Hollywood Reporter article (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i0055cabe5256398afc4fc3dc4e59ea6f)

....Paramount is expected to start rolling out Blu-ray Discs in the summer. Until then, titles will be released in standard DVD only.....


I hope its early Summer.

Then I hope Blu-Ray does something good for the 2nd half of 2008 because the 1st half is looking BEYOND lackluster.

Really nice how they recalled the Jack Ryan boxed sets, went through the effort of repackaging them, and now are going to what - shred them?:rolleyes: Talk about a waste (literally).

WTF?!!! :eek: Didn't some of that $150,000,000 go towards making all those HD DVDs they're scrapping?! I thought that article about Toshiba and Sony (huh?) giving us HD DVD owners refunds was absolutely ridiculous but maybe Paramount should give us some though?! :mad:

Here's another article.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6536681.html?desc=topstory

Paramount is probably the worst high def studio; okay not as bad as Weinstein!
If anything, Toshiba wasted their money getting them on HD DVD. Other than Transformers and Shrek, they didn't release anything useful and I doubt they care much about HDM at this moment. They could learn a thing or two from Warner, Universal, Sony or Disney.

Paramount, can we get Jack Ryan collection on blu? I wonder how long it takes for catalog titles to come out!

How sad.

How sad.
__________________
HD-DVD: 17 + 5 on rebate (crossing fingers)
Blu-ray : 14
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

Your signature is so true. And look what killing HD DVD has done, we can't get The Bee Movie or Sweeney Todd in HD even if we buy Blu-Ray, at least not for the forseeable future. I hope you're happy BDA, you've ruined it for everybody.

Then I hope Blu-Ray does something good for the 2nd half of 2008 because the 1st half is looking BEYOND lackluster.It looks good to me (http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/releasedates.html) with a wide range of titles ranging from day and date to classic catalog titles.


Didn't some of that $150,000,000 go towards making all those HD DVDs they're scrapping?!Paramount and Dreamworks Animation apparently have gotten out of the contracts they made with Toshiba.


I hope you're happy BDA, you've ruined it for everybody.There is no use making bitter accusations about this and I don't think you can blame the BDA for economic decisions made by Paramount and Dreamworks Animation.

It looks good to me (http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/releasedates.html) with a wide range of titles ranging from day and date to classic catalog titles.

I'd have to disagree. There are 4 titles currently announced that I'm interested in between now and June.

Sad.

Not to say that Paramount is at fault. They're just not helping.

I'd have to disagree. There are 4 titles currently announced that I'm interested in between now and June.

Sad.

Not to say that Paramount is at fault. They're just not helping.

That is your opinion. There are 31 titles on that list I will be buying. Im gonna be really broke once Universal and Paramount give us titles.

Paramount is probably the worst high def studio; okay not as bad as Weinstein!
If anything, Toshiba wasted their money getting them on HD DVD. Other than Transformers and Shrek, they didn't release anything useful and I doubt they care much about HDM at this moment. They could learn a thing or two from Warner, Universal, Sony or Disney.

Paramount, can we get Jack Ryan collection on blu? I wonder how long it takes for catalog titles to come out!+1

I agree here. I look forward to all 3 Paramount Blu-Ray releases in 2008. No doubt none of them will feature lossless audio.

Paramount and Dreamworks Animation apparently have gotten out of the contracts they made with Toshiba.They would have to have. I'm curious as to why there was no mention made of this. The past 2 weeks have been nothing except how Paramount and Dreamworks were bound by contract. Oh well, time to move on. I'm bashing on Paramount as an HDM fan, not as a HD DVD owner. Paramount is leading the way in the belief that they only have to provide HD video, and not HD sound, not to even mention their lackluster releases to date.

I can understand how HD DVD fans feel, probably similar to when Paramount pulled the plug on announced blu-ray titles. It was a big factor in making me consider HD DVD and eventually jumping in on the red side.

Heh, yeah. They must have some wicked ruthless people running their home video departments. They don't play around.

My moneys on that titles will come out WELL before summer.

Im under the impression that the summer statement was made in a very liberal manner.

Im going to go out on a limb here and say that I expect that we will see Paramount titles in March!

It looks good to me (http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/releasedates.html) with a wide range of titles ranging from day and date to classic catalog titles.

