Price on HD DVD.

Price on Bluray.

Something tells me those Blu-ray units are preorders. AFAIK, they aren't shipping yet.

I wonder why Toshiba is releasing it with such a high MSRP here in Canada. With the dollar the way it is, even a generous (in their favour) rate of 1.25 would put the player at $625CAD based on the $500US MSRP. Where did they get $700CAD from?

Estimated release on the Blue Ray 6/30, I wouldn't even count on that date.

Indeed! Don't get me started on the real price differentials between US and Canadian products. I don't know who does the exchange rate calculations but they certainly don't make me very happy.

J

Is anyone actually going to buy either of these right away?
I'll be buying a PS3 when available but definitely won't jump on either of these platforms as a dedicated player.

Read the HD-DVD forums at the AVS Forum. Quite a few have already purchased the HD-DVD player. There seems to be some software issues with Phantom of the Opera and Last Samurai where the audio was recorded about 10 dbs too low making listening at reference levels near impossible. For $500 you are probably better off with a universal DVD player that can upconvert to 1080i.

And $1299 for the blu-ray? Zoinks!

I had heard that Sony was putting $900 into each PS3, but that they could only launch the product at up to $400 USD to have a chance at their sales targets. No wonder it hasn't launched yet.

It's not just the exchange rate, it's also taxes and tariffs. They are higher in Canada.

I think Blu Ray is gonna be the winner. The playstation 3 will be seen as the one piece that will overwhelmingly tip the consummer in the Blue Ray direction. Blue Ray also has the number one manufacture of electronic goods in its hip pocket.

That being said the Playstation 3 is probably the only HD DVD I'll be getting for some time. I'm just not buying into the hype. The visual improvement is just not good enough.

I wonder when PC drives will start surfacing for HD DVD and Blue Ray.

I think they may be significantly cheaper than stand alone home theater units, but still expensive.

I'ts going to be crazy to read the specifications for some of these new drives...

It will be a BlueRay HDDVD DVD-RW+/- CD-RW drive...scary. Can't wait till they start making burnable Blue Ray and HD DVD disks. Drive specs are going to be a page long.

Keep in mind that Blu-Ray costs more because it requires a whole new manufacturing process for the discs as well as the players. That was a huge selling point to manufacturers of HD-DVD. The players and discs could be made with minimal changes to an existing DVD (player and disc) manufacturing plant. The downside to the less expensive switch for the makers of HD-DVD was the limitation on storage capacity of the discs.

Ultimately, I don't care who "wins" as long as it works for the consumers. I like the approach that the HD-DVD camp took in trying to keep costs down for both manufacturing, and in turn for the consumers (at least initially), so I have a slight desire to see them "win". But it sure would be nice to have the even higher capacity of Blu-Ray. Plus Blu-Ray sounds cooler than HD-DVD.

I am skeptical of the PS3 deal. I know that Microsoft lost money on the XBox just to get them in to homes (the real money was in software licensing of the games), and I don't doubt that Sony will take a similar approach, but at some point, the loss ratio will be too great, and at well over $500 per PS3 (according to the other post here) which doesn't seem to account for the actual cost of the non-Blu-Ray components that make up the PS3, it may be difficult for Sony to make the sub-$400 number.

Just my thoughts.

I remember seeing that there is a laptop coming out with one of the formats in it. I would guess HD-DVD because it is already released, but I am not 100% on that.

There are burners out there already, just not for consumers. There was a huge many-many page article in one of my latest home theater mags covering the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray stuff. A lot of the information is stuff that people here already know, but some of it isn't common knowledge.

I understand your point though, you are looking for burners for the consumers like you and me.

I'm skeptical of the PS3 because they haven't revealed any info about it. At this rate, it'll slip to next year. Guess who wins, then.

I hope they get it together. I have not jumped on the XBOX 360 bandwagon because a. I don't have an HDTV and won't for a while (yay new macbook!) and b. when it comes to gaming my addiction is still satiated by World of Warcraft. However, I picked up Guitar Hero about a month ago and it's been taking over my life. So if the PS3 will let me play Guitar Hero and the sequel due in Nov. and they allow the downloading of new songs to play they will own my soul.
Are you paying attention Sony?! I'm offering you my soul in exchange for a monthly fix of songs to play on a fake, plastic guitar. Cheap!

