Yes, it's a Sony; Blu-ray Disc that is.

[Kuang_Grade]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-14-2008/0004735440&EDATE=

Well, Toshiba managed to get out of its post-CES drunken funk enough to issue a press release announcing the halving of list prices on their hardware. I imagine they are figuring that they should go out fighting rather than have warehouses full of hardware that will never sell in a few months time once paramount and universal become non-exclusive towards HD DVD...With the mail in offer for five free HD DVDs plus the 2 free HD DVDs currently packed in Toshiba HD DVD hardware, the free HD DVD software list price value now exceeds the street price of the hardware on the lowest price model and almost matches the street price of the middle tier hardware model.

....although I bet a fair bit of retailers are going to be pissed about this since this is all happening less than 30 days after Christmas, entitling highly organized consumers to get price matches of their pre christmas purchases at this new lower price..Usually, manufactures wait until Feb before issuing big price cuts for precisely this reason.

Nice video, Ultra...although I would say the 360 add on was the most reliable HD DVD hardware out there....much faster boot up and was alot less fussy than either the a2 or a3 that I owned, although it was super noisy. I wonder how MS is feeling about this, given there are tons of the HD-DVD 360 add on hardware sitting around in stores at $180 while toshiba is dumping their stand alone hardware at $140-$200.

[American Oyaji]

I think MS did the smart thing with not having the hd dvd included. Now they can release a BleuRay player.

[Mulboyne]

[Kuang_Grade]

That story has noticeable factual errors.

Best buy is not dropping HD DVD, they are just now going to favor Blu Ray in merchandising but they are still carrying HD DVD....previously they had been agnostic in the format war, with promotions usually alternating between each format each week. Wal mart has said that they are completely dropping HD DVD as a product line in their stores, although I suspect the overlap of Wal Mart's customer base and HD buyers was not necessarily huge.

Microsoft also dropped the US price on the HD DVD add on by $50 (from $179.95 to the current US MRSP $129.95), not 50% off its old price...although Amazon did have a very short lived sale (that only lasted a few hours) of the unit at, I believe 89.95, which was 50% off the MSRP at the time.

But all that said, the writing is pretty much on the wall but I would expect that the battle would go on at least for a few more months, if anything to clear out hardware and to save face for the couple million dollars Toshiba dropped on that TV ad during the Super Bowl a whole two weeks ago. Its certainly possible that they may pull the plug but I'm hard pressed in see what the advantage of that would be vs. a more phased withdraw from the market.

Whenever the format war is over, I wonder what all the fan boys are going to bitch,carp and opine about. I've been surprised how vocal and hopped up folks have been about it, given the whole HD market is tiny fraction of the overall SD DVD market. At times you could have replaced HD DVD with "Croatia" and Blu-ray with "Serbia", and it wouldn't have looked out of context given the language being used in the posts/comments on various websites.

[hodensaft]

Don't think anyone's linked to this yet...

Taps for HD DVD as Wal-Mart Backs Blu-ray

SAN FRANCISCO — HD DVD, the beloved format of Toshiba and three Hollywood studios, died Friday after a brief illness. The cause of death was determined to be the decision by Wal-Mart to stock only high-definition DVDs and players using the Blu-ray format.

[kurohinge1]

HD DVD killed off by Toshiba, reports Japanese TV

. . . according to Akihabara News . . . an announcement has been made on the future of HD DVD - it's been killed off by Toshiba.

That's not official, but Japanese TV network NHK claims the end of HD DVD will be announced in the imminent future, hastened no doubt by the succession of manufacturers and retailers backing out of using the format - Walmart was the most recent high-profile company to ditch it on Friday.

No doubt we'll have the official statement this week, but just in case you're tempted by that budget high-def player in the shop window...well, maybe think twice.

[Mulboyne]

It's official from Toshiba:

Toshiba quits HD DVD business, handing victory to Blu-ray disc technology

..."We concluded that a swift decision would be best," Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters at his company's Tokyo office...Nishida said last month's decision by Warner Bros. Entertainment to release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format made the move inevitable, although his company had confidence in HD DVD as a technology. "That had tremendous impact," he said. "If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win"...Nishida tried to assure the estimated million people in the world who already bought HD DVD machines by promising that the company will provide continued product support for HD DVD...Toshiba Corp. said shipments of HD DVD machines to retailers will be reduced and will stop by end of March...more...

