Late arrival for HD-DVD

Late arrival for HD-DVD
Reuters
March 24, 2006
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Toshiba's US unit may delay the launch of its next-generation DVD player for several weeks to coincide with the April debut of movies that play in the new HD DVD format.
Championed by Toshiba, HD DVD is one of two competing formats hoping to breath new life into the slowing home video market. The rival format is Blu-ray, created by a group led by Sony.
In January, Toshiba America Consumer Products said it would in March ship its first players, the HD-XA1 and HD-A1, for $US799 ($1120) and $US499, respectively.
"Toshiba is currently working with the studios as well as our retailers, to finalise the sale date of our players," the company said in a statement. In order to maximise the launch of HD DVD, we intend to synchronise the launch of our players with HD DVD title releases."
Last week, Warner Home Video said it would release its first titles, including Million Dollar Baby, and The Phantom of the Opera April 18.
Sony Pictures has said it aims to deliver its first movies in the Blu-ray DVD format to US stores in late May to coincide with the entry of compatible disc players, from makers such as Samsung.
However, Sony has delayed the release of its PlayStation 3 console until early November, a launch expected to give a huge boost to the installed base of the Blu-ray technology.
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Read the rest here.

Here we go.

Even if Blu-Ray is better, HD-DVD will win out, because HD-DVD is easier to remember and it's how people will refer to the HD-DVD's (see, I just did it).

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TIA,

unhappycamper
DU Moderator

They made standard DVDs and players too cheap. Most of my DVDs I get used or new for less than ten bucks each.

Most people won't repay this soon...or even see the difference in quality in many cases.

Heck, I'm a audio/videophile and with my upscaling DVD player ($200) a standard DVD looks nearly HD on my 65" Sony.

...the technology is standardized.

These are only going to benefit those who have Hi-Def Televisions.

If you have one, yes DVD's do look pretty good, but these will have twice the resolution (1080 lines compared to 525 lines). Unfortunately, just like with the NTSC v. PAL, the U.S. television industry has selected the lowest resolution of the High-Def standards. We are getting 1050 to 1080 lines of resolution, but a European consortium developed another standard with 1,250 scanning lines in the 1990's, but I think they are going with a different 1080 standard now. Philips developed a HD system with 1500 lines, but we didn't get that.

I just wonder if, once we all have 1050 or 1080 set, are they going to introduce a "Super HD" with 1500 line? In the end, it's all just a game. Once everyone has a standard DVD player, they have to come up with something new that is less common to sell to us.

Here a link that has some good info, it's all still very confusing: <http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/learn/about/chapters/0,,2076_3105627_3105633,00.html>

I don't think so. You can get 5 regular DVD RECORDERS for that exorbitant rate.

...bought one of the first "Pocket Calculators" for around $75.00 (that's probably close to $200.00 today), but in about 10 years, they were under $10.00.

Check out this "About .com" article from 2001 (oldest I could find):


I didn't buy a DVD player until they got down to around $100.00 about 3 years ago. I'm definitely going to wait until I have a High-Def T.V., which is what these are for, which will be at least 5-6 years.

at least you can play games on it too

Sony sold 100 million PS2's, and with Blu-Ray coming in the new PS3 with no HD-DVD available on Xbox 2, this may be a big deciding factor.

Most of the major studios have already signed on to offer either both or the Blu-Ray format. Still, I'm going to wait and let the market figure it out cause DVD already looks good enough for the time-being. If you've got a good setup, you're already fairly close to theater quality.

mikey_the_rat

neither format took off and became small niche formats.