Toshiba | High-Def Digest

HIGH-DEF DISC NEWS TAGGED "TOSHIBA"

Toshiba’s BDX2000 Blu-ray Player Hits Best Buy

Wed Oct 28, 2009 at 02:00 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Best Buy (all tags)

At long last Toshiba has a Blu-ray player on store shelves, at $50 cheaper than announced.

Toshiba’s BDX2000 isn’t an especially unique Blu-ray player, but the circumstances around its creation and release certainly were. Toshiba of course was the driving force behind HD-DVD, and a long time Blu-ray holdout. After the end of the format war, Toshiba made a lot of statements that downplayed the importance of Blu-ray, but as time went on, the Blu-ray market became too strong to ignore.

That brings us to the BDX2000 Blu-ray player, spotted at Best Buy for $199.99. It features a 1080p resolution and is BD Live capable. The BDX2000 decodes Dobly True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio, and features 7.1 channel audio output through HDMI. There aren’t any streaming services to speak of, just what looks to be a pretty good Blu-ray player.

Toshiba’s official website states a November release date, but user submitted photos indicate that at least a few Best Buy stores have this on the shelves now.

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Toshiba’s BDX2000 Finally Detailed

Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 01:45 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Industry Trends (all tags)

In a long expected and much anticipated move, Toshiba has announced their newest contribution to the consumer electronics market: the BDX2000 Blu-ray player.

Though still stating publicly that Blu-ray may not be the best way forward for delivering HD content, Toshiba found the Blu-ray market too good to resist.

"From listening to our consumers we know they demand access to full high definition content,” says Jodi Sally, VP of marketing. “With the introduction of our BDX2000 we are offering consumers what they want with a breath-taking HD viewing experience to meet the needs of today's home theater.”

The specs on the BDX2000 aren’t anything surprising. Toshiba’s new player offers Full HD 1080p playback, BD-Live capability via an Ethernet port, and support for Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Interestingly, the press release does go on to state “This product does not play HD DVD discs. Blu-ray discs with high-definition content required for HD viewing.”

The BDX2000 will be available in November at a retail price of $249.99

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Toshiba Releases 2TB DVR With DVD Drive

Thu Aug 13, 2009 at 03:30 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba (all tags)

Three DVRs released in Japan, still lack Blu-ray support, opting instead for standard DVD recording.

There are a lot of times when it’s good, even appropriate to be “kickin it old school”. For example, when you’re at a wedding and you’re trying to impress one of the bridesmaids with your sweet moves. It might not appropriate though, when you’re a company who just lost a format war and is trying to connect to a consumer electronics market that’s rapidly leaving you behind.

According to Akihabara News ,Toshiba has introduced a trio of DVRs with the 2TB RD-X9 as the superior model. Able to store a great deal of video on the built in hard drive, the RD-X9 is incredibly functional. It does however, still lack Blu-ray support, opting instead for standard DVD recording.

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There’s more to HD than just Blu-ray, Says Toshiba Exec

Thu Aug 13, 2009 at 01:30 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba (all tags)

They may be joining the Blu-ray revolution, but a senior exec at Toshiba wants to make sure everyone knows the company isn't exactly excited about it.

“Although it's a minor part of the market; it's reached the point where we should consider it,” said Oliver van Wynedaele, a senior executive at Toshiba Europe in a conversation with CNet UK. He did make clear though, that Toshiba wasn’t exactly excited to adopt the format, still holding out for another option to what the company generally considers to be an unfinished technology.

From SD cards to downloads, Toshiba is perusing a range of options, but has confirmed it will be launching Blu-ray players as soon as this holiday season.

When asked about how their HD DVD experience will help with Blu-ray, van Wynedaele said “We won't be using anything from the HD DVD side of things, apart from knowledge of video compression and Internet technology that we learned from during the creation of HD DVD.”

Toshiba does plan to be competitive in the Blu-ray market. "We are not trying to be the 'dealbreaker', but bringing a product to the consumer at an affordable price -- it's something we've been known for," Said van Wynedaele.

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Toshiba Applies to Join The Blu-ray Disc Association

Tue Aug 11, 2009 at 02:30 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Industry Trends (all tags)

Toshiba announced plans today to not only produce Blu-ray players, but laptops with Blu-ray drives as early as this year.