[Kuang_Grade]

While not surprising in itself, I'm surprised how badly this is being handled.....Given that a large portion of the HD DVD buyers were in the US and many of those buyers were demographically important (ie, big spenders in tech items) for any CE company, this is likely to have a big impact on Toshiba's brand image (which wasn't all that great to begin with in the US expect in laptops) for a very long time in the US.

While they are taking some very limited steps to make sure their is some supply for the recordable media market, the million plus player market is totally shafted. It wouldn't have killed Toshiba to make some nominal payments/arrangements to Paramount and Universal to at least ensure that there would be some new HD DVD releases for the next six months (even if only available for order on line) as a gesture to their hardware customers...Instead, they are just throwing up their arms and then saying that software supply isn't their problem and just curb stomping their existing customers.

It takes a special kind of company to make Sony look really customer friendly. This is easily the worst handled CE shut down (of significant size) in a long, long time.

[kamome]

Do you think an HD DVD player is going to have value as a museum piece a decade from now? Maybe the value would be purely nostalgic, but I still think it's cool to see an old Betamax player.

[ttjereth]

While not surprising in itself, I'm surprised how badly this is being handled.....Given that a large portion of the HD DVD buyers were in the US and many of those buyers were demographically important (ie, big spenders in tech items) for any CE company, this is likely to have a big impact on Toshiba's brand image (which wasn't all that great to begin with in the US expect in laptops) for a very long time in the US.

While they are taking some very limited steps to make sure their is some supply for the recordable media market, the million plus player market is totally shafted. It wouldn't have killed Toshiba to make some nominal payments/arrangements to Paramount and Universal to at least ensure that there would be some new HD DVD releases for the next six months (even if only available for order on line) as a gesture to their hardware customers...Instead, they are just throwing up their arms and then saying that software supply isn't their problem and just curb stomping their existing customers.

It takes a special kind of company to make Sony look really customer friendly. This is easily the worst handled CE shut down (of significant size) in a long, long time.

I actually prefer their method of just ending it quickly, rather than dragging it out and having people waste more money on a dead format, ala Superbetamax and such.

[Kuang_Grade]

I actually prefer their method of just ending it quickly, rather than dragging it out and having people waste more money on a dead format, ala Superbetamax and such.

I know what you are saying but given they sold a significant number of units in the just the last 12 weeks, to just turn around and say 'you know, this isn't going to work...We're out of here' is fairly irresponsible for any CE company that would actually like to have customers again in the future. With any technology, consumers are ultimately going be thrown under a bus at some stage but to do so with such haste as Toshiba is doing is pretty unusual for a company that is not already on the verge of death.

[IkemenTommy]

Do you think an HD DVD player is going to have value as a museum piece a decade from now? Maybe the value would be purely nostalgic, but I still think it's cool to see an old Betamax player.

Even Laserdiscs in our recent memories.

[FG Lurker]

I know what you are saying but given they sold a significant number of units in the just the last 12 weeks, to just turn around and say 'you know, this isn't going to work...We're out of here' is fairly irresponsible for any CE company that would actually like to have customers again in the future. With any technology, consumers are ultimately going be thrown under a bus at some stage but to do so with such haste as Toshiba is doing is pretty unusual for a company that is not already on the verge of death.

While I understand what you are saying, what would be the better solution? The only other option I can see would be to drag the inevitable out longer and in the end anger even more consumers than they already have..... At this point Toshiba can say, "Well, we made a go of it, but in the end all our supporters abandoned us. We felt we had no choice to pull the plug."

Although I despise Sony and am sorry to see BD win this battle, it is for the best that there is only one format. I think we will see a lot more HD content now and the prices of BD players will start to drop too.

[Kuang_Grade]

I would have expected to see something like 'while we are exiting the hardware business, we have made arrangements that at least XX number of new HD DVD releases will be made in the remainder of 2008 and that we made an agreement with Amazon.com that they will carry HD DVD software through at least Feb of 2009.' (ie, there is still some stuff in the pipeline and you'll still be able to buy HD DVDs for at least the rest of the year). As it is now, nobody knows what's going to happen and most retailers are going to running to the doors to make sure they don't get stuck with inventory that won't move.

It is not about extending the war, it is just about making an effort to support your existing customers.

[FG Lurker]

I would have expected to see something like 'while we are exiting the hardware business, we have made arrangements that at least XX number of new HD DVD releases will be made in the remainder of 2008 and that we made an agreement with Amazon.com that they will carry HD DVD software through at least Feb of 2009.'

