Blue Ray/HD-DVD burner is here

[coolpurplefan]

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40143

It's an LG. It can write to a Blue Ray disc but not HD-DVD. But it plays both. I don't know what the price is yet but I guess it's another one of those things that will have to wait until next year. lol

 

[secretanchitman]

doesnt write to hd-dvd...? hmm, interesting.

the drive itself looks cool. im sure people will run for it when it drops to half price or whatever.

 

[Fallengod]

Yeah. It will be exactly the same way as dvd burners. It will start out in the thousands probably. Itll be another year(maybe more?) before they are really available and worth it. Takes a while for the media to get up to snuff and be cheap enough as well.

 

[apoppin]

Price: ?885, £600, $1191 ? TBC
not that bad for a dual-bluRay/HD-DVD burner

does't Pioneer have a $300 BluRay player coming?

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40162

from 2008 every Toshiba laptop will sport a HD DVD drive as standard. Talk about setting the cat among the pigeons. This is a bold statement and a bold move.

Some of you might think: "Big deal, it?s just one laptop vendor" and that?s true, but then you have to look at the numbers. IDC estimated that Toshiba sold 9.2 million laptops in 2006. Assuming Toshiba sales increase even slightly, then there?s going to be the possibility of 10 million HD DVD players out there by the end of 2008

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: Fallengod
from 2008 every Toshiba laptop will sport a HD DVD drive as standard. Talk about setting the cat among the pigeons. This is a bold statement and a bold move.

Some of you might think: "Big deal, it?s just one laptop vendor" and that?s true, but then you have to look at the numbers. IDC estimated that Toshiba sold 9.2 million laptops in 2006. Assuming Toshiba sales increase even slightly, then there?s going to be the possibility of 10 million HD DVD players out there by the end of 2008.

10 Million HD DVD players doesn't mean anything. What are the percentages? What's toshiba's marketshare?

 

[apoppin]

10 Million HD DVD players doesn't mean anything. What are the percentages? What's toshiba's marketshare?

the *only* reason that BluRay is perceived as 'winning' is because of the 5 million "bundled" with PS3 ... and the free movies count as 'sales'

BluRay is dead ... just like BetaMax
you'll see ... along with the PS3 ... next year you can stick a fork in it

 

[Wreckage]

from 2008 every Toshiba laptop will sport a HD DVD drive as standard. Talk about setting the cat among the pigeons. This is a bold statement and a bold move.

Stupid Inq. Toshiba is the creator and really the only major supporter of HD-DVD. This is not a bold move, it's a default move. That's like saying it's a bold move for Sony laptops to have a Blu-ray drive. Of course the Inq fails to mention that you can get a Blu-ray drive with a Dell, Gateway and soon a Mac laptop. Between those companies that is most of the Laptop market. Not that 1080p video is going to shine on a 15" laptop screen anyways.

Putting Blu-ray into the PS3 was a bold move. Which will eventually pay off, as Blu-ray is already outselling HD-DVD nearly 4 to 1.

Eventually the PS3 will do well once the price comes down. Problem is that people are STILL buying the PS2 which is still outselling the Xbox360 & the Wii.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: apoppin
BluRay is dead ... just like BetaMax
you'll see ... along with the PS3 ... next year you can stick a fork in it

:laugh:

Pretty bold prediction.

I don't believe either format is going anywhere any time soon.

 

[oronis]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

from 2008 every Toshiba laptop will sport a HD DVD drive as standard. Talk about setting the cat among the pigeons. This is a bold statement and a bold move.

Stupid Inq. Toshiba is the creator and really the only major supporter of HD-DVD. This is not a bold move, it's a default move. That's like saying it's a bold move for Sony laptops to have a Blu-ray drive. Of course the Inq fails to mention that you can get a Blu-ray drive with a Dell, Gateway and soon a Mac laptop. Between those companies that is most of the Laptop market. Not that 1080p video is going to shine on a 15" laptop screen anyways.

Putting Blu-ray into the PS3 was a bold move. Which will eventually pay off, as Blu-ray is already outselling HD-DVD nearly 4 to 1.

