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Laser Shortage to Stall High-Def Disc War?
An anonymous reader writes "DigiTimes reports that several major vendors, including Sony and Matsushita, have suspended shipments of the blue laser diodes that drive both high-def disc formats. The rumored laser shortage could result in shipment delays for new models of Blu-ray and HD DVD players and drives past the upcoming holiday season, cooling the next-gen DVD format war until 2007."
This is turning out to be all stuff and nonsense, and I think I'll just skip HD-DVD and Blu-ray one and wait for the next next generation, when maybe somebody with half a brain is involved. DVD is perfectly good enough for me, thank you very much.
..are doomed to repeat it!
DigiTimes reports that several major vendors, including Sony and Matsushita, have suspended shipments of the blue laser diodes that drive both high-def disc formats.
Bad enough that Sony is shoving an over-priced PS3 down consumers throats. Now they're throttling the market for other players. The Sony monopoly must die!
Or, at least, cut the damn prices on the PS3.
my thoughts exactly.. MS doesn't have to have the blue lasers.. the 360 doesn't need them.. just the add on hd drive which they havn't released yet.. ps3 needs them and i am sure sony will either not sell to others till they have what they need or run short them selves.
if they run short they are just putting salt in the wound where they shot them selves in the foot.
if they are just stopping sale to out side people so that they will have what they need for the ps3 they are going to piss their partners off even more.. because they can't stop selling to hd-dvd people and not blue-ray people... that would be anti competive
should be intresting to see how the next 6 months role out..
as for the big N - they have nothing to fear, as always
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
You're right. I don't see how a shortage of lasers for Blu-Ray drives affects Sony and the PS3 at all. No connection what so ever. All sarcasm aside, this may not affect the PS3 much. If they haven't started manufacturing them yet then they won't be able to produce that many by years end. I doubt the laser component will cause PS3, sorry PLAYSTATION 3/PS3[R], manufacturing much at all.
I don't exactly see anyone chomping at the bit to buy into HD video at this point, especially seeing that the movie selection is low and most DVD afficienado's already have a very large collection of discs at this point. This war is being aimed towards gear heads and gadget collectors. There is no real compelling reason to switch formats, especially if it means paying more for media. I think DVD is good enough for the population now and that people realize that. Especially seeing that the adoption rate for HD is well under where everyone speculated it would be years ago. This "war" is going the same way the surround sound cd war went. No where. No one really felt like investing money rebuying cd's, which sound good enough. On top of that, the music nuts that would normally be into this kinda thing have invested enough money in their "stereo" rig where they don't always want to invest twice again that much money in a surround sound system. It's very rare that you'd get a chance to listen to music in your livingroom (where your surround system is probably set up to begin with) with family around anyway. I guess the point to this rant (and common theme throughout this rant) is the word "enough." I think society as a whole is suffering technology burnout. Things change so quickly that the general population wants to sit on the sideline, see where all these rapid advances eventually take us, and then buy in. Then again, seeing our current political situation, maybe war is the right term for this. A fight that no one wants but big brother insists on.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
if this won't affect the PS3, is this a way for Sony to get a leg up on HD-DVD? eg, divert blue LEDs to the PS3 a Blu-ray device, while leaving HD-DVD manufacturers out of luck? despite all the necessary caveats on the PS3, at least some will be sold this year. not trying to be a conspiratist, but is this one of the fallouts? or does sony already only ship to Blu-Ray manufacturers?
Um, Sony's stopped shipping the lasers to other people because they are using them in the PS3.
Plus, the artificial shortage they are creating will likely increase the prices for whatever lasers they do decide to sell to others, while the shortage of lasers means less competition for Sony players.
How is Sony losing, here?
Don't worry, there's still a sizeable number of die-hard SONY fans out there who will buy Sony's latest crap, no matter how bad it is or how overpriced it is. They'll even take out a second mortgage on their house just to buy the latest Sony dud.