Is HD DVD an immoral product?

[tron3]

Originally Posted by york weir

There is a lot at stake so they want their piece of the pie or at least to keep DVD strong.

Paramount taking the incentives to go exclusive and Warner preaching neutrality and then dumping HD DVD was immoral.

I'll tell you what was immoral, Toshiba shooting at Sony when they extended the olive branch 4 years ago. Immoral was creating two formats where there inevitably will be millions of people who suffer the fall out of the losing format.

Immoral is taking multi-million dollar bonus checks when you scewed the consumer, the company, and the market. Our economy needs the multi-billion dollar booster shot an all blu world affords.

[JJ]

I bought an HD-DVD player and it killed my entire family

/oldquote

[tron3]

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

I bought an HD-DVD player and it killed my entire family

I knew it! - Det. Frank Drebin / Police Squad

[Blaumann]

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

I bought an HD-DVD player and it killed my entire family

/oldquote

That´s why i keep mine sedated all the time.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Is it sort of immoral and unethical for Toshiba to be pushing a product that will likely be dead in a few months? Yeah, to a certain degree I would say so.

But, if the situation were reversed, and HD-DVD was winning more and more with the Blu-Ray market shrinking, Sony and the BDA would likely do the same thing in trying to get as much as they can out of the product while it's still around.

That's something to keep in mind. You can be mad at Toshiba for what they are doing, but the BD-related companies that we are all supporting would do the same thing if they were in Toshiba's perverbial shoes right now. They are no better in that sense.

[glenn22]

I watched the American (I'm in Canada) feed of the superbowl on Fox... I didn't see an HD-DVD commercial. Was it only on once? I must have missed it.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by tron3

I'll tell you what was immoral, Toshiba shooting at Sony when they extended the olive branch 4 years ago. Immoral was creating two formats where there inevitably will be millions of people who suffer the fall out of the losing format.

Immoral is taking multi-million dollar bonus checks when you scewed the consumer, the company, and the market. Our economy needs the multi-billion dollar booster shot an all blu world affords.

I don't know the true history of what transpired back then as I wasn't there nor have read anything from Sony executives nor Toshiba executives. I work in a bank but don't have access to any information of multi-million dollar bonus checks but assume they received them as in this day and age, it doesn't matter how bad a company is doing, the top people still get paid.

I don't see it as personal. I see it as Toshiba having interests in two products. One product is failing miserably and the other is in jeopardy as well.

If you owned the company and had to answer to the investors would you just role over and let all of that money go away or would you fight for it?

I would expect any industry to act the same way.

[tron3]

Originally Posted by york weir

...

If you owned the company and had to answer to the investors would you just role over and let all of that money go away or would you fight for it?

I would expect any industry to act the same way.

Excellent point. However, there is fighting back, and there is rolling with the punches. "When life hands you lemons, make lemon-aid."

An announcement to abandon HD DVD will hurt the stocks. HOWEVER, they can counter it by saying they will be joining the multi-billion dollar industry of blu-ray. THAT IS ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES. Sometimes you have to join forces with enemies to conquer common enemies.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by tron3

Excellent point. However, there is fighting back, and there is rolling with the punches. "When life hands you lemons, make lemon-aid."

An announcement to abandon HD DVD will hurt the stocks. HOWEVER, they can counter it by saying they will be joining the multi-billion dollar industry of blu-ray. THAT IS ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES. Sometimes you have to join forces with enemies to conquer common enemies.

By them joining forces to conquer common enemies they would be conquering their free money from royalties of DVD. The common enemy at that point would be their product also. To me that would be like Pontiac and Ford joining to take over Chevrolet.

Sorry for the car analogy, it's all I could think of quickly.

[Kirsty_Mc]

No... just technically inferior. It was IMO developed by Toshiba as a desperate measure as a spoiler for Blu-ray.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by Kirsty_Mc

No... just technically inferior. It was IMO developed by Toshiba as a desperate measure as a spoiler for Blu-ray.

Lower bandwidth and less disc space for sure. You have to give them credit for getting a complete product out quicker than then mighty Sony though. Sony had it tied up a long time ago simply by having the studio support.

[Blubaru]

Originally Posted by york weir

Lower bandwidth and less disc space for sure. You have to give them credit for getting a complete product out quicker than then mighty Sony though. Sony had it tied up a long time ago simply by having the studio support.

pshh. Blu-ray was a complete product the day it launched.

BD-J, Internet Connectivity etc weren’t even on paper when the format was launched.

[bicclick2002]

An announcement to abandon HD DVD will hurt the stocks. HOWEVER, they can counter it by saying they will be joining the multi-billion dollar industry of blu-ray. THAT IS ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES. Sometimes you have to join forces with enemies to conquer common enemies.

I hope and pray that this is going on behind the scenes as we speak! That would be amazing! I want this war to be over already! I don't like corporate companies that string stuff out, it hurts the consumer and the industry!

Throw in the towel and recover your losses through Blu. . . now that makes corporate and consumer sense!

[galz]

Originally Posted by york weir

If you owned the company and had to answer to the investors would you just role over and let all of that money go away or would you fight for it?

I would expect any industry to act the same way.

Exactly I agree as well. It's a business! People need to stop looking at this as personal but as a business. You think Sony hasn't or any other companies havn't done anything others would claim immoral? Do you like it when people state they won't buy into Blu-Ray because of the root kits? (We won't go on with other examples, but there are some) Just enjoy your movies and stop worrying about what thier doing.

[Blubaru]

Originally Posted by galz

Exactly I agree as well. It's a business! People need to stop looking at this as personal but as a business. You think Sony hasn't or any other companies havn't done anything others would claim immoral? Do you like it when people state they won't buy into Blu-Ray because of the root kits? (We won't go on with other examples, but there are some) Just enjoy your movies and stop worrying about what thier doing.

I disagree. Toshiba has lost their minds.


The better question is If you owned the company and had to answer to the investors would you continue to invest in something that you KNOW will be unprofitable for your company and investors? Something that will waste countless more millions of dollars, or will you produce on the competing Blu-ray and make back all of that money that you lost and become profitable again?

They choice is easy and Toshiba is making the wrong choice.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by Blubaru

pshh. Blu-ray was a complete product the day it launched.

BD-J, Internet Connectivity etc weren’t even on paper when the format was launched.

Is that true? I thought I had read they phased it as such to keep prices as low as possible.

It doesn't really matter as it hasn't hurt Blu-ray in the slightest.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by Blubaru

I disagree. Toshiba has lost their minds.


The better question is If you owned the company and had to answer to the investors would you continue to invest in something that you KNOW will be unprofitable for your company and investors? Something that will waste countless more millions of dollars, or will you produce on the competing Blu-ray and make back all of that money that you lost and become profitable again?

They choice is easy and Toshiba is making the wrong choice.

Do you think the money they make from DVD royalties would be replaced if they produced players for Blu-ray and abandoned HD DVD? I don't know the answer but I would think not.

[Blubaru]

Originally Posted by york weir

Do you think the money they make from DVD royalties would be replaced if they produced players for Blu-ray and abandoned HD DVD? I don't know the answer but I would think not.

DVD will never go away. There will always be people out there that are too cheap to upgrade. The DVD market will shrink regardless but Toshiba will always be getting money from DVD. They will most certainly be able to make up money lost though by producing on Blu-ray.

I’m sure if they play their cards right they can sweet talk the BDA into letting them have some of those royalties in exchange for dropping support of the dud format sooner.