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Samsung Ships the First Blu-Ray Player
DigitalDame2 writes "PCMag.com reports that beginning June 25th, consumers will be able to purchase the first Blu-Ray player: the Samsung BD-P1000. The BD-P1000 is twice the price of the HD-A1 ($999.99 list), but supports full 1080p playback, something the first generation of HD-DVD players do not. It also up-converts conventional DVDs to 1080p to improve video quality and comes with HDMI, Component, S-video, and composite outputs. The BD-P1000 will be sold at more than 200 retail locations, including Best Buy, Tweeter, and Circuit City, and 10 Blu-Ray titles will be available as well."
how on earth are they getting away with making dvd's look better by 'upscaling' them?
are they using the "Zoom" "enhance" method that we've seen on movies for so long... or are they recreating information which did not exist on the dvd using some crazy AI?
those kids at samsung, what will they think of next!
A thousand bucks, and there will only be ten titles when it first comes out? Now I can see why only obsessive early adopters would want something like this – quite honestly, I just don't see the point of getting a $1000 device that can only play 10 titles (no matter how high-definition the titles and/or the point may be).
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
Better remove those composite or s-video outputs. Joe Schmoe is likely to connect those to his HDTV (or even worse his old magnavox) and think he's getting high definition since the discs and player are "high-def". Of course even the component outputs can be utilized for standard def.
Is that even possible? Just like when you enlarge an image in Photoshop, all you're doing to approximating what pixels WOULD be there ... you're not adding any real new information to the image. How could this possibly improve a DVD image?
This is an honest question. I'd really like to know if they have some special fancy way to truly fill in the gaps of resolution.
Yeesh, just look at that price! Unless they can drop its cost in a rapid fashion, the Blu-Ray format is almost certain to fail. Even earlier adopters, who usually see price as no object, are likely to balk at a price like that. A quick search on Froogle finds the Toshiba HD-A1 player for $620, a little less than 2/3rds the price. Technologically inferior or no, that's a hell of a price differential to overcome.
The Playstation 3 is likely to bring prices down, but honestly I think Sony put Blu-Ray tech into the system too soon. DVD was nearing critical mass in 2000, and the Playstation 2's arrival just hammered it home. HD formats, on the othr hand, aren't likely to explode for another couple years- at which point the PS3 will have sank or swum on its own merits. Having an Blu-Ray drive in the PS3 by default is more likely to be weight around the system's ankles, rather than a buoy to the top.
On the other hand, it will have the usability of a PS2 DVD player and the bugs of first-gen disc format, so you'll have to buy a better Blu-ray player soon anyway.
Like you said, composite outputs cost next to nothing. And, more importantly, EVERYTHING works with composite. What if you need to hook up your player to a TV that doesn't have HDMI or component inputs? Or even s-video? You'd have to use the composite outputs. Hell, you can even hook up a composite source to an RF input with a cheap adapter. Yeah, it won't look as good, but it will still WORK.
It's the same kind of good marketing logic that puts a USB-to-PS2 adapter in the box with almost every mouse and keyboard you can buy.