What will Warner do if Toshiba bows out?  

Probably. There's no reason for them not to. People still have players out there.

the 150million dollar question is what are universal and paramount doing.

Its not as if all of the stores are going to yank disc and hardware and throw them out like infected meat. (okay, maybe Circuit City)

If money is to be made, they will make it.

interesting question... when hd dvd pg folds all contracts will be terminated immediately. this is why both universal and paramount were waiting for this to happen...

studios will withdraw software so it does not affect future sales.

I bet they do a few trinket releases to honor their commitment.

doubtful

agree also retailers will not want to give up the space once its officially declared dead.

I would still like to see something from Toshiba...some kind of response...have they made one at all? I think it's a little ridiculous if they haven't.

Just wanted to add - I'm not looking for the "We're in it for the long haul..." crap statement. I'm just curious to see if they have anything to say that has actual substance. Their silence really sucks and I think it's pretty unprofessional.

http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...43184420080216


A source at Toshiba confirmed an earlier report by public broadcaster NHK that it was getting ready to pull the plug.

"We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business," said the source, who asked not to be identified. He added that an official announcement could come as early as next week.

It's happening just not as fast as we can post on the Internet. Remember it is the weekend and it takes time for a large multinational corporation to make and implement important decisions. Toshiba must also make sure that all divisions are talking from the same page.

My guess is that studios will still continue to make HDDVD movies similar to LaserDisc movies back in the days.

They also have to align with their supporting studios and other vendors

Not much of a question. They are deciding which titles to push out in BD first. They don't need to do anything or make any announcements before Toshiba pulls the plug. Universal's VP is part of the HD DVD board so he has direct contact with Toshiba.

That depends if Warner is still under contract since even if Toshiba gives up on HD DVD that doesn't mean it voids the contracts they made with the studios.

Even if Toshiba drops HD-DVD, it will not be ended cut and Dry, I expect we will still see new HD-DVD releases for at least the next two years in tickles here and there, as long as some one is still buying them HD-DVD will not just disappear outright.

+1

I would put money on an announcement Monday. I would also put money on new releases drying up in the next few months. I don't believe there will be a single commercial HD-DVD release in the second half of 2008. The number of people who are HD-exclusive is minuscule, and all of them can play SD discs. Supposedly in quality approaching HD. It's not like a LaserDisc player that couldn't play DVDs and it's not like the quality is higher than Blu-ray.

I believe Warner made it pretty clear in their announcement pre-CES. So long as there is retail demand they'll continue to produce titles up to the end of May. If retail demand dries up, they'll cut the cord early. At this point I think it's actually up to consumers how fast this happens. Retailers won't do a thing to create demand, but if it's there they'll likely continue to satisfy it.

Trust me, as one who lived through Laser Disc, D-VHS, Divx, etc, you will still see HD-DVD releases for at least the next year to 2 years though in vastly dwindling numbers. There are enough HD-DVD owners out there and players to still sale, for Universal and Paramount to milk for a while yet.

If Toshiba officially issues the order to abandon ship, then contracts that Warner might have signed will be rendered null and void. At that point, Warner will probably go ahead and release the discs they have already pressed since they can't unspend that money, but if there is a release which has not been manufactured yet they will probably just cancel it.

I think Warner will release all of the announced titles up through Twister on HD DVD.

Yes - but as I pointed out, Laserdisc couldn't play DVDs (except for that one Pioneer player). And no, once Divx pulled the plug there were no more releases.

This is going to be different. Studios are not going to go triple format. For goodness sake, Universal and Paramount were barely releasing anything BEFORE the format died. No one is going to go to the trouble of two masters, or to cripple the BD encoding to fit onto an HD-DL if they want to go BD-50.

This is way more over than most HD supporters think it is.

I don't think Laser Disc applies here; LD was the only equivalent product (sort of like D-VHS) so there was a stronger niche market. I don't expect much in the way of holdouts 6 months from now; oh sure, a largish percentage of AVS HD DVD owners, but that will be dramatically non-typical for the buying population as a whole. It will be more like Divx, with almost immediate phase-out (none in B&M by Q4 2008).

Say, I believe that's exactly what I said the week the Warner announcement came out...

That's what I thought too.

Found out 2 days ago from my brother the model of our LD player that our dad bought back in 1982 or 1984. It is a Panasonic LX-101 player.

Hmmm, I'm curious what resolution the LD before was using.

I am not saying we will see huge numbers of releases, but I can easily see 3-4 every few months for the next two years are so, like I said, as long as their is a consumer to milk they will be milked.

LD is an analog format and has no fixed resolution to speak of.