I see 28 titles on that list that I'll be picking up between now and the end of June... not bad, not bad at all IMO. That's not to say I wouldn't be happier if there were some nice Paramount and Universal titles out within that same time frame.

I see 28 titles on that list that I'll be picking up between now and the end of June... not bad, not bad at all IMO. That's not to say I wouldn't be happier if there were some nice Paramount and Universal titles out within that same time frame.

+1. I didn't know so many classics were coming out so soon!

Your signature is so true. And look what killing HD DVD has done, we can't get The Bee Movie or Sweeney Todd in HD even if we buy Blu-Ray, at least not for the forseeable future. I hope you're happy BDA, you've ruined it for everybody.

I think you will see these titles a lot sooner than "summer".:cool:

Paramount was going to switch to blu before Toshiba threw in the towel. Things were set in motion way sooner than people think.

at fye and bestbuy and c citythere restocking the first run of paramount bd's

I can understand how HD DVD fans feel, probably similar to when Paramount pulled the plug on announced blu-ray titles. It was a big factor in making me consider HD DVD and eventually jumping in on the red side.

It's not quite the same as neither Paramount nor Dreamworks have even announced any Blu-Rays yet, let alone brought any new ones out so there's currently no way to get the previously scheduled movies on any HD discs. Whereas when they made the deal to go HD DVD exclusive all the scheduled movies were available, you just had to buy an HD DVD player to play them. Plus since a percentage of MY (and every other HD DVD owner's) money, no matter how tiny, helped to pay for the Paramount & Dreamworks deal I've got every right to be pissed off over them totally stabbing all of us in the back by withdrawing the movies WE want to buy! :mad: I'm now waiting for the Paramount/Dreamworks press release that says "We decided to drop HD DVD because "the consumer has chosen" not to buy our future titles. Furthermore we have decided to postpone any Blu-Ray releases until the Summer because "the consumer has chosen" not to buy any HD movies at all for a few months." Lol!

I disagree that this first half of the year has been bad:

Assassination of Jesse James
No Country for Old Men
The Rock
3:10 to Yuma
Life of Brian
Wall Street
Gone Baby Gone
The Chronicles of Narnia
Enchanted
A PASSAGE TO INDIA - You're going to complain about David Lean on BD?
The Devil's Own
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
PATTON - June 3rd!

That's the first half of the year. That's not enough movies for you?

PATTON JUST ANNOUNCED!!! Go to highdefdigest.

It's not quite the same as neither Paramount nor Dreamworks have even announced any Blu-Rays yet, let alone brought any new ones out so there's currently no way to get the previously scheduled movies on any HD discs. Whereas when they made the deal to go HD DVD exclusive all the scheduled movies were available, you just had to buy an HD DVD player to play them. Plus since a percentage of MY (and every other HD DVD owner's) money, no matter how tiny, helped to pay for the Paramount & Dreamworks deal I've got every right to be pissed off over them totally stabbing all of us in the back by withdrawing the movies WE want to buy! :mad: I'm now waiting for the Paramount/Dreamworks press release that says "We decided to drop HD DVD because "the consumer has chosen" not to buy our future titles. Furthermore we have decided to postpone any Blu-Ray releases until the Summer because "the consumer has chosen" not to buy any HD movies at all for a few months." Lol!

Not exacltly the same, that is true. Paramount had announced blu-ray titles that were cancelled though. People bought into the format expecting those titles and were indeed pissed, just as people who bought into HD DVD are now pissed. Both sides certainly have every right to be mad for those decisions.

Sure one could have bought another player but a lot of people don't want to buy more than one player just to play titles they were told were coming.

Well, hopefully Paramount releases all the previously HD DVD only titles sooner than later this year.

Then I hope Blu-Ray does something good for the 2nd half of 2008 because the 1st half is looking BEYOND lackluster.

You're taste in movies is not the same as everyone else's.

Paramount sure is good at pissing people off, on both sides.

Paramount sure is good at pissing people off, on both sides.

New Medium Enterprises is going to announce an exclusitivity agreement tomorrow for $400,000,000.00

New Medium Enterprises is going to announce an exclusitivity agreement tomorrow for $400,000,000.00

That would actually be pretty funny. :D

VMD: "Haha, you BOTH lose!"

