Toshiba Introduces U.S. First HD DVD Players 323
Roy R writes "Toshiba America Consumer Products unveiled today the market launch details for its line-up of the first High Definition DVD players for the U.S. market. The new HD DVD players, models HD-XA1 and HD-A1, will take advantage of the superior capabilities of the HD DVD format.
The players will output copy-protected HD content through the HDMI interface in the native format of the HD DVD disc content of either 720p or 1080i."
SUPER! (Score:5, Interesting)
A big clunker (Score:4, Interesting)
It is huge and expensive...I'll wait for it to come down in price and when it can record.
Re:SUPER! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I really hope... (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope neither will become dominant; I hope both will turn out to be big flops that the general public will avoid for all the DRM shit and the possibility of owning yet another betamax or V2000 system.
People do not want too bloody restrictive DRM, they do not want to make choices like "Shall I buy a player that plays movies from A, B and C or one that plays movies from X, Y and Z?". I hope a big, big flop for both Blue and HD camps will make that pretty clear for both hardware and content producers.
Re:Remember, it is HDMI... (Score:3, Interesting)
They're still relatively expensive, but once the korean production lines start up that price will drop quite fast.
Re:A big clunker (Score:4, Interesting)
They could even have dropped all the DAC hardware, if HDMI is the only output format.
1080p (Score:4, Interesting)
How much? (Score:2, Interesting)
I won't be fooled again into paying a premium for HD-DVD players.
First, they are essentially the same technology, simply tweaked to squeeze out more storage space and using a different wavelength of laser. This is hardly technology that required billions or even millions of R&D costs. Like the original DVD player and is close ties to CD technology, HD-DVD is just an extension, not an evolution of DVD technology. Thus, we shouldn't have to pay a huge premium for it.
When you consider that the chassis and most of the components in an HD-DVD player are going to be identical to a regular DVD player (especially the current up-conversion ones), your talking about probably $20 of unique technology that goes into every unit, this doesn't justtify a 400% - 800% markup over regular DVD players.
Second, I won't pay more for HD-DVD titles. I don't care if they required new expensive technology to be mastered, Hollywood is making huge profits on the markup for regular DVD's, some of those initial HD-DVD costs can be absorbed in their current pricing scheme. Your talking about digital data formats, HD-DVD is simply film mastered with a higher bit-rate, again hardly revolutionary or required millions in research to get accomplished. If you start to consider that many movies are filmed digitally these days, conversion from one digital format to another is a brainless activity.
Lastely, what is the difference in quality? I mean, when I compared my first DVD movie to a VHS version, the difference was astonishing. Crystal clear video and digital surround sound sold me on the DVD format. I haven't been entirely blown away by the HD revolution. HDTV quality is good, but I find I can still live with standard def digital cable on a good quality television with a good cable signal. Most HDTV sets I am seeing also are not doing HDTV justice, especially the cheap LCD panels that can't display a good color gamut regardless of their resolution quality. I'll have to wait until I actually see HD-DVD on a good quality HDTV, but I am sure it won't be as ground breaking as the original DVD format.
My reasoning for holding off on adopting HD-DVD is based on past experiences, if I wait a few years, HD-DVD players will be in the $100 range, most movies will be masterd in HD-DVD for the same price, and if Blu-Ray does make an impact, I won't feel like I lost out in another Betamax-VHS or LaserDisc-DVD war.
But Xbox 360 only has a component connection?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
-Eric
Re:I really hope... (Score:3, Interesting)
Before you get too snarky about the issue it is worth noting that a DVD played on an HD set using its DVI (or HDMI) interface really is higher resolution than consumers have had available before. It provides 720 x 480 interlaced and in many cases (ie if the source is not a TV program) that can be deinterlaced quite well. If you use an NTSC interface like S-Video or composite video then the resolution is reduced to NTSC standard but the resolution of material on a DVD is already higher resolution than NTSC provides. So average Joe isn't a chump, DVD does have the ability to provide higher resolution than was available from cable, broadcast, laserdisc, whatever. (For reference although it is an analog standard which makes it difficult to quantify, you would often get about the equivalent of 320 x 240 resolution from an NTSC source like laserdisc. You also have issues of chroma noise and other distractions).
My suspicion is that DVD could prevail over HD-DVD and Bluray just like audio CD has prevailed over SACD and DVD-Audio. Part of the equation is that it is good enough. The other part is that the price of hard drive storage will continue to plummet. At current prices it still seems like an odd suggestion to keep all your DVDs on a hard drive for convenience and avoid wearing out your original disc. But that same sort of suggestion about music from CDs would have seemed outlandish a few years ago. You can easily rip CD's to your hard drive and the same is true about DVDs. That will not be the case for HD-DVD and Bluray (or at least it won't be true initially). If you want to watch a movie on your video iPod or PSP then a DVD will be a useful source but HD-DVD will not. Same issue for viewing it anywhere on your home network. DVD useful, HD-DVD not. Of course you could always keep track of and carry around your original disc until it stops playing properly. At that point you have the option of replacing the defective media with a full price new copy.