The Gadgetell team brings you live coverage today of the Toshiba CES press conference. Toshiba is known for more than just laptops, but not much else here in the US. Let’s see if that changes today. The lights dim and the PowerPoint begins…
One of the notable things that was mentioned during the Toshiba Press Conference was the fact that Warner just announced they’re dropping HD DVD – which is of course Toshiba’s “baby”. The comments on the subject were brief – as expected – but they pretty much announced that they’re confident HD DVD is the future.
Jodi Sally, Toshiba’s VP of Marketing for the Digital Audio/Video division made the mention stating: “HD DVD is not dead. We’ve been dead before, but definitely not now.” She then went into some of the stats regarding brand share in “Next Generation DVD” formats. See the image below for some stats:
Also, she mentioned that they’re the only next-gen format that’s been approved by the DVD Forum — probably because they share the same name / logo!
Her colleague Scott Ramirez, VP Marketing for Toshiba’s TV Group came out with some funny old TV tunes, and jokes — quite the jokester. He announced that Flat Panel TVs are the “Heart” of the Consumer Electronics industry, and account for 37% of the products bought each year. It sounds like LCD TVs are the “consumer choice” in formats, so they’re touting their new LCDs — very slick looking.
They were covered in the front of the room, and the covers came of one after the other. Well choreographed.
Their new releases are the new AV500 Series, which is a 720p series — comes in 19″ and 22″ and of course has PC inputs and HDMI.
Next, they touted their new REGZA – high-end – models which have a new “ThinLine Bezel”. They products include the CV510, RV530, and their new Cinema Series XF550. See the image below for the breakdown:
Hey Guys,
Great coverage so far!
Greg
HD-Dvd is Dead… If they were interested in their consumers they would just end the war now and conceed rather than drag more people into buying already obsolete players.