Toshiba and
LG have already indicated their plans to wow us at CES, and now the first company to release a Blu-ray player -- Samsung -- has announced it will display the first second generation player next week at CES. The new player is expected to cost 20 percent less than its
predecessor (the BD-P1000, pictured above), but contain more interactive functions. We hope that means this will be the first non-
PlayStation 3 device to support
BD Live features, although we'll have to wait and see. As far as joining LG with a hybrid player like the one it had
announced and then
denied last year, the company currently has "no plans" to do so, but could if the market remains divided. Other products we can expect to see next week include even larger versions of Samsung's
Slim DLP HDTVs, and an all new line of
plasmas going all the way up to 80 inches.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jay @ Jan 4th 2007 3:48PM
The current Panasonic is also BD-Live capable.
Rene @ Jan 4th 2007 4:08PM
So this player will actually work? And it won't cost $1000? Blu-ray is making progress!
zombieflanders @ Jan 4th 2007 4:17PM
They all work, doofus. As it stands now, all of the Toshiba standalones have problems playing back Weinstein Bros discs.
WiFiSpy @ Jan 4th 2007 5:00PM
Hopefully the new player will decode DTS-HD Master Audio......
Aron @ Jan 4th 2007 8:58PM
Richard: In this post you say that "As far as joining LG with a hybrid player like the one it had announced and then denied last year, the company currently has "no plans" to do so" yet, in the post you made 13 hours before this one ("Surprise! LG to debut dual format Blu-ray & HD DVD player at CES.) you say they've announced that they do have such plans. Which information is correct?
Richard Lawler @ Jan 4th 2007 8:59PM
"the company" I'm referring to is Samsung. They would be joining LG with a combo player, but they're not. LG is showing a combo player at CES, samsung isn't. both had at separate times last year indicated they were working on combo players.
Joseph R @ Jan 5th 2007 1:24AM
Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal report today indicated that LG's HD-DVD/Blu-ray combo player will retail for around $1200. Mainly due to the expensive chipset/software - which I think was developed by Ricoh engineers last fall.
Looks like HD DVD stand-alone units will still be the most popular. The WSJournal article stated that to date, only 15,000 Blu-ray stand-alone players have been sold, vs. around 80,000 HD-DVD stand-alone players (includes XBox 360 $199 add-on drive).
PS3 units (over 200,000 sold to date) are primarily used for game software (not Blu-ray movies), although Sony hopes this will change, looking to see more Blu-ray movie discs being purchased in '07.
Talkstr8t @ Jan 4th 2007 9:00PM
Unfortunately, the Panasonic cannot be BD-Live capable, as it lacks network connectivity.
AG @ Jan 5th 2007 12:16PM
"PS3 units (over 200,000 sold to date) are primarily used for game software (not Blu-ray movies), although Sony hopes this will change, looking to see more Blu-ray movie discs being purchased in '07."
The last I checked, the PS3 has sold over 700K in the US and probably close to 1 million by now. Not to mention, most people who do buy a PS3 are going to take advantage of the Blu-Ray dvd player at some point whether it is now or 4-5 years down the road.
Joseph R @ Jan 5th 2007 1:30PM
quote - "The last I checked, the PS3 has sold over 700K in the US and probably close to 1 million by now."
REPLY - Your info is incorrect! According to numerous reports [videobusiness.com, homemediamagazine.com, cepro.com, wsj.com, avsforum.com ETC ETC] - and despite earlier this fall promising between 1 to 2 millon PS3 for launch on Nov 17 (revised downward to 400,000 in early Nov) - Sony ONLY actually sent between 100,000 to 200,000 players to USA dealers during the first couple of weeks, with promises of more units during December [using Air Freight service from Asia].
Also, only 100,000 units were available for retail sales in Japan. The December re-stocks for the USA market were smaller shipments of several thousand at a time. So, based on these industry reports [INCLUDING YESTERDAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL UPDATE], for now [1/4/07] Sony has sold ONLY around 200,000 units - NOT anywhere close to "700,000 sold" you stated above.
Of course, in time I'm sure the PS3 will definitely sell in the millions [look at the legacy PS2 unit with now over 100 million sold to date], but unfortunely for Sony, the analysts who have crunched their numbers [manufacturing costs etc], they will not see any profit on PS3/Blu-ray for at least 2 more years (or into 2009).
Furthur, it's expected that the legacy PS2 will outsell the PS3 for at least 2-3 more years as well [according to industry reports from December]. It's still very popular!
These are the FACTS.
drippers @ Jan 5th 2007 6:59PM
uh dude, PS3/Blu-ray has sold like 1.5 million units world wide so far... hd-dvd has sold like 250k... Blu-ray wins, sorry...