I fail to see how this would be a good thing. Toshiba would be encouraging their customers to spend more money on what is now a dead system. The saying "Throwing good money after bad" comes to mind.

Anyone who has an HD DVD player has no choice now but to go out and buy a BD player if they wish to continue with high def. Does that suck? Hell yes! However I think most would do this even if Toshiba had continued to produce hardware -- who wants to have a player that won't play the vast majority of new titles released?

As it is now, nobody knows what's going to happen

It's clear and has already happened: HD DVD is dead. I don't like that, but that's the fact of the matter and hoping/wanting it to be different isn't going to change it.

and most retailers are going to running to the doors to make sure they don't get stuck with inventory that won't move.

They're already stuck with inventory that won't move. No one in their right mind will buy an HD DVD player now. Perhaps a few people who haven't heard the news yet will be sucked in by retailers who take advantage of them but beyond that I can't see it moving. Maybe if they price them at $49.99 and include a bunch of movies.

To be clear, I am not at all happy about this. I hate Sony far more than most people and would have loved to see BD fail miserably. Unfortunately that has not happened. The upside is that we finally have one format for HD and things can move ahead.

[ttjereth]

I would have expected to see something like 'while we are exiting the hardware business, we have made arrangements that at least XX number of new HD DVD releases will be made in the remainder of 2008 and that we made an agreement with Amazon.com that they will carry HD DVD software through at least Feb of 2009.' (ie, there is still some stuff in the pipeline and you'll still be able to buy HD DVDs for at least the rest of the year). As it is now, nobody knows what's going to happen and most retailers are going to running to the doors to make sure they don't get stuck with inventory that won't move.

It is not about extending the war, it is just about making an effort to support your existing customers.

The problem is, Toshiba doesn't get to choose whether there will be releases. That is what led them to throwing in the towel, most of the major studios have refused to release on HD-DVD, if they could get them to keep releasing they wouldn't have had to call it quits.

In early 2008, major distributors like Warner Bros., Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Netflix, and Blockbuster announced that they would support Blu-ray disc exclusively, ending their previous support of both formats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_definition_optical_disc_format_war

[Kuang_Grade]

While I understand Toshiba doesn't own a studio, they clearly have agreements and relationships with at least two studios (both of which probably have significant inventory of HD DVDs and who presumedly would prefer not having to fire sale that entire investment immediately), so there are self interested reasons why a short term continuation of an orderly market would be good for both them. And given the expense of HD DVD media production is fairly nominal, having studios put out new product in a controlled fashion (ie, small numbers to be sold only at online merchants) would neither be too taxing or costly.

Lurk, I disagree that it is automatically all money down the drain for consumers. While there won't be any new HD DVD content in a short period of time, the players still work (they are actually very impressive at upconverting SD DVDs) and existing media still works. Consumers throw good money after bad all the time..the key is to let consumers make that choice (at least for a short period of time) for themselves rather than for Toshiba to take their money and then a few weeks later say 'screw you'.

And the switching costs are fairly significant...To switch, folks would need to spend at least $350-400 to buy a blu-ray player/ps3 at the moment, and given that many HD DVD players were sold at half or two thirds less than that amount, I wouldn't expect huge numbers of that audience to switch any time soon. If anything, the market place for HD DVD media might actually be more orderly and possibly more lucrative now than it was before Toshiba'a announcement since marketing and merchandizing costs are no longer an issue. It is now a small niche market (with a million plus potential customers) but there is still opportunity there. And as you point out, there is always the anti-sony market to cater to as well.

The "nobody know what is going to happen" comment was related to the retail market for HD DVD media, not the format itself. Will stores have any HD DVDs in 3 months? Will Universal just dump the entire format this week and firesale their existing stock (some online retailers are offering Universal HD DVDs for 66% of list price at the moment...around $12 a disk) or will they just collect them up and dump them in a landfill or will they slowly phase it out over the next 12 months? While this sort of thing is a unknowable in a fast changing environment, it would have not taken much effort to talk to some retailers about this and get at least some vague statements of assurance for both consumers and the studios like 'Amazon and Best Buy have assured us that they intend to sell HD DVD media for the rest of this year'...as it is, Toshiba has just said 'that's not our problem'

[ttjereth]

While I understand Toshiba doesn't own a studio, they clearly have agreements and relationships with at least two studios (both of which probably have significant inventory of HD DVDs and who presumedly would prefer not having to fire sale that entire investment immediately), so there are self interested reasons why a short term continuation of an orderly market would be good for both them. And given the expense of HD DVD media production is fairly nominal, having studios put out new product in a controlled fashion (ie, small numbers to be sold only at online merchants) would neither be too taxing or costly.

