Warner Home Video sure knows how to ruin a party — in this case, the annual extravaganza known as the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. When Warner announced late Friday that it was going to give its sole support in the high-def disc war to Blu-ray Disc, the main backer of rival format HD DVD, Toshiba, got left holding the bag — actually, hundreds of them. As Don Lindich, whose consumer electronics Q&A column appears in the Star Tribune and who is in Las Vegas for CES, writes on his blog:

After checking in to my hotel I went over to the convention center to get my badge holder and the free press bag Toshiba gives out every year.  Usually it is a backpack, though I have received laptop bags before.

… Every press bag has the HD DVD logo proudly emblazoned across the back.  When you combine that with hundreds, if not thousands of international press walking around Las Vegas, the end result is you see HD DVD logos EVERYWHERE.  And I mean EVERYWHERE!  There were HD DVD banners hanging all over in the airport baggage claim and Toshiba/HD DVD ads stuck to the top of taxicabs.  Ouch!  I can’t imagine how badly Toshiba must be feeling right now, after Friday’s events and Warner’s defection.  Clearly it was unexpected and this CES is not what they had planned it to be!

So not only has Toshiba been forced to cancel all of its CES press events for what is surely a dying format because of Warner’s decision, but, ironically, Toshiba’s goodwill promotional gesture to provide the press with a functional goodie serves as a constant reminder of the bad news.

The past relationship of Toshiba and Warner can’t be understated. The two were essential partners in the creation of standard DVDs. And Warner still has flagship HD DVD titles that aren’t available (yet) in Blu-ray, such as Casablanca, Forbidden Planet and the Matrix movies. Toshiba must feel like a bride left at the high-def altar. 

Check out Don’s blog for his continual CES updates, with photos, from Vegas.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 6:32 pm and is filed under CES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.