Joseph R @ Jan 6th 2007 9:58PM
idotic quote - "uh dude, PS3/Blu-ray has sold like 1.5 million units world wide so far... hd-dvd has sold like 250k... Blu-ray wins, sorry..."
REPLY: Apparently you failed at math, and can't add. Uh dude, Sony has YET to even "make" 1.5 million PS3 units! Nobody outside of Japan and the USA can even get them yet! Europe doesn't receive any until March!
Recap for clueless... In mid-November, Sony sent 100,000 to Japan and 400,000 to the USA. That's 500,000. And according to industry reports (data supplied from Sony), the company has been sending occasional shipments (via overseas Air Freight every week or so) with estimates of several thousand units per re-supply.
There is NO WAY that as of 1/6/07 Sony is even close to 1.5 million PS3's, or even 1 million! From all of their previous promises with this system, not one has been proven true.
Originally they said "6 million" would be produced and sold within the first 6-9 months. Now we know better. They will be lucky to have that many until well into 2008.
I guess you didn't see the reports about the "blue laser" shortage, which prompted one of Sony's competitors - SHARP - to announce that they also would get into manufacturing blue lasers this year.
Read and learn dude.
isagani @ Jan 7th 2007 5:46PM
Joseph - look around the net; NPD numbers aren't in yet for the holiday shopping period, it's still way too soon for those, but there has already been solid estimates reported on CNBC. Sony looks like they got close to 1M in the US and should have passed that worldwide.
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/02/preliminary-xbox-360-wins-holiday-sales-battle/
Blu-ray has the hardware out there, but whether the PS3 buyers will swing the disc sales enough will remain a mystery for a few years. Blu-ray is poised to win, but who knows - more support and disc space might not be enough if the price of players remain too high. Here's to hoping for more features on discs, lower prices stand alone players, and quality transfers that are worth the upgrade.
Joseph R @ Jan 7th 2007 4:09PM
quote - "Sony looks like they got close to 1M in the US and should have passed that worldwide."
REPLY - You know, why is it that people would rather speculate than read verified industry reports. This poster states the above, yet it's well-known that ONLY two countries in the entire world have PS3's for sale: USA and JAPAN.
That's it! Nowhere else! Sony has repeatedly said that they cannot produce enough units for world-wide supply, and that the other major market (Europe) will not get any units until (at least) March, or even longer!
So much for your "worldwide" sales. Again, I trust the Wall Street Journal's numbers. And as of this past week, they have reported a low number for "actual" USA sales (around 200,000+), and Sony already said that Japan only received around 100,000 units at the lauch date.
All of those Sony promises for USA supply - "6 million, 2 million, 1 million, even the 400,000" - all were bogus according to the WSJournal's reporting.
Now, you add the occasional re-supplies over the last 6 weeks [thousands of units at a time, $hipped via air freight from Asia], and it's still impossible for Sony to have produced anywhere close to 1 million PS3's as 1/7/07!!!
Yes, it WILL happen with time, into the future. But put the prior Press Release estimates in the trash, and look at REAL SALES numbers, as reported by industry sources, and reputed news sources... like the Wall Street Journal.
PS3/Blu-ray is nothing but continued RED INK for Sony's finanical future, with analysts predicting that Sony will not see any profit to well into 2009-2010 at the EARLIEST.
Sony has already spent more than 1 BILLION on this technology - again, this was previously reported back in October.
Joseph R @ Jan 7th 2007 4:09PM
quote - "Sony looks like they got close to 1M in the US and should have passed that worldwide."
REPLY - You know, why is it that people would rather speculate than read verified industry reports. This poster states the above, yet it's well-known that ONLY two countries in the entire world have PS3's for sale: USA and JAPAN.
That's it! Nowhere else! Sony has repeatedly said that they cannot produce enough units for world-wide supply, and that the other major market (Europe) will not get any units until (at least) March, or even longer!
So much for your "worldwide" sales. Again, I trust the Wall Street Journal's numbers. And as of this past week, they have reported a low number for "actual" USA sales (around 200,000+), and Sony already said that Japan only received around 100,000 units at the lauch date.
All of those Sony promises for USA supply - "6 million, 2 million, 1 million, even the 400,000" - all were bogus according to the WSJournal's reporting.
Now, you add the occasional re-supplies over the last 6 weeks [thousands of units at a time, $hipped via air freight from Asia], and it's still impossible for Sony to have produced anywhere close to 1 million PS3's as 1/7/07!!!
Yes, it WILL happen with time, into the future. But put the prior Press Release estimates in the trash, and look at REAL SALES numbers, as reported by industry sources, and reputed news sources... like the Wall Street Journal.
PS3/Blu-ray is nothing but continued RED INK for Sony's finanical future, with analysts predicting that Sony will not see any profit to well into 2009-2010 at the EARLIEST.
Sony has already spent more than 1 BILLION on this technology - again, this was previously reported back in October.