Lurk, I disagree that it is automatically all money down the drain for consumers. While there won't be any new HD DVD content in a short period of time, the players still work (they are actually very impressive at upconverting SD DVDs) and existing media still works. Consumers throw good money after bad all the time..the key is to let consumers make that choice (at least for a short period of time) for themselves rather than for Toshiba to take their money and then a few weeks later say 'screw you'.

And the switching costs are fairly significant...To switch, folks would need to spend at least $350-400 to buy a blu-ray player/ps3 at the moment, and given that many HD DVD players were sold at half or two thirds less than that amount, I wouldn't expect huge numbers of that audience to switch any time soon. If anything, the market place for HD DVD media might actually be more orderly and potentially profitable now than it was before Toshiba'a announcement. It is now a small niche market (with a million plus potential customers) but there is still opportunity there. And as you point out, there is always the anti-sony market to cater to as well.

The "nobody know what is going to happen" comment was related to the retail market for HD DVD media, not the format itself. Will stores have any HD DVDs in 3 months? Will Universal just dump the entire format this week and firesale their existing stock (some online retailers are offering Universal HD DVDs for 66% of list price at the moment...around $12 a disk) or will they just collect them up and dump them in a landfill or will they slowly phase it out over the next 12 months? While this sort of thing is a unknowable in a fast changing environment, it would have not taken much effort to talk to some retailers about this and get at least some vague statements of assurance for both consumers and the studios like 'Amazon and Best Buy have assured us that they intend to sell HD DVD media for the rest of this year'...as it is, Toshiba has just said 'that's not our problem'

It's not their problem. Toshiba doesn't provide the movies. Best Buy has decided they will not sell any more HD DVD merchandise, that isn't what Toshiba wanted, Toshiba tried to get everyone to keep supporting their format, but they backed out. They only have one major studio, Paramount, and they only promised to support it for 18 months, and the other is not exclusive, given the choice to buy the movies on a dead format or on the winning format, not too many people are going to choose the dead format making it a dead end for the studio who would also have probably ended up withdrawing hd-dvd support since they are releasing on the competing standard as well.

Opinions are opinions and nothing I say is necessarily going to make you think any better of their decision, but it honestly would be just burning money for them to continue since they wouldn't be producing the hardware anymore anyway, in order to get anyone to continue releasing for the format they would have to spend more money (they already spent 150 million for the paramount 18 months) with nothing to gain (except maybe the gratitude of the small number of hd-dvd owners who would actually feel that Toshiba was doing something good for them by prolonging the death of the format).

Now, to turn things around a bit, if Sony was smart and wanted to maybe get rid of some of the shit reputation they have picked up lately (racist or sacrilegous ads, root kits etc.) they would offer discounts or trade ins for HD-DVD hardware and software, picking up goodwill and new customers in one fell swoop (if they were really smart they would have done it earlier and ended the format war quicker).

For me it sucks, because I won't be getting any more translation work for HD-DVD equipped PCs and pc peripherals

[Charles]

Now, to turn things around a bit, if Sony was smart and wanted to maybe get rid of some of the shit reputation they have picked up lately (racist or sacrilegous ads, root kits etc.) they would offer discounts or trade ins for HD-DVD hardware and software, picking up goodwill and new customers in one fell swoop (if they were really smart they would have done it earlier and ended the format war quicker).

I'm not sure it would have been legal for Sony to buy out HDDVD gear for BlueRay switchers during the format wars. But in any case, once you defeat an enemy, you aren't responsible for paying for his funeral.

[2triky]

I'm not sure it would have been legal for Sony to buy out HDDVD gear for BlueRay switchers during the format wars. But in any case, once you defeat an enemy, you aren't responsible for paying for his funeral.

Toshiba has been on a string of duds, it seems. First SED technology, they were developing with Canon, they pulled out due to litigation, and now this.

Maybe they've been infected with the Sony virus.

[FG Lurker]

I'm not sure it would have been legal for Sony to buy out HDDVD gear for BlueRay switchers during the format wars.

Canon did this for years for professional Nikon shooters. They would go to newspapers/magazines/photographers and offer to buy up their entire range of Nikon equipment at very favorable prices and then sell them Canon gear at steep discounts. Now that Canon has the lion's share of the pro market they don't do this anymore.

