Panasonic on Tour

[Mr Peabody]

Panasonic is equipping 4 trucks with it's 103" plasma HDTV and Blu-ray to show off the attributes of HD video. This is the largest plasma on the market. I wonder what that baby costs. They will be hitting retailers and electronic events around the nation. I should have checked their website before posting for additional info but I had to post the news before Wooch beats me to it

[pixelthis]

good for you.
Fifty grand is what stuck in my head from somewhere, can't remember.
how much do you think a gas envelope made outta glass would weigh?

[Woochifer]

I thought I did mention this press junket in another thread a while back, but as far as threads go, yep yah beat me to the punch!

It's actually a Blu-ray roadshow demo jointly presented by Panasonic and Disney, intended to promote the Blu-ray format, promote Panasonic's new 1080p plasma line and Blu-ray players, and launch Disney's upcoming Platinum Series Blu-ray releases (the first release will be Sleeping Beauty, which is why the demo uses castle theme).

FYI, this Panny/Disney Blu-ray demo roadshow stops off in San Francisco this weekend at the Westfield San Francisco Centre.

Next week (or the week after, I can't recall), the demo rolls into the OC at South Coast Plaza.

[Mr Peabody]

I wonder if it will reach us Hillbillies in Missouri.

[nightflier]

Wooch, can you find out when it will be a South Coast Plaza. I'd be very interested in checking it out

(Maybe they'l let me plug in an HD-DVD player and show them there's no noticeable difference? LOL)

[pixelthis]

Wooch, can you find out when it will be a South Coast Plaza. I'd be very interested in checking it out

(Maybe they'l let me plug in an HD-DVD player and show them there's no noticeable difference? LOL)

The "difference" depends on which codec is used, VC-1 or MPEG-2, or one of the 1 or 2
others available, otherwise there isnt much difference.
Except that Blu-ray can store up to 200 GB (these discs are already being used by industry")
Hddvd is cheaper, but only initally, its cheaper to convert a dvd plant to hddvd because
you use the same layer coating, the thinner coating used by Blu-ray REQUIRES NEW EQUIPMENT. Eventually there will be no cost differential.
So the choice is, 200 gb (or higher) versus 50 or 60 on the HDDVD, since the thicker
layer only allows two layers.
THIS IS THE MAIN DIFFERENCE AND WHY MOST INDUSTRY IS PULLING FOR BLU-RAY.
If you want to save some dough HDDVD is the way to go, the players are cheaper and when it folds, the closeout prices on discs will be great.
But I hope you like those discs, because that will be it.

[Mr Peabody]

The storage factor is an interesting one, yes, Blu-ray has more storage but at this point they are only using around 25 to 30 GB. So even though they use it as a selling point, and it could be very important to the computer side, I'd say at this point for movies, it's a non-issue.

I want to know who in the world cares about picture-in-a-picture when watching a movie. This seems to be the big talked about upcoming feature. I personally don't even care about being hooked up to the internet except for receiving firmware. To this point I've been satisfied just watching a movie, I really don't care to go tinker with it and I rarely watch director's commentary and such. Sometimes deleted scenes are interesting.

[nightflier]

Pixel,

Your logic doesn't work. You say that the difference in manufacturing the disks is the reason why there is a difference in price, but it's the BR players that are so much more expensive than the HD-DVD players, not the disks.

I also agree with Mr.Peabody, I rarely watch the extra stuff or turn on the director's commentary when I'm watching the movie. All that extra stuff is not a justification to raise the costs of a disk (even regular DVDs pull that crap to get people to buy the movie again). The only thing I would like to see more of is that the deleted scenes are actually incorporated into the movies, like they did with LOTR. That way you get something worthwhile for spending money on the disk when you've already seen the movie in the theater. I know some scenes are cut for good reason, but then why put them in at the end, uncorrected for light, sound, and screen size. This is just laziness on the part of the studios - either put it in, or leave it out. I just want to watch the #$@^$%$# movie.

[Woochifer]

Wooch, can you find out when it will be a South Coast Plaza. I'd be very interested in checking it out

(Maybe they'l let me plug in an HD-DVD player and show them there's no noticeable difference? LOL)

Sorry Nightflier, my mistake ... turned out that the Panasonic/Disney demo rolled through South Coast Plaza the week before!

Here's The Digital Bits' gallery shots of the OC demos ...

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...eyblutour.html

[pixelthis]

Pixel,

Your logic doesn't work. You say that the difference in manufacturing the disks is the reason why there is a difference in price, but it's the BR players that are so much more expensive than the HD-DVD players, not the disks.

I also agree with Mr.Peabody, I rarely watch the extra stuff or turn on the director's commentary when I'm watching the movie. All that extra stuff is not a justification to raise the costs of a disk (even regular DVDs pull that crap to get people to buy the movie again). The only thing I would like to see more of is that the deleted scenes are actually incorporated into the movies, like they did with LOTR. That way you get something worthwhile for spending money on the disk when you've already seen the movie in the theater. I know some scenes are cut for good reason, but then why put them in at the end, uncorrected for light, sound, and screen size. This is just laziness on the part of the studios - either put it in, or leave it out. I just want to watch the #$@^$%$# movie.

Industry is already using 200gb discs, and the consumer stuff always feeds off of what business is doing.
And I totally agree, give me more bitrate and keep your "special features"
But when 2000P eventually comes out wouldn't it be great if you had a player sitting in your house that could play a 2000p disc? Because it had the capacity?
And the price difference is already just a few hundred bucks, as vollume increases that will decrease.
The extra capacity of Blu-ray is whats key, not price, because it will be ready ffor whatever the future will hold.
Being able to wear out a player before its obsolete, THAT will be the true cost saving
feature