Hats off to them if true. BTW the first runs of the A1 and AX1 were made in Japan as well.

Where are they supposed to be made?

China.

Glad I got mine when I did, then.

The vast majority of consumer electronics in the world are manufactured in China. The country's manufacturing facilities no longer have the same stigma for poor quality that they used to.

It's Chinese-designed products that are still considered "cheap". When it comes to products released under a brand name like Toshiba, the item is built to the specifications of the original Japanese designers. It's only the physical labor that's been outsourced.

I will second this statement. Having it built in China isn't necessarily a bad thing. You would be surprised where some of your favorite things are built. Hell, not all Bimmers are built in Germany...some are built in South Carolina.

I'm not 100% sure they didn't replace some parts when production moved from Japan though. My memory is a little foggy here.

I do remember that the week the A1 and AX1 launched many shipments were held back to test for firmware problems, hence stores having some Hd-dvds and no players.

O.K. Can anyone give me a rational explanation as to why discussion of the format war is being banned here? Because unless I just crossed over from a parallel universe, there is indeed a format war occurring.

I was baffled to see the "A Blue Christmas For Blu-Ray" thread closed (http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=486000), when it only contains links to news stories.

I can understand the desire to squelch flaming and other B.S., but I believe news stories and studies should be open for discussion.

They let the format war go on for quite awhile, but it was pretty much a waste. You basically just had most threads clogged with one or two people trolling and everyone else jumping to the bait. It was pointless 99% of the time as trolls will never admit they are wrong and will make the claims everyone knows are untrue just to piss people off. It is probably best left out of this forum and the video game forum.

The fact is the majority of the people that post here are not very loyal to either format. If Blu-ray turns it around most of us will happily get a Blu-ray player. HD DVD was just better and more affordable in 2006.

Because I'd rather it be an enthusiast forum where we talk about things we enjoy instead of revelling in the possible missteps of some corporate entity hundreds or thousands of miles away. There have been too many bans and suspensions over the ridiculous way people have acted because of format zealotry.

<------------Exhibit A

Much like Sony, you're fighting a losing battle here, Commander.

Very cute...



So in other words, instead of discussing the realities of the industry and how those issues can effect the consumer and the outcome of the format war, it is preferred that we attempt to make this forum and “warm and fuzzy feel-good fest” for those of us that have an interest (be it financially vested or otherwise) in these new competing technologies.

Does that about sum it up?

It's not to create a warm-and-fuzzy-feelgood-fest. It's to stave off raging, rampant asshole-dom. Raging, rampant asshole-dom leads to bannings and suspensions. If everyone's banned and suspended, there won't be anyone here to discuss anything.

We tried letting people post whatever they want. Didn't work. We tried letting people post whatever they want in a sandboxed thread. Didn't work.

Another case of the few ruining it for the many. Too bad, really.

Good job, I like it the way it is now.
There are other sites to go to if you want to read fanboy smack.

I'm glad to see this approach. The main reason I signed up at DVDTalk is to avoid the rabid fanboyism that plagues other forums. There's a couple of them here but it's not overbearing as it is elsewhere. Keep up the good work.

Got my HD-A2 shipping notice .

I also like that they clamped down on all of the BS threads, however I do think that one should still be able to post legit news links that lead to stories relevent to the format war. Banning 100% of anything to do with the war would be bad as you would not be able to post anything reported in the news. That will end up making this forum have zero articles regarding what is actually happening out there as news posting is out of the question. I personally think its taking things too far.

Bottom line if I cant get the up to date news about what is going on with HD here then this forum has lost a big chunk of what makes forums great to visit. While obviously something had to be done and again I commend that decision, I think you guys have now taken it to far the other way when people who post legit news links get thier threads locked. I actually found all 3 of those articles interesting and didnt know they even existed until I read that thread.

If I have to go to other boards to get most of the news from then that is definitly not a good thing, at least not IMO. Its just ends up being less time I actually spend on this board and more time I spend on other boards. You should be able to post links to legit news stories and if you cant then again its taking things too far in the other direction and exercising too much control on what is or isnt posted.

PS...

I don't see anyone clamping down on news. There's still plenty of news to find on DVDtalk.

I see a clamping down of bullshit, which I very much enjoy.

Sure, but just post it in the Blu-ray thread with neutral intent. Lumping it under "a blue Christmas for Blu-ray" has a negative connotation that I'd like to avoid.

I don't know. You have to draw the line somewhere, and if you say "you can post negative articles if you word it like this...", then you'll have the same baiting and attacking as before, but it'll just be more passive/aggressive. One of the most problematic users recently knew exactly where the line was and straddled it as closely as he could, grating on the nerves of seemingly everyone in the forum in the process. Just because it's less blatant doesn't mean it's okay.

My thought is let the Blu-ray people post the negative Blu-ray news. Let the HD DVD people post the negative HD DVD news. Don't use argumentative thread titles. Don't post bait-ish titles, intentionally or unintentionally.

Um, scan back up and see what were talking about. A thread was just closed that didnt say anyting bait worthy and just had 3 links in it. I would definitly call that clamping down on news. Sure maybe the title was a bit much but nothing that I think is worthy to shut the entire thread down for. Just make him change the name of the thread of like Adam said move it to the BD section


PS..

Then you could have moved that post to that forum and removed the title and explained exaxtly why you did what you did. I would nt have had a problem with that. However just locking that thread up when it was basically just a thread that had 3 links to news stories from other sites is taking things too far IMO. As you said yourself when does it stop then. People will not know what is acceptable and what isnt acceptable and just decide not to post. What you end up with is a forum with no bickering and no posting of news and in the end what is hurt the most is the actually overall quality of this HD forum. Regardless of what others may think, the clamping down of reporting legit news from other sites will hurt the quality of this forum period.

PS..

Blu-Ray is getting bad press. That's nothing new. Do we need another thread about its bad press?? I'd rather focus on some GOOD things that are happening...like the release of the A2 than opinions of less-than-official internet columnists.

Until something of note happens, i'm more than happy to stay out of the BD world.

Yes it is something new as these reports that he linked to are brand new reports. If your sick about hearing how bad BD is doing then you can ignore the post and not read it. To just ignore all of the new press releases because your sick of hearing this stuff is your prerogative and not one that I personally share.

Also as a side note, the title of his thread, the Blue Christmas for Blu-ray was not his own title. He just took that from the name off of one of the article he was linking too so to say he was just trying to incite some kind of argument or something is just plain wrong. It wasn't even his words.

So again I disagree 100%. If your sick of hearing the news then just skip the topics that are talking about those news stories however to just ban all of those kind of news stories because your sick of what they have to say is just plain wrong and its not something that I want the mods to do for me, that is deciding what is proper news to read and what isn't.

Bottom line is if it is news and it hasn't been linked here before then not only should it be ok to post it but it absolutely should be posted. Unless I am completely mistaken on just what kind of forum the people that own this website are trying to make here then all news is relevant and I want to read it. If that means going to a different forum to get my news from here on out then I guess that is what I will have to do. Like I said before tho, making people leave this site to get alot of the news out there is just making this HD forum worse, not better.

If you want to focus on the A2 coming out and other happy stories like that then again that is your right and there are topics focusing on those topics up right now that you can partake in. that doesn't mean that other people dont want the news or even the option to pick just what kind of thread they want to read.

PS..