HD DVD & Blu-Ray: "WTF???!!!:eek:"

VMD: "Now that the format war is over let's sit down and watch some Bollywood movies!"

HD DVD & Blu-Ray: :confused:

You're taste in movies is not the same as everyone else's.

Please show me where I said it was. I'm well aware of that.

That is your opinion.

Of course it is. This is called a forum, is it not?

Your signature is so true. And look what killing HD DVD has done, we can't get The Bee Movie or Sweeney Todd in HD even if we buy Blu-Ray, at least not for the forseeable future. I hope you're happy BDA, you've ruined it for everybody.No, Paramount ruined it. Thankfully, the biggest supporter of HDM (Warner) is releasing this outside the US, and keeps all their Blu-rays all-region.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweeney-Todd-Barber-Street-Blu-ray/dp/B0012YG7RS

So when will the Star Trek remasters make it to Blu Ray?

So when will the Star Trek remasters make it to Blu Ray?

Don't hold your breath
http://trekmovie.com/2008/02/28/paramount-cancels-future-hd-dvd-titles/

In the past, I would have said Paramount not releasing at least one volume ahead of the movie in Q109 would be the height of stupidity. Now, I'd have to say...well, it's Paramount, so who the hell knows?

So when will the Star Trek remasters make it to Blu Ray?

Considering that Toshiba was paying for the work, I don't think they will.

Your signature is so true. And look what killing HD DVD has done, we can't get The Bee Movie or Sweeney Todd in HD even if we buy Blu-Ray, at least not for the forseeable future. I hope you're happy BDA, you've ruined it for everybody.

:mad: No kidding...this is bad for EVERYONE. I don't care if it comes out on BR or HD DVD as I'm neutral, but now I can't get There Will Be Blood or Sweeney Todd in HD at all. No way I'm buying a DVD ever again unless it's something like a rare Criterion foreign film that will never be made into HD.


It looks good to me (http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/releasedates.html) with a wide range of titles ranging from day and date to classic catalog titles.


You and I have a very different meaning of the word "classic", heh.

I'll be buying a total of about 4 titles on the list you linked to.

It sounds like they are working on Cloverfield for Blu-ray in April so maybe we won't have to wait until the summer.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/11423

A lot of people worked hard for over a month creating some amazing extra features for the HD release of "Cloverfield." At first it looked like not many consumers would see these features, as the release was planned for HD-DVD like Paramount's other recent titles. But now that Toshiba's HD-DVD format is dead, Paramount is scrambling to release "Cloverfield" on Blu-ray - on the original HD-DVD street date. As a result, the current belief is that there's not enough time to program all the extra features (including lots of new story stuff, along the lines of the viral campaign's backstory) in time for the Blu-ray release, and all this great work will be scrapped."

I think you will see these titles a lot sooner than "summer".

Possibly. No doubt we will get announcements much sooner.

Sweet, I definitely want to check out Cloverield. I think I'll need my sub upgrade by then :D

I'm now waiting for the Paramount/Dreamworks press release that says "We decided to drop HD DVD because "the consumer has chosen" not to buy our future titles. Furthermore we have decided to postpone any Blu-Ray releases until the Summer because "the consumer has chosen" not to buy any HD movies at all for a few months." Lol!

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/28/paramount-and-dreamworks-hd-dvd-support-ends-march-4/

Paramount and Dreamworks Animation to cease HD-DVD production after March 4. No Bee Movie, no "There Will Be Blood", no "Sweeny Tood". No Blu plans, but Paramount is no longer in the HD-DVD business as of next Tuesday.

Summer?! Damn that sucks.

I think there's a nice list of titles already and we haven't heard much about Paramount and Universal. Once things get moving -- we are just a few weeks after the end of the format war -- I think we'll see a number of additional releases. But this won't happen instantly.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/28/paramount-and-dreamworks-hd-dvd-support-ends-march-4/

Paramount and Dreamworks Animation to cease HD-DVD production after March 4. No Bee Movie, no "There Will Be Blood", no "Sweeny Tood". No Blu plans, but Paramount is no longer in the HD-DVD business as of next Tuesday.

Didn't Paramount say explicitly they would not announce their plans until early March?

Didn't Paramount say explicitly they would not announce their plans until early March?

So maybe they'll officially announce it on Monday.

So maybe they'll officially announce it on Monday.

