Bill Hunt/The Digital Bits now PRO Hd Dvd! (1 Viewer)

[Tim Glover]

I own a HD-A1 and I love my HD-DVD....I "selfishly" hope they win out...but I can say there is NO winner yet. Blu-Ray, despite it's rocky start, is really just now opening up camp. New players, while expensive, are about to be released plus the studios they have. Blu-Ray is not going to go out quietly in the night.

Eventhough Toshiba and HD-DVD have the early lead, I fear that the industry wants/needs for Blu-Ray to work. Too many manufacturers and studios. The retail chains seem to be pushing Blu-Ray if only for the PS3. However "wrong" that logic is, it's still the reality.

HD-DVD still has surmountable mountains to climb. It can happen. After all, Rudy did finally get to play in his last game

 

[Ronald Epstein]

As much as I am pro HD-DVD right now, I wouldn't even dare
to proclaim that format a winner.

Tim's post above makes lot of sense. The industry wants
Blu-Ray to be the winner and that format has so much more
manufacturer support behind it compared to HD-DVD, that I
expect a very competitive launch.

Really, the playing field has been leveled. If you want 1080p,
both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are priced identically.

All this may be strange coming from me. After all, I have been
a cheerleader for HD-DVD from the start because that format was
launched very well.

...however, talking to manufacturers like Pioneer and Panasonic
at CEDIA, they all seem to indicate that they chose to wait things
out until they knew they had a product that would be launched
without any bugs attached.

CEDIA brought a real "awareness" to me that there is a lot of
support behind Blu-Ray. Toshiba, despite a great launch, is
pretty much sitting by itself.

 

[Edwin-S]

I bought an HD DVD player because it was relatively cheap and allows me to watch some high quality HD content (PQ-wise anyway), but I fully expect that Bluray will eventually blow HD DVD out of the water. There is going to be too much market muscle behind Bluray for it not to eventually succeed.

All the tal

 

[DavidDTS]

The only loser, of course, is the consumer getting a shoddier product.........and more expensive to boot.....

 

[Ron-P]

This is only rumor out of CEDIA but as for hardware support HD-DVD will have quite a few more hardware manufactures soon. Amongst those (rumored) will be Denon, Marantz, Onkyo and NAD, add to that Toshiba and RCA for a total of 6. Blu-ray only has a total of 4. Also, it is being rumored that the majority of these will be less then or close to the same price as the current A1.

Price will determine which format wins as that will be the format Joe buys. Blu-ray has a long way to go if they expect to win this war especially with other players coming out priced more then the Samsung, their going the wrong direction.

I honestly don't care which format wins as long as it's the better of the two. I'm also willing to bet that we see a strong show for HD-DVD as CES.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Unfortunately, HD DVD has a long way to go too. This is just getting started with the preliminary skirmishes. The real battle hasn't begun yet.





Crawdaddy

 

[ppltd]

I am not sure that will last for long. It will not be long before manufactures (not counting RCA) get into the mix. As far as I am concerned, I will enjoy both formats and sit back and watch the camp bashing from a distance.

As a side note, the rumors regarding MS releasing an Xbox 360 with an internal HD-DVD may have some validity. If this happens, it adds a new bend in the war. Another bend will be the release of the external HD drive for the 360. If it comes in at a 200.00 price point, and, as it is to be used as a HD player only (no games), you might see a surprising sales count from the existing Xbox user base who will now have the cheapest way to get into the HD DVD arena. The odds are against it, but this is an unual season. Nothing has quite work out, to this point, as I would have guessed 6 months ago.

If nothing else, in between watching HD movies, it will be fun to watch the studios and HW manufactures fight it out. Bottom line is a benefit to us, as it should help drive down the prices should drop on both HW and Movies.

Let the war continue.....Thomas Eisenmann

 

[Ron-P]

I was referring to price only with the "long way to go" comment. As for everything else, yes, they both do.

