HD-DVD Production Halted?

HD DVD has been on death row since Warner announced, early in January, the movie studio’s exclusive support of Blu-ray format. HD DVD evangelist Toshiba is reeling after Friday’s announcement that Wal-Mart, whose large market share and ‘gangsta’ business tactics has forced manufacturing plants overseas in droves, decided to restrict consumer choice to only Blu-ray high definition video discs and players.

Wal-Mart will be added to the short list of retailers choosing sides, BestBuy and Netflix have also allied with Blu-ray, but Wal-Mart's decision weights a bit more heavily on the format's future. Something tells me Sony and Panasonic, Blu-rays main backers, already fluent in Wal-Mart’s ‘language’ of cut throat dealings, took a trip to Bentonville, and hammered out a deal involving mass sums of
money to flip the switch to ‘off’ for the HD DVD format, at least in Wal-Marts. This is all conjecture, and breaks anti-trust laws, but this *is* Wal-Mart we're talking about, they’re not exactly stewards of fair trade.

This announcement has had a ripple effect all the way to the HD DVD manufactures, underscoring the supercenter’s massive market influence. Reports out of Japan have stated that Toshiba will discontinue any further production of HD DVD players or discs. Wal-Mart was a huge proponent of HD DVD back when they where selling players at $100 each; now we know why they were so cheap. Were they knowingly promoting a dying format in order to clear stock, then turned around and discontinued it? Sounds like business as usual; consumers getting handed the short end of the stick…from the company who touts “Save Money, Live Better”.

Wal-Mart bashing aside, I’m glad to see Sony win one. Sony’s BetaMax was better than VHS, not sure about Blu-ray, but the extra manufacturing cost that drives up Blu-ray movie title prices is annoying. Another blow to cash strapped hi-def lovers is Blu-ray player pricing. They‘re twice the price of HD DVD players, although, what’s the use of owning a player at half the price if it can’t play anything.

Some analysts see Video on Demand (VoD) as the future of movie distribution. Increased data transfer speeds makes online transactions of VoD content much more viable than even 10 years ago, but these purchases still represent a tiny fraction of the overall market.

VoD is an attractive prospect to brick and mortar retailers too: little cost, no shipping, no returns, no defects, no theft, no unsold product, and instant inventory. The idea is that an in store kiosk would burn movies to the buyer’s media of choice (Blu-ray, DVD, even flash drive). The kiosk could even print the cover art and provide a case. This would satisfy the materialistic desire for a physical product, give the kiosk operator’s huge profits, all while maintaining the viewer’s choice of media. This is what’s on the horizon for movie distribution; invest in building and marketing these kiosks, and you could secure your early retirement. Just be ready to ship production overseas if you plan to sell to Wal-Mart.

Buy a nice upconverting unit and save yourself some hassle.

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Give Peace a Chance in the Format War

I’m always one to root for the underdog, but sometimes it’s better to just admit being outmatched and focus on other things. Such is the case with HD-DVD, Toshiba's high definition video disc format using Microsoft software. The format has failed to out sell its arch nemesis Blu-ray Disc, in terms of players and titles.

New statistics publicized today at CES followed the announcement of a second profile update for Blu-ray, profile 2.0. As with profile 1.1 this 2.0 update gives you more interactivity and special feature access; most things HD-DVD has had since its beginnings. Despite this constant retooling, Blu-ray remains on top in total sales.

According to Home Media Research, an independent market research firm, Blu-ray titles outsold their competition 2 to 1 in the states this year; player sales stand at 3 to 1 in Blu-rays favor. This particular statistic makes HD-DVD sound like a salvageable format in the states; its pretty bad but not a total shutout. Unfortunately for HD-DVD lovers, the rest of the world’s major electronics markets have a much more decisive numbers. The European market has the ratio of Blu-ray titles to HD-DVD at 3 to 1 and players at 10 to 1. The real blow comes from the land where these things tend to be decided, Japan. Consumers have voted with their wallets overwhelmingly for Blu-ray. Home Media Research puts the ratio at 14 to 1 for titles sales, and 100 to 1 for player sales. Is that a death rattle I hear?

Update: Toshiba PR stateswoman fires back at CES press conference

..Via CES Press Releases..

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Samsung Dual Format Players BP-5000/U5500

CES NEWS
Are you somewhat indecisive? Does the thought of selecting between two seemingly equal options make your palms sweat? This sounds likes many of us. As far as, the latest video disc format war (Blu-ray vs. HD DVD) chances are you, like me, haven’t made a decision on what format player you want to go with.

If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the companies backing the different formats to duke it out before scooping up your set, you’re not alone. In an effort to get money from us non-committal types, Samsung is slated to offer a two dual format single disc players “Duo HD”, the BP-U5500 (second half of the year) and BP-5000 (hitting warehouses now).

The BP-5000 is said to have shipped with some bugs in terms of sound processing. This will most likely be addressed in a software update by Samsung. One hopes that the BP-U5500 will ship without any major issues. However, with the addition of Ethernet access on the BP-U5500 if this is the case the player could be updated automatically. This addition also increases the amount of content that the player can access over the internet.

The newer BP-U5500 player also supports Blu-ray Disc’s ‘Final Profile’ which allows for more special features support (when present on the new disc releases). Samsung gives you the best of both formats without you choosing sides or locking yourself into a particular format. These two Samsung models also handle your existing media (CD/DVD) with ease.

..via gizmodo..

Update: The spec page is up from Samsung BD-UP5000. Seems as if the production models are label BD-UP5000/5500. Blu-ray Disc Universal Player, I'm guessing.

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Toshbia HD-A3, HD-DVD for under $200

Toshiba is dead set on HD-DVD overtaking the HD video market, and with their HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player they’ve won a major battle in the format war; at least in terms of number of players actually in homes. Toshiba would seem to be on top, ranking number two on Amazon’s best sellers list for electronics (coming in just under the nano).

Toshiba, back in November, released this compact player with a much higher list price. The price has dropped quite dramatically since its release, making this disc jockey one hot deal. Don’t be fooled into thinking you will be getting substandard equipment just because it’s priced so affordably.

With the HD-A3, looks and functionality meet and make sweet music together. Sporting rounded edges and a glossy front panel, this debonair disc player produces a 720p/1080i picture resolution and Dolby TrueHD sound via HDMI.

Sound processing is definitely a strong selling point, the advanced sound processing adds to your immersive experience. These on board sound processors also give you the higher quality sound without having to upgrade your receiver, (just as long as you have HDMI on the receiver).

The HD-A3 handles your older DVD library by up-converting those titles to either available HD resolutions. Toshiba HD-A3 delivers picture clarity, vivid color, and a bevy of Dolby sound options...with style. Still not convinced? Check out the reviews on Amazon.

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Denon HDMI S-302/S-102

posted by: Andrew Harris
Those crafty folk over at Denon introduce S-series HDMI receivers ($999-$1699 MSRP), built on Denon's close to one hundred years of innovations in sound technology and usability. These two Denon 2.1-channel surround sound DVD home entertainment systems deliver 1080p video.In addition to that, the S-302 up-converts analog to 1080p digi, so even playing an older disc that isn’t HD-DVD you'll get, delivered by Denon, that HD experience. In the S-102 this feature is a bit different it only upscales the video to 1080p instead of a conversion. Imagine this is as being a bit like blowing up a smaller resolution image to fit the HD screen, however, the price reflects this small shortcoming. Both players use interlaced to progressive video conversion for digital output, this high precision Digital Analog Conversion may cause you to neglect the rest of your life...use with caution.Back to Blog!

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