Blue Laser HIDEF DVD recorder available now! (1 Viewer)

[Lucas Dang]

Just received this month's Sound and Vision magazine, in a brief new update article it says that the nine founding companies announced their liscensing terms in February (early) and in March Sony said it would start selling their Blu-ray recorder for about 3,800$ in Japan as early as this April (Now). Sony planned to have discs available for 30$ and the media could store 2hours of HDTV per disc and the unit will include a HDTV satelite tuner.


That being said I am surprised there hasnt been any explosion of threads about blu ray HiDef DVD here yet. Though I havent done an extensive search on the forum I have been reading several areas consistently and havent seen this discussion. So my apology if this is old news, close the thread if so. Also Im not sure if I violated a rule by posting the Jist of the S&V snippet.

So is anyone as excited as I am. Less than 4k coming out in Japan, means we should see this next year for 3k, and thats just fine considering HD-VHS started at 1500$ Maybe thats why Dreamtheater decks have dropped recently to 4-5 hundred.

NO specs listed, sorry.

 

[Scott L]

I read that too somewhere on the net. The players themselves aren't sold to consumers like you & I but only industry folk. Still, a good first step towards an HD format...

Edit - Here's the article...

Another
Sony Corp. will unveil the first blue-violet laser-based product, the Blu-Ray Disc recorder, on April 10. With a suggested retail price tag of about $3,800, however, the product will be out of the reach of most buyers in the consumer market. But the potential demand for short-wave lasers is expected to grow significantly.

I'd LOVE to see the kinda inputs/outputs they have standard on the back of that thing, with that pricetag I'm guessing something digital.

 

[Jassen M. West]

i say we call them BVD's not HD-DVD.

 

[Tony-B]

Well, that is great news. It is a major step towards HD-DVD too. It impresses me that the recorder for a format has beaten out the actual software for it.

We'll just have to wait and see how and if the Japanese adapt this technology...

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Personally, I hope that Sony and others just start issueing pre-recorded HD movies on the format (right now they haven't announced any clear plans to do this...it's record only really for the moment).

I LOVE the idea of the caddy...and their blu-ray disc has the most storage of any proposed format. too bad the DVD-forum seems so against using this system...

 

[Kyle McKnight]

I love the idea of blu-ray in a DVD caddy. No more accidental scratches. I would buy one eventually as long as its compatible with my current HDTV set, which only includes Component inputs. Of course, I wont be replacing my current DVDs until I upgrade to a 80" plus fptv. My current DVDs look great on a 40" rptv.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

A caddy?? Do they have the cover art on them, and do you slide them in and take the empty caddy out of the player while playing?
(RCA's CED videodiscs worked this way.)

 

[Derek Baker]

Check out this great review out of the blu-ray recorder here;

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/blu-ray/

Included pics of the actual machine - back connections too!!!

VERY interesting stuff to say the least...

 

[Kristoffer]

I wellcome the caddy as well!! No more dust or scratches!
DVI Transfer, better surround ( 24Bit/192 KHz 6.1 ) and so on. This player also plays dvds and cd/CDrw !!
Now the next player just needs to have SACD and then so some software,,,

 

[Lucas Dang]

By the picture of the back panel it doesnt appear to have a digital in, just analog svideo and analog sound, so does this mean no 5.1 recording? I expected a little more for the price.

Well if you spent a cool 4K for your tv plasma or hdtv rearprojection ect, then maybe an HDTV recorder with a built in satelite receiver isnt too bad at 3,800. We often spend ridiculous amounts for our amps, speakers, tvs, Myself I paid 4k for the tv, 1000 for a vcr, 1000 for my first dvdld combo, 700 for my first progressive scan, and 1500 for my first receiver.

Ok who am I foolin, 3k is too much!

This product does not look like for professionals only, it is designed with a sleek sexy face, and looks like a finished marketable product. Even Sony's caddy looks friendly.

 

[Mark_Mac]

On the back of the recorder are 2 ilink or firewire connections. This will probably be the only way to record HD with this recorder in the states. So if you buy a HD receiver or integrated HDTV make sure you get one with firewire out.

 

[dan fritzen]

wow you guys check this out?

http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/

Will Blu-ray support playback of HD-DVDs?



Yes, as soon as the HD-DVD standard has been decided you should expect to see Blu-ray recorders with support for playback of HD-DVDs. However, the first generation of players are unlikely to support HD-DVD as all the details surrounding the format still haven't been finalized.

Will Blu-ray Discs use a cartridge?



We have still not heard of any definitive decision about this issue, but it looks like the discs will be encased in a cartridge to protect the media from dust and fingerprints. The proposed cartridge dimension is approximately 129×131×7mm.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Since we're in a schizoid time of technological transition and even though this thread is ostensibly about a piece of hardware available in Japan, we'll keep this thread here for the moment. The times, they are a changin'.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yes, as soon as the HD-DVD standard has been decided you should expect to see Blu-ray recorders with support for playback of HD-DVDs. However, the first generation of players are unlikely to support HD-DVD as all the details surrounding the format still haven't been finalized.

Dan,

we had an entire thread discussing this (I'll try to dig it up...anyone else have trouble using the "search" function? For some reason sometimes it says "no results" when I'm searching for something that I *know* is there...)

Anyway...

Sony is making a political move to make the HD-DVD forum moot. They've flexed their muscles and many members of the panel are actually signed up as Blu-Ray supporters. They managed to reject Toshiba's disc format which basically leaves Blu-Ray as the default.

However, Sony may actually *not* encourage the forum to approve their BluRay disc as the "HD-DVD". Why? Because they'd then have to share royalties with all constituents of the DVD camp (Toshiba/Warner). So they might just call it "BluRay" and keep all those royalties for themselves.

Their goal is to introduce pre-recorded software *soon* into the market and establish BluRay as the defacto hi-def 5" disc format. I personally think that they will succeed.

BTW, those pre-recorded BluRay titles will play on first-generation BluRay recorders. It's already been demonstrated to a few lucky industry folks who got to watch the 5th Element in 1920 x 1080 from a factory-produced pre-recorded BluRay disc

And in case anyone is curious that pre-recorded BluRay disc did not use a caddy.

-dave

 

[Richard Paul]

Well I guess I was wrong about Blu-ray making cartridges common again though it will result in the ridiculous scenario of early Blu-ray recorders using cartridges while the later ones don't. On the other hand the only Blu-ray recorders are in Japan at $3,800 so if they stop using cartidges in their next generation of recorders it would never a problem.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Richard,

the caddy has been described as being used for recordable Blu-Ray discs...and will likely be for quite some time. It's only *pre-recorded* material that is under discussion for not requiring the caddy at the moment. The current BluRay recording machine on sale in Japan can play both types of discs...recordable/caddy discs and pre-recorded/no-caddy discs.

Regarding security I know that Sony recently signed some deal with some company in an effort to inspire confidence that it will have a good copy-protection scheme. Who knows that that means in terms of this first-gen player. good question.

I wasn't at the demonstration so I can't know the particulars about the 1080 signal output to the projector. Chances are that current machines will output various rates of 480I/P, 720P and 1080I with future machines outputing 1080P via analog and possibly DVI or other digital interface.

With Sony's 1920 x 1080-native SXRD projector on the horizon, you can bet that no-loss 1080P playback of their BluRay won't be too long to follow.

BTW, everyone be sure to read all zillion posts in this thread (if you haven't already) before launching into a serious discussion...no sense rehashing the same worn arguments or asking questions that may have already been answered:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...ght=BluRay+DVD