Blu-ray, in General

[The Invunche]

Afraid Im not as smart as the Inv.

Few are.

[The Invunche]

Regarding the cheap Chinese HD DVD players:

The article... was full of inaccuracies and we had no participation in it. Most of the facts, including the purchase, were untrue. Not sure how it originated.

We are sorry to correct the statement that we have two million HD-DVD players order from Wal-Mart and manufactured by China Great Wall Group. The actuality is that we had not received yet. We are asked to provide the schedule to Wal-Mart and cost to determine the quantity even more than two million, if the cost is good enough and timing is correct. So the capacity is under consideration. Any qualified manufactured base group will be welcome.

It's no surprise that Wal-Mart is investigating making available in their stores the cheapest players possible, whether they be HD-DVD or Blu-ray. Driving prices in their stories down as low as possible is what they do. But here's the problem with cheap Chinese HD-DVD players that a lot of people are glossing over. The kind of people who might buy a $199 HD-DVD player at Wal-Mart are not the kind of people who are likely to want to have to deal with software glitches, firmware updates and disc/player incompatibility problems. Right now, Toshiba and Universal can't yet tell me why the HD-DVDs of The Good Shepherd and Children of Men aren't working in Toshiba's top of the line player. If Toshiba is having issues with their BEST player, does anyone really think a $199 Fuh Yuan player won't have even MORE problems? Who's going to do tech support for Fuh Yuan? Wal-Mart? One would also expect the kind of people who want a $199 high-def player are also going to be the kind of folks who might also want Disney movies for their kids. That's not going to happen on HD-DVD. Not to mention, with cheap Chinese players available at $199, what other major hardware manufacturer is going to want to try to compete with that? There's no profit margin. LG and Samsung are making combo HD-DVD/Blu-ray Disc players available because they rightly perceive that there's a market for such players with high-end enthusiasts. But those players are going to cost in excess of $1000. There's no incentive at all for companies like LG or Samsung to try and compete with the likes of Fuh Yuan on budget players at Wal-Mart. Meanwhile, the prospect of $199 HD-DVD players will force Sony, Pioneer, Samsung, Panasonic and the other major Blu-ray Disc player manufacturers to lower their prices faster (which, as Home Media editor T.K. Arnold pointed out in a recent editorial, may be an unexpected advantage of the HD format war). By the end of the year, a number of name-brand Blu-ray players will be available for $399 or less, with even cheaper models likely to follow in 2008. Cheaper players that WILL play those Disney high-def movies.

[The Invunche]

HD DVD DRM key accidentally published by MPAA

New AACS cracks cannot be revoked, says hacker

[Cinesimilitude]

I bought the Matrix Ultimate box today, and inside was a 2 sided ad, on side 1, a blade runner HD-DVD announcement with October 2007, side 2 had a kubrick hd/bd announcement with no release date, but small stills from 2001, Clockwork Orange, Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut.

[patrick]

Supposedly the Kubricks are due in time for Christmas.

[Cinesimilitude]

also bought Planet Earth. anyone with an HDTV and a player of either format has no reason not to own it in High Definition. It shows off HD and our planet in ways unimaginable.

[The Invunche]

You're still wasting money on a dead format?

[Donald Brown]

Planet Earth is very pretty, but it leaves a lot to be desired as a nature documentary. All of Attenborough's previous, more hands-on series are more informative and engaging. Planet Earth is nothing more than a general overview of things, and strives only to be string of postcard images. Still worth seeing and owning, though.

[Cinesimilitude]

You're still wasting money on a dead format?

I'm going dual format as soon as an under $300 blu-ray player is on the market. I'm being fucked with and I know it, but High Definition is worth it.

[jedgeco]

From The Digital Bits:

Warner has informed us this afternoon that the software sales breakdown for their HD releases of The Departed (mentioned in the earlier post this morning) is approximately 60/40 in favor of Blu-ray Disc. So that would equate to roughly 60,000 Blu-ray copies and 40,000 HD-DVD copies sold through.

I'm being fucked with and I know it, but High Definition is worth it.

It is. I've been waiting to take the HD-disc plunge, but after watching HD programming (networks, HBO, HDNet) for the past year or so, I've noticed that even the best DVDs in my collection -- discs that in the past I've used to show off my system -- have started to look soft. While I still think the jump from DVD to HD is only marginal, the cumulative effect of getting used to HD has definitely taken the shine of DVD.

[Antoine Doinel]

From IMDB:

Sharp to Introduce Smallest DVD Player

Sharp has displayed an optical-drive player, which it says is the smallest in the world, that will play CDs, conventional DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray high-definition discs. The player also uses very little power (10mW), making it ideal for playing discs on laptop computers. Moreover, Sharp said that it expects that the retail price for the device will be less than $100 when it becomes available in mid-June.

[Matt]

From IMDB:

Sharp to Introduce Smallest DVD Player

Something seemed fishy about that, so I had to do a little more research. Turns out that Sharp has only created a very small blue laser which can be used in small, portable devices, not such a device itself.

[barrym71]

Supposedly the Kubricks are due in time for Christmas.

Bummer that the proposed collection doesn't include Barry Lyndon. Interesting that they are also sticking with the Full Metal Jacket that came out last year.

[jedgeco]

Bummer that the proposed collection doesn't include Barry Lyndon. Interesting that they are also sticking with the Full Metal Jacket that came out last year.

Very disappointing regarding Barry Lyndon, especially given that it's non-anamorphic 1.66 standard DVD transfer is problematic on 16:9 sets.

Was there a problem with the previous FMJ high-def disc?

[Cinesimilitude]

with the hd sets all being 2 disc affairs (which I swear I read somewhere as fact), the FMJ in the box should be newly remastered, the HD-DVD that is out now is quite grainy, and definitely the worst looking HD-DVD I've seen.

