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Posted by lorincantrell on 09/26/04 11:50
Tarkus wrote:
> 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.
> --
> "I have not yet begun to defile myself."
>
> Now playing: "Uriah Heep - Why ('Look At Yourself' out-take)"
Went to my local Wal-Mart last night and as I always do I checked their
inventory of HD-DVD players and discs. For the last 20 days they've
had 2 boxed players (none displayed) and the first spate of titles,
including one copy of Serenity (the only one I was really interested
in). At first I thought someone had bought one as their was only one
boxed player left and Serenity was gone. No such luck, found the
player hooked up to a 42 inch plasma on an end cap display, and what do
you know, the copy of Serenity was there too. Did give me a chance to
try it out though, and I wasn't really that impressed. I'm sure it
would have looked better on my set at home, which is not only a CRT,
but properly calibrated to boot.
Just reinforced my theory that Blu Ray will eventually win this war,
and the improvement is not worth paying the big $$$ until prices come
down. Looking forward to the $100 Apex Blu Ray player that Wal-Mart
will inevitably sell.
-beaumon
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