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Samsung to Launch Dual Blu-ray HD DVD Player
narramissic writes "File this one under 'if you can't beat em, join em.' Samsung, one of the main backers of the Blu-ray Disc format, Friday said it plans to release an optical disc player this year that will play both Blu-ray Disc and the rival HD DVD format. With the announcement, Samsung becomes the second company to shift from a single-format stance (LG launched a dual player in North America earlier this year.) 'Our main concern is with the consumer and not a particular technology,' said Samsung spokesman Kwak Bumjoon."
How long before the device manufacturer's figure this pattern out
1) Create two competing technonologies that are equally sufficient but incompatible.
2) Stifle standardization
3) market more expensive devices that handle both, as both a marketing advantage, a manufacturing skill advantage,
4) and to inflate costs, assuming profit margin is proportional to gross, and the number of units sold is the same.
5) profit!
there is no ?????
A very interesting side effect is that MS can no longer dictate platform specs. This is remarkably new phenomena and worth watching.
Finally Could the slash dot filter PLEASE stop people from writing M$ instead of MS. (;_;)
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The quote is actually missing some words, let me fill it in for you:
"Our main concern is with guaranteeing that the consumer's money ends up in our pockets, and in ensuring that our revenue stream does not depend on a particular technology"
There, that makes more sense.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Sorry about the "M$" trouble, I didn't realize it offended anyone.. though I'm not anti-microsoft. I think Microsoft is beginning to learn that being a little to assertive with certain technologies, and pushing them on others.. is becoming pretty hard to do, now that the market is becoming more and more competitive. They're to the point where they're beginning to actually let things unravel and ride the wave in. Good or bad, I don't know.. but it's still interesting as you said.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
Anyone else find the spokesman's name hilarious?
Kwak Bumjoon!
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo!
Are we still talking about the HD/Blu-ray thing or are we on to the PC/Mac thing again?
warning: The above content may test positive for sarcasm and/or could be a failed attempt at humor and as such should be taken with a pound of salt.
Wow! A humble apology on slashdot--land of thick skins.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Everything I say is a lie. Except that... and that... and that, and that, and that, and that... and that.
Then how can we paste classic BASIC code?
Use of the "M$" moniker on Slashdot often appears to refer to Microsoft's legacy as a developer of BASIC interpreters.
You see, Sony is basically telling their partners to not sell BD players below the price of the PS3, because they still have this twisted hope/dream that it will help them sell PS3s
More like actual fact.
"The BDA cites a survey in conducted by talking to 10,000 US PS3 owners. It claims more than 80 per cent plan to buy movies on BD. A slightly smaller percentage, just over 75 per cent, said they plan to use their console as their prime device for watching movies."
Though that proves the converse of what you said (that the PS3 is helping them sell BluRay movies), it's hard to believe that none of those PS3 owners bought one at least in part because it could play BluRay movies.
Rob
Huh... I never knew there was anyone offended by this, either. I suppose I can stop writing it, as well. Of course, part of me still wants to write something like that... *contemplates ranting about people paying $600 to be beta testers....*
:) But I'm still not convinced there's a point to either format. DVD is fine. It's the same problem with XP Vs Vista, or as it was with N64 Vs Gamecube, etc. There's not much incentive to switch, since it's not a big enough improvement to justify the cost.. Better resolution? Sure. Enough for most to care? Not really. More space? Yup. Do most DVDs actually use the entire 4.7 Gb? No. Better copy-protection? Sure. Does ANY consumer care? No.
Anyway, I can see the benefit to the hybrid player. Why sell two products when you can just have one? Less costs = more profits
For what it is worth I work as a software developer in the field of computer forensics/data recovery specializing in optical media so I thought I could clear some of your misconceptions up.
But what does happen is that it takes longer and longer for the gorram computer to mount the cd/dvd. This is especially noticable when one inserts a damaged CD into a drive. the computer grunts and groans freaking for ever trying to decide it it is looking at a CD, and CD-R, D DVD-r, and DVD+R, a DVD. And each of these seems to have some different time consuming error protocol that involves trying to spin the thing at different speeds. Now they are going to be adding not one but two more protocols. And I imagine it won't be long before we have HDDVD-R and HDDVD+R and so on thrown on top of this.
This is NOT an issue with the drive (well a drive that is in good working order). A mounting problem is an issue with your OS. When you insert a disc into the drive the drive should go into what is called the "ready state" relatively quickly because all the drive does is basically tries to see if it can access the disc (it looks for a TOC among other things). When you insert a damaged disc the reason the computer grunts and groans is because the disc is damaged and it may be having trouble getting TOC information etc from the disc. The reason it is spinning up and down a whole bunch of different times is most likely because your OS is attempting to mount the disc and is trying to look for a file system on the disc and is having a lot of trouble doing so.
If you have an external case for a CD/DVD drive then a simple way to see that the problems you are seeing are the OS's fault is the next time you have a disc that exhibits the problems you mentioned above is to shut down the machine and then re-insert the disc into the drive. Most likely the light will blink a few times and the drive might spin up a little more than normal but the drive should stop trying to access the disc in much less time that when the computer was running.
As far as more formats coming out "adding more protocols" that is not really the case. Other than having to add different hardware the rest of how the drive acts should remain the same. The only way a drive is able to tell what kind of disc is inserted is by looking at what is called a profile number which is recorded at the factory on the disc and each type of disc has a different one. For example 0x9 is CD-R, 0xa is CD-RW, 0x11 is DVD-R, 0x1b is DVD+R, 0x2b is DVD+R DL, 0x51 is HD DVD-R and on and on. It really is not that much more overhead and sure a few more things might be added to the MMC standard but the drives functionality is nearly identical.
it's going to take minutes when you shove in that Bad CD before your computer lets you eject it.
You hit the nail on the head with this one without even knowing it. It is your COMPUTER ie the OS or some other software trying to access the disc that is locked up and has probably issued a command to lock the tray so that you cannot eject the disc by pressing the eject button on the drive.
Please stop blaming drives when it really is not the drives fault.
Hey, there is only one Return and it's not of the King, it's of the Jedi.
I agree that the dollar-sign substitution thing has grown old, but somehow "MICROS~1" still makes me smile :)
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