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Toshiba’s BDX2000 Blu-ray Player Hits Best Buy

Wed Oct 28, 2009 at 02:00 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Best Buy (all tags)

At long last Toshiba has a Blu-ray player on store shelves, at $50 cheaper than announced.

Toshiba’s BDX2000 isn’t an especially unique Blu-ray player, but the circumstances around its creation and release certainly were. Toshiba of course was the driving force behind HD-DVD, and a long time Blu-ray holdout. After the end of the format war, Toshiba made a lot of statements that downplayed the importance of Blu-ray, but as time went on, the Blu-ray market became too strong to ignore.

That brings us to the BDX2000 Blu-ray player, spotted at Best Buy for $199.99. It features a 1080p resolution and is BD Live capable. The BDX2000 decodes Dobly True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio, and features 7.1 channel audio output through HDMI. There aren’t any streaming services to speak of, just what looks to be a pretty good Blu-ray player.

Toshiba’s official website states a November release date, but user submitted photos indicate that at least a few Best Buy stores have this on the shelves now.

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Toshiba’s BDX2000 Finally Detailed

Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 01:45 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Industry Trends (all tags)

In a long expected and much anticipated move, Toshiba has announced their newest contribution to the consumer electronics market: the BDX2000 Blu-ray player.

Though still stating publicly that Blu-ray may not be the best way forward for delivering HD content, Toshiba found the Blu-ray market too good to resist.

"From listening to our consumers we know they demand access to full high definition content,” says Jodi Sally, VP of marketing. “With the introduction of our BDX2000 we are offering consumers what they want with a breath-taking HD viewing experience to meet the needs of today's home theater.”

The specs on the BDX2000 aren’t anything surprising. Toshiba’s new player offers Full HD 1080p playback, BD-Live capability via an Ethernet port, and support for Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Interestingly, the press release does go on to state “This product does not play HD DVD discs. Blu-ray discs with high-definition content required for HD viewing.”

The BDX2000 will be available in November at a retail price of $249.99

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There’s more to HD than just Blu-ray, Says Toshiba Exec

Thu Aug 13, 2009 at 01:30 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba (all tags)

They may be joining the Blu-ray revolution, but a senior exec at Toshiba wants to make sure everyone knows the company isn't exactly excited about it.

“Although it's a minor part of the market; it's reached the point where we should consider it,” said Oliver van Wynedaele, a senior executive at Toshiba Europe in a conversation with CNet UK. He did make clear though, that Toshiba wasn’t exactly excited to adopt the format, still holding out for another option to what the company generally considers to be an unfinished technology.

From SD cards to downloads, Toshiba is perusing a range of options, but has confirmed it will be launching Blu-ray players as soon as this holiday season.

When asked about how their HD DVD experience will help with Blu-ray, van Wynedaele said “We won't be using anything from the HD DVD side of things, apart from knowledge of video compression and Internet technology that we learned from during the creation of HD DVD.”

Toshiba does plan to be competitive in the Blu-ray market. "We are not trying to be the 'dealbreaker', but bringing a product to the consumer at an affordable price -- it's something we've been known for," Said van Wynedaele.

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Toshiba Applies to Join The Blu-ray Disc Association

Tue Aug 11, 2009 at 02:30 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Industry Trends (all tags)

Toshiba announced plans today to not only produce Blu-ray players, but laptops with Blu-ray drives as early as this year.

This announcement came on Toshiba’s site along with the news that Toshiba has officially applied to join the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA).

The decision surely doesn’t take anyone by surprise, as Toshiba has been talking up their desire to dip into the Blu-ray market, but this is confirmation that they’re planning something very soon. Final announcements on what products they’ll be releasing will come “in due time” according to the site.

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Toshiba To Produce Blu-ray Player By Year’s End

Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 10:30 AM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Industry Trends (all tags)

It looks like Blu-ray sales are just too big to ignore.

We reported a few weeks ago on the statement by Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida that his company was finally considering a jump into Blu-ray production. It seems Mr. Nishida had an ace or two up his sleeve. According to the Daily Yomiuri, a prominent Japanese newspaper, Toshiba will be entering the Blu-ray market before the year is over.

According to their source, Toshiba was reticent to join the Blu-ray team after the failure of HD-DVD, and was in fact working on a new format to try and overtake Blu-ray, but with the market as big as it is, Blu-ray became impossible to ignore.

Expect to see Toshiba Blu-ray players by this holiday season. Recorders on the other hand, will not be part of the new strategy, as Toshiba feels that the demand for Blu-ray recorders is unlikely to increase.

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Toshiba Finally Considering Blu-Ray

Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 01:00 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Industry Trends, HD Gear (all tags)

Former HD-DVD champions Toshiba are finally talking out loud about making the jump that so many have already made.

According to Nikkei, a provider of Japanese business news, Toshiba’s president Atsutoshi Nishida is considering producing Blu-Ray players. “It makes no sense to decide not to enter the Blu-Ray market simply because we lost the DVD-format war.” said Nishida. “We cannot change the fact that we lost, but we would like to keep our options open.”

