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Posted by Tarkus on 10/07/35 11:50
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1977327,00.asp
Samsung Ships the First Blu-Ray Player
06.15.06
By Dan Costa
The format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD has finally reached consumers,
now that Samsung is shipping the BD-P1000 Blu-Ray player to retailers.
The BD-P1000 ($999.99 list), will go on sale June 25th, making it the
first Blu-Ray player to hit the market. Until now, the only
high-definition video player shoppers could buy has been the Toshiba
HD-A1, which has been in short supply.
The BD-P1000 is twice the price of the HD-A1, but Jim Sanduski, senior
vice president of marketing for Samsung's Audio and Video Products Group,
says that won't hurt sales. "Dealer demand is really strong," Sanduski
says. "Yes, we are double the price of HD-DVD, but we are confident
people will buy as many as we can build."
The Samsung BD-P1000 supports full 1080p playback, something the first
generation of HD-DVD players do not. The BD-P1000 also up-converts
conventional DVDs to 1080p to improve video quality. The player comes
with HDMI, Component, S-video, and composite outputs. Samsung has also
included a 10-in-2 multi-memory-card interface for viewing digital images
directly from flash cards.
There will be just 10 Blu-Ray titles available when the BD-P100 ships,
including 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying
Daggers, A Knight's Tale, The Last Waltz, Resident Evil Apocalypse, and
xXx. Sanduski says by the end of year the number of titles will swell to
as many as 200.
This is one area where Blu-Ray could have a potential advantage over
HD-DVD. "Eighty-four percent of all the movies released last year were
made by studios that have announced support for Blu-Ray," according to
Sanduski. "That is a huge strike against HD-DVD." To be fair, some
studios plan to release movies on both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
Samsung's BD-P1000 release comes as other Blu-Ray manufactures have
pushed back their launch dates. Both Sony and Pioneer initially planned
to offer Blu-Ray players in June, but have pushed their U.S. launch dates
to August and September, respectively.
Movies on Blu-Ray discs will sell for about $30, according to Sanduski.
He compares that to the healthy premium people paid over VHS when DVDs
first came out. HD-DVD titles currently sell for about $20.
Sanduski says that the Blu-Ray prices will come down quickly once other
manufacturers bring their players to market. "There are nine
manufacturers building Blu-Ray devices," according to Sanduski. "There is
only one building HD-DVD drives: Toshiba."
The BD-P1000 will be sold at more than 200 retail locations, including
Best Buy, Tweeter, and Circuit City.
--
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