CES 2008: Toshiba Faces Music on HD-DVD: "We're Not Dead."

At a crowded Toshiba Press conference on Sunday, Toshiba top brass said that it was surprised by Warner Brothers abandonment of HD-DVD, but said it was too early to assume the format was dead.

"As you can imagine this is a hard day for me," said Toshiba vice president of marketing Jodi Sally. "... The events of the last few days have shifted the focus on my comments."

Those comments amounted to an exhortation not to write them off.

"We firmly believe HD-DVD is the best format for the consumer," she added. People had written it off before as dead, Sally said, and shouldn't be quick to do so now.

Toshiba of America president Akio Ozaka took the stage and asserted that HD-DVD's sales in the fourth quarter of 2007 were their strongest yet.

"We were suprised by WB's announcment to abandon HD-DVD," Ozaka said. "We were particularly disappointed that the decision was made in spite of the significant momentum HD-DVD has made ... in 2007."

Warner Brothers announced late last week that it would publish movies on the rival Blu-Ray disk format, bringing a clear majority of studios behind the Sony-backed group.

"We remain firm in our belief that HD-DVD is the format that fulfills the wants and needs of the consumer," Ozaka said.