$99 HD-DVD Player Coming Soon?

Frank writes "Rumors of the high definition holy grail persist. The latest is that Toshiba will be offering their basic HD-A2 player at $99 for one week only, beginning July 22. An added bonus is three free HD-DVD's."

wow

[androvsky]

In today's class, we'll look at how to tell who's losing a format war...

This is why Toshiba's having trouble getting other hardware manufacturers on board, with them selling at such a loss. Sure HD-DVD is supposed to be cheaper than blu-ray for disc pressing, but the players have pretty much the same specs, it can't be that much cheaper for Toshiba to build them.

To show attendees by the sounds of it

[DrXym]

The blog makes it sound like only show attendees may be able to apply for this. I don't see how they could offer it to the general public unless Toshiba was prepared to lose hundreds of millions in a last gasp bid to win the format war.

Actually there are NO HD-DVD burners yet

[DumbSwede]

Are you sure HD-DVD Burners work? I challenge you to find even one for sale. Toshiba announced the first one back in Jan 2007, but it keeps getting delayed. Still no firm ship date. You can find several 2x Blu-Ray burners and 4x and 8x models on the way.

HD-DVD burners don't work because the layer widths were designed for red light lasers. The duplication process is more like stamping than burning which is why they can get away using the old DVD duplication equipment with some minor retrofitting. Blu-Ray was designed from the start as a burner. There have been Blu-Ray burners since 2005 for over the air transmission recording.

HD-DVD's whole premise was to be quick and cheap for duplication houses. Since Blu-Ray disc prices are on average cheaper than HD-DVD, these seems not to have mattered.

Re:$99 Betamax Player?

[otis wildflower]

You can keep it.

Personally, I like having less infringement on my freedom (weaker copy protection, no region coding) and better video quality (initial BR discs were shitty MPEG2 rather than modern MPEG4, 3x the space use yet crappier video?), and avoiding Sony garbage is just a fringe benefit.

Plus, _The Big Lebowski_, _Heroes_, _Dune_ and _Serenity_ are exclusive. As will be _Scarface_ and the rest of the NBC Universal range.

You can keep _Star Wars_ and Disney stuff thanks.

Then again, if I can find a BR player for $199, maybe I'd consider giving it my receiver's remaining HDMI port.

Optic storage is losing the format war

[BlueParrot]

We know for sure that SONY cannot win a format war because then the universe would implode. We also know that Toshiba is not winning this format war. The logical conclusion is that the whole HD-DVD concept is about to fail miserably in favour of increased internet bandwidth and magnetic storage. Heck, the standard offers over where I am is already in excess of 5 mbit. By the time either HD DVD format has a chance to overtake DVD ( guessing 5-10 years at least ) it will be more than enough to doom the entire HD-DVD concept. Unless the MPAA can cripple broadband deployment in key markets ( read US ) sufficiently of course.

Bleh

[PenguinGuy]

I don't want either...I am happy with the DVD's I have now and until they stop making those and the players for them, I am not 'upgrading'

Re:wow

[Locutus]

that was what I was thinking when I read this. What I've noticed recently was that when marketshare numbers where put out on HD players, they would note later on that the PS3 shipments were excluded and that, IMO, shows that HD-DVD is losing. Having to play tricks with market share numbers is one indicator of what's really going on and this price cut also shows who's got to try harder to get customers. Who in their right mind wouldn't pick up a PS3 for their HD video( BluRay ) player when for maybe $100 you get a 3rd Gen game console thrown in?

To tell you the truth, I also figure Universal and Microsoft are behind this deal since both have tons to lose when HD-DVD fails to gain much marketshare. Universal has partnered with Microsoft and is exclusive to HD-DVD while recently also shutting off Apple from it's music portfolio by not renewing their iTunes license. So Toshiba might not be losing any money on this if it's subsidized by Microsoft and/or Universal.

While tempting, I still don't want to get caught with a device only supported by such a limited market. Not to mention such a lowend device/player.

Annoying intros,trailers

[zymano]

I will be pissed still if we can't FF through those damn things.

If i buy it I should be able to CONTROL MY DAMN MACHINE.

Sue the manufacturers?

