Blu-Ray in January?

[Smokey]

Pioneer Electronics said Tuesday it will unveil the Blu-ray DVD format in January—far ahead of expectations—dealing a blow to the rival HD-DVD format whose backers had once hoped for a head-start in the $40-billion market for next-generation DVD systems.

Pioneer will display a Blu-ray drive for personal computers at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, which starts January 5. The drive will start shipping in Japan by the end of January 2006, said the company. The North American launch will come in the first quarter of 2006.

The Pioneer drive (BD-101A) will be able to write and read single-layer BD-R (Blu-ray Disc Recordable) and BD-RE (Blu-ray Disc Rewritable) discs without a cartridge, and read single-layer and double-layer ROM (Read-Only Memory) discs without a cartridge.

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=15059&hed=Blu-Ray+Launch+Set+for+January&sector=Industries&subsector=EntertainmentAndMedia

[kexodusc]

Great....Uhh, any BluRay discs yet?

[Smokey]

Great....Uhh, any BluRay discs yet?

That is a good question. Looks like the copy protection technology licensing (AACS) for HD discs haven't been finalized for Blue-ray and HD-DVD. So we may have to wait for that :)

[Geoffcin]

That is a good question. Looks like the copy protection technology licensing (AACS) for HD discs haven't been finalized for Blue-ray and HD-DVD. So we may have to wait for that :)

Who buys a player with nothing to play on it!

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Who buys a player with nothing to play on it!

Actually Geoff, they do have a movie for demonstration. Remember, this is just a demo, they are not ready for large scale production just yet. I wish I could remember the title of the movie they have already done.

[Geoffcin]

Actually Geoff, they do have a movie for demonstration. Remember, this is just a demo, they are not ready for large scale production just yet. I wish I could remember the title of the movie they have already done.
In any case it will be for the Japanese market first. We're not likely to see anything here till fall.

[westcott]

Actually Geoff, they do have a movie for demonstration. Remember, this is just a demo, they are not ready for large scale production just yet. I wish I could remember the title of the movie they have already done.

I think it is Charlies Angels: Full Throttle

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I think it is Charlies Angels: Full Throttle

There you go!!!!

[jmnormand]

the point isnt content yet. the pioneer drive is amid at those looking to test and author bluray disks at an afordable price. this drive will alow alot of content to be made beyond the major publishers.

additionaly it will provide a much higher capacity media, 25gb per disk. this alone will draw alot of customers, even knowing that in 6 months the drive will be obsolete.

[Woochifer]

Panasonic has a Blu-ray pilot production plant down in SoCal, and my understanding is that they've gotten the production yields up to 80%. That sounds kinda low for mass production, but it seems further along than HD-DVD.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/09/1441213&from=rss

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