Works for me! ;) I'll take Face/Off for me and Transformers for the kids, for starters of course. :D

I hope Cloverfield is released on BD 25 for two purposes. One, to prove that for such a short film 25 gigs is enough. Two, sort of has to do with the BDA not giving Paramount 50 gig disks after stabbing them in the back.

I'm definitely read for Face/Off. I'm hoping it is at least as good as the import version and not a port of the U.S. HD DVD version.

I hope Cloverfield is released on BD 25 for two purposes. One, to prove that for such a short film 25 gigs is enough. Two, sort of has to do with the BDA not giving Paramount 50 gig disks after stabbing them in the back.

1) That wouldn't "prove" anything.

2) I think people on this forum spend a lot more time thinking about how Paramount "stabbed the BDA in the back" than the BDA does.

I hope Cloverfield is released on BD 25 for two purposes. One, to prove that for such a short film 25 gigs is enough. Two, sort of has to do with the BDA not giving Paramount 50 gig disks after stabbing them in the back.

1) That wouldn't "prove" anything.

2) I think people on this forum spend a lot more time thinking about how Paramount "stabbed the BDA in the back" than the BDA does.

Exactly. Seeing how P / DW dropped HD DVD it is just not a consumer friendly company. You should at the least honor the schedule published instead of dropping cold turkey. They have done this twice now. which is just poor Customer relations.
:(

If Sony has most of the pressing capacity does it have the capacity to handle the sudden tidal wave of demand? In the short term I doubt it.

Exactly. Seeing how P / DW dropped HD DVD it is just not a consumer friendly company. You should at the least honor the schedule published instead of dropping cold turkey. They have done this twice now. which is just poor Customer relations.
:(
You would think that they have a warehouse full of copies of Blades of Glory, Next and a couple of others titles that they must have had ready for the retail shelves just before dropping Blu-ray last year. Why not announce these titles for immediate release. Unless they destroyed them or something stupid. And now they turned around and did the same thing to their HD-DVD fans with the titles they just canceled. You are right, it does not make for good consumer relations.
BTW, I noticed that some of their previously released BR titles are showing up in stock here and there. Amazon had MI-III in stock the other day.

The silence on Paramount's release schedule is rumored/reported to be over on March 6th.

So don't expect any new title announcements until then, from P/DW.

IMHO of course.

I predict that Blades of Glory, Transformers, and Cloverfield will get release dates on that day.

I'm picking up all kinds of Paramount titles in HD-DVD all over the place. I'm not waiting for the BR releases. I just picked up Old School, Trading Places and Coming to America for next to nothing at Fry's Today.

I'm picking up all kinds of Paramount titles in HD-DVD all over the place. I'm not waiting for the BR releases. I just picked up Old School, Trading Places and Coming to America for next to nothing at Fry's Today.
I guess that's good for you but if friends and family want to borrow your movies, I guess they're out of luck since they'll most likely own Blu-ray players in the near future.
Also, if you have multiple TV's like I do, I don't want 2 players at each system. It's bad enough I have an HD DVD & Blu-ray player in one AV system.
So, HD DVD is only good in one system at my home whereas Blu-ray is good/playable at all of them.

So, HD DVD is only good in one system at my home whereas Blu-ray is good/playable at all of them.

Umm - who's going to spend 500+ dollars for multiple Blu Ray players? And my family certainly won't be buying them. Need an SD for that statment to be true.

I guess that's good for you but if friends and family want to borrow your movies, I guess they're out of luck since they'll most likely own Blu-ray players in the near future.
Also, if you have multiple TV's like I do, I don't want 2 players at each system. It's bad enough I have an HD DVD & Blu-ray player in one AV system.
So, HD DVD is only good in one system at my home whereas Blu-ray is good/playable at all of them.

So actually it's a positive. Who want's to lend his/her precious HDM to friends after all? :D

Umm - who's going to spend 500+ dollars for multiple Blu Ray players? And my family certainly won't be buying them. Need an SD for that statment to be true.

So buyers are gonna rush out and buy a BR player for $500 to buy overpriced movies from Paramount or to share them? Right.

Umm - who's going to spend 500+ dollars for multiple Blu Ray players? And my family certainly won't be buying them. Need an SD for that statment to be true.

