Warner Blu Ray Only--End of Combo Players? - Page 2

Go down, yes. But in the short run actual price will depend on a given dual player's features versus a Blu-Ray only. If the dual has better Blu-Ray features than a Blu-Ray player, it will sell for more, if not, for less. I should think that is obvious.

Having said that, there will eventually be no reason to have HD-DVD playback so the obvious course is to eventually drop production of any machine that plays them once HD-DVD discs go away.

In that sense, combo players will be cheap on clearance but this will likely take a year or more (how much more is anyone's guess). In the meantime, I will be able to watch HD-DVD only releases on my Sammy 5000...

I actually think the WB announcement helps the 5000. If the audio and video issues are worked out it's a perfect way for current A2/A3/A30/A35/ETC owners to go blu. They will be able to play their HD-DVD collection and BR on a single player. In addition the 5000 has everything needed to be profile 2.0 except the 1GB local storage. With the ethernet connection there are ways around this. I also feel the internet connectivity ability is going to be more important for future advanced content.

I was prepared to return my 5000 and pick up an A35/BD30. Now for sure I won't get an A35 and the BD30 lacks an ethernet port, so it's very likely I stand pat with my 5000.

I feel it should help also.... Companies could rub it in even more and advertise it as 'backwards compatible with DVD and HD-DVD'

I currently own a A2 and a PS3 and should the war completely end I would be interested in having one stand alone unit. Further to this, if I wanted to add more players throughout the house, a company that offered a combo player would receive my business over those who don't.

Exactly!! The glimmer of hope I see here would be an Oppo type offering equivalent to their universal DVD-A/SACD capable units that had excellent price/performance even though the market was slim........

BR going up in price??? The major "war" is still with SD DVD, so prices going up no chance in heck.

How tough would it be to make the HD DVD drive in my Toshiba laptop computer play blu-ray? Just a software program, or would it just not work because of the hardware.

HD-DVD and BluRay use different wavelength lasers, so it would be near impossible.

Ok, thanks.

By the way, how do those dual players do it? 2 different lasers?

Downloads, while holding the "potential" for future success, are still a negligible blip on the radar compared to "disc" sales. I think that the "hard" media market will continue to dominate for quite some time.

Larry

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray use the same blue-violet laser with a wavelength of 405nm.

It's the Numeric Aperture of their optics that are different and allows BD to carry more data.

HDDVD is going to take a hit from this, but depending what comes from CES 2008, HDDVD could have solid support until at least 2009.

Which two major studies still HD-DVD exclusive, Blu-ray is still going to continue to have problems (HD-Discs in general arent doing that well overral (dvds still are way too powerful)).

2010 could be the year that Blu-ray has a solid victory, and HD-DVD is no longer supported by major studios. But by this point microsoft and Toshiba will realize this, and licence to make blu-ray players by Sony...who will be more than happy to oblige them (even at low values). Toshiba then makes a dirt cheap dual player to compete (the way it should be, now everything is a blu-ray player, but toshiba gives you same value with HD-dvd playback also)

This is not betamax. These are DVD-Roms people. The better blu-ray does in the next two years...the more likely cheaper dual players appear. Since both sides have slow, but solid sales so far...there is too much opportunity to have your player outsell the rest of them by having HD-DVD support.

Do you know what these companies make from dvd players.....not much. Any advantage would help. I can guarantee you that unless universal and paramount go BLU RAY EXCLUSIVE IN THE SPRING OF 08. CHEAP DUAL PLAYERS WILL BECOME MUCH MORE AVAILABE (AND REASONABLY PRICED) STARTING SOMETIME IN 08/09.

Well, since I backed HD DVD for the past few months (purely because of price--player manufacturers/media companies, you got that?), it was inevitable that BluRay would pull farther ahead. That said, I'm not horribly upset at the whole thing. Sure, I have about 20 discs, half of which are Universal HD DVD-exclusives. I know there will always be a way to play them via computer drives, but I'm hopeful that there will be a decent market for dual-format standalone players, too. Since much of the hardware is the same between the different players, I think the best bet would be for the HD DVD consortium to drop their licensing fees by the end of the year. This would give the hardware manufacturers little reason not to include HD DVD playback abilities in their players since the additional costs to do so would be negligible.

Its not he players that are the problem..They are cheap enough that regular consumers will buy them..The players now range from $199 - $249.. Only a real tightwad or someone who doesn't watch a lot of movies isn't going to buy one.Its the expensive media that's the problem..I can't justify spending $30 for a movie..You can't get them all off Amazon for $20.. You also can't rent every one on HD or Blu Ray,or its also an ungodly wait..until you can go into a blockbuster and rent hd or blu ray like regular dvd's most people won't need an hd player.Most won't appreciate what we do..Especially women..They aren't into tech stuff,some are ,most aren't..

