Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater HD DVD and Bluray units at Future Shop

I wonder when PC drives will start surfacing for HD DVD and Blue Ray.

I think they may be significantly cheaper than stand alone home theater units, but still expensive.

I'ts going to be crazy to read the specifications for some of these new drives...

It will be a BlueRay HDDVD DVD-RW+/- CD-RW drive...scary. Can't wait till they start making burnable Blue Ray and HD DVD disks. Drive specs are going to be a page long.

Keep in mind that Blu-Ray costs more because it requires a whole new manufacturing process for the discs as well as the players. That was a huge selling point to manufacturers of HD-DVD. The players and discs could be made with minimal changes to an existing DVD (player and disc) manufacturing plant. The downside to the less expensive switch for the makers of HD-DVD was the limitation on storage capacity of the discs.

Ultimately, I don't care who "wins" as long as it works for the consumers. I like the approach that the HD-DVD camp took in trying to keep costs down for both manufacturing, and in turn for the consumers (at least initially), so I have a slight desire to see them "win". But it sure would be nice to have the even higher capacity of Blu-Ray. Plus Blu-Ray sounds cooler than HD-DVD.

I am skeptical of the PS3 deal. I know that Microsoft lost money on the XBox just to get them in to homes (the real money was in software licensing of the games), and I don't doubt that Sony will take a similar approach, but at some point, the loss ratio will be too great, and at well over $500 per PS3 (according to the other post here) which doesn't seem to account for the actual cost of the non-Blu-Ray components that make up the PS3, it may be difficult for Sony to make the sub-$400 number.

Just my thoughts.

I remember seeing that there is a laptop coming out with one of the formats in it. I would guess HD-DVD because it is already released, but I am not 100% on that.

There are burners out there already, just not for consumers. There was a huge many-many page article in one of my latest home theater mags covering the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray stuff. A lot of the information is stuff that people here already know, but some of it isn't common knowledge.

I understand your point though, you are looking for burners for the consumers like you and me.

I'm skeptical of the PS3 because they haven't revealed any info about it. At this rate, it'll slip to next year. Guess who wins, then.

I hope they get it together. I have not jumped on the XBOX 360 bandwagon because a. I don't have an HDTV and won't for a while (yay new macbook!) and b. when it comes to gaming my addiction is still satiated by World of Warcraft. However, I picked up Guitar Hero about a month ago and it's been taking over my life. So if the PS3 will let me play Guitar Hero and the sequel due in Nov. and they allow the downloading of new songs to play they will own my soul.
Are you paying attention Sony?! I'm offering you my soul in exchange for a monthly fix of songs to play on a fake, plastic guitar. Cheap!

Oh and to the point of the thread... I'm agnostic when it comes to HD DVD or Blueray. Where I am not is in relation to the DRM they come up with. DRM measure as they stand now are the suck. /soapboxing

-james

The latest on the PS3 is that the release has been delayed until Nov.

As an early adopter I am looking forward to next gen DVD's as I personally don't think 480i(p) cuts it for HDTV. BUT, the way Sony and Toshiba (and everyone else on each side) has gone about this I am in no hurry to go out and buy either of these new formats.

Remeber when DVD first hit the market? They would give you like 5+ DVDs for free just to get you to buy a player. This time around both sides are going about this in almost the exact opposite way. Players are expensive (a given) yet they are charging a premium for the movies on top of that. I read an article today that Warner Bros is going to offer double sided disks, one side DVD the other side HD DVD (as all should be IMO) in order to coax people into getting a movie that will play on their current players and then obviously be able to play on a HD DVD player in the future. But they are going to charge 40 bux for these movies!!! I just think they are niave if they really think the common consumer (who most already think current DVDs are fine) to move to the new format. Not gonna happen.

Amen!

I had not heard of the double-sided DVD/HD-DVDs, but they make sense, if appropriately priced (at or near current DVD prices).

As grandpa useta say, they are taking the bass-ackwards way of growing HD-DVD!

A couple announcements have popped up in Japanese media outlets for BluRay burners for PCs. The first Panasonic offering is expected to ship in June for something around $800 or $900. I think I remember reading that it supports BD (25 GB), dual-layer BD, as well as tons of DVD formats and CD-R/RW.

Samsung, Pioneer, Benq, IODATA and others have announced similarly priced offereings with close to the same capabilities for later this summer. What's going to drive consumers crazy, though, is that not all of these drives are universal. I think the Samsung model supports reading DVDs and CDs, but not writing to those formats, and the Pioneer supports writing DVDs, but not CDs. It's going to be awfully confusing for a while.

Outside of a computer I think there is a VERY small market for writers. But if Blu-ray players are going to cost 800+ compared to HD DVD players at $500, well I think the advantage goes to them.