Toshiba debuts $499 HD-DVD player in March

[rock-hard]

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/48129.html

As in the immortal words of David Spader in the SNL skit about MC Hammer ...NA NA NA NA NA NA NAAA It's over ...

[gandley]

But does it have enough support?

the fact they felt the need to half there launch price is very telling i think.

[adrianwright]

I think the price is rather good. Will be looking at snagging one of those $799 ones myself come March. Roll on I say...

[Ekko Star]

Looking forward to it. When Toshiba make a new player they usually make a good job of it.

[gandley]

Just hope it does not end up being an exotic paper weight.

[oxygenuk]

$500 = £400~ isnt bad.

im waiting till 1 format dies though before i spend all my money on 1

[Ekko Star]

I doubt it'll fail, look at the companies and studios that have backed it. Don't think Microsoft would back a loser. The price is going to be killer factor here and the Toshiba looks like it's got that right for a start.

[gandley]

It will depend on the average consumer IMHO thats where price matters.

The cost of the blu-ray stuff is at a highr price point. budget is $1000 and upper (like pioneers offereing) is $1800.

PS3 will no doubt be there saviour to a point.

In the long term i see Blu-ray as the bloodied winner due to there strong support from software and hardware partners.

HD-DVD was due to launch at $1000, but someone hit the panic button, theres no doubting that. I think i prefer HD-DVD though so if they pull out a magic trick then i wont be sorry.

But price wise HD-DVD has the advantage

[kourosh]

the price is very good from $499 as the blue-ray machines are starting from $1800 but..................the blue-ray machines will be full 1080p and will also upscale standard dvd's to 1080p........HDdvd only 720p.
Its gonna be very interesting cause HDdvd has good price and a better film release

[Ekko Star]

Sony are always out on a limb when supporting or creating formats. History speaks volumes.

HD-DVD hits the streets first and it hits it cheaper. It's backed by THE big players. Pretty lethal combo if you ask me.

Doesn't matter what Blu-ray has up it's sleeve later, it's playing catch up from the outset.1080P means some displays may not be compatible.

These are all major disadvantages simply because average public consumer is wooed by price and quality combo. HD-DVD will be fantastic quality and will be cheap.

[gandley]

No 1080p, is that such a big deal though? I mean if you have a native 1080p display it will deinterlace to 1080p on its own anyway. So one does it in the player and one does not. Infact i would rather the dvd player did not do the deinterlacing. i want to send 1080i to a video processor and let it do a quality job thanks.
HD-DVD does 1080i

1080i>1080p= none issue, its just marketing

Price for blu-ray starts at $1000, the samsung model. but its limited to 1080i but again is that a big deal?

[Ekko Star]

No probably not so much a big deal for the enthusiast.

Thing is we are talking about which format will take hold first and therefore inevitably win out commercially.

Sony Blu-ray will have to sell this point hard and after consumers having seen the quality via HD-DVD, Sony will be hard pressed to turn that advantage into a commercial one.

Lastly HD-DVD is a evolutionary progression on the current DVD format. Blu-ray wil be touted as a revolutonary one.

The average consumer is very comfortable with SD-DVD. When they go into the shop they will be faced with "this is DVD as you have known it and this is High Definition DVD and this is Blu-Ray"

Blu-ray will always need to be explained more because of that and the premium will be more likely questioned to be justified. Hardware and software will likley be far more expensive as well.

HD-DVD is cheaper, is first, has the big players behind it and it has the associated tagline for the High Definition era. The sales pitch will always be "this is a HD-TV and this is a HD-DVD player" simply needs the least explanation and the combo will sell.

[adrianwright]

Can anyone recommend any US retailers that will ship the new HD and BD players to the UK please?

Not bothered about Region 1 only as 90% of our Collection is R1

Regards

Adrian

[Rimmer]

Originally Posted by gandley

1080i>1080p= none issue, its just marketing

Really? How many TVs do you know of that deinterlace 1080i correctly?

Also 1080i sources will be vertically filtered, reducing the max vertical res to around 800 lines.

[Fordy]

What about the PS3? Thats blu-ray and shouldn't cost more than £400 (if its is that much however, I doubt many would buy it) and it should be out in the summer.