The Pendulum Reverses? Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD

[clayj]

Just found this snippet on another site... thought it was an interesting read:

Price: One company out there has a $1,800 Beta-ray player (no release date) – one that doesn’t even play CDs! For 1,800, you could get a $500 Toshiba player, and about 40 HD movies.

Industry support: Looks like the pendulum is swinging back in HD-DVD’s favor. As an analyst quoted in the article says: “It’s only a matter of time before people start backing out of the Blu-ray camp.” If that’s the case, it might be because of. . .

Beta-ray’s own difficulties: Microsoft had serious doubts around the technical feasibility and pricing of Beta-ray for some time and our fears now seem well founded. Sony is hinting PS3 will be delayed because of Beta-ray, and that’s with Sony driving the Beta-ray standards. If even Sony can’t get it to work right, it raises lots of questions. A little reported fact (and one that the New York Times was confused about) is that the first Beta-ray discs will actually hold less: only 25GB compared to HD DVD’s 30GB. That means less room for high definition extras and interactive features, which HD DVD says they fully intend to support.

 

[Jschultz]

At this point, I don't care what they bring out, just give me HD content on a disc!

 

[Oblivious]

I know it's a pathetic question, but can current DVD players read HD-DVD?

 

[clayj]

I know it's a pathetic question, but can current DVD players read HD-DVD?

No.

Blu-Ray players can't read HD DVD, and HD DVD players can't read Blu-Ray. They should BOTH be able to read plain old DVD, as well as CDs... but it seems that some Blu-Ray players will NOT be able to read certain older disc formats (like CD).

Whoever comes out with a combination Blu-Ray/HD DVD/DVD/CD/SACD/DVD-A player first is going to make a LOT of money.

 

[Jschultz]

I just want some freakin HD content. We have a demo at work streaming sony 1080i content from their DVR. It's awesome stuff.

 

[clayj]

I just want some freakin HD content. We have a demo at work streaming sony 1080i content from their DVR. It's awesome stuff.

I've had HDTV for 5 years now... got my first HD cable box back in 2001, got HD DVR cable box back in 2004. So I'm pretty used to watching stuff in HD... enough so that I'm not desperately waiting for HD disc players (Blu-Ray or HD DVD).

I'm actually going to wait a while to see if the market shakes out a bit and one format starts to dominate... right now, I'd give each format about an equal chance of winning. For a while there, it looked like Blu-Ray had ALL of the advantages... but like the original post mentioned, there are cracks in the Blu-Ray scheme that may give HD DVD a chance to jump ahead.

 

[Jschultz]

We have dish network right now, and the HD package. It's so so, I'd say. Then again, we have a front projection Hitachi HDTV. Not as good as some of the stuff we have at work, but you always want what you can't have.

 

[DMPDX]

No.

Blu-Ray players can't read HD DVD, and HD DVD players can't read Blu-Ray. They should BOTH be able to read plain old DVD, as well as CDs... but it seems that some Blu-Ray players will NOT be able to read certain older disc formats (like CD).

Whoever comes out with a combination Blu-Ray/HD DVD/DVD/CD/SACD/DVD-A player first is going to make a LOT of money.

But that doesnt quite work mister clayj. The whole idea of an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player is to pay the revolutionary discs that are made out of a way different material and have a way different layer system for organizing its data. The laser, as I understand it, is the biggest reason why it can't play regular discs. The sony Blu-Ray players that I saw in japan this summer had a label on one of them that read it as a class 2 laser. class 2 = higer than a cd player and higher than a laserpointer.

 

[clayj]

But that doesnt quite work mister clayj. The whole idea of an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player is to pay the revolutionary discs that are made out of a way different material and have a way different layer system for organizing its data. The laser, as I understand it, is the biggest reason why it can't play regular discs. The sony Blu-Ray players that I saw in japan this summer had a label on one of them that read it as a class 2 laser. class 2 = higer than a cd player and higher than a laserpointer.

Yes, but they can put more than one laser in a player. When DVDs first came out, Pioneer made combo DVD/LD players. So it's certainly possible for someone to make a combo player for the newer disc formats... just a question of adding the right equipment inside the case to read them all.

 

[mcarnes]

So is there a time frame when we can expect actual HD discs to start shipping?