Re:$50

[sethmeisterg]

I was in Fry's the other day and noticed a number of different manufacturers selling HDMI cables -- Monster at $100, another major brand at $90, then there were the generics for $15. People just don't understand that Monster cables are total overkill for HDMI. If you can see the signal, the cable's good. There is no analog improvement, no matter how much technobabble Monster wants you to think matters.

Re:I wouldn't buy it

[santakrooz]

1080p vs 1080i is a non-feature when it comes to HDDVD or BluRay that Sony has "invented" for marketing purposes. Here is why. Movies are filmed at 24 frames per second. They are displayed at 30frames or 60frames per second on high def DVD formats. All HDDVD and BluRay content is stored on disc in "1080p" meaning 1080x1920 full frame non-interlaced. Your 1080p display can take 1080i input from a 1080i source such as the A2 and will recombine fields to create full frame images. 1080p displays don't actually display anything interlaced. So when you're watching a 1080i source on a 1080p television you are actually effectively seeing 1080p 30frames per second instead of 1080p 60frames per second. You will not see a single bit of difference because the content is 24fps to begin with. Even 100% digitally filmed/produced movies such as CG cartoons (Nemo) or movies (Star Wars Prequels) are still mastered at 24fps...

1080p is good for displaying 1080 content that is higher than 30 frames per second - such as video games. Basically with 1080i you're limited to 30 frames per second at 1080 vs 60 frames for 1080p. Playstation has 1080p because it's a game machine and 1080p provides potential for higher framerates at 1080 for gaming which is advantageous. But for movies? the difference betweek i and p is meaningless.

Re:I wouldn't buy it

[Shabbs]

1080p is marketing hype. Feeding a 1080i or a 1080p signal to a 1080p TV will be EXACTLY the same if the source is HD DVD or Blu-ray.

Now, 1080p/24 is interesting. The HD-A20 and XA2 are going to be getting firmware updates to allow 1080p/24 output. The HD-A2 will not get this update. That is cool, if you have a 1080p/24 device you can watch HD film as it should be. But, how many people have a 1080p/24 display device? How many are even out there? Very few.

Cheers.

Re:wow

[AdmiralWeirdbeard]

While tempting, I still don't want to get caught with a device only supported by such a limited market. Not to mention such a lowend device/player.

Thats what i was thinking at first, too, but for $100 for the player, and another couple bucks a month on my netflix, i can have an essentially throw-away player if HD-DVD loses, and not really need to own any movies I'd get stuck with. Its actually kindof a tempting deal if you're willing to just count the $100 as a loss from the get-go.

Re:I wouldn't buy it

[MrDERP]

Well, I am not sure, but I have heard, that It's good to set the refresh rate to 72Hz for watching movies because 3 * 24 = 72 so every 3 refresh cycles the movie syncs with the HDTV. Setting it at 60hz they don't sync. Luckily I have an HDTV 42" that supports 72 Hz at 1080p and doubles as a computer monitor. Highly recomended Westinghouse, the only thing I ever got at best buy for a good price (was an "open box" deal.. Anyway my point.. Set your HDTV/Monitor to 72 Hz so it will sync up with 24 fps movies.. This is interestig to me, let me see how much a hd-dvd BURNER costs, then i can download .iso imgaes of HD-DVD (of course legalally distributed documentary / nature type stuff ;-) The BBC "Planet Earth" looks AWESOME when i input from my computer to the HDTV throughtt the VGA/DVI port. I have never really looked to see how many titles are available for HD-DVD how much do they usually costs? Also does Netflix/Blockbuster have the titles available in big enough quantities? Also, I usually don't watch many Action Movies or CGI stuff mainly comedy and drama so not sure 1080P is really neccesary, Not intersted in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 , finding Nemo etc.. Jeff

Re:I wouldn't buy it

[Keeper]

3:2 pulldown reversal is trivial to perform, and with a digital source (like the one provided via HDMI) is artifact free. If you've got a bad source and really REALLY crappy pulldown detection in your TV, you might go 5 frames (~150ms) before the reversal algorithm resyncs to a new sequence.

You're omitting the fact that deinterlacing is a difficult and inexact process that horribly mangles video.

You're omitting the fact that you don't know shit about what you're talking about. Even for straight up interlaced 30fps content, modern motion adaptive deinterlacing algorithms are incredibly effective. Horribly mangles video my ass...