Eventually the PS3 will do well once the price comes down. Problem is that people are STILL buying the PS2 which is still outselling the Xbox360 & the Wii.

Interesting...I just verified that the PS2 is outselling the Wii. I didn't believe you at all since I don't know a single person interested in, purchasing games for, or thinking of purchasing the PS2.

Still, I don't care about HD formats YET, but if I had to put money on one, it would be HD-DVD. The cheapness, compatibility, and name recognition go further than superior technology and which company backs you.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: oronis

Interesting...I just verified that the PS2 is outselling the Wii. I didn't believe you at all since I don't know a single sane person living in the 21st century interested in, purchasing games for, or thinking of purchasing the PS2.

I dont' want to offend anyone who owns the wii, but I played the wii last week and its top games, super monkey ball and paper mario. Both were awful, and the wii control had a lot to do with it.

After about 30 min of sports pack bundled with the wii, the novelty wore off quickly. I play tennis in real life and the wii tennis game is not responsive at all to immitate real world tennis - maybe in 10 years. The graphics are aged about 5 years as well on all of these games. I just cant see ANY hardcore gamer enjoying the wii in first person shooters or driving games. I've played videogames on consoles since I was about 6 years old. I went through NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Sega Saturn, some dreamcast games, PS1, PS2 and now 360. Coming from a perspective of a "traditional" gamer, the wii is one of the worst gaming systems ever made for me. It has nothing besides Legend of Zelda that warrants to be played after 6 months of release. Yet the Wii continues to outsell Xbox360 which has a handful of A titles. The point is a lot of ppl who play videogames are not hardcore gamers. A parent can pick up a PS2 for a small price and let their kid play games on the cheap. That's why PS2 continues to outsell - its cheap, vast gaming library, and non-hard core gamers do not care for HD graphics, 5.1 surround sound and latest games.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: oronis

Interesting...I just verified that the PS2 is outselling the Wii. I didn't believe you at all since I don't know a single sane person living in the 21st century interested in, purchasing games for, or thinking of purchasing the PS2.

I dont' want to offend anyone who owns the wii, but I played the wii last week and its top games, super monkey ball and paper mario. Both were awful, and the wii control had a lot to do with it.

After about 30 min of sports pack bundled with the wii, the novelty wore off quickly. I play tennis in real life and the wii tennis game is not responsive at all to immitate real world tennis - maybe in 10 years. The graphics are aged about 5 years as well on all of these games. I just cant see ANY hardcore gamer enjoying the wii in first person shooters or driving games. I've played videogames on consoles since I was about 6 years old. I went through NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Sega Saturn, some dreamcast games, PS1, PS2 and now 360. Coming from a perspective of a "traditional" gamer, the wii is one of the worst gaming systems ever made for me. It has nothing besides Legend of Zelda that warrants to be played after 6 months of release. Yet the Wii continues to outsell Xbox360 which has a handful of A titles. The point is a lot of ppl who play videogames are not hardcore gamers. A parent can pick up a PS2 for a small price and let their kid play games on the cheap. That's why PS2 continues to outsell - its cheap, vast gaming library, and non-hard core gamers do not care for HD graphics, 5.1 surround sound and latest games.

I agree 100%. Wii is a gimmick that loses it's appeal very quickly. I cant see any hardcore gamer using the Wii as the main system. IMO, the only thing the Wii is good for is getting drunk with friends and having a little fun for an hour or two.

 

[Matt2]

To get back on topic, I'm really disappointed about the lack of HD-DVD burning.

I guess I'll have to wait for my HD-DVD burner.

 

[apoppin]

Wii is a gimmick that loses it's appeal very quickly. I cant see any hardcore gamer using the Wii as the main system. IMO, the only thing the Wii is good for is getting drunk with friends and having a little fun for an hour or two.

and the Xbox360 looks like a Wii compared to [ultra] PC gaming ... it's all relative
--and i thought *you guys* always got drunk together for xbox360 games and to shoot some cans afterward
... that's why you need "auto aim"

once the PS3 goes under, it will help carry BluRay with it ... my moneys on HD DVD

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: apoppin
the *only* reason that BluRay is perceived as 'winning' is because of the 5 million "bundled" with PS3 ... and the free movies count as 'sales'

Nope, the 1 bundled BD and the 5 free HD-DVDs don't count as sales.

