You are totally right. It seems Toshiba lost touch with what people might be willing to buy!

If they stop making your brand of car would you stop driving it?

Quoting Stephan.klose:

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If they stop making your brand of car would you stop driving it?

A better analogy is that they stop making gas for that car, or engine parts.  Once it stops running, it's gone.

Quoting Stephan.klose:

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that new format.

There is no new format. Only an upconverting technology that will utilize existing DVDs. There's a huge difference between those two things.

Quoting Stephan.klose:

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You are totally right. It seems Toshiba lost touch with what people might be willing to buy!

I don't think it's so much a matter of that, as it's a matter of them trying to maximize their DVD royalty revenues. Because they were instrumental in creating the DVD format they are making money off of every DVD sold.

If Blu-ray were to push DVD out of the marketplace, Toshiba would no longer be getting those big, fat royalty cheques. So these high-end upconverters is their attempt at trying to prolong the battle as long as possible.

I've been saying it ever since Blu-ray and HD DVD launched, but I just don't see HD on disc ever becoming the dominant format. That doesn't mean I think Blu-ray will fail. No, I think it will be fairly successful and continue to exist for years to come. But exist alongside DVD, not replace it.

I know it's not a perfect analogy, but I think Blu-ray will be the laserdisc to DVD's VHS. Meaning, DVD will continue to be the format of choice for Average Joe, while Blu-ray will be the choice of Home Theatre enthusiasts.

KM

Quoting Stephan.klose:

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If they stop making your brand of car would you stop driving it?

Once I can no longer get the "special" gas required for it to run, and repairing it becomes cost prohibitive.....yes.

Quoting Astrakan:

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Quoting NewEnglander:

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Warner already has plans to eventually stop producing DVD in favor of Blu-ray.

First: source?

Second: I'm sure those plans must hinge on hardware adoption. If that hardware adoption isn't there, I highly doubt Warner would forego all the income that DVD would generate just to try to push the market in a direction towards Blu-ray.

If you've got some information that shows Warner having a drop-dead date in mind for DVD, one that isn't dependent on anything but the passage of time, I'll be the first to cheer with joy. I'd love to be wrong in my prediction of Blu-ray only ever becoming a niche product existing alongside DVD.

KM

Well said.

From the article quoted in the Warner Bros thread:

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To accomplish that, it will bring a more intense focus to its nascent Blu-ray business. More titles will be released same-day on cable VOD and DVD. And other methods of online distribution will be explored.

So no mention of DVD apart from that one...

Quoting TigiHof:

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Quoting Ascended_Saiyan:

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Quoting Stephan.klose:

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If they stop making your brand of car would you stop driving it?

Good question.  My answer would be no.

I have a question, also.

If people were constantly warning you not to buy a certain type of car, because it would not have any support (no tires, no engine parts, no dealers, no anything) after a short time.  You buy the car anyway and support stops soon afterward.  Don't those people have a right to poke a little fun at that person?

No, not if the brand new car was sold for 800 bucks - a price so dirt cheap that absolutely everyone who bought one simple bought another one for spare, while all mockers paid more than 5000 bucks for their new car that did not even have a final construction.

But, we know that's not the case.  At least, we SHOULD know that's not the case. 

If that car you are talking about cost $800, then the other car with support would cost less than $1600.  Then, you talked about buying a spare.  Plus, you still can't get oil changes, gas, tires, etc.