save HDM.

I don't know what kind of nukes are left, but Toshiba has to take a hit from other electronics companies and stores. Forget Microsoft. Toshiba has to take the fall for this nonsense alone now. Studios need to realize that there will be no market if HD-DVD keeps this nonsense up. Instead of winning a war they are going to lose it for everyone.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by mattym

Penton any word on if warner have resigned with the BDA or if they are now off the board?

^ That’s a non-issue like the Toronto WB nonsense floated first on AVS and the recent Kosty deflection on AVS (that somebody PM’ed me)........................

Originally posted by Kosty…………..
“I just got an e-mail stating that Warner has invited major press, including the AP to an previously unscheduled press event on the 31st on relatively short notice.

Could be something as innocuous as new releases or something really significant, but it was implied that it was an unusual event and major announcement(s) would be made.”

[SS316SRV]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

LOL,
Paul, apparently I was typing the below while you were posting the above.
Great minds think alike ?

I know that like the Paramount deal, a three day fire sale won’t win the war for HD DVD (esp. when Wal*Mart buyers start comparing how much they will be spending on future HD DVD discs compared to the price of the player). If this latest HD DVD volley proves significant, it may extend the war (by possibly influencing WB)……….that’s all.

It may be a good time for the BDA to open up the war chest (whether physical or on paper) and respond with certain effective countermeasures this holiday season. It’s their money, they know how best to invest it in this process.

I just view this latest Toshiba gesture as another sign of desperation as it is not sustainable over time.

Penton,

My question, what is the BDAs strategy concerning Business v. Adaption. It seems like HD DVD is more focused on adaption, and will sacrifice business in a big way to further their technology. But taking losses like they will with cheap players and free movies can only last so long before it is more profitable to NOT sell HD DVD technology. Is the BDA trying to use better business decisions to allow for much more profit and using the finacial windfalls to draw in perspective companies (WB)? Is the BDA trying to use profitability to stay in the game longer and thus be adapted?

Would the BDA risk selling at a loss this holiday season? It seems counter intuitive to react to this massive price drop on *old* HD DVD players. The price increase after the holiday season would not be well accepted and could lead to a push against blu-ray. Smart business seems like a more sustainable way to keep blu-ray alive than fire sale techniques.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by JTK

There has to come a time soon where the BDA simply and finally brings out the nukes and does whatever is necessary to end this nonsense and save HDM.

It's that simple.

exactly...right now it's round 11....round 12 is coming up in about 30 seconds and HD DVD is officially punching themselves out....

all this insignificant news is making somewhat of a bang....but on the grand scale of things it's the HD DVD camp that has done "too little, too late"...not the BDA as has been implied on these forums...

this is ALL that HD DVD has to offer....cheap tricks and payoffs....but crappy technology and no incentive to actually support them..

[kjack]

Originally Posted by The Don

all this insignificant news is making somewhat of a bang....but on the grand scale of things it's the HD DVD camp that has done "too little, too late"...not the BDA as has been implied on these forums...

Let me tell you a story. Yesterday I was talking with a CE company, and the little thing of adding HDMI CEC to enable their products to talk to each other meant that 40% of the people that bought their HDTV now also bought their BD player. Before that is was about 10%. People like the integrated operation.

A few CE companies are in the process of adding BD managed copy playback support inside their HDTVs. These will start rolling out in 2008.

And a LOT of things are going on in China.

[Dogdvr]

Originally Posted by kjack

Let me tell you a story. Yesterday I was talking with a CE company, and the little thing of adding HDMI CEC to enable their products to talk to each other meant that 40% of the people that bought their HDTV now also bought their BD player. Before that is was about 10%. People like the integrated operation.

A few CE companies are in the process of adding BD managed copy playback support inside their HDTVs. These will start rolling out in 2008.

And a LOT of things are going on in China.

I have been interested in managed copy for a long time. can you give us an example of how this would work?

Pretty Please?

[kjack]

Originally Posted by Dogdvr

I have been interested in managed copy for a long time. can you give us an example of how this would work?

Basically, when you select that you want to make a managed copy, you pay the studios some money, and a copy of the movie can then be stored on your PC. Instead of using AACS and BD+, it would be wrapped in another DRM scheme.

Then you could change the resolution, transcode from MPEG-2 to H.264, etc. to your heart's content.

This managed copy can then be played back on the PC, streamed over the home network to another playback device, or copied to a portable player (disabling the PC version from being used until the copy on the portable player is deleted). HDD-based HD portable players are coming soon...

There are other ways of implementing it, but everythng I say on this and other forums is heavily monitored by various people. So your homework assignment is...

[The Don]

Originally Posted by kjack

Let me tell you a story. Yesterday I was talking with a CE company, and the little thing of adding HDMI CEC to enable their products to talk to each other meant that 40% of the people that bought their HDTV now also bought their BD player. Before that is was about 10%. People like the integrated operation.

A few CE companies are in the process of adding BD managed copy playback support inside their HDTVs. These will start rolling out in 2008.

And a LOT of things are going on in China.

that's what I like to hear right there....