Damn you guys for backing up your claims! Don't you know you're supposed to take your lashes in silence?

What I learned on the last page:

Blu-Ray players are high priced when talking about consumer adoption, but not so high priced when comparing SA sales to HD DVD players.

Don't know about the Walmart thing, but those charts exclude PS3 and Xbox add-on sales.

Then yeah, something definitely seems wonky to me, and that isn't the fanboy in me. (I've already kind of accepted Blu will take over, though fun arguing otherwise). But something definitely seems off in those numbers.

Well I sure didn't pay 130 dollars or anything close to that. 130 to 300 is quite a leap anyway.

My point is you can't go by what YOU paid for it. You have to compare current prices or the argument is moot. It would be like saying "I paid $99 for my A2 and BD was $1K when it launched." It is a silly comparison.

All that said, the difference in prices is pretty close now, and I don't think BD players are overly expensive. The issue is that who knows what the future holds for these current players now that the specs are firming up and they aren't upgradeable.

At least at some point HD DVD will have a finite number of movies to support with a firmware update, LOL.

Toshiba just released firmware 2.8 for HD-XA2, HD-A20, HD-A2, HD-A2W, and HD-D2.
Info: http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/tacpasse...d2firmware.asp

You can download the iso here:
http://tacp.toshiba.com/tacpassets-i...ngfirmware.asp

Gen2 units only? Odd

Did a search and didn't see this posted anywhere...

Looks like Toshiba is going to have an ad during the Super Bowl per HDD.com

Toshiba Super Bowl Ad

Let's hope they have some new material. The Shrek 3 ads were cute, but would be totally irrelevant now. I'm personally hoping for a political campaign type of ad, but done with a clearly humorous intent. :)

Its somewhere in the cost of 2.7 Million for a 30 second ad...insane.
That, coupled with price cuts, should help sales. Hopefully some of the other rumors pan out as well (Toshiba is going after 2 Blu-ray exclusive studios to join them, $5 price cut on all HD DVD software). Should be interesting :)

What are the origins of these rumors?

Where did you hear this rumor?

EDIT: Vipper beat me to it...

This would really confuse things even more. As much as I love my A2 and my HD DVD's...I am really hoping that we have one format by the end of this year.

Random places on the internet actually from a few different people in different posts over the past week or so. I can't even remember where I read them at this point. Something else about Sony offering Toshiba the rights to be the only one making BD-Rs with Sony stopping production on them right away if they gave up on HD DVD...Toshiba turned them down. They obviously have some sort of plan for HD DVD to continue otherwise they should have jumped at that deal. As far as I know, The BDA has already paid off Fox/WB in the past few weeks, so Lionsgate, Disney and Starz are up for grabs. Lionsgate was paid off last year not to go Red IIRC. Again, rumors, but theres not much else to talk about in here.

I just checked over at AVS to see what the many of the "crazies" are saying about this. It's blue vs. red as always. I see that you posted the same thing over there with a little "wink" emoticon to Kosty. Doesn't he run some HD DVD site kind of like blu-ray.com?

Kosty does not run any site that I am aware of. I doubt Toshiba was announce anything at the Superbowl besides the low price point so I added that in for some fun.

IMO at this point it's the retailers Toshiba needs to worry about. Unless they can get more studios and releases in general out on the format in the next 2-3 months, I don't know if they can outlast retailers who are itching to have one format to back.

And I'll second that they better not just re-use a Shrek ad. That would just reek of lack of effort. It's bad enough I saw that commercial last week on Bravo. They could have at least done a new campaign with Bourne or something if that caliber.

I don't see any BD studios switching. WB is going to give them 70-75% of the market in June. Why would a BD studio make a move to PROLONG the war? Can you imagine how much more confusing this would be for those who are on the sidelines? You'd never be able to trust any studio from here on out. I think the media would tell everyone it's not worth the hassle anymore and just avoid HD altogether.

If any BD studios went red, and put the market back to 50-50 again, then HDM can kiss mass adoption good-bye, imo.

I'm not buying anymore HD DVDs, but I still have my A1 and A3....just in case a miracle does happen. :)

Retailers are still carrying both formats as of right now.
Its apparently a brand new ad, not a re-use of any kind.

My bad. I must have been thinking of someone else.

Regardless...if a Blu-ray studio does switch...I think things will get even more confusing to the consumer. The only thing we can hope for then is an increase in the number of QUALITY dual format players at decent prices. Otherwise, I don't think HDM will take off like we all hope.

Here's to hoping the SB ad does what Toshiba needs it to do. What that is, I have no clue.

My point is retailers plan store space months in advance. *If* the "perception" is that Blu-Ray has won, Toshiba needs to go all guns blazing right now, not 3 months from now when some possible new studios get up to speed with releasing on the format.

I believe RDJAM is who you were thinking of. He was the HD DVD evangelist on AVS. After the WB announcement, he doesn't post much there anymore. I think I know who's taken over for him over there.

I imagine the price drops have helped. The only reason the majority of Blu-ray players were "sold" in the past few weeks was because they were given away. Once these promotions stop (and they will, much like the BOGOs have from the BDA), you will have HD DVD at $150 and Blu-ray at $400.

He hasn't posted in a while on AVS. I think he still posts on HighDefDigest. AVS and HighDef have just become pissing sites now. Its fun to go in and stir the pot.

in my opinion, a blu-ray exclusive studio going purple would barely help HD DVD at all. in order for it to have any significant impact, a studio would have to switch completely to HD DVD exclusive and it would have to be a major (read: not lionsgate or starz).

if that were to happen, HD DVD would still need the following to last beyond 2008:
-- powerful and prolific catalog releases from Universal and Paramount (not looking good)
-- two or three blu-ray exclusive CEs announcing dual-format players (not even a hint of this happening)

i don't see a superbowl ad changing any of this.