While there is still competition from streaming services, it’s clear that Blu-Ray is the way to go in a physical media format, and it really seems like bad business not to have something on the market. Just what Nishida means by keeping their options open is unclear, but expect a big announcement from Toshiba in the near future.

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Toshiba: "No Plans" to Back Blu-ray

Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 11:55 AM ET
Tags: Toshiba (all tags)

It may have thrown in the towel with HD DVD, but don't expect Toshiba to begin manufacturing Blu-ray players anytime soon.

That's according to company president Atsutoshi Nishida, who spoke at a press conference in Tokyo Tuesday. "No plans at all, not at this moment," was Nishida's response when asked whether Toshiba planned to produce players using rival Blu-ray technology.

Not that the Blu-ray Disc Association wouldn't be happy to have Toshiba on their side.

"We have always said that Toshiba and Microsoft, and any other company, is more than welcome to join the Blu-ray Disc Association," BDA spokesperson Frank Simonis told TechRadar ahead of Toshiba's announcement.

Toshiba stressed in its press release that it will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders, promising to "continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry" through the DVD Forum.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Related links:
Live from Toshiba's HD DVD press conference in Tokyo [Engadget]
Blu-ray: 'Toshiba and Microsoft should join us' [TechRadar.com]
Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses [Press Release]
Earlier on High-Def Digest:
Toshiba Officially Drops HD DVD (Feb 19, 2008)

Toshiba: "No Plans" to Back Blu-ray

Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 11:55 AM ET
Tags: Toshiba (all tags)

It may have thrown in the towel with HD DVD, but don't expect Toshiba to begin manufacturing Blu-ray players anytime soon.

That's according to company president Atsutoshi Nishida, who spoke at a press conference in Tokyo Tuesday. "No plans at all, not at this moment," was Nishida's response when asked whether Toshiba planned to produce players using rival Blu-ray technology.

Not that the Blu-ray Disc Association wouldn't be happy to have Toshiba on their side.

"We have always said that Toshiba and Microsoft, and any other company, is more than welcome to join the Blu-ray Disc Association," BDA spokesperson Frank Simonis told TechRadar ahead of Toshiba's announcement.

Toshiba stressed in its press release that it will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders, promising to "continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry" through the DVD Forum.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Related links:
Live from Toshiba's HD DVD press conference in Tokyo [Engadget]
Blu-ray: 'Toshiba and Microsoft should join us' [TechRadar.com]
Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses [Press Release]
Earlier on High-Def Digest:
Toshiba Officially Drops HD DVD (Feb 19, 2008)

Toshiba Officially Drops HD DVD

Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 03:15 AM ET
Tags: Toshiba (all tags)

Following several days of rumors, Toshiba has confirmed that it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders, effectively ending the high-def format war.

In a just-issued press release, the company said that it reached the decision following "recent major changes in the market." Toshiba emphasized that it will continue to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Toshiba said it will begin reducing shipments of HD DVD players and recorders immediately, with the aim of pulling all HD DVD players, recorders and disc drives from store shelves by March. The company went on to say that it would "continue to assess" the long-term viability of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives.

Asked at a Tokyo press conference whether his company had any plans to adopt Blu-ray, Nishida said Toshiba had no such plans at the moment.

HD DVD first hit stores in April of 2006, and enjoyed an early sales lead against rival format Blu-ray up until the release of Sony's Blu-ray enabled PlayStation 3 later that year.

Though Blu-ray software outsold HD DVD throughout 2007, a series of tactical moves from the HD DVD camp kept the format in the game up until early this January, when Warner Bros announced it would drop its HD DVD support and would release its titles on Blu-ray exclusively, beginning this June.

In the weeks that followed, HD DVD backers vowed to fight on, issuing a series of price drops and embarking on a new marketing campaign, but it wasn't enough to convince retailers to stick with the fledgling format. Faced with the prospect of diminishing prominence at such top US retailers as Best Buy and Wal-Mart, insiders say it was only a matter of time before Toshiba would pull the plug.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Related links:
Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses [Press Release]
Live from Toshiba's HD DVD press conference in Tokyo [Engadget]
Earlier on High-Def Digest:
Warner Goes Blu-ray Exclusive (Jan 04, 2008)
Toshiba Slashes HD DVD Player Prices; Shifts Marketing Focus (Jan 14, 2008)
Wal-Mart to Go Blu-ray Exclusive (Feb 15, 2008)
Best Buy to Recommend Blu-ray over HD DVD (Feb 11, 2008)
Netflix Goes Blu-ray Exclusive (Feb 11, 2008)

Press Release: Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 03:00 AM ET
Tags: Toshiba (all tags)

Below is the entire text of Toshiba's Tuesday morning press release:

For Immediate Release

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO (February 19, 2008) -- Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

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