This announcement came on Toshiba’s site along with the news that Toshiba has officially applied to join the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA).

The decision surely doesn’t take anyone by surprise, as Toshiba has been talking up their desire to dip into the Blu-ray market, but this is confirmation that they’re planning something very soon. Final announcements on what products they’ll be releasing will come “in due time” according to the site.

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Toshiba To Produce Blu-ray Player By Year’s End

Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 10:30 AM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Industry Trends (all tags)

It looks like Blu-ray sales are just too big to ignore.

We reported a few weeks ago on the statement by Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida that his company was finally considering a jump into Blu-ray production. It seems Mr. Nishida had an ace or two up his sleeve. According to the Daily Yomiuri, a prominent Japanese newspaper, Toshiba will be entering the Blu-ray market before the year is over.

According to their source, Toshiba was reticent to join the Blu-ray team after the failure of HD-DVD, and was in fact working on a new format to try and overtake Blu-ray, but with the market as big as it is, Blu-ray became impossible to ignore.

Expect to see Toshiba Blu-ray players by this holiday season. Recorders on the other hand, will not be part of the new strategy, as Toshiba feels that the demand for Blu-ray recorders is unlikely to increase.

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Toshiba Finally Considering Blu-Ray

Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 01:00 PM ET
Tags: Toshiba, Industry Trends, HD Gear (all tags)

Former HD-DVD champions Toshiba are finally talking out loud about making the jump that so many have already made.

According to Nikkei, a provider of Japanese business news, Toshiba’s president Atsutoshi Nishida is considering producing Blu-Ray players. “It makes no sense to decide not to enter the Blu-Ray market simply because we lost the DVD-format war.” said Nishida. “We cannot change the fact that we lost, but we would like to keep our options open.”

While there is still competition from streaming services, it’s clear that Blu-Ray is the way to go in a physical media format, and it really seems like bad business not to have something on the market. Just what Nishida means by keeping their options open is unclear, but expect a big announcement from Toshiba in the near future.

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Toshiba CEO Speaks Out on HD DVD Decision

Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 09:00 AM ET
Tags: Toshiba (all tags)

In his first in-depth interview since announcing his company's plans to drop HD DVD support, Toshiba CEO Atsutoshi Nishida says HD DVD "didn't stand a chance" following Warner's decision to exclusively back Blu-ray.

Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Nishida said that without Warner's support, HD DVD would have just 20% to 30% of software market share, effectively sealing its fate in the high-def format war.

"One has to take calculated risks in business, but it's also important to switch gears immediately if you think your decision was wrong," explained Nishida. "We were doing this to win, and if we weren't going to win then we had to pull out, especially since consumers were already asking for a single standard."

Nishida went on to say that post-HD DVD, Toshiba would turn its focus to upconverting standard-def DVD players and PCs, with an eye to digital downloads.

"We've been developing technologies in [the video downloads] area already, but now that we don't have the HD DVD business, I want to put even more energy into that," explained the CEO.

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Related links:
Toshiba's Plan for Life After HD DVD [Wall Street Journal]

Earlier on High-Def Digest:
Toshiba Officially Drops HD DVD (Feb 19, 2008)
Warner Goes Blu-ray Exclusive (Jan 04, 2008)

Toshiba: "No Plans" to Back Blu-ray

Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 11:55 AM ET
Tags: Toshiba (all tags)

It may have thrown in the towel with HD DVD, but don't expect Toshiba to begin manufacturing Blu-ray players anytime soon.

That's according to company president Atsutoshi Nishida, who spoke at a press conference in Tokyo Tuesday. "No plans at all, not at this moment," was Nishida's response when asked whether Toshiba planned to produce players using rival Blu-ray technology.

Not that the Blu-ray Disc Association wouldn't be happy to have Toshiba on their side.

"We have always said that Toshiba and Microsoft, and any other company, is more than welcome to join the Blu-ray Disc Association," BDA spokesperson Frank Simonis told TechRadar ahead of Toshiba's announcement.

Toshiba stressed in its press release that it will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders, promising to "continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry" through the DVD Forum.

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