March 16, 2006 3:22 PM PST
Sony unveils Blu-ray player, Vaio PC
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The company unveiled on Thursday the BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc Player, a Vaio RC desktop with a recordable Blu-ray drive, and an internal Blu-ray disc drive for PCs. Sony expects the player to be available in July, while the desktop and an undisclosed Vaio Blu-ray notebook PC should ship by "early summer," the company said in a statement.
Blu-ray discs can store much more data than conventional DVD media and are designed to accommodate high-definition content. But the Blu-ray standard is competing with a rival standard called HD DVD to become the accepted format for high-definition recording. The format war has threatened to frustrate consumers just like the VHS-Betamax battle 25 years ago.
Sony's Blu-ray momentum has slipped a bit over the past few weeks. The launch of Sony's PlayStation 3 will be delayed until November because of problems finalizing the standard, the company announced this week. And Toshiba said at the CeBit technology exposition that it will have an HD DVD laptop and player out before Sony's Vaio and BDP player are scheduled to appear.
The BDP-S1 player will cost about $1,000 when it is released, Sony said. The Vaio desktop will cost about $2,300, but Sony will toss in a $25 Blank BD-RE (rewritable) disc with 25GB of storage for free. Pricing for the BWU-100A internal PC drive will be released later this year.
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Anyone else gonna avoid the 1st gen Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD drives like the plague???
My Dual Layer DVD burner works fine right now. I'm going to wait till someone cracks the protection on whatever standard wins out. I want to backup movies and I hear HD DVD will let you do that but who knows. I rather have the freedom to do what I please.
Anyone else gonna avoid the 1st gen Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD drives like the plague???
My Dual Layer DVD burner works fine right now. I'm going to wait till someone cracks the protection on whatever standard wins out. I want to backup movies and I hear HD DVD will let you do that but who knows. I rather have the freedom to do what I please.
if you get the wrong one, thanks Sony I had a Betamax.
It has a heap of DRM rubbish that wont play high def stuff unless
its connected to a DRM protected tv.
I would rather just stay with DVD its more then good enough for
movies and if I need more storage I will just buy a bigger
hard drive.
To me this format is going to go the way of Super Audio CD and
Dvd Audio, yeh its better then a standard CD but you have to
buy a whole heap of new gear and content for an experince that
while better isn't on the whole worth the time or investment.
IMHO
if you get the wrong one, thanks Sony I had a Betamax.
It has a heap of DRM rubbish that wont play high def stuff unless
its connected to a DRM protected tv.
I would rather just stay with DVD its more then good enough for
movies and if I need more storage I will just buy a bigger
hard drive.
To me this format is going to go the way of Super Audio CD and
Dvd Audio, yeh its better then a standard CD but you have to
buy a whole heap of new gear and content for an experince that
while better isn't on the whole worth the time or investment.
IMHO
contest into oblivion, and that's now where you are stuck. Be it Blu-
Ray or HD-DVD, it's wasted development time for an uncaring
consumer market.
Go with MPEG-4 and regular DVD's for HDTV movies - much more
effective, much more economical, much more user friendly, and
do-able NOW!
contest into oblivion, and that's now where you are stuck. Be it Blu-
Ray or HD-DVD, it's wasted development time for an uncaring
consumer market.
Go with MPEG-4 and regular DVD's for HDTV movies - much more
effective, much more economical, much more user friendly, and
do-able NOW!
format war. I think these two evolutionary, rather than
revolutionary, solutions are a cop out to begin with. We should
have moved on to FMD (flourescent multi-layer discs, now
arising in Asia) or holographic media, truly exponential leaps
forward in terms of storage capabilities. But, the consumer
electronics superpowers figured out long ago that there's more
profit to be made in incremental upgrades.
Second, I'm really, really upset about how crippled these discs
are going to be under the toe-hold of the MPAA and content
providers...but I understand why. Rampant piracy and the file-
sharers that commit such are to blame for creating the climate
that justifies these already paranoid money-grubbers...so BLAME
THEM! I have a huge DVD collection. I paid for it. And I'm
going to suffer because of the illicit behavior of others. I should
be able to employ fair use and rip, serve, move my purchased
HD media around to various devices I own. I know the
manufacturers know we want this--let's hope they work it out.
But they didn't create the problem, they're being forced to deal
with it. Face it.
Finally, to those ******** about how expensive the new hardware
is--GET REAL!! does anyone remember how pricey the DVD
burners were when that format launched? Thousands more than
either of the new HD optical formats. I think you've either
suffered amnesiac blows, weren't paying attention, or are just
spoiled by a record cheap electronics market that resulted from
the fast adoption of DVD. Not too long ago, S-VHS decks cost
more than these HD decks are going too. Be thankful--Sony will
be selling these at a loss, I guarantee it.
