“Blank optical disc manufacturers are rolling out the first generation of recordable and rewriteable Blu-ray Disc (BD) media in the United States, despite a lack of actual hardware on the market, giving the format an early step up on its rival technology, HD DVD. Anticipating the gradual arrival of a pipeline of high-definition recorder decks, camcorders and PCs with writeable BD drives, a few companies have begun shipping product, with others planning similar rollouts in the coming months. TDK was first to market last month when it began shipping single-layer recordable 25GB BD-R and rewriteable BD-RE blank discs, setting the retail pricing bar at $19.99 for BD–R and $24.99 for BD–RE. The discs are bare, cartridge-free media. A promotion with Pioneer will bundle TDK’s BD media with what Pioneer claims to be the first commercially available Blu-ray Disc writer available in the United States, the Pioneer BDR-101A internal drive for PCs… The company is planning a subsequent rollout of dual-layer 50GB BD-R and BD-RE media later this year. The discs will retail for $47.99 and $59.99, respectively,” John Laposky reports for TWICE.
“Hardware manufacturers who are backing the Blu-ray format include Bose, Hitachi, JVC, Kenwood, LG, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony, Thomson and Yamaha. PC suppliers Apple, Dell, HP and Levono (Thinkpad) are also in the Blu-ray camp,” Laposky reports. “Supporting the HD DVD format on the CE side is Sanyo, Toshiba and Thomson. PC and IT companies in the HD DVD camp include HP, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Toshiba.”
Full article here.
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Technology is moving way to fast. You know I still havn’t bought a DVD player yet. I was going to get a recordable one because they are so cheap now. But even that will be obsolete in 6 months. I wish I could sleep for ten years and wake up and see what’s ‘the latest’.
Blu-Ray equals cool, sexy and ambitious.
HD-DVD equals: “it’s insane what it can do with spreadsheets”.
Ampar,
I should have been more specific…good quality dvds. However you do have a point. I can think of a dozen or so in my collection that should never have been released.
Ian,
An easy way around this dilemma is to buy a cheap dvd player or recorder and then see how latest standards war plays out.
BR
I have a QUESTION:
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Mecrow$ost supports HD-DVD
Intel supports HD-DVD
HP supports Blue-Ray
Dell supports Blue-Ray
So what drive would HP/Dell come with when their system runs on intel/Mecrow$oft?
—————————
Answer, anyone?
—————————
Suckers should’a compromised and come up with a single standard – BVDs. With or without the weiner flap.
To “Less is more”: Thanks. That’s good humor, man.
DVD won’t die soon, and maybe not ever. People buying it and using it aren’t losing much (except maybe having to pay again for some future Hi-Def release of a movie that they already own). But DVD will always be cheaper, and a nice size for many things (promos, home movies to send to family and friends, etc.), not to mention the fact that car players won’t switch anytime soon, and the millions out there will be around for years to come. Would you want to burn a 40+ dollar disk for every project because your player is Blu-Ray, and doesn’t do DVD?
We need high storage capacities for some things now, and maybe some more in the future, but we’ll need smaller, cheaper capacities even more.
HD-DVD therefore has two advantages – it plays DVD’s (which BR doesn’t), and it is cheaper and smaller.