I don't see that happening. Sony needs to stay relevant in the game console wars, and raising the price would seriously jeopardize that. I don't see the standalone players going up either, although this may slow the reduction in prices.

The only way that statement is true is if Universal and Paramount/DW agree to support Blu-Ray.

Not sure why everyone is talking like this has already happened.


*EDIT* - Regardless of what happens, my one wish would be for the dual-format player concept to last long enough so we can get a combo player that is 2.0 compliant so I'm not sitting there knowing my Blu-Ray player is gimped.


Indeed. While it's all roses for fans of Blu-Ray as a movie format right now, the PS3 is still bringing up the distant rear in the console race. They've got what they wanted as far as using the PS3 to infiltrate enough homes to give their movie format a strong advantage, but that's only step one.

So I am guessing you don't watch movies at movie theaters then? Ever total up what it costs? $10 for a ticket. $9.50 for a soda and popcorn. Oh, you brought a date? Well there went that $30...

I am waiting until there's a clear winner, and that looks to be in the works.

I think it only needs Universal to go neutral, Paramount can be easy bought.

And then in 6 months, when the Blu-ray spec changes again, that BD player they just bought will be used to hold the door open, and so on and so forth in an infinite loop.

No, I don't feel bad or upset that I bought 2 HD DVD players and (so far) 77 discs.

I feel bad for the suckers that bought a 1.0 spec BD player and need to buy another one for 1.1 features and then a third for 2.0 features. Meanwhile, my HD DVD players support the spec fully because it was final before launch.

BD = Beta-testing Dummies

It was interesting that just last month in the New York Times, they featured an article which quoted one of the Sony Executives that the Blur ray and HD/dvd format wars were going to be around a long time. Now they have an article this month saying that Hd/dvd is about ready to go under because of the Warner's Brothers' commitment to Blue Ray.

I hope there right because one format will be better for everybody. The problem for the videophile is not one format or the other but the fact that because of this War most consumers are playing a wait and see game and very few movies are being released in either Format.

I still own a laser Disk player.

The cost of 2 HD-DVD Players and 77 HD-DVD coasters far outweighs the cost of 2 BD Players. I think you are the sucker not a BD Player owner!

There might still be a market for combo players, however I see it as a shrinking market.

The question really is this:

Will you continue to buy Uni/Para HD DVDs in light of the Warner news?

I suspect the answer is no. I'll be thinking twice about buying anymore HD DVDs, regardless of which studio is releasing them.

Still, I'm not overly upset about picking up my BH100. I'll still be able to play my current HD DVDs, which means my money was not totally wasted. But even us "neutral" folks have to think twice about buying any new HD DVDs.

I'm going to stick with my dual HD player, and continue to buy HD DVD. In fact, I'll stock up if the price is right. There are many HD DVD exclusives that I'd love to have.

Yes - that's exactly what it means because there will be only one format. Who would go to the trouble to develop and market a machine that is more expensive and has essentially no market. DF only made sense in a stalemate scenario.

I just can't see many people buying dual format players from this point on.

1) If you are starting from scratch you will now get a BD player and completely ignore HD DVD.

2) If you have a BD player but not HD DVD you are done

3) If you have an HD DVD player but not not Blu-ray, you can keep you HD DVD player for HD DVD and DVD playback. You will eventually need to get a Blu-ray player if you want HDM.

4) If you have both already, you are done -- unless you need to upgrade for audio -- then the next logical upgrade would be a newer, better Blu-ray player.

The one special group that dual players would make sense for are those that already have sizable investments in HD DVD media. For those people it would be much cheaper to pay more for a dual player than to replace a bunch of HD DVD discs with Blu-ray.

I have around 25 HD DVD titles and was planning on getting the 5000, but with the Warner announcement that player would need to be a no compromise player with internal DTS HDMA decoding. I suppose I might be willing to pay a $200 more than the equivalent Blu-ray player just for the convenience of a single player that plays my legacy HD DVD titles. Otherwise, I would just buy the must have titles over again in Blu-ray.

I doubt it I am going to get me one as soon as the prices go down.

Really so those 77 HD-DVDs, many probably exclusive, are going to self destruct now that WB went blu?

Total utter nonsense. The older players might not support the newer interactive features but will still play the movies.

But by the time there's no reason to have HD DVD compatibility, the cost of doing so will be nil. In fact the cost of taking HD DVD compatibility OUT will be prohibitive as every chipset and software module expects the two modes. And probably by then, both BD and HD will be a subset of something else.

Give it a year and a half and you will see everyone doing blu!....You even have Michael Bay the director of the exclusive Transformers saying that HD-DVD will die a slow death and that Transformers will come out in Blu-Ray....

People have to just face the inevitable....if you are suggesting that HD-DVD can still win this then please state your case....otherwise those HD-DVDs will end up as coasters in a couple of years time.