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Toshiba May Delay HD-DVD Launch to 2006
Mictian writes "According to Reuters Toshiba may be delaying the launch of it's HD-DVD players that was originally slated for the end of this year. One of the reasons cited was that talks with Hollywood and major studios about the timing are still ongoing. It now seems that the players may not be shipped to retailers before 2006, at least not in the US. The Japanese might still get their hands on 'em by christmas. In any case it looks like a setback for the HD-DVD camp (Toshiba, NEC & Sanyo) if one of their few advantages over the Blu-ray camp (Sony & Matsushita), an earlier product launch, is essentially eliminated. Sony has been rumoured to consider a Q1 2006 launch for Blu-ray in the form of the PlayStation 3 console. There was an earlier Slashdot story about the rivals giving up on a unified format."
It's really a shame that one of the groups can't swallow their pride and agree to a compromise. In my personal opinion, the perfect compromise would be HD-DVD with Blu-Ray sized layers and data storage. I think people will be disappointed at how fast HD-DVD discs will fill up. Regardless of what format becomes popular, though as of now, I would say Sony as the edge because of PS3, I'm sick of the whole "we didn't include a DTS track to the lack of space" argument. All HD discs should contain stereo, DD, and DTS tracks for both the video, and all extras. All content should maximize the bitrate, no more 5 MB per second or less... To stay on topic...I think this is both a great decision by Toshiba (primarily because I don't think the consumer is quite ready for HD discs yet) and a really bad decision because it eliminates, or at least greatly lessens, one of its major advantages - that it is being released first with a great list of available titles (Sopranos, Forrest Gump, Batman Begins, etc.). I hate to wait, but I either want the format war to conclude or for dual format players to launch before I venture into the HD movie world!
How will this damage the XBox360 in the long term? Microsoft has already said that the initial models may ship with just a standard DVD drive with later production models being shipped with a HD DVD drive. But if they have to further delay the HD DVD enabled XBox360 will this just simply cause even greater confusion for the two model market they have already created with their Core and Premium systems?
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Perhaps this comparison is just as relevant:
Blu-Ray: has a real name that North American consumers will be able to remember when they go to Blockbuster or Wal-mart.
HD-DVD: has a name consisting of five random letters that no non-geeks will remember. Most people will just call it "DVD" and get it confused with the older format.
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Also - talking about data recordable versions of BluRay vs HD-DVD. BluRay has some cool advancements, like pseudo-overwriting, support for UDF 2.60, etc).
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For me, this is a wait and see. It was only this last year I bought a DVD player and DVD-RW. Why? Cheap and they now work. When the CDRW first came out more coasters were made than working images. I know, I made a few coasters but don't have that problem today.
For most of us, we will wait and see. But part of the reason I bought my first DVD-RW was that I could get programs like DVD Decrypter. The only program I know that can burn DVD_ISOs of Linux and Solaris reliably.
That was short lived as the article at http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/11914 will show how this industry is doing.
So this person will opt out until less restrictive and functional tools are available. I will be quite content to let someone else break this in.
" If they're smart enough to know about high definition TVs and DVDs, 'HD DVD' is not a tough concept to grasp."
You just proved my point. The majority of consumers who've bought TVs in the last 5 years, including my Dad who just dropped big bucks on a huge Sony, had no idea that their new TVs weren't high-definition. They don't even get the difference yet.
Have you noticed how when a movie comes out on DVD, the commercials still say "available now on DVD and Video"? They say Video because the average person never got the hang of the acronym "VHS" and found it easier to refer to those black tapes as videos.
Exactly what is the average clueless appliance buyer's threshold for meaningless acronyms? 5 random letters? 6? Do you, a technology geek, even remember what PCMCIA stands for, or do you just call it a "PC Card"? Exactly.
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
On the data storage side: double-layer DVD blanks are still hideously expensive. Can you imagine how much Blu-Ray blanks will cost? By the time they come down to a reasonable price, Fry's will be selling 800 gig hard drives for $50.