A bit of HD-DVD misconceptions to clear up. Had HD-DVD won, this technology would still be in the works! It was planned before the format war ended.
Why?
HD-DVD had similar licensing fees to Blu-ray: same codecs, same licensing. Reviving HD-DVD would not change this one iota.
An interesting side note though (regarding hardware)...
Near the end of the format war, Toshiba was going to cut the hardware licensing fees for China in order to get cheap (sub-$99.00) players into the US/JP markets. HD-DVD was already a huge loss for them with their own players. The logic: low prices, more market penetration, win format war, make money back with licensing. But when this planned licensing cut hit the wires, I read several tech/financial blogs wondering how the heck Toshiba planned to succeed financially if they nixed the *only* part of the equation that meant money for them: future licensing for Chinese-made players. Of course, they lost the format war before any of this came to pass, so that question will never be answered.
But don't get this wrong. China still wanted their own format -- *disk* prices being the key here -- and was going forward regardless.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
EatingPie @ Apr 24th 2009 8:55PM
A bit of HD-DVD misconceptions to clear up. Had HD-DVD won, this technology would still be in the works! It was planned before the format war ended.
Why?
HD-DVD had similar licensing fees to Blu-ray: same codecs, same licensing. Reviving HD-DVD would not change this one iota.
An interesting side note though (regarding hardware)...
Near the end of the format war, Toshiba was going to cut the hardware licensing fees for China in order to get cheap (sub-$99.00) players into the US/JP markets. HD-DVD was already a huge loss for them with their own players. The logic: low prices, more market penetration, win format war, make money back with licensing. But when this planned licensing cut hit the wires, I read several tech/financial blogs wondering how the heck Toshiba planned to succeed financially if they nixed the *only* part of the equation that meant money for them: future licensing for Chinese-made players. Of course, they lost the format war before any of this came to pass, so that question will never be answered.
But don't get this wrong. China still wanted their own format -- *disk* prices being the key here -- and was going forward regardless.
-Pie