Toshiba to Post a Nearly $1B Loss Over HD-DVD

Ouch. Now we know what the price tag is for Toshiba over HD-DVD. Without citing sources, the Nikkei business daily (subscription required) reported on Thursday that the company will write off a 100 billion yen ($977 million) loss from its HD-DVD business.

Toshiba abandoned the HD-DVD format last month after a series of setbacks, beginning with Warner Bros. dropping HD-DVD just prior to CES, and continuing with Netflix, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart dropping HD-DVD in fairly rapid succession.

Since Toshiba's announcement, a number of retailers have come forward with consumer-friendly return or credit plans. Japanese retailer Edion offered to swap HD DVD players purchased at its stores with rival format Blu-ray players, with consumers paying any price difference.

Canadian retailer Future Shop offered a similar deal. And Circuit City increased the available time for the return of an HD-DVD player to 90 days, up from the normal 30.

So, for early adopters who chose the hi-def optical disc version of the Betamax, it hasn't been a total loss. For Toshiba, we see it's quite a different story.