Onkyo Officially Drops HD DVD

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 2/22/2008

Osaka, Japan — Although widely rumored to be in the works prior to Toshiba’s announcement to pull the plug on its HD DVD format, Onkyo officially disclosed late Thursday that it too will discontinue development and production of Onkyo-branded HD DVD players.

The company said the decision came “after a thorough review of Toshiba’s public announcement” to discontinue its HD DVD business. It had only distributed and sold approximately 2,000 HD DVD players in selected markets, the company said, to support the growth of the large-screen display market and high demand for home entertainment media.

“As Onkyo manufactures HD DVD players with core parts supplied by Toshiba, it will be difficult for Onkyo to continue its further development and production of HD DVD players,” the company said in a statement. “Despite this decision, Onkyo will continue to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Onkyo HD DVD players.”

Onkyo said it will continue to provide home theater products with high-definition sound and images that are compatible with next-generation disc formats such as Blu-ray.

“While Onkyo has been an enthusiastic supporter of the HD DVD format, it was not an exclusive relationship. Onkyo’s research and development teams have maintained a parallel development program for the competing Blu-ray technology,” the company said.