[barrym71]

Was there a problem with the previous FMJ high-def disc?

The Full Metal Jacket transfer was "bobbed." I'm afraid I don't quite understand what this means technically, but it was the reason that many viewers thought that disc was substandard.

[redbill]

does the BluRay have the same "problems"?

[barrym71]

does the BluRay have the same "problems"?

Yes. It's an identical transfer. The problem is not related to codecs or media formats.

From AVS Forum: Bobbing is an upconverting from 1080i process some masters at WB underwent. It reduces vertical resolution and introduces "jaggies" (stair-stepping).

[Gigi M.]

A few quick questions for those of you who already own a HD DVD player. I'm going to buy a new DVD player and I was thinking to buy an up converting HDMI player to stay out of the format war. However, with the current Toshiba HD-A2 sales promotion for only $299 + 5 HD-DVD, I want to go for it. Is it a good player? Are the problems with stop/resume or search by time have been resolve via firmware? Plus, any thoughts anyone wants to add are welcome.

Thanks in advance

[denti alligator]

If anyone's interested I'm due to receive Mulholland Drive and Rio Bravo within the next week. I wish I could do caps but it's currently impossible thru a computer. I'll post a review.

I'm interested, David. Looking forward to it. Those are two I'd be likely to buy soon after plopping down money for a player, or, if they become cheap enough, an internal drive for my HTPC.

[Darth Lavender]

Finally got myself a HDDVD drive.

My relatively cheap computer got a virus et al and basically became unusable a few days ago. So, I took it as an opportunity to finally buy a computer with the graphics card, CPU, etc. required for playing HD-DVD (along with the XBox HDDVD drive)

Unfortunately, I still haven't suceeded in setting it all up (and even if I do finish that tonight, I'm still using my older, broken monitor, so I won't be able to offer any kind of comment on the strengths of HD)

Hopefully, I'll be able to watch King Kong tomorrow (albeit, at 720p on my LCD TV) and finally offer my opinion on the image improvements. (I actually did see the BluRay 'Ultraviolet' being demonstated in a store the other day, but there was absolutely no difference to watching the DVD (of course, that's probably the worst movie one could use to demonstrate HD)

Anyway, for those waiting out the format war, I think I've at least stumbled upon the sensible choice. For the moment, the HDDVDs being released are marginally superior to BluRay (better encoding, sometimes better sound options) but if they ever stop making HDDVDs entirely, I can just buy myself a BluRay drive (which should be cheap by then)
Best of both worlds.

[daniel p]

I have 720p also, and am interested in reading about comparisons on this resolution between SD and HDDVD/BluRay DVDs.

[barrym71]

If anyone's interested I'm due to receive Mulholland Drive and Rio Bravo within the next week. I wish I could do caps but it's currently impossible thru a computer. I'll post a review.

I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts on the Mulholland Drive transfer and audio.

[Gigi M.]

Screen caps King Kong HD pics. Can anyone post pics of the regular edition?

EDIT...

Here's the real deal: KING KONG SD DVD Vs. HD DVD

+150,000 HD-DVD players sold

[The Invunche]

No doubt that the current $100 off campaign is working. The Toshiba HD-A2 has been seen online for a price as low as $250.

It's working so well Toshiba is lowering their expectations.

Toshiba lowers sales target for HD DVD players
Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:23 AM EDT

By Mayumi Negishi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp. has slashed its sales target for high definition DVD players and recorders after disappointing sales in the U.S., putting a damper on prospects for one of its growth businesses.

"Sales in the U.S. have been slower than expected, and we are going to have to lower our U.S. sales forecast," said Yoshihide Fujii, head of Toshiba's digital consumer business.

The electronics group now expects to sell 1 million next-generation optical disc players in North America by the end of calendar 2007, down 44 percent from its previous estimate of 1.8 million unit sales, a Toshiba executive said on Tuesday.

"Obviously, we are going to have to lower our previous global estimate (too)," said Fujii, but declined to give a new forecast.

Toshiba's HD DVD technology competes with Blu-ray, promoted by Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in a high-stakes DVD format war that has split the electronics industry and made consumers hesitant about buying DVD players.

Fujii had previously said he expected Toshiba to sell 3 million HD DVD players and recorders worldwide by the end of the business year to March 2008, led by U.S. consumers' appetite for movies at home.

Sony equips its PlayStation 3 game consoles with Blu-ray drives, and Toshiba said last week it aimed to put disk drives for high-definition DVDs on all its laptop computers next year, but neither side has been able to land a knock-out blow yet.

"Consumers who are buying Playstation 3 are buying it as a game console. They're simply not buying it for watching as many high-definition movies as Sony said they would," said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. He spoke at a news conference announcing the release of Toshiba's Vardia-brand HD DVD players in Japan.

Over 60 percent of all next-generation DVD players sold in North America were for the HD DVD format as of the end of May, not including game consoles, Fujii said.

The battle over next generation DVDs is reminiscent of the format war between VHS and Betamax. Both sides are trying to gain an edge as demand grows on falling prices of high-definition televisions and DVD players.

Ahead of Fujii's comments, shares in Toshiba closed up 0.5 percent at 948 yen, outperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index which slid 0.26 percent.

Blu-ray is not beaten however, they still have the Playstation 3 which sold 3,3 million units world wide by the end of March which put a lot Blu-ray drives in peoples homes. The PS3 is not doing as good as the company had hoped though. Sony lost 113.4 billion yen ($928 million) in the January-March quarter and recently fired 100 from their US gaming devision.

Not beaten? That's a convoluted way of saying Blu-ray is winning. Blu-ray titles are continuing to outsell HD DVD titles 2 to 1.