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Toshiba Introduces U.S. First HD DVD Players
Roy R writes "Toshiba America Consumer Products unveiled today the market launch details for its line-up of the first High Definition DVD players for the U.S. market. The new HD DVD players, models HD-XA1 and HD-A1, will take advantage of the superior capabilities of the HD DVD format.
The players will output copy-protected HD content through the HDMI interface in the native format of the HD DVD disc content of either 720p or 1080i."
Begun, the HDMI massacre has.
Global warming is a cube.
Most PC-internal DVD players allow you to change regions 5 times by default.
External ones, as in for a TV... well, there are ways.
Try searching for "region free" and your model number.
Oh, and if a Mr. Valenti or Mr. Cheney call, you don't know me.
By NL do you mean The Netherlands? Just get either a step-down adaptor so you can still use your old DVD player, or if that isn't an option, get a Region Free player from somewhere. They start at less than £20 on Amazon UK, so you should be able to find a reasonable one easily enough.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Thanks Toshiba, glad to hear it will only work with HDMI seeing as how my Toshiba HD-Ready TV only has component connections!
I find laziness to be an excellent motivator.
Does anyone else think that picture looks like it is from 1985? Compare it with the first Sony CD player in 1985 - http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/images/PDRM 1542a.jpg
It is huge and expensive...I'll wait for it to come down in price and when it can record.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Back in '97 the cheapest DVD player was over $1000. This isn't like consoles where they sell the hardware at a loss.
But by all means wait until they hit a price you're prepared to pay. Here in the UK my first DVD player was £500. My supermarket now sells players with more functionality for £20.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
There are a lot of generic DVD players that will play DVDs of any region, or have firmware upgrades for any region. The Philips DVP642 is cheap, players PAL, NTSC, and I think region free DVDs as well. It also players XviD and DivX movies as well as a few other popular video formats. I bought my friend one for $70, and it was well worth the money.
I want to view my movies directly from my harddrive, when will the movie/media/music industry get it?
... that you are supposed to buy DVDs, not watch them !
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
I hope neither will become dominant; I hope both will turn out to be big flops that the general public will avoid for all the DRM shit and the possibility of owning yet another betamax or V2000 system.
People do not want too bloody restrictive DRM, they do not want to make choices like "Shall I buy a player that plays movies from A, B and C or one that plays movies from X, Y and Z?". I hope a big, big flop for both Blue and HD camps will make that pretty clear for both hardware and content producers.
Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
...for one that plays both formats
0 6/01/05/broadcom-unveils-chip-that-plays-blu-ray-h d-dvd/
http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/archives/20
(apologies if this is already linked)
If both fail I can assure you it won't be because of DRM. The average Joe doesn't care about DRM. If they hook up their new-fangled HD-DVD player to some old TV that doesn't support the right HDMI copy-protection scheme, and it doesn't work, they will just scratch their heads, blame the generic "technology", and return the player perhaps.
If both fail, it will simply be because the average Joe will only see a slight incremental improvement over current DVDs. Remember, average Joe thinks that watching a DVD on his new HDTV is "high-definition". I'm serious. There have been polls done, and most people think it's HD. Given that current DVDs are good enough, there is not a significant reason to buy the new HD-DVD. The improvement from VHS to DVD was a huge leap; form factor, no rewinding, no degrading, better detail in the image, better sound. From DVD to HD-DVD I'm afraid the improvement is just not noticeable to the "consumer". Just look at the new CD and audio DVD formats; sure, they have superior sound quality, but they are just a niche market for the few audiophiles that can appreciate that improvement.
--- witty signature
What I am really looking forward is 1080p output capable HD-DVD players. 2006 year is going to be the year of 1080p HD Displays. Unfortunately, HDMI (as I understand) as a format does not have 1080p output well-defined (or defined at all for that matter). However, 1080p HD displays offer significantly better picture quality than 1080i/720p displays. Costco is offering a 37" flat screen 1080p for $1600. Other ~60 inches 1080p displays are pulling in under 5k at this time - which means they will "soon" come to under $2.5k budget. Once it reaches at that point, many of early HDTV adopters (about 1 million in US) will be itching to upgrade their gear to 1080p capable display. It would be a shame if HD-DVD players (without any valid technical reason) will limit its output to 1080i.
So now I gotta buy all new DVDs? ;-(
Also one word: porn.
If their player only outputs HDMI and not component video, then a great deal of first and second gen HDTVs won't be able to use this. I have a first-gen Panasonic Plasma TV that has component only (although they sold an add-on card to do DVI). So I can't use this.
Reason, free market capitalism, and individualism
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.