Toshiba Officially Launches DVD Players in Hong Kong

26 August, 1997


Hong Kong -- World DVD format leader, Toshiba today announced in Hong Kong the launch of a major sales and marketing campaign for its DVD players in Asia. Hong Kong has been chosen as the launching pad, as it is one of the biggest and earliest markets in the region.

At a press conference held today at The Regent Hotel in Hong Kong, Toshiba announced the launch of its two top-of-the-line DVD players: SD-K310H and SD-2100H. Toshiba's official introduction of DVD players was greeted by the presence of representatives of Warner Home Video and Mercury Entertainment, who expressed their companies' strong support by releasing a batch of new exciting titles. Representatives from ERA International and KPS Retail Stores, key distributors in this region, were also present.

Mr. Koji Hase, Toshiba's initiator of DVD technology and General Manager of DVD Products Division, Toshiba Corporation, foresees that with the alliance of Toshiba and media giant Time Warner, the home entertainment market will be totally revamped with the increasing popularity of DVD products.

In the new era of DVD home theatre, users can enjoy direct and easy access to hardware with superb picture and sound qualities and the ready support of a bundle of software. Mr. Hase is confident that DVD will be well received in Hong Kong and other Asian markets as the home entertainment media of the next century.

The Asian market (including China), estimated to have a total sales of 300,000 units in 1997, is one of Toshiba's prime targets for business promotion worldwide. It will reach 2.65 million units by 2001. The Hong Kong market is expected to reach 50,000 units in 1997, and 290,000 units by 2001.

The worldwide market is forecast to top 2 million units in 1997, with Toshiba targeting a 30 percent market share.

The outstanding features of the new models include; superb image with the 10-bit visual D/A converter; high-bit 96kHz/20 bit audio D/A converter for excellent sound quality; CD and VCD 2.0 version compatibility; the incorporation of the revolutionary Spatializer with the MPEG2 compression to create a real 3-D sound effect even with standard television stereo speakers.

In addition, they are the first DVD players to provide the pioneering Quadruple Zoom feature which enables users to enlarge a selected part of the image by up to four times. The SD-K310H has two microphone jacks for full karaoke functions such as key/echo control and multiple soundtracks and separate playback.

SD-2100H is available at HK$4,580 and SD-K310H at HK$5,080. Both models will come with a bundled disk during promotion.

Mr. Takamoto Watanabe, President and Managing Director of Toshiba Hong Kong Ltd., expressed his firm belief that DVD can only be promoted and accepted with the parallel development of hardware and software. Abundant supply of software will be the key factor to the growth of the DVD market.

Toshiba Hong Kong will also launch an intensive advertising and promotion program in cooperation with DVD movie software producers and distributors. Mr. Hase said it has been Toshiba's long standing policy to roll out DVD in conjunction with movie software producers and distributors.

Toshiba has established a close working relationship with Time Warner since its capital investment in 1991, resulting in the development and unification of the DVD format. Through their joint effort, the DVD format has been unified to become the next-generation recording medium that meets the requirements of the future multimedia industry.

Time Warner's total support has come with the availability of American DVD movies with Chinese subtitles, which will be distributed through ERA International and KPS Retail Stores.

Mr. Lim Tai Wah, Executive Director of Mercury Entertainment (M) Sdn. Bhd said at the press conference that the company plans to release region code #3 DVD movies and Karaoke titles monthly starting September 1997. With the arrival of a real DVD era to Asia, Mr. Lim said, the last quarter of 1997 will see more prominent sales in both DVD software and hardware.

Also speaking at the press conference, Mr. Garrie Roman, Group Managing Director of KPS Retail Stores Ltd., said that an extensive joint promotion program with Toshiba will be launched immediately in all KPS outlets.

As the leader in DVD technology, Toshiba is committed to promote the advance of the DVD revolution through full cooperation with software manufacturers and distributors to serve the increasing demand of the DVD market, Mr. Watanabe added.


Information in the press releases, including product prices and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current on the date of the press announcement,but is subject to change without prior notice.