 

[Tim Glover]

Unless the companies Ron-P mentioned do plan to wait a long time before jumping in this could actually hurt HD-DVD. While HD-DVD certainly needs many more manufacturers jumping in....Denon, Marantz, Nad are pretty mid to high end. Their players will be priced high based on their other HT gear. I applaud them for joining if this is indeed true. More manufacturers = more muscle...

HD-DVD needs Panasonic, JVC, Samsung, even Sanyo to offer a player.

It's going to be very interesting. I was about to finish high school etc...and had other things on my mind back when BETA/vhs happened so this is the first real format war I care about. As a consumer and a HT nut, I plan on following this closely, but not to take it personally. Should be a time for each of us to sit back and see how the cards play out, watch Corporate spin do it's thing, companies jumping in and/or aborting ship ....same for us too.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

And suddenly I hear an echo from 1997 "There is going to be too much market muscle behind DIVX for it not to eventually succeed." For that matter much the same was said about Beta when VHS arrived on the scene.



Personally, I wouldn't declare either side the "inevitable" winner of the format war.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Ron-P]

Tim,

Sanyo wants to have an HD-DVD player in every Wal-mart by November and it should sell for less then the Toshiba.

Onkyo waited to have HDMI 1.3 fully up and running before shipping players (and having one at CEDIA) and also were/are waiting on DTS so they can do DTS-HD master decoding. They stated they should have a player ready for CES.

It's hard to say who, if anyone will win this war but it sure is fun watching it unfold.

 

[Tim Glover]

Wow. Very cool news about Sanyo. Never underestimate the importance of Wal-Mart.

I wasn't trying to undercut your post Ron about Denon etc... Very, very glad to hear those companies are planning to ship players.

 

[Ron-P]

Yes, Denon / Marantz, they my be a bit pricey but I highly doubt up there with Samsung or Panny players.

 

[Austan]

Marantz currently has 4 models of DVD Players.
DV4600 Progressive Scan DVD Player $299.00
DV6600 Progressive Scan Universal DVD Player $599.00
DV7600 Progressive Scan Universal DVD Player $899.99
DV9600 Progressive Scan Universal DVD Player $2,099.00

Denon has 12 models of DVD Players
3 models are $1499 to $3800
3 models are $739 and $849
4 models are $249 to $369
2 models at $169

If these are the prices for SD DVD Players, I do not think that a brand new HD DVD player will be below $1000. Especially since Marantz & Denon would have have to recoup the R&D cost.

 

[Ron-P]

I do realize both Denon and Marantz put out expensive gear, and less expensive as well. Maybe their players will be expensive, maybe not, it's anyone's guess at this point. My point is that they are backing HD-DVD with players.

 

[John H Ross]

I'm not really inspired to take the plunge into either of these formats yet. And none of the titles have inspired me either.

But, as somebody who's sitting safely on the sidelines, I wouldn't rule Blu-Ray out of the game just yet.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to getting Pirates Of The Caribbean DMC and Cars in a few weeks! And I can watch Batman Begins tonight! Yay!

JR

 

[Shawn Perron]

No HD-DVD player from Denon any time soon. They have been on record for quite some time saying they will not release a HD/BD player until the war settles out.

 

[ppltd]

I think that this reason (HDMI 1.3) is probably the real reason the high-end manufacturers are a little hesitant jumping into the fray. As it is now, or will soon be resolved, I am hoping to see these manufacturers stepping up their releases of hardware.

Thomas Eisenmann

 

[dkny75]

Toshiba also said they wouldn't produce a 2nd gen player this year. Just because they stated something like that doesn't mean it won't happen. It's just a rumor. You can't say that it definitely won't happen can you?

 

[Shawn Perron]

No, but there is no way you can say one will be coming out anytime soon after hearing Denon say no just last week. I'm sure we won't be seeing a Denon player without it appearing at atleast one major show before it comes out. It wasn't shown at Cedia, so don't hold your breath.