Toshiba Reaching, Marketing HD DVD As A Great Pick For Upscaling Standard DVD's

It seems that every couple of days now, another studio or retailer decides that they will support Blu-ray to the exclusion of HD DVD. In the past week alone, both Netflix and Best Buy have committed to Blu-ray exclusivity. Opportunities to buy movie titles on HD DVD are rapidly dwindling especially after Warner Bros. went Blu-ray exclusive, and if you can't find HD DVD titles, you're not going to buy HD DVD players. If people don't buy HD DVD players or movies, then it makes sense to say that HD DVD is dead. Toshiba, the creator of the HD DVD format, hasn't thrown in the towel yet, but it may be time.

With both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats still appealing to mostly early adopters, backers of neither format have placed a huge emphasis on differentiating their respective products through pricing. But Jodi Sally, vice president of marketing for Toshiba's digital AV group, says HD DVD has a clear pricing advantage which will come into play as high-def discs move into the mainstream market. Consumers are satisfied with standard-def DVD's, making price the most important part of the game in the battle of the formats. But will pricing matter if there is a lack of HD DVD movie title selection? Not at all, said Sally, as studios will continue to release all of their titles on DVD, and HD DVD players can upscale standard DVD's to almost high-def picture quality.

It sounds to me like Toshiba is beginning to reach in desperation here. It almost sounds like Toshiba is throwing in the towel and moving the HD DVD format into the world of upscaling DVD players. But for one thing, Blu-ray players can upconvert standard DVD's to near high-def quality as well. And furthermore, one has to wonder why anyone would buy a relatively expensive upconverting HD DVD DVD player when one can buy a plain ol' upconverting DVD player for half the price that does the same job.

So is Toshiba throwing in the towel and conceding the format war to Blu-ray? And can they even compete in the upscaling DVD market? They obviously can't differentiate HD DVD based on price when compared with other upscaling DVD players. What do you think?

Image Credit: Gary Gardiner, Bloomberg News

February 15, 2008

Toshiba Reaching, Marketing HD DVD As A Great Pick For Upscaling Standard DVD's