According to Nielsen/VideoScan, total US disc sales for 2007 as of 5/27/07 are 2-to-1 in Blu-ray's favor.


Also, it will be interesting to see if Toshiba really can ship HD-DVD with all laptops, including the $499 ones with slower CPUs and no hardware decoding of HD content. Plus no component or HDMI out, probably just VGA.

And if so, will they be able to do it while matching the price of budget laptops of Dell, Acer, Gateway, HP/Compaq? If their cheapest laptop stays $499 while all the others drop to $399 they might ship a lot less than 10 million units.


But who knows? Since it's speculation time, the PS3 might even be selling more than 80K units a month in the US by then

 

[CorCentral]

I vote HD DVD (I'll spell it out for the numbnut abbreviators)......... High Definition DVD FOR THE WIN!

 

[vhx]

I vote Bluray not only because it rolls off the tongue better, but because it holds more space.

 

[tuteja1986]

i vote HD-DVD since the media production cost is 15% more than DVD !! so if people adopt it now in great numbers i can buy cheap HD-DVD blank media.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: tuteja1986
i vote HD-DVD since the media production cost is 15% more than DVD !! so if people adopt it now in great numbers i can buy cheap HD-DVD blank media.

That's the pressed prerecorded metallic layer media cost, not blanks. And capacity is only 15 GB at first for the HD-DVD blanks vs. 25 GB for blu-ray.

Current prices are $9 (60 cents/GB) vs. $11 (44 cents) so blu-ray blanks are both higher capacity and cheaper.

Newegg is already listing 50 GB dual-layer discs for blu-ray (not currently in stock) but no dual-layer HD-DVD blanks yet.

 

[tuteja1986]

DaveSimmon... HD-DVD camp is making a killing out each blank media sold :! it cost about less than $1 to produce but sold at $9 but Blu-ray is a different story.

 

[oronis]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: oronis

Interesting...I just verified that the PS2 is outselling the Wii. I didn't believe you at all since I don't know a single sane person living in the 21st century interested in, purchasing games for, or thinking of purchasing the PS2.

I dont' want to offend anyone who owns the wii, but I played the wii last week and its top games, super monkey ball and paper mario. Both were awful, and the wii control had a lot to do with it.

After about 30 min of sports pack bundled with the wii, the novelty wore off quickly. I play tennis in real life and the wii tennis game is not responsive at all to immitate real world tennis - maybe in 10 years. The graphics are aged about 5 years as well on all of these games. I just cant see ANY hardcore gamer enjoying the wii in first person shooters or driving games. I've played videogames on consoles since I was about 6 years old. I went through NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Sega Saturn, some dreamcast games, PS1, PS2 and now 360. Coming from a perspective of a "traditional" gamer, the wii is one of the worst gaming systems ever made for me. It has nothing besides Legend of Zelda that warrants to be played after 6 months of release. Yet the Wii continues to outsell Xbox360 which has a handful of A titles. The point is a lot of ppl who play videogames are not hardcore gamers. A parent can pick up a PS2 for a small price and let their kid play games on the cheap. That's why PS2 continues to outsell - its cheap, vast gaming library, and non-hard core gamers do not care for HD graphics, 5.1 surround sound and latest games.

I agree....I would never call the Wii a gamer's system. But here's a little secret as a musician... 'musician bands' don't get the air time that radio-friendly crap does. Bands alot of real musicians listen to aren't really on the radio, or selling out stadiums. It's the same thing with this....The wii is for the masses, and stuff like the PS3 are for the enthusiasts. But enthusiasts (or gamers) only make up a small portion of the population, and they aren't the wii's target audience at all.

You may think motion sensitivity is a gimmick, but when I go to the mall or to the boardwalk I still see arcades, that are still filled with games that cost a dollar for 3 minutes of the gimmick. It's entertaining period.