Sony being Sony I doubt they care about the consumer. It looks like they threw money and incentives at the shops (Best Buy, Walmart, etc), the rental businesses (Netflix, Blockbuster, etc), and the studios. If they could get the supply side to abandon HD DVD then the consumer would have no choice but to follow. It worked...but Sony still sucks ass.

[ttjereth]

I'm not sure it would have been legal for Sony to buy out HDDVD gear for BlueRay switchers during the format wars. But in any case, once you defeat an enemy, you aren't responsible for paying for his funeral.

I'm fairly sure it would have been, otherwise the similar promotions I've seen in the U.S. many times (not on such a large scale but still the same thing) would have also all had to have been illegal.

[ttjereth]

[quote="FG Lurker"]Canon did this for years for professional Nikon shooters. They would go to newspapers/magazines/photographers and offer to buy up their entire range of Nikon equipment at very favorable prices and then sell them Canon gear at steep discounts. Now that Canon has the lion's share of the pro market they don't do this anymore. ]

Sony does suck, and I've always had much better experiences with Toshiba (working and as a customer, although if you're going to buy a Toshiba notebook, do it in the states where you can get a better spec PC for a much better price) and absolutely hate Sony (although I do work for them too) after multiple rapings by their "customer service" and "support" divisions, but looking at how the sides were stacked in this thing, it's not really terribly surprising that Sony won.

Now if they can bring the hardware and recordable media down to more sane prices I will think about maybe, eventually purchasing a burner.

[Charles]

Sony does suck, and I've always had much better experiences with Toshiba (working and as a customer, although if you're going to buy a Toshiba notebook, do it in the states where you can get a better spec PC for a much better price) and absolutely hate Sony (although I do work for them too) after multiple rapings by their "customer service" and "support" divisions, but looking at how the sides were stacked in this thing, it's not really terribly surprising that Sony won.

Now if they can bring the hardware and recordable media down to more sane prices I will think about maybe, eventually purchasing a burner.

I never bought a Sony product that wasn't absolutely top quality, everything from the top-of-the-line 32" Trinitron XBR2 TV down to the cheapest headphones. I have no complaints with repair or customer service because I've never needed them. Sony is always my first pick (unless it's one of their products assembled in Mexico). But then, I don't use PCs so I can't comment on the quality of Vaios, other than to observe that everyone I know who owned a Vaio has broken it (I mean literally, like snapped it in half).

BTW, I remember a time when CDR media was $3 each.

[Kuang_Grade]

It wouldn't be frowned upon by legal authorities in mature industries with numerous competitors, such as PCs and cameras....But for a new industry with competing formats, it would likely be viewed as anti-competitive behavior for one company to offer bounties to specifically remove their competitors hardware from the market, esp in a industry with a component of razor/razor blade economics. Retailers would likely also dislike it, since for new product category, it would only represent switch business vs growing the marketplace.

The feds don't worry as much about this sort of stuff in business to business arena, were sales terms can often be complex, multi-faceted and 'winner takes all' contracts are not necessarily unusual but the feds tend to notice this sort of stuff in the consumer market.

[ttjereth]

I never bought a Sony product that wasn't absolutely top quality, everything from the top-of-the-line 32" Trinitron XBR2 TV down to the cheapest headphones. I have no complaints with repair or customer service because I've never needed them. Sony is always my first pick (unless it's one of their products assembled in Mexico). But then, I don't use PCs so I can't comment on the quality of Vaios, other than to observe that everyone I know who owned a Vaio has broken it (I mean literally, like snapped it in half).

BTW, I remember a time when CDR media was $3 each.

Don't get me wrong, I generally like Sony products as well, that's what sets me up to be screwed by their support and customer service.

I own a vaio, have a total of 3 Sony digital cameras and a video camera, and have gone through two pairs of sony headphones for the PC.

Things that annoy me about these products:

The cameras all use batteries and chargers with the same power ratings but the shape of the batteries and chargers all different and proprietary so that they cannot be used with other models. This is Sony's way of ensuring that there are no "econo-buy" version of their peripherals, but what it ends up doing is screwing their customers, because 1. I am forced to buy ridiculously overpriced Sony brand peripherals and 2. if my wife and I both want to take our cameras somewhere we have to also fit extra batteries and chargers specific to each camera in our bags as well, since they aren't interchangeable. Taking along the video camera and you already have a small backpack's worth of space just for peripherals...

