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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."
Maybe next Slashdot history could be: Duke Nukem Forever delayed
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it all depends on what will be cheaper first, beta was better but more expensive for longer
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Should be Duke Nukem, Forever Delayed
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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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What is it with peopel saying HD-DVD is inferior?
I was under the illusion both had advantages (HD-DVD's being it's compatibility layer, Toshiba pushing for a unified format, cheaper to produce, etc) and disadvantages.
Why have all slashdotters seemingly decided blu-ray is just...better. We in buzzword town again? Ooo shiney blue lasers?
Someone explain.
Blu-ray (BD): backed by Sony and Philips, 22Gbytes capacity, expensive, 54 Mbit/s read speed. [ Wikipedia article ]
HD-DVD: Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo and Microsoft, 15Gbytes, cheaper. [ Wikipedia article ]
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1. Yes, the only "advantage" of HD-DVD is compatibility layer (but you will hardly buy HD films for compatibility track with same DVD quality, aren't you?).
2. Toshiba did not push for unified format - it was PR stunt, and they never intended for unification talks to succeed (I have proven industry sources).
3. BluRay discs are actually a little cheaper then HD-DVDs, the only difference is one time switch of equipment for HD-DVDs is cheaper, but with the latest advancements to manifacturing cycle of BluRay the difference is almost nil.
Imagine HD-DVD and BluRay editions of LOTR (HD extended editions) - for HD-DVD the movie will be split between 2 discs (1 disc is able to hold only 2 hours of HD content), while BluRay version will fit on single disc.
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There's a DVD/BRD hybrid as well.
People here prefer Bluray because it has 10GB more per layer (25GB vs. 15GB) and a much higher upper layer limit (8).
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
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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When trying to decide on competing standards, I have a simple rule that almost always works... always choose against Sony. :)
This is true. Sony usually makes it almost impossible for anyone else to license their technology, and then it fails due to market pressures brought on by more reasonably licensed competing technologies. Observe the fate of memorystick, mini-disc, sony's audio file format and portable digital player, even i.link (sony's extension to IEEE1394)
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What is it with peopel saying HD-DVD is inferior?
Blu-Ray has much higher capacity, meaning that it will last longer before having to be replaced by some higher-capacity format. The higher capacity will also make it a more useful medium for backup and storage. Blu-Ray did have a disadvantage in the area of durability, because it places the data closer to the surface of the disk, but with the addition of a hard topcoat, this disadvantage has been turned to an advantage. Blu-Ray disks are expected to be more durable than DVDs. Both the Blu-Ray and the HD-DVD camps have demonstrated that they can produce a comptatibility layer... putting a DVD layer inside the next-gen disk, so there's no advantage either way. Both are going to come with much better DRM than DVDs, so there's not a clear advantage there. From a consumer's point of view, they both suck.
HD-DVD's only clear advantage is that it will be easier to modify existing DVD production lines to produce HD-DVDs. So there's a short term cost advantage to HD-DVD. Assuming an appropriately retooled production line, Blu-Ray disks won't be any more expensive to produce, and may be cheaper.
Ooo shiney blue lasers?
Both formats use blue lasers.
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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.
BD is as DRM`ed as HD-DVD - no difference here.
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" 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.
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It's funny to hear that HD-DVD *may* be be delaying the launch...since NEC has already announced that they will be selling HD-DVD burners in November of this year. And at a fairly reasonable price, $600. Not bad for a first-gen hi-def burner. Not to be outdone, Pioneer has also announced a BluRay burner. A shame that there is no source for either formats media. (permalink here)
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.
The DRM is hacked...... otherwise whats the point? I have a dvd recorder I can do pretty much anything I like with, (provided I'm willing to mess about a bit with programs/disks etc