HD DVD and Blu Ray Euro launch info.

[RobertR1]

HD DVD. New Toshiba Players:
HD-E1 = e599 similar as the HD-A1 in the US. Mid Nov.
HD-XE1 = e899 with HDMI1.3, 1080p, deep color and a few other upgrades. Early December
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8332881&&#post8332881 The PDF has all the info in it.



Blu Ray. Samsung and Panasonic/Matsushita Player:
Panasonic DMP-BD10 = e1499 Europe in October. Last seen without an ethernet connection. http://www.areadvd.de/news/2006/IFA_2006/310806_Panasonic_DMP-BD10.shtml
Pioneer BDP-HD1: US in December, Europe in spring 2007
Philips BDP9000 = US in late 06, UK in early 07, no pricing or info
Samsung BD-P1000 = e999 Europe in mid-October. Same as the US player.

 

[Arwin]

I just read an extensive review in the latest C't of both technologies and the currently available players, and they agree that BluRay in its MPEG2 form doesn't live up to spec, noting in particular that many of the movies currently released don't have very good quality in their master form, and that one of the trailers actually shows much better quality. And also, that while PCM lossless is fine, it's not widely supported. However, their conclusion is that neither system, at this point, is really mature enough to wow consumers away from cleverly upscaling DVD players.

However, they also looked at burners, which are currently only available for BluRay, and at burnable media. Here the results were very good - they tested the discs and burners and the results were excellent. Bar one el-cheapo brand, they all passsed the 85 degrees in high temperature rooms test well within the margins, and even the el cheapo that didn't behave to spec still could be read by the BD systems, showing that the error correction systems work very well.

Also, at the last moment they received a VAIO system which supported dual-layer burning for BluRay as well as burn DVD and CD-ROM, and this system actually performed the best of all tested systems both for burning and for playback. And this at only 2500 euro for the whole system (with 550gb harddrive and other features) which is all things considering actually not that expensive (their point).

Applauding BluRay for coordinating the burning and playback from day one so that the whole DVD- and DVD+ affair wouldn't be repeated, and noting that the first HD DVD burner isn't out yet, HD-DVD burning technology isn't nearly as well thought through, and pricing is announced at $2500, it looks like BluRay isn't doing everything wrong at this point. If the Dual Layer burners and media are up to spec at this point in time, I'm sure they'll be able to solve the large scale manufacturing shortly also.

There are obviously also links here to the PS3, as having a small scale burner is very helpful for developers so they can burn test copies and give out preview discs to magazines and review sites.

 

[hey69]

HD DVD. New Toshiba Players:
HD-E1 = e599 similar as the HD-A1 in the US. Mid Nov.
HD-XE1 = e899 with HDMI1.3, 1080p, deep color and a few other upgrades. Early December
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8332881&&#post8332881 The PDF has all the info in it.



Blu Ray. Samsung and Panasonic/Matsushita Player:
Panasonic DMP-BD10 = e1499 Europe in October. Last seen without an ethernet connection. http://www.areadvd.de/news/2006/IFA_2006/310806_Panasonic_DMP-BD10.shtml
Pioneer BDP-HD1: US in December, Europe in spring 2007
Philips BDP9000 = US in late 06, UK in early 07, no pricing or info
Samsung BD-P1000 = e999 Europe in mid-October. Same as the US player.

Sony playstation3 : launch Novermber 2006

 

[London Geezer]

Samsung BD-P1000 = e999 Europe in mid-October. Same as the US player.

... Exactly the same as the US one? Won't they bother fixing the flaws the player has? Samsung really gets on my nerves sometimes, they could be so much better, but they focus on cheap but broken hardware. Shame cause they have shown that they can do amazing things.

(And this is not just because i've had 2 Samsung HDTVs and a lot of other hardware from them that wasn't exactly "quality")