Toshiba to build Blu-Ray player!

[rbinck]

There are some people that would not put Sony in the ranks due to them not offering a plasma. There are those who only consider plasmas as being able to have high marks.

[Bob Walters]

Again,
FWIW,
All my installs & consults still propose plasma technology over any other "as of TODAY". I'm sure there's something better in the future but right now I'll stick with plasma, Panasonic. their "pro" models!

[DaViD Boulet]

Does anyone else find it strange that no mention was made about the possibility of a combo-player that would also play HD DVDs?

We had such players from other manufacturers. You'd think that Toshiba would offer a flagship BD model that also plays HD DVDs... given the obvious market for it's HD DVD consumers.

[rbinck]

I think they are just done with HD DVD. Why pay 2 royalties?

[DaViD Boulet]

Why pay 2 royalties? Are you talking about Toshiba or the consumer? Toshiba owns HD DVD so I don't see what royalties they'd need to pay. As for the consumer, the consumer who would want a dual-format player is a consumer with HD DVDs... so I don't think they'd mind having an HD DVD logo on their box.

Some folks had purchased over a hundred HD DVDs by the time the format door shut in favor of Blu-ray. Wouldn't those folks like having a new piece of hardware able to play those discs given the uncertainty of how long their dedicated HD DVD player may hold out? That's worth a few extra dollars for someone with a large collection.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Why pay 2 royalties? Are you talking about Toshiba or the consumer? Toshiba owns HD DVD so I don't see what royalties they'd need to pay. As for the consumer, the consumer who would want a dual-format player is a consumer with HD DVDs... so I don't think they'd mind having an HD DVD logo on their box.

Some folks had purchased over a hundred HD DVDs by the time the format door shut in favor of Blu-ray. Wouldn't those folks like having a new piece of hardware able to play those discs given the uncertainty of how long their dedicated HD DVD player may hold out? That's worth a few extra dollars for someone with a large collection.

But it's worth nothing to people who do not have any hd-dvd's.
The higher cost of making it a dual format player would likely kill it in the market.
I can certainly understand people wanting this feature if they did have a lot of hd-dvd's but it's a dead format & they should concentrate on the future instead of looking to the past.