When the earliest camera I bought broke (something went wrong with the battery connectors) it ended up costing me $50 and THREE MONTHS OF WAITING to get it fixed despite it still being under warranty and the problem being caused by a flaw in the camera and no fault of my own even according to the support personal.

The headphones I bought, I bought specifically because the wires to my headphones always wear out after a year or two and these headphones had a removable jack on the headphone side as well so that just the wire could (theoretically) be replaced instead of having to buy brand new headphones when the wire inevitably broke. Unfortunately, they decided to stop manufacturing the accessory wires for the headphones (although still marketing and selling the headphones!) and of course the jack on the headphone side was more proprietary sony bullshit so I couldn't use any other wire (without cracking open the headphones and cutting away plastic anyway) on top of which when I went to buy the wire because it was now a "retired product" for some reason the price went up and the stupid wire (literally just a headphone wire with something similar to an RCA jack on both ends) ended up costing half the price of the brand new head phones.

The Vaio, I would never recommend anyone buy. It's not a bad PC, but the footpads fell off all on their own, and their is again all kinds of propietary bullshit, and generally Vaios are just ridiculously overpriced. The only reason I got this one was because I snagged it at an amazing discount (brand new for 100,000 yen off the sticker price).

[FG Lurker]

Don't get me wrong, I generally like Sony products as well, that's what sets me up to be screwed by their support and customer service.

Find a large, heavy, blunt object and hit yourself hard on the head several times. Any time you feel the slightest urge to purchase a Sony product, repeat this process. With luck and perseverance you should be able to avoid the Sony nightmare in the future.

When the earliest camera I bought broke (something went wrong with the battery connectors) it ended up costing me $50 and THREE MONTHS OF WAITING to get it fixed despite it still being under warranty and the problem being caused by a flaw in the camera and no fault of my own even according to the support personal.

A friend of mine had a problem with her Canon point&shoot digital camera. I took it to Canon for her when I dropped off a lens for cleaning. The camera was a bit out of warranty. They fixed the problem and shipped it directly back to her all for free within about a week.

The only reason I got this one was because I snagged it at an amazing discount (brand new for 100,000 yen off the sticker price).

I have a log of dried out shit for sale here. Usually I would want 350,000 for this dry shit log, but I'll make you a special deal and sell it to you for 100,000 off! How can you refuse??

[amdg]

I have a log of dried out shit for sale here. Usually I would want 350,000 for this dry shit log, but I'll make you a special deal and sell it to you for 100,000 off! How can you refuse??

Does that shit come with a warranty?

[FG Lurker]

Does that shit come with a warranty?

Indeed it does!

It comes with my patented 50-50 warranty. 50 seconds or 50 feet, whichever comes first!

For the Sony-addicted (the only people who would buy a 250,000yen log of shit in the first place) I'll even throw in a can of purple spray paint. It'll look just like a Vaio!

[ttjereth]

Find a large, heavy, blunt object and hit yourself hard on the head several times. Any time you feel the slightest urge to purchase a Sony product, repeat this process. With luck and perseverance you should be able to avoid the Sony nightmare in the future.

I don't generally buy Sony anymore (the latest exception being my newest headphones because they were the only pair of dolby digital surround capable headphones available for a decent price and I could buy three pairs of them at the same price as one pair of the next cheapest brand...). Otherwise I don't buy Sony anymore because of all the crap that I have to put up with.

A friend of mine had a problem with her Canon point&shoot digital camera. I took it to Canon for her when I dropped off a lens for cleaning. The camera was a bit out of warranty. They fixed the problem and shipped it directly back to her all for free within about a week.


I have a log of dried out shit for sale here. Usually I would want 350,000 for this dry shit log, but I'll make you a special deal and sell it to you for 100,000 off! How can you refuse??

The PC I bought ended up costing me less the amount discounted, it still sells used for more than I paid for it with a free 6 hour battery pack thrown in (because it's proprietary and doesn't fit any other model of computer, one time when sony's bullshit worked for me).
http://esearch.rakuten.co.jp/rms/sd/esearch/vc?sv=2&f=A&g=0&v=2&e=0&p=0&s=2&oid=000&k=0&sf=0&sitem=pcg-u1&x=0

I was just starting in translation and was thinking I needed to buy a notebook AND a PDA and found this instead (an ultra portable notebook), so at the time it was a great deal since I ended up avoiding buying a separate notebook and PDA and saved tons of money on the price because Sony had just discontinued the model

http://www.transmetazone.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1056