Toshiba wants end to format wars

Hot on the heels of it's new, subsidised HD-DVD player, Toshiba is publicly calling for the end to the HD format wars, and saying that it wants a unified format. "We have not given up on a unified format. We would like to seek ways for unifying the standards if opportunities arise," Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told an annual shareholders' meeting.

Of course, it's too late for early adopters who will have to chose HD DVD or Blu Ray, but Samsung might be the saviour of the masses with a proposed dual media player - if HD DVD is as popular as Blu Ray by the end of the year. Samsung are in the Blu Ray camp, but are also working with Toshiba on other storage related projects.

Toshiba covers $200

It turns out that Tosh is covering $200 of the cost of their new HDDVD player, in order to gain a bit of market share.

Interestingly, various people have costed things out, and the various decoder chips and other assorted circuitry cost as much as the actual drive itself.

If Tosh can spring $200 for market share, without revenues from software (like the console market), then they must have worked out that they will actually cost sub $300 to build in a fairly short space of time. At those prices, HDDVD will be undercutting Blu Ray considerably...

Toshiba to launch HD DVD recorder

Toshiba are going to be launching an HD DVD recorder on July 14th in Japan. Equipped with a built in hard disk, the RD-A1 HD DVD Recorder will sell for 398,000 yen (approx £1900).



The hard disk will be 1 Terabyte - which is massive for most consumer devices, and allows for 130 hours of HD broadcasts. These recordings can then be dumped onto the HD DVD recorder using the current HD DVD recordable media (30Gb dual layer).

For the Japanese market, the RD-A1 has built in HD tuners - one analogue and one digital. In the UK, this wouldn't be much use as until the HDTV terrestrial trials are finished, most HD viewers will be using Sky+ HD or Telewest's TVDrive. With no external inputs for HDMI, DVI or component, UK users will not be able to get much use of the recorder...

HD DVD movies and players

The Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD Upconverting DVD Player has started to drop in price with the release of the Samsung Blu Ray player . $499 now gets you the Toshiba player, which is a fair bit cheaper than DVD was when it first appeared.

There are a whole bunch of movies available already: Amazon HD DVD movies

Now that the first Blu Ray player has shipped, expect to see prices change as both factions fight for the market share.

Welcome to HD DVD News

As HD DVD kicks off around the world, home cinema enthusiasts are looking forward to UK availability of HD DVD players, recorders and full high definition movies.

We will be here to report on the latest developments and what products are coming out in the UK and suitable for UK use.