Catching Blu-ray wave will cost Americans

[Geoffcin]

The first Blu-ray video players to hit store shelves in the United States will carry a hefty price tag that some analysts fear could turn off consumers.

Samsung said late Thursday that the BD-P1000 player would retail for $1,000 and would be on the market June 25, in time for the release of the first wave of movies recorded in the high-definition format.

"Until now, there hasn't been a pre-recorded media solution for consumers to take full advantage of the pristine picture their HDTVs are capable of producing," said Samsung Vice President Jim Sanduski.

Rival technology called DVD-HD costs less than the Samsung price tag; however, analysts say Blu-ray has some technical advantages DVD-HD does not, including 1080p playback capabilities.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

[drseid]

The cost is somewhat diappointing (although not unreasonable for a new format), but the PS3 will take care of that later this year anyway... The thing that is somewhat disheartening is that the early releases like The Fifth Element have not been very good picture quality-wise as a general rule (relatively soft with plenty of video artifacts that should not be present on either of the new formats). It is difficult to say though whether it is the Samsung player, the Sony software, or a bit of both... When I bought my HD DVD player, I firmly believed my ultimate loyalties were to the Blu-ray format and I was using the player as a stop-gap/insurance policy... Now I may need to hold off until next year on that Blu-ray player purchase, waiting until they get their act together -- if that does not happen, I wont be buying.

The HD DVD format had its own shaky start too, BTW. My HD-A1 player was very buggy/glitchy until Toshiba released the latest firmware upgrade (1.2) via the Ethernet port and DVD-Rom in the mail for those who don't have high speed access a couple weeks ago. Now the player works flawlessly with the exception of the remaining slow start-up and load times. Software always looked good on it though (and still does).

I think both formats were too early to market, and were not ready for prime-time. At least HD DVD has gotten through most of its growing pains... now it is time to see if Blu-ray can do the same.

---Dave

[kexodusc]

$1000 big ones for BluRay player. Wow. I've been hearing that for a year but I still can't believe it. Guess they have to start high to give themselves some wiggle room when (if) they go mass production and competition heats up. Can't believe the cost difference between the 2 formats though - if 1080p is the only advantage - which according to Sir T won't be resolved by most home users without projector/screen setups - somethings got to give soon though.

I'cw heared anecdotally that PS3 is delayed yet again and some talk is that it's going to be a scaled back version of BluRay or some such thing - hearsay, but from a person I respect. Anyone heard anything about that?

PS3 was sort of my plan too - Buy one player and one game console to hedge my bets - maybe 2 consoles until good players become more affordable.
Don't know how long I can resist XBox 360.
We've been talking BluRay/HD-DVD for at least 2 years on this forum - it's much anticipated - about time we're starting to see some gear come out.

[bfalls]

I have to disagree on the picture quality of the "Fifth Element". I work for Sony/DADC, although not on Blu-ray----yet. I watched a demo of the Fifth Element using a computer for playback and 31" HD display. The detail was incredible, not soft at all. During the scene where she's reconstructed and breaks out of the chamber, you can easliy see the jagged lines of the fake glass on the side of the chamber before she breaks it. The colors are vivid and the HDMI connection works flawlessly.
I've heard about another version of PS3. The second version is $499, but doesn't come with Blu-ray, or HDMI output. I'm not a gamer (never had the spare time to get good at it), but I will buy a PS3 with Blu-ray. It is that much better than DVD.
I do believe both came to market too soon, a result of the format war. I know we had dozens of Japanese engineers on-site the past few months. I've been with Sony since January and noticed construction for Blu-ray mastering and replication lines since the beginning. One advantage of Blu-ray over HD-DVD is Sony has successfully tested a disc with up to six layers, with capabilities for eight. At 25MB/layer the possibilities are endless. Can you imagine an entire trilogy, mini-series, season of TV series on one disc? Or it can be used for data. It boggles the mind. My $.02.

[drseid]

The $499 PS3 will indeed have a Blu-ray drive... it just won't have an HDMI out (and as such, possibly it will be worthless as a Blu-ray player if studios enact the ICT constraint flag later on). That said, the $599 version will have the HDMI out, so that would be the one I am interested in. I have not heard of any delays, BTW... Should be out this November, but my guess is it will sell out quickly due to high demand/limited supply.

As for the Fifth Element's picture quality on Blu-ray... Certainly everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it is the concensus on the AVS Forum (another hangout of mine) and the few professional reviews released so far that the video is truly disappointing and riddled with artifacts. As far as eight layer Blu-ray discs, I would be happy if Sony could just get the two layer ones up and running, as currently all the Blu-ray releases are on one layer discs, and that (along with the MPEG-2 encoding) may be the cause of most of the video problems plaguing these early releases. I am hopeful that when the two layer discs arrive later this year (presumably), the artifact issues will evaporate, and we will see the real capabilities of the format... if not, I am out.

---Dave