$300 Hi-Def DVD
 

In article ,
"Matthew L. Martin" wrote:

What makes you think that BR prices will be as low as HD in anything but
the longest of terms? HD machines have the advantage of being compatible
with DVD tooling. All BR products require new, and very expensive,
tooling that has to be amortized. HD could have the price advantage for
years because the tooling for it already has been amortized.

That doesn't affect hardware. One of the biggest cost components is the
blue or violet laser diode, the yields of which are still not that high.
Little wonder since it's been mass-produced for only a year or two.

Both formats need that diode, as well as more beefy CPUs, RAM, custom
silicon to handle the new codecs as well as AACS, etc.

Toshiba is probably subsidizing their hardware to stay in the game.

Now, HD-DVD is suppose to have a big cost advantage in replication of
discs, and cheaper replication equipment for factories and better yields
and cycle times.

Yet when you compare the prices of discs, this cost advantage has not
translated to cheaper discs.

Actually, the prices of the discs is a bigger key to the adoption of
either format than hardware prices. DVD is basically priced as
loss-leaders by the likes of Walmart while both BR and HD-DVD are still
premium priced.

$300 Hi-Def DVD
 

=(8) wrote:

Basically it is still too iffy to go with either one. Time will tell if
one is the next consumer format or if they are both the equivilent of
Circuit City's Divx format or Sony's Betamax.


this is likely the heart of the issue

the cheaper/inferior VHS won out over Betamax

picture (and sound?) was secondary to price

volume drives this whole thing

it may be that the cheaper/inferior DVD-movie
format will win out over either blu-ray or HD
for the next couple of years

on the other hand, given that Toshiba's HD
is the clear leader on low cost HD players,
history sez to me that Toshiba may squeek thru.
i'll be surprised if blu-ray is the winner

fwiw, i'd buy now if it was clear that the
Toshiba HD Dolby Digital HD sound was really
noticablely better than standard DVD movie
DTS5.1 sound

yet the HD focus doesn't seem to be on
better sound, but on "better" picture

VHS showed me that better picture
is a losing bet

and since the number of households with
large (40") TVs is likely small...
exactly who is it that is going to spend
the $19+/HD movie?
(current Costco price for a few limited HD titles)

volume drives this whole thing

which is why Toshiba is dropping price
as fast as it can

maybe they'll turn the corner, but i'm
not holding my breath

bill

$300 Hi-Def DVD
 

In article ,
willbill wrote:

snipped..

fwiw, i'd buy now if it was clear that the
Toshiba HD Dolby Digital HD sound was really
noticablely better than standard DVD movie
DTS5.1 sound

yet the HD focus doesn't seem to be on
better sound, but on "better" picture

I can only give you my personal experience.

When I got my Toshiba HDA2 and hooked up the optical audio to my Pioneer
DV940ST HTIB, I was amazed at how much better DTS and DD5.1 sounded with
my standard disks as well as my HD disks. Very much noticeable and
pleasant.

But I wanted to upgrade to hear the newer codecs, like TrueHD. For that
I needed a new receiver. So I bought the Harmon Kardon AVR247 and am
now HDMI only from HDDVD player through the receiver to the TV. All
sound comes to the receivers speakers (something cheap for now) as
Multi-Channel PCM from HDDVDs. So far, I haven't had the opportunity to
hear TrueHD because not all HDDVDs have that codec on them. But the DTS
selection, through HDMI as MPCM put me IN the theater! I was floored, I
had not expected that to be the case. I have a disk coming from
Blockbuster online that has TrueHD encoding on it and I'm hoping that it
is another step up.

Also SD disks, played on the HDA2, sounded much better than on the HTIB.
Same codecs (dd5.1 & DTS), but not played as MPCM. Very nearly the same
as those codecs on HDDVDs.

The issue isn't that the players can't do the new codecs, it is that the
studios are not using them much yet.

Another feather in the HDA2s hat is that standard DVDs are upconverted,
not only that, but they do a better job than most of the upconverting
standard DVD players.

A big issue right now is the AV receivers. Even the ones with HDMI
don't always actually handle the sound. Some that do, don't do it well.
For instance the new Sony 515. It does MPCM, but only 2 channel, not
the 6-8 that you would expect. Mine does 5.1 w/MPCM, and others at
higher prices do 7.1 w/MPCM. You can have your head spinning trying to
find out which does what. The mfgs are vague in that arena in
advertising, you literally have to download the operators manuals to
figure it out.