Oh and to the point of the thread... I'm agnostic when it comes to HD DVD or Blueray. Where I am not is in relation to the DRM they come up with. DRM measure as they stand now are the suck. /soapboxing

-james

The latest on the PS3 is that the release has been delayed until Nov.

As an early adopter I am looking forward to next gen DVD's as I personally don't think 480i(p) cuts it for HDTV. BUT, the way Sony and Toshiba (and everyone else on each side) has gone about this I am in no hurry to go out and buy either of these new formats.

Remeber when DVD first hit the market? They would give you like 5+ DVDs for free just to get you to buy a player. This time around both sides are going about this in almost the exact opposite way. Players are expensive (a given) yet they are charging a premium for the movies on top of that. I read an article today that Warner Bros is going to offer double sided disks, one side DVD the other side HD DVD (as all should be IMO) in order to coax people into getting a movie that will play on their current players and then obviously be able to play on a HD DVD player in the future. But they are going to charge 40 bux for these movies!!! I just think they are niave if they really think the common consumer (who most already think current DVDs are fine) to move to the new format. Not gonna happen.

Amen!

I had not heard of the double-sided DVD/HD-DVDs, but they make sense, if appropriately priced (at or near current DVD prices).

As grandpa useta say, they are taking the bass-ackwards way of growing HD-DVD!

A couple announcements have popped up in Japanese media outlets for BluRay burners for PCs. The first Panasonic offering is expected to ship in June for something around $800 or $900. I think I remember reading that it supports BD (25 GB), dual-layer BD, as well as tons of DVD formats and CD-R/RW.

Samsung, Pioneer, Benq, IODATA and others have announced similarly priced offereings with close to the same capabilities for later this summer. What's going to drive consumers crazy, though, is that not all of these drives are universal. I think the Samsung model supports reading DVDs and CDs, but not writing to those formats, and the Pioneer supports writing DVDs, but not CDs. It's going to be awfully confusing for a while.

Outside of a computer I think there is a VERY small market for writers. But if Blu-ray players are going to cost 800+ compared to HD DVD players at $500, well I think the advantage goes to them.

Found an interesting article today about people who were early adopters of HD-DVD. Here is both a link and a cut/paste so that when the link goes dead, the forums will still have the information archived.

Early Adopters
-----------------CUT AND PASTE-----------------

Early hi-def DVD buyers like what they see

By Thomas K. Arnold
Thu Apr 27, 12:56 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter)- Early adopters who bought one of the first two Toshiba high-definition DVD players had mixed comments about the official start of packaged media's high-definition era.

Most gave the players high marks -- for quality and value -- but faulted the format's supporters for having just three movies in stores when the machines arrived April 18.

James Stevenson, a 22-year-old freelance journalist in Lincoln, Neb., said he bought the cheaper of the two Toshiba players -- Toshiba's Web site prices them at $799.99 and $499.99 -- "because I wanted to get a head start on the next-generation DVDs and give my HD-starved TV more content."

While Stevenson was dismayed at the meager selection of software, he said the player made his standard DVDs look significantly better. "I'm thrilled with that result," he said.

Lars Peterson, 29, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., agrees. He bought two of the three launch titles, "Serenity" and "The Last Samurai," and found the picture quality "breathtaking." (The other launch title was "The Phantom of the Opera.")

But the real treat was watching standard DVDs on his new player. "I have owned at least 10 DVD players over the last eight years," he said, "and I can honestly say the Toshiba player is the best. This is a huge plus, considering the lack of HD movies to currently choose from."

Most early adopters interviewed say they also will buy Blu-ray players when they become available in June, though some balked at the higher prices -- despite conventional wisdom that for early adopters price is generally not a factor.

"Honestly, I am turned off by the higher price tags," said Bryan Ferriera, 33, of Peabody, Mass. "Now that HD-DVD is out, why would anyone want to pay at least double the price of the (cheaper Toshiba) HD-A1 to get the same quality?"

"I actually believe Blu-ray is a better technology, but not at twice the price," said Daniel Rainey, 31, of Tuscaloosa, Ala. "I will buy Blu-ray if they win the war, but that Betamax war lasted eight years before VHS started winning. I ain't waiting that long."

Reuters/VNU

Good article, thanks for the link and cut and paste.

Sounds like the rest of the world is agreeing with those of us on the Axiom board, as it should be!

Yes, we are all ahead of our time, aren't we????