RED HERRING | HD-DVD vs Blu-ray War Still On — This war is far from over. It does appear to be shaping up analogous to the Beta/VHS battle.
Toshiba plans to introduce two models of HD-DVD players at $500 and $800 a pop, the electronics company announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Contrast that with Pioneer, a Blu-ray backer, which plans to sell its player for $1,800 (see Hi-Def DVD Formats Duel at CES).
Another plus for HD-DVD? It’s likely to beat Blu-ray to the punch. Toshiba’s players are due out during March while Pioneer says its player will hit stores during June.
Adding to the good news for HD-DVD, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, another staunch supporter of the HD-DVD format, announced the software giant will sell HD-DVD drives with its Xbox 360 gaming consoles. The move puts a large industry force squarely behind the format.
Meanwhile, Sony has promised to include a Blu-ray drive in its upcoming PlayStation 3 gaming console
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Not surprising Sony likes blu-ray as it is the format takes the most advatage of DRM technologies.
I remember first buying a VCR in 1984 for about $800. At that time there was only mom and pop rental stores and all of them were equally split between VHS and Betamax tapes for several years. It’s going to be whoever gets the lowest price hardware out and trips critical mass. The first year will be early adopters, so it’s hard to call based on early sales. I do think HD disks are the secret to achieve decent HD/digital TV penetration in homes.
I won’t be buying until either there’s just one format left standing, or pretty much all the players out there support both formats (like DVD burners all do -R and +R).
I’m not about to pay my heard earned money to ‘vote’ for a winning format. No, if the companies can’t come to a consensus, they ought not to expect us to play along. They’re taking high def DVDs down the same road as high def CD…they’re simply a non-issue, if people even realise they’re out there (which most do not).
Not surprising Sonly likes blu-ray??? 🙂
And don’t forget Samsung releasing Blu-ray in April, just one month after Toshiba’s HD-DVD release.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/01/06/samsung/index.php
While these two duke it out, someone will release an MPEG4 recorder that burns to regular DVDs. Who needs 25gigs when you’ve got DIVX?
If Pioneer is going to sell its Blu-Ray DVD for $1800 then how much will Sony need to charge for the PS3 to break even. I just don’t see Pioneer selling their player for a several fold mark-up, especially when they will need to compete with the HD-DVD format for the hearts and wallets of consumers during the roll-out. That is where the dominant format will emerge.
My prediction is that HD-DVD will win out in the end. Much like VHS could save 6 hours of video, no one ever used it to full capacity. The vast majority of VHS VCRs were used for rented movies. Up until digital video took over, VCR cameras were expensive, heavy, battery hogs and comparatively little used.
The next paradigm will be to solid state memory. Whether this is flash memory or something completely new only time will tell. The advantages would be no moving parts, smaller media (size to be determined), and less expensive players. There would be no optical burner / readers to wear out. This may even emerge before Blu-Ray / HD-DVD has gotten a firm hold in consumers hands.
If Pioneer is going to sell its Blu-Ray DVD for $1800 then how much will Sony need to charge for the PS3 to break even.
Don’t confuse the extra cost of HD-format circuitry & data-rates with the cost of a “bare” drive.
Pioneer is charging more becuase they are one of the few drives to support 1080p format – along with 480i, 720p, and 1080i. And Pioneer’s “Elite” brand has always been up-scale.
Samsung is not supporting 1080p on its initial players, to keep costs down and get to market sooner.
A lot of “HDTV” sets don’t support 1080p, either.
The drive in the PS3 would only need to support storage of game files, and 480i & 720P [and maybe 1080i]. But who knows, the “Cell” processor may do a lot of the grunt-work needed to support 1080p???
“>> Who needs 25gigs when you’ve got DIVX?”
All I know is that I’m not buying jack shit until I see *no* compression artifacting. At all. None. High resolution is nice, but DVD is already more high resolution that it needs IMO since the better the screen, the worse the movies end up looking.
I’m quite disapointed that DVD is really a move sideways from laserdisc. Its way cheaper, and you get more running time per side, but the sound quality is exactly the same, and the video just ended up being a trade of analog problems for digital ones.
I really *really* hate blocky chunks of crap jumping around in the night skies, or dark rooms. I hate it, and I’m not buying anything until this is gone gone gone. I recently bought the re-issue of The Big Lebowski hoping it would fix all the problems the original has. Well, its better, but still has problems.
However, assuming this won’t be a problem after a year or so, I think it goes without saying that we’ll see dual format players that eventually give us a situation where most consumers won’t even know there are two formats, like DD, and DTS releases of DVDs. If one side decides to invoke the DMCA and ban playback on competing players, then that will be the side that will lose the battle.
Mike
Thank you for the clarification. The added insight helps too.
I think I agree with those waiting for better / cheaper products before investing. I don’t see our family paying mega bucks for a giant home entertainment center because it just doesn’t mean that much to us. Besides, having something like that would only encourage the in-laws to come over more often.