Toshiba may delay HD DVD player launch into 2006

A Four-Layered Blue-Ray disc can already exceed 100 Gbs. And yes, they are a reality, though they won't be introduced for quite a while. Combined with the large storage space on a single layer and with the ability to go multi-layers, Blue-Ray will be around for a long time. It's not limited like the DVD format was. And yes it will be excepted if it beats out HD-DVD. DVD's today are already starting to meet their limits, just look at the Lord of the Rings movie. New Line could have cut their manufactoring costs by a fourth by using one Blue-Ray disc instead of 4 DVD's. Granted Lord of the Rings is a rare case, but considering we're moving into the High-Definition era, the storage space of Blue-Ray discs will be sorely needed.

 

It's not a reality if it's not out.

Actually, until BR-discs comes down in cost (which might take some years), it's less expensive to use multiple DVDs, just like it's less expensive to use as many as 6 CDs instead of a single DVD. Manufacturing costs for discs is one of the most important factors in the studios' decision making processes.

 

does anyone know the read speed of those hd-dvd drives?

 

The reality is that they both support ALL HDTV resolutions, including 1080p which isn't really on the market yet. Unless we start getting HDTV++++ screens/resolutions, BR will carry us well into the next TV revolution.

Not so sure why you/we should wait?

 

NEC announced a 2X HD-DVD capable reader a week ago. That's max 9.1 MB/s. In practice this should be about the same as 8X DVD-ROM (max 10.8 MB/s).

 

The problem is that we'll get into the same problem with BR/HD-DVD as we do with DVD when it comes to televison shows and such, needing multiple discs to hold the HD content for an entire season. As a side, how bad is layer switching with BR compared to DVD. Having 4 layers is fine to reach 100gig unless the same pausing occurs during switching layers as the current problem with some players switching layers on a two layer DVD.

 

Good! If I spend £40+ on a series of SG1, if that's all on one disc and one disc gets scrunched I've got to shell out £40+ again to get the series. If on 6 discs and one gets scrunched I can get a replacement for say £10. If the reason not to go with an existing format is it's inability to store an entire series on one disc, why not postpone until you can store an entire program on one disc, all 150+ episodes of it?

It shouldn't be an issue if they cache the content.

 

Problem is, we don't know how these things work. Its funny that these pieces of Technology have been known about for a while and all we really know about them is their speeds and whatnot. The actual look and feel of the High-Definition video won't be able to be fully experienced (quite obviously) until its release dates. I personally wish, that there where kiosk here that had HD-DVD or Blu-Ray being played...so we can see ourselves. But Blu-Ray is still a ways off, and HD-DVD has been delayed...so I guess we won't have this luxury for a while.

I'm not sure if a Full Season of Friends (i'm sorry for that choice..) in High Definition would take up 100GB. I mean....that would mean that each 30 Minute episode would have to be 4GB! O.O...would 30Minute lossless High-Definition episodes take up 4GB?

 

Yeah one Disc for a complete Simpson season would be nice. And absolutely not something to hold back the launch of the only HD media in present time

A 50GB disc can hold a HD movie, there is no need for 4 layers.

 

The more I read about the new DRM methods these formats will be using, the more I hope that both formats lose. I'm not sure that having HD quality DVDs is worth the risk of having to pay for them every time I view them. Nor is it worth the risk of having my DVD player disabled because I wanted to hack the regional code.

btw, has anyone heard about the EVD format that China is supporting?

 

In the future, I am hoping for some sort of digital rights to multimedia content to be purchaseable instead of having to repurchase the same crap over and over again. So I am hoping in 10 years, I can just buy movie/game/whatever and stream it from anywhere and at anytime I want to watch or play it. I am hoping for improvement in bandwidth rather than more optical medium crap. I hope I don't have to see disc anymore in 10 years. I am beginning to hate them.

 

hopefully you wont have to keep rebuying once HD arrives. I can't imagine anything beyond HD looking better to the naked eye.

 

I'm expecting pay per view streamed content to be the norm in the not too distant future, and optical drives will become the domain of backup. Online distribution is much cheaper and more convenient, whilst denying people hard copies means revenues for content will never dry up when the public own a copy outright.