So actually it's a positive. Who want's to lend his/her precious HDM to friends after all? :D

If they can afford a $500 clunky Blu-Ray player, they can pay for their own BR Media. Screw 'em.

Umm - who's going to spend 500+ dollars for multiple Blu Ray players? And my family certainly won't be buying them. Need an SD for that statment to be true.
You might want to poke your "e-head" into the Blu-ray player section.
$200 players are coming this year and will most likely be lower than $200 on Black Friday and the holiday season. :)

See, the CE companies now have to complete with each other and have to lower prices to get the consumer dollars in their pockets.
No player monopoly here like HD DVD/Toshiba.

The silence on Paramount's release schedule is rumored/reported to be over on March 6th.


I also remember something like that. So that would be end of next week?

Umm - who's going to spend 500+ dollars for multiple Blu Ray players? And my family certainly won't be buying them. Need an SD for that statment to be true.

Right. I'm sure he was talking about the immediate period of time in the next 4-8 months where everyone is going to go out and buy multiple players NOW, NOW, NOW!!!

I'm confident you have parsed his statement correctly. Really.

So actually it's a positive. Who want's to lend his/her precious HDM to friends after all? :D

Crazy concept for some I guess but I let friends and family borrow my blu-ray movies.

Crazy concept for some I guess but I let friends and family borrow my blu-ray movies.

It wasn't a crazy concept for me some years ago. But it is since 2nd or 3rd primary school class :(

It wasn't a crazy concept for me some years ago. But it is since 2nd or 3rd primary school class :(

Not sure I understand why that is but either way I'm sorry to hear that for you.

Not sure I understand why that is but either way I'm sorry to hear that for you.

Actually all times I lend people things I got them back in a total missorder and sometimes I haven't even got them back.

1st class: Someone destroyed a rare plastic football
3rd class: Someone threw a boomerang of mine that wasn't going to come back.

4th class: The most terrible. My cousin should've gone for a walk with my Ferret. Instead she and her friends made some cruel things with it and ultimately killed it.

4th class: A so called "friend" visited me at the weekend just to tell me that he got a new computer and was in the need of some games. Some of these are still missing.

5th class: Someone got a Action Replay Game Boy Colour Edition from me. He let coke flow over the package in the very first minute and hasn't brought it back after months (I finally got it back after he feared I would sell his N64 game).

No problems after 5th class as I stopped lending things after the Action Replay thing.

"My cousin should've gone for a walk with my Ferret."

Sorry. I actually started to lol until I read the rest.

Bummer man. I'm glad I don't have those issues with the people I lend out my stuff to.

I've lent out DVDs that were never returned to me. Its always a "oh I got to look for it" and then time goes by and its the same story over again.

I'll try not to lend stuff like DVD's or disks or books out because my experience has been, people either don't care to bother to return it or won't keep track of it so they have to look and they can't bother to look. I say hell with em. They can buy their own entertainment. Why not? I buy mine.

You people have crappy friends.

I recently loaned 10 Blu-Rays to various people at work who all recently bought PS3s, and I got 10 Blu-Rays back in perfect shape. Why do I loan them out? Because I've paid for them, and I have already watched them.

Not exactly a big deal. You might want to re-examine your relationships.

Considering that Toshiba was paying for the work, I don't think they will.

Paramount people have told me that won't be made available on BD until the BD market share is much higher than it is today. I would expect to see them until well into 2009 at the earliest.

Paramount people have told me that won't be made available on BD until the BD market share is much higher than it is today. I would expect to see them until well into 2009 at the earliest.

Are these the same people who knew nothing about the Paramount abandonment of Blu-ray last year ?

In a further sign that Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray has won the high-definition format war, Paramount Pictures home entertainment unit said Friday it will release its last HD DVD titles on Tuesday.

The company intends to switch to Blu-ray after it offers "Things We Lost in the Fire" and "Into the Wild" in HD DVD.

Paramount said it is in the process of determining its Blu-ray release schedule.
Story continues below ↓advertisement

Universal Studios said last week it was shifting its focus to Sony's Blu-ray standard.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23416046/

You people have crappy friends.

I recently loaned 10 Blu-Rays to various people at work who all recently bought PS3s, and I got 10 Blu-Rays back in perfect shape. Why do I loan them out? Because I've paid for them, and I have already watched them.

