Toshiba puts HD DVD to bed at Spring press event

"Excellent service" promised for 700,000 Toshiba HD DVD owners worldwide

21 February 2008 11:48 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Speaking at the UK Spring press event, Toshiba has made what the company clearly hopes are their last comments on the HD DVD debacle.

Insisting that the decision to discontinue the HD DVD format was made "with the interests of the consumer in mind", the UK boss of Toshiba, Andy Bass, admitted that it was the Warner Bros decision to go Blu-ray that finally tipped the balance.

Promising an "excellent service" for customers who did buy into the HD DVD dream, the figure of Toshiba standalone HD DVD players sold worldwide was revealed to be 700,000.

Olivier VanWynendaele - deputy general manager, HD DVD, repeated comments made to Pocket-lint earlier in the week, insisting that Toshiba "has no plans to join the BDA or develop a BD player" although there was promise of a "strategic announcement" in the future.

VanWynendaele also stated said the choice for the next-gen DVD format to be Blu was made by the industry - not the consumer, although the stats - Tosh's 700,000 players sold versus Blu-ray's 2.7 million - could perhaps be argued otherwise.