http://www.twice.com/article/CA6599365.html?nid=2402

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 9/25/2008 8:44:00 AM

Tokyo — Toshiba said Thursday it is making another $20 million equity investment in MOD Systems, a U.S.-based provider of digital content delivery systems, as MOD prepares to launch a system to deliver digital high-speed content downloads to SD cards using kiosks in retail stores.

The investment follows a previous $4 million stake Toshiba made in MOD last year.

MOD Systems currently offers retailers a digital media delivery system that enables consumers to download digital content for burning to an optical format.

In spring 2009, the company will expand that music download system with a new system, bringing direct downloads, including movies and TV drama series, into retail stores, Toshiba said.

Consumers will be able to use SD cards, a leading solid-state media card format, to download the content in stores for personal use at home. MOD Systems is now in discussions with potential partner companies, including studios and other content providers, hardware manufacturers and retailers.

Alongside conventional packaged media, such as CDs and DVDs, people are turning to the Internet as a source of content.

Toshiba said it views downloading content to SD cards in retail stores as opening “the way to a new delivery service offering a wide range of high-quality titles with fast download speeds and security.”

Toshiba said high-speed downloads of large data sources such as movies require a high-speed connection able to handle high bandwidth. Therefore, it sees opportunity in a business model offering a fast direct download system in retail environments.

Toshiba said it will develop dedicated set-top boxes for the service that allows consumers to watch content on TVs, and also develop portable devices that will enable content to be viewed anywhere. Toshiba will also produce and market high-capacity SD cards for the system.

NCR, another MOD investor, will handle retail deployment of kiosks and other self-service devices that will enable downloads to SD cards.

Toshiba said MOD is lining up with major studios over 4,000 titles for distribution through the system, and more are expected by the time the service launches. Initial downloads will be in standard-definition content, but HD downloads are being considered for the future.

Hmmm...sounds kinda familiar! ;)

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=700870&postcount=17

Good call! Wow it seems Toshiba is intent on making Blue-ray irrelevant in the near future, new upconverter technology, digital downloads, ect. I guess they have no choice but try to kill off optical disc technology since they refuse to go Blue.

I guess they have no choice but try to kill off optical disc technology since they refuse to go Blue.
Yeah...even though I was an early HD DVD supporter, I sure would not be happy if I was a Toshiba stock holder while they continue to make moves based on emotion and revenge. Stupid if you ask me.

Johnny you're a seer... ;)

I'm all for this however until they can manufacture cards that can hold several movies at once I don't really see an advantage over the plastic disc. 100G cards were announced for the first time at Photokina just last week and that would barely hold 4 HD movies... When 1TB SD cards are $50 we'll be talking! :)

Toshiba what are you doing?!?!?!?!!?

Make a BD Player already!!!

Toshiba what are you doing?!?!?!?!!?

Make a BD Player already!!!
Why? It's not as if you don't have a range of choices already.

Plus, the only reason Toshiba would make a Blu-ray player would be to make money off its hardware sales. Given that standalone BR hardware sales are low, it doesn't make much sense at this point. The low priced players are going to essentially be nearly loss leaders for Blu-ray, and Toshiba has already done that for their own tech. No need to do that for their competitors. At the higher end, the sales are so low as to perhaps be a waste of time (and money) if you're not sharing much in the licencing royalties.

So, while I'm sure there an element of we-lost-the-war-so-we-just-don't-want-to-do-it there, I also suspect that Toshiba doesn't think there's huge money to be made off the hardware at this point.

Johnny you're a seer... ;)
I gotta say that I kinda freaked myself out a bit when I read the original story!

I'm all for this however until they can manufacture cards that can hold several movies at once I don't really see an advantage over the plastic disc. 100G cards were announced for the first time at Photokina just last week and that would barely hold 4 HD movies... When 1TB SD cards are $50 we'll be talking! :)
But for a "rental" what's wrong with 1 card = 1 movie? I certainly don't have a problem with that. The cost of the media will likely remani much too high for this to be any kind of collector's format (considering a Blu-ray disc is maybe $2 for 50GB today).

Nothing wrong with it for rental... One advanatge would be that rental outlets wouldn't run out of movies... :) Funny enough, the PS3 works with SD cards today both via the built in card reader or USB port... ;)

I'm all for this however until they can manufacture cards that can hold several movies at once I don't really see an advantage over the plastic disc

In what will be a world of mobile devices without optical drives using the same format on your phone as your home theatre isn't a completely crazy idea.