Not exactly a big deal. You might want to re-examine your relationships.

When you say people at work I assume you see them everyday correct? In that scenario I can see why you're able to get them back because I would be able to also.

I'm talking about friends or cousins that I see like once or twice a month if that and its usually away from their homes. They're not bad people they have lives they forget that they borrowed it. Plus DVD isn't my life so I may not always remember to ask for my DVD every single time I see them but that one time when I do want to watch my movie and I don't have it...well that sucks.

You people have crappy friends.

I recently loaned 10 Blu-Rays to various people at work who all recently bought PS3s, and I got 10 Blu-Rays back in perfect shape. Why do I loan them out? Because I've paid for them, and I have already watched them.

Not exactly a big deal. You might want to re-examine your relationships.


You should make your friends buy their own discs. The BDA needs all the support it can get right now.:D

You might want to poke your "e-head" into the Blu-ray player section.
$200 players are coming this year and will most likely be lower than $200 on Black Friday and the holiday season. :)

See, the CE companies now have to complete with each other and have to lower prices to get the consumer dollars in their pockets.
No player monopoly here like HD DVD/Toshiba.

Why didn't any other manufacturers make HD DVD players? Was it cause they didn't think it would win the war?

I know Onkyo was going to make a HD DVD player but BDA had 4 different manufacturers early on if not more, Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, and Samsung.

You might want to poke your "e-head" into the Blu-ray player section.
$200 players are coming this year and will most likely be lower than $200 on Black Friday and the holiday season. :)

See, the CE companies now have to complete with each other and have to lower prices to get the consumer dollars in their pockets.
No player monopoly here like HD DVD/Toshiba.

Your signature is so true. And look what killing HD DVD has done, we can't get The Bee Movie or Sweeney Todd in HD even if we buy Blu-Ray, at least not for the forseeable future. I hope you're happy BDA, you've ruined it for everybody.

Please explain how the BDA ruined it. Last i understood they used the free market system just like Toshiba did by creating their own standard.

Personally I am a fan of the free market system even with it's disadvantages.

Please explain how the BDA ruined it. Last i understood they used the free market system just like Toshiba did by creating their own standard.

Personally I am a fan of the free market system even with it's disadvantages.

Ha!
It wasn't the free market that decided who won,the studios and CE manufacturers used collusion to decide the fate of HD DVD.
If studios released on both formats and HD DVD failed then you could say the free market prevailed.

It wasn't the free market that decided who won,the studios and CE manufacturers used collusion to decide the fate of HD DVD.And yet despite that baseless accusation how much did your complain when Toshiba payed Paramount and Dreamworks Animation to go HD DVD exclusive? From what I can see you didn't have a problem with it (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11488966&postcount=13).


If studios released on both formats and HD DVD failed then you could say the free market prevailed.The free market doesn't mean an equal playing field which is very, very rare in the real world. As such the free market did prevail in this format war and it wouldn't be logical to expect all movies, music, and videogames to be released on all formats. Of course I am sure that the people who made VMD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatile_Multilayer_Disc) would disagree with that ;).

Why didn't any other manufacturers make HD DVD players? Was it cause they didn't think it would win the war?

I know Onkyo was going to make a HD DVD player but BDA had 4 different manufacturers early on if not more, Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, and Samsung.

Toshiba was just the badge on the players. HD DVD players could be made in Japan by Toshiba or in China by 3rd parties. All the 3rd generation players were made in China as were most of the 2nd. I believe all the 1st generation players were made in Japan however.

It's why you could update the firmware on the Venturer HD DVD player with software from the A3 and the Onkyo player could be controlled using the remote from the XA2.

Blu-ray companies often do the same.

Why didn't any other manufacturers make HD DVD players?The short answer is that Toshiba subsidized their stand alone HD DVD players and that was one of the results of it.


Toshiba was just the badge on the players.Toshiba was a lot more than that since they paid for the development, production, and testing of stand alone HD DVD players. That is why all stand alone HD DVD players were either Toshiba players or rebadged Toshiba players.


HD DVD players could be made in Japan by Toshiba or in China by 3rd parties.Regardless of location of manufacture the development, production, and testing costs were paid for by Toshiba.


Blu-ray companies often do the same.With an important difference being that several CE companies entered the Blu-ray market with their own stand alone player designs.