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Thread: Blue-laser players see price drop, market acceptance

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    Blue-laser players see price drop, market acceptance

    HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players are dropping below the $500 mark, and Taiwan manufacturers reckon the number of sub-$500 players is set to rise as we head towards the second half of this year.
    http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=8267
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    At todays exchange rate $469.99 = £237.44, so for me to even consider HD (either blueray or hd-dvd) it would have to be well below £500.

    It is good that the price war seems to have finally started, poss nudged by the release of the ps3 bundled blueray, this has got to be good for the consumer.

    Of course to enjoy all this goodness, I'll have to buy a wide screen HD lcd (and the HD movies to watch), maybe a sub to sky (can't get cable) and a few more hours in the day

    P.S. Navin, if you're reading this, where's your 'Content Around The Web' bit gone to? Are you asleep? The last one was on 21/03/07. I want it back, I want it back now

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    I do believe that Navin's back later in the week. As for content around the web... you'll have to ask him

    I guess I could do a 'steve special' if you really, really wanted.

    Oh, and my sub £500 comment was a cynical dig at the UK/US price divide; something that's a bit of a hot topic around these parts at the moment.
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    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
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    The format war hasn't even started yet and it may not even start.

    For a war you need a couple of 'armies' to duke it out, what we have at the moment are a few nerds gesticulating at each other.....

    Maybe if decent, low cost, dual format players released we could move forward and a large number of new releases would come out in HD and help push this whole thing forward. With the cost of these laser diodes though, this isn't going to happen any time soon. I have a feeling that whatever new format that comes in the next 5 years with 100GB+ capacity will be the new format, both BR and HD-DVD are starting to look like the new LaserDisc.

    And I own both....US Toshiba HD-XA1 and a UK PS3.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve View Post
    I do believe that Navin's back later in the week. As for content around the web... you'll have to ask him

    I guess I could do a 'steve special' if you really, really wanted.
    .
    Thanks for the offer Steve, but you may not be up to Navins standard, and I'd end up being dissappointed

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    With HD-DVD players available in the UK at circa £265 now it looks that by Christmas we may see our first sub-£200 player priced to sell.

    Remember how DVD took off when Tesco started selling the Wharfedale 750 at £179?
    Celeborn

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by vinnyT View Post
    Thanks for the offer Steve, but you may not be up to Navins standard, and I'd end up being dissappointed


    I think you'll find I'm the pioneer of HEXUS's forum-based web round-up, but these days my responsibilities (and available time) are somewhat different, which is why Navin's a legend.
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    Quote Originally Posted by shaithis View Post
    I have a feeling that whatever new format that comes in the next 5 years with 100GB+ capacity will be the new format, both BR and HD-DVD are starting to look like the new LaserDisc.
    That's a fairly drastic thought, but I can't help but feel that with the speed at which technology advances you might have something there...

    Is there space in the market for both to co-exist? Debatable because of corporate greed and it's need to grab every last cent/penny etc...

    Wonder when we will start to see PC HD and Blu-ray units at an affordable level?
    Last edited by moby_matt; 05-04-2007 at 11:01 AM. Reason: More to say...
    The world is a great big Onion - try to cut it, and you are likely to cry...


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    Quote Originally Posted by moby_matt View Post
    Is there space in the market for both to co-exist?
    Only if dual-format players become the norm. If that happens then blu-ray Vs HDDVD could end up just like DVD+ Vs DVD-, no clear winner and almost every player can play both interchangably.

    Otherwise I think we will see a reincarnation of VHS/Betamax. People are going to want HD content for all their pseudo HD screens that people own (I say pseudo as so many don't support all the HD resolutions or do HD content justice) and most of them won't be able to afford both players, which you would need if you wanted to see movies from different studios..One will win out in the end, but we're going to have to wait a bit longer to find out which..my guess is whichever can hit a $99 US pricepoint first.

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    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    I'm still not convinced that the mass market cares about HiDef.

    Sure they have been sold it for TVs, but it's getting hard to get non-HiDef screens in the high street anyway.

    The mass market seems happy with heavily compressed MP3s and portable audio. Even going as far as usning these players in the home hooked to over priced PC speakers in the form of a 'dock'

    DVD gives them menus, special features, good quality static free picrute, surround sound, instant/random access and a convenient sized package. DVD is also very reliable.

    Yes HD disks improve on all these features, but there isn't anything new, there isn't the step change like there was from VHS.

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    Until you watch an episode of 24 in HD...
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve View Post
    Until you watch an episode of 24 in HD...
    So you can fall asleep while your better half gets all excited over kiefer sutherland =)

    That is the other issue - there is so little HD content at the moment..maybe when Sky start to offer more HD channels things will change..

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    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve View Post
    Until you watch an episode of 24 in HD...
    It it any more interesting in 4x the resolution? I doubt it

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    Quote Originally Posted by Funkstar View Post
    I'm still not convinced that the mass market cares about HiDef.

    Sure they have been sold it for TVs, but it's getting hard to get non-HiDef screens in the high street anyway.
    Answered yourself there. The only TV people can buy now is HD. SD on a big set looks terrible fullstop. You need HD sources for 32"+ sets so one of the new formats will become standard. The idea that 100+GB formats will replace them soon is wrong on another count. BR/HD DVD will be the last hard format. By the time it's out of date we will stream everything by Wi-Fi either direct to our displays etc or to a hard drive within a media centre, either some sort of PC or console.

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    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
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    People will not accept streaming as easily as you seem to think. Plus broadband is not developing fast enough and cheap enough to have VOD in homes for HD content anytime soon, at least not on a mass scale and most definatly not globally.

    Holographic discs are on the horizon and will almost certainly replace HD-DVD and BluRay in the next 5-10 years unless Sony and Toshiba get their acts together.
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    Quote Originally Posted by LazyGit View Post
    Answered yourself there. The only TV people can buy now is HD. SD on a big set looks terrible fullstop. You need HD sources for 32"+ sets so one of the new formats will become standard. The idea that 100+GB formats will replace them soon is wrong on another count. BR/HD DVD will be the last hard format. By the time it's out of date we will stream everything by Wi-Fi either direct to our displays etc or to a hard drive within a media centre, either some sort of PC or console.
    No it wont! You not heard of the hologram format disks which are in development?
    No way could you stream the 'ultra high-def' (NHK a japanese TV company 7680x4320) there just siimply isnt enough bandwidth to stream enough information for something lke that. You couldnt even have that running from a regular disk. Even a HD-DVD doesnt have the bandwidth allowences for such high resolutions. I know im talking way in the future here (if this format makes it out of the cinema) but even in the meantime there are always going to be people that will want to have a 'disc' and a 'player'

    The problem with TV is that companies prefer to have quantity than quality so we may not EVER see HD broadcast on UK terrestrial as the bandwidth will be taken up by 15 different quiz and shopping channels. Because of this i predict that home theatre sales will reamain there
    Last edited by Biscuit; 10-04-2007 at 12:10 PM.

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