“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,” Dan Costa reports for PC Magazine.
Costa reports, “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,” Costa reports. “The BD-P1000 will be sold at more than 200 retail locations, including Best Buy, Tweeter, and Circuit City.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Too Hot!” for the heads up.]
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Related articles:
Blu-ray Disk Associaton: we’ll win DVD format war over HD-DVD – May 12, 2006
RUMOR: Apple asks studios to include iPod video content on Blu-ray discs – April 25, 2006
Blu-Ray or HD DVD? – March 10, 2006
Broadcom announces decoder chip that plays both Blu-ray and HD DVD – January 03, 2006
Forrester Research: Apple-backed Blu-ray will win over Microsoft-backed HD DVD – October 20, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘it looks as if HD DVD’s days are numbered’ – October 07, 2005
China to develop own as-yet-unnamed DVD format; Blu-ray vs. HD DVD vs ? – October 07, 2005
Paramount’s decision gives Blu-ray slight lead over HD DVD in next gen DVD format war – October 04, 2005
Record set straight on Blu-ray Disc Association’s superior high definition format – September 29, 2005
Microsoft backs cheaper, less sophisticated, lower capacity HD DVD over Apple-backed Blu-ray format – September 27, 2005
Twentieth Century Fox joins Apple, Dell, HP, others to support Blu-ray Disc format – July 29, 2005
Poll shows Apple-backed Blu-ray preferred by consumers over HD DVD for next-gen DVD standard – July 14, 2005
Microsoft allies with Toshiba on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc backers Apple and Sony – June 27, 2005
Apple joins Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors – March 10, 2005
And we can expect Blu-Ray in Macs by…August?
Now if I could only find where I stashed that 1000 dollar bill.
Maybe another nail eh?
$999.99 now, $200 next year, $60 in 5 years.
1080P? Is that, like, fer real?
If so, that is a massive amount of bandwidth.
If history proves right, this format war will be won not on the merits of the hardware, but on which format wins “the software war”. Whichever format wins more adoption among studios (who actually ship content on that format) will eventually take the day.
So far, Blu-Ray has an edge in studio “commitments” – let’s see if they actually ship content…
Here in Japan, Sharp has had a Blu-ray DVR on the market for months.
Here in Japan, Sharp has had a Blu-ray DVR on the market for months.
And this info does the peasants what good?
Fortunately since that huge crude surplus, i’ve been able to stuff my matress full of cash. Best Buy, here i come (to look)!
If a major sunglasses manufacturer tries to sue Samsung, would the case be called a Blu-Ray Ban?
Yeah, I can’t wait to spend a grand on a DVD player on steroids. I’m looking under the couch cushions for the change right now.
Just ship an external burner already! One with Lightscribe would be cool.
I’m selling a kidney. I must have this. So, peeing will take a bit longer.
Ampar,
Sell your liver instead. You don’t need that too much.
Ampar,
Nah, it’ll be Ray Ban Blu-Blocker.
Actually KenC, I prefer Ray Charles Ban Roll-On Blu-Ball Blockhead.
It’s a blinding, sweat controlling, horny, Charles Schulz inspired DVD movie that features childhood wisdom and a funny beagle. Two discs.
If history proves right, this format war will be won not on the merits of the hardware, but on which format wins “the porn war”. Whichever format wins more adoption among porn studios (who actually ship content on that format) will eventually take the day.
Which ever format has the most porno titles will win the war.
No no, which ever format HOLDS the most porno titles will win.
I’m waiting for the crystal memory device. I really need to have the contents of all the world’s libraries in a device the size of a sugar cube.
I love it when people are being satirical and people realize its satire… instead of other times when they get all steaming mad…
I put this down as the best thread of the past 2 weeks, as far as reader response goes, for the brilliant satirical and ironic posts people have been making.
Hurray for everyone!
who’s being satirical?
and then it won’t be double anymore.
and then I’ll want one, with a PowerMac wrapped around it?
Seriosuly, sell the liver. Unlike a kidney, the liver can grow back for the next time a big purchase comes along.
OFF-TOPIC:
The Norwegian consumer ombudsman has had a long and contentious online chat with Norwegian consumers about Norway’s regulatory problems with Apple’s use of FairPlay:
http://tux1.aftenposten.no/nettprat/thon1606/
Someone with more time and Norwegian-language proficiency than I have should translate and post the whole thing–it seems very interesting (and as if perhaps even the relatively young, hip-looking ombudsman pictured there hasn’t, in fact, quite thought through all or understood all of the issues involved, as he simply has to punt on the very first question asked, and instead repeatedly returns to his pet problem of not being able to play his iTMS music on his mobile phone–so it seems likely that Apple’s full response will in fact make a difference in the case’s outcome).
Apple *should* of course have to get rid of the ridiculous terms in its license (the “as-is” clause, and the like), as should all software companies. And we should be sold the software and music we use, instead of “licensing” it, to start with. That is a 25-year-old problem.
But I’m a little freaked out that the Scandinavian regulators are absolutely fine with DRM–just not fine with non-interoperable DRM. Let’s scrap the DRM itself (which Jobs tried repeatedly to get the record companies to give up on), not Apple for trying to thrive in a balkanized, DRM-dominated market.
The only actual alternative is to have Microsoft control the usability of all our music. Microsoft can license its own flavor of DRM very cheaply, since its business interest is exclusively in driving Apple out of the business, and it doesn’t manufacture any players itself. That ain’t Apple’s business model, or why it set up the iTMS in the first place, to put it mildly–selling iPods is–and it’s unclear that any amount of ombudding will change that.
In other words, the ombudsman is falsely (and, indeed, somewhat lazily) generalizing from Microsoft’s way of doing business when it does not yet have monopoly power–i.e., spread a non-hardware specific standard as cheaply and widely as possible–to the ‘electronic music market’ in general. But there is not really a whole universe of relevant competitors here: there happen to be only two in this ‘market,’ Apple and Microsoft.
In fact, by singling out Apple for a complaint given this set of facts, rather than Apple and every other service that uses Windows Media, the entire action by Norway seems as if it could almost have been scripted by a Microsoft-funded lobbying group.
That’s surely not true, so I think the ombudsman has simply failed to see through, or look beyond, Microsoft’s own laughably cynical rhetoric about being the champion of consumer choice.