Spoke with my friend who works at Toshiba Japan.

[MozartMan]

Very interesting thread on AVS

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=900995

Originally Posted by d3code

Spoke with my friend who works at Toshiba Japan.

today called with my Japanese friend who works at Toshiba.

i had a long talk with him about the recent developments of Toshiba. not only HD-DVD but also about the new TV they are working on etc.

anyway before you flame me to death that it is not true etc. i dont claim what i put in this thread is true. just see it as a different kind of opinion. normally we get always fed stuff from 1 side on here. the USA part. now we just get an opinion for the Japanese part. i can nowhere compare if what he tells me is true. he ain't at the top of the food chain. he is a manager but not high up. but at least he works in Toshiba in Japan.

below i put just some small quotes of that conversation.

1. can 1st , second, third generation HD-DVd players play tripple layer discs ? ( 45gb / 51gb )

according to my friend, it is not possible.

2. who paid the money for Paramount go exclusive to HD-DVD?

my friend said that the word in the office is that Toshiba made the deal. but how the exact deal is he had no idea.

3. does Toshiba loses money on the cheapest HD-DVD players?

he said yes and it also divides Toshiba in 2 camps. 1 side wants to stop the war. the other side want to continue it.

4. how far is the development on the new TV where you can download and watch high def movies on.

pretty far in development. they will show it next Ceatec show in October in japan. it has like 3 ports. 1 lan port, 1 japanese port, 1 standard tv port.

that japanese port, he explained is a port that only works on japanese tv network. the exact name i forgot.

about the tv. you see a screen. you use the tv remote select the movie in which format you want to watch HD yes or no and download it and watch it. you can also save it on the harddisk in the tv.

before you all go screaming bloody murder. for Toshiba HD-DVd is just 1 step. their main step is towards downloading. specially since in Korea and Japan internet speeds are cheap and fast. 100mbit cost like 30 euro a month. so it makes perfect sense for all the Japanese manufactures to deliver movies by download trough the networks.

anyway that pretty much sums it up. if you guys have some more questions to ask. i could ask him, but don't expect direct answers. i don't talk with this guy regularly. just once or twice a month.