Toshiba Lowers HD DVD Player Forecast

[Blubaru]

Originally Posted by HiddenDeths

someone explain me please:

if toshiba is reducing the price of their HD DVD player, doesnt that mean more people will buy HD DVD instead of blu-ray? that will give HD DVD a big advance in the war.

am i wrong? i mean, the most ppl look for price, and it seems to me HD DVD is the cheapest.

Not really. It's been proven that people are more than willing to pay extra money to get a better experience and buy into a Hollywood supported format.

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by HiddenDeths

someone explain me please:

if toshiba is reducing the price of their HD DVD player, doesnt that mean more people will buy HD DVD instead of blu-ray? that will give HD DVD a big advance in the war.

am i wrong? i mean, the most ppl look for price, and it seems to me HD DVD is the cheapest.

They've already done that, they did it about a month ago. A few days ago they were touting having sold a greater number of standalone players, and attributed part of that to the lower prices. This thread is about Toshiba's press release from today which said they were lowering the number of players they project to sell through the rest of this year. This means that they are not selling as many as they thought were going to earlier in the year, and having the lower prices for almost two months now (they first slashed $100 from the HD-A2 on April 1) has not helped.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by HiddenDeths

someone explain me please:

if toshiba is reducing the price of their HD DVD player, doesnt that mean more people will buy HD DVD instead of blu-ray? that will give HD DVD a big advance in the war.

am i wrong? i mean, the most ppl look for price, and it seems to me HD DVD is the cheapest.

on paper it looks nice but if you search these forums...it is addressed..

they are clearly losing money or not gaining any money on their players and their movies cost more on average than BD's...

the area where money is earned and the format war is won is movie sales....

and HD DVD does not match up....

when BD has by far the superior studio support...especially in quality, that's what it is boiling down to...

nobody cares about porn anymore...the people who would buy a HD DVD player usually have kids and when they see all the Disney movies are on the "other" format...then what is the point?...

when they don't have the quality movies and are getting crushed in movie sales....it's a moot point...

they could sell the players for 50 bucks....but if nobody buys the movies, it's pretty pointless...

all it would be is a 50.00 DVD up-conversion player with the option to buy an over-priced HD DVD....especially when they force some movies as a DVD/HD DVD combo for 40 bucks...that is garbage...

the people buying the inexpensive players aren't buying a 30.00 movie...this is why the PS3 is catapulting BD into success...right now the high def discs are too expensive for the lower end market..

before either format can genuinely take off....the movies must come down in price.....not the players..

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by The Don

before either format can genuinely take off....the movies must come down in price.....not the players..

I agree there, but the big thing to note is the prices must come down at B&M stores. You can buy HD movies from online retailers for just a few dollars more than the SD DVD. At Best Buy I see them priced at $30. On May 22nd, I bought POTC 1+2, Flags, Letters, and Apocalypto from amazon.com for $123.95. It would have cost me $160 at Best Buy. I saved enough money to buy another BD movie at Bbuy, w/ cash left over!

People need to walk into a Bbuy store to buy a family movie, see that the HD movie is the same price, and then see a side-by-side comparison of the SD DVD and blu-ray. When friends ask me if it's worth it, I put in a BD movie for which I have the SD version, too, and they see the difference. The BDA needs to fund side-by-side comparisons. And yes, movie prices need to come down.

[jcdDigix]

Originally Posted by Deane Johnson

I wonder how Universal feels now that it's becoming pretty much universal knowledge (pardon the pun) that the horse they are riding is limping badly on the back stretch?

i dunno.

[supersix4]

I dont know how far they can go on the cheap scale i mean dvd players are now cheaper then vhs players vhs run about 30-49$ dvd players are like 24$ ... if they get those hd-dvds down to like 120ish it might start getting bad for us... but it is funny to see they have no other option but to do that

[MrVorhees]

ok thank you guys

[baccusboy]

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-972...?tag=cnetfd.mt

[Blubaru]

Ha..ha.

[The Big Blue]

Die HD DVD, Die!

Just like saying that every now and then.

[bluflu]

Looks like more and more people are starting to realize why waste money on HD DVD when 90% of the content is on Blu-ray.

[nhaase]

This thread needs to be merged w/ the other on this story.

I wonder if this is causing any in-fighting at Universal's boardroom. They have to see that Toshiba lowering sales projections, then Sony raising their own, as a bad sign for where they presently stand.

[Jessev1823]

Check this article out!

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-972...?tag=cnetfd.mt

"Toshiba gets jolt of HD DVD reality
David Carnoy
"Toshiba was forced to cut its sales forecast for its HD DVD players.

(Credit: Toshiba)You've heard the expression "underpromise, overdeliver." Well, Toshiba execs are getting a little taste of "overpromise, underdeliver" when it comes to sales of HD DVD players.

According to a Reuters report today, "The Japanese electronics group now expects to sell 1 million next-generation optical disc players and recorders in North America by the end of calendar 2007, down 44 percent from its previous estimate of 1.8 million unit sales." Toshiba's also pulling back on its projection of selling 3 million units of HD DVD players and recorders worldwide by the end of the business year to March 2008, though smartly, execs shied away from giving any new estimates.

While the overall sales numbers haven't been great for HD DVD players, the more ominous number may be the figure buried at the end of the story. Toshiba reported that "More than 60 percent of all dedicated next-generation DVD players sold in North America used the HD DVD format as of the end of May." That's not counting PS3 sales--and that's really not good, considering standalone Blu-ray players cost a couple hundred bucks more than HD DVD players and seem like a stupid purchase with the PS3 out there at basically the same price. True, this month Toshiba got a lift after lowering the price on its entry-level HD DVD player to $299. But that's gotta put a real squeeze on margins. We're talking zero.

No one's throwing in the towel yet, but the real question is just how much money is Toshiba willing to lose to try to win. Anybody got an estimate?"

Not looking good for them

[Jessev1823]

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-972...?tag=cnetfd.mt

check this article out from crave, they are cutting back on production.

[nhaase]

Make sure you search the site before starting new threads, as this is a week old, and has already been posted.