$1000 for Blu-Ray or $60 for HD DVD is absolutely ridiculous. I'm
not moving until a HDTV player gets under $80, and if it don't
happen, that's fine. Conventional DVD's still look good on an HDTV.
format war. I think these two evolutionary, rather than
revolutionary, solutions are a cop out to begin with. We should
have moved on to FMD (flourescent multi-layer discs, now
arising in Asia) or holographic media, truly exponential leaps
forward in terms of storage capabilities. But, the consumer
electronics superpowers figured out long ago that there's more
profit to be made in incremental upgrades.
Second, I'm really, really upset about how crippled these discs
are going to be under the toe-hold of the MPAA and content
providers...but I understand why. Rampant piracy and the file-
sharers that commit such are to blame for creating the climate
that justifies these already paranoid money-grubbers...so BLAME
THEM! I have a huge DVD collection. I paid for it. And I'm
going to suffer because of the illicit behavior of others. I should
be able to employ fair use and rip, serve, move my purchased
HD media around to various devices I own. I know the
manufacturers know we want this--let's hope they work it out.
But they didn't create the problem, they're being forced to deal
with it. Face it.
Finally, to those ******** about how expensive the new hardware
is--GET REAL!! does anyone remember how pricey the DVD
burners were when that format launched? Thousands more than
either of the new HD optical formats. I think you've either
suffered amnesiac blows, weren't paying attention, or are just
spoiled by a record cheap electronics market that resulted from
the fast adoption of DVD. Not too long ago, S-VHS decks cost
more than these HD decks are going too. Be thankful--Sony will
be selling these at a loss, I guarantee it.
$1000 for Blu-Ray or $60 for HD DVD is absolutely ridiculous. I'm
not moving until a HDTV player gets under $80, and if it don't
happen, that's fine. Conventional DVD's still look good on an HDTV.
Migrating from DVD to HDDVD or Blue-ray is nothing like the switch from cassettes to CDs. Everyone jumped onto CDs since CDs were hugely more durable than cassettes and that signaled the end of stretched tapes left in the deck in hot days in parking lot. Everyone jumped on to replace cassettes with CDs. Things are different now. We already have a medium most of us are quiet happy with.
Even if HD mediums are of higher quality, they will only be interest to techoholics & those of us that are rich enough to own 60inch sets.
Also if you factor in the sheer amount of people in metropolitan area that can not afford to put such hugh TV sets in their already crowded apartments, a lot of us will stick to smaller sets and thus won't notice much of difference with HD/BD over DVDs.
Unless the price of HD media & players drops to current DVD units, not a lot of us will ever care. Just my two cents.
Migrating from DVD to HDDVD or Blue-ray is nothing like the switch from cassettes to CDs. Everyone jumped onto CDs since CDs were hugely more durable than cassettes and that signaled the end of stretched tapes left in the deck in hot days in parking lot. Everyone jumped on to replace cassettes with CDs. Things are different now. We already have a medium most of us are quiet happy with.
Even if HD mediums are of higher quality, they will only be interest to techoholics & those of us that are rich enough to own 60inch sets.
Also if you factor in the sheer amount of people in metropolitan area that can not afford to put such hugh TV sets in their already crowded apartments, a lot of us will stick to smaller sets and thus won't notice much of difference with HD/BD over DVDs.
Unless the price of HD media & players drops to current DVD units, not a lot of us will ever care. Just my two cents.
whole HDTV DVD issue has died in a petty squabble. Now, we'll
wait for MPEG-4/H.264 versions of HDTV movies on standard
DVD's. No Blu-Ray, no HD-DVD, no problems.
But, the paint is still blistering off the wall in a Japanese meeting
room.....
- The Development Team
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by TomMariner
March 17, 2006 10:22 AM PST
- Wow, would I hate to be heading the development team for Playstation 3! I head divisions that turn ideas into electronic products and I can just hear the paint blistering off the wall in a Japanese meeting room as top management uses loudly screams invectives at the folks who blew a lead and a few billion dollars.
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Reply to this comment
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- They blew a few million dollars....
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by Earl Benser
March 19, 2006 1:18 PM PST
- .... that's for sure, but Sony never had a lead. Nor did Toshiba. The
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See all 34 Comments >>whole HDTV DVD issue has died in a petty squabble. Now, we'll
wait for MPEG-4/H.264 versions of HDTV movies on standard
DVD's. No Blu-Ray, no HD-DVD, no problems.
But, the paint is still blistering off the wall in a Japanese meeting
room.....