Recent Comments:
Lack of competition sends Blu-ray player prices upward {Engadget HD}
Mar 12th 2008 10:56PM Bah; they're losing, all right. With mainstream press terrorizing people about the looming recession that's been here for nearly three months now (yeah you read that right) that will last all of 6 months but be the worst recession in American history and will have minimum impact yet drop the entire world into a deep recession (yeah I know those contradict) it's time for consumers to tighten their belts and get spending.
I know there's contradiction there. All you have to do is pay attention to major American news outlets to get all that. It's no wonder nobody wants to do anything; the impression is that nobody knows what the frick is going on, and all we know is that banks are doing forced selling to recoup from their bad debt, and buying into energy futures, and anything the Fed does causes further drops in most stocks but rises in energy. Not even reality has affected energy futures, as (surprise!) demand has started to go down.
In short, I hate election years.
And really, all I can do as a private citizen is gripe at my elected officials and wait. If I pull my money out of the bank, and a substantial number of people do it, the banks fail and our money is worthless. If the banks fail and my money's in it, my money's worthless. And every major outlet, including the Wall Street Journal, is screaming at me that the banks will definitely fail. Yeah...some of these same guys probably also thought the tech gravy train and the housing gravy train would never end, so take it with a Texas-sized grain of salt...but do you really think that, in that climate, and with people struggling to pay bills already, that Blu-Ray players and HDTVs are a priority? Only to fools.
Back on task, yeah, I think the BDA is only cutting their own throats by freezing out Chinese manufacturers and by keeping prices high. This is looking to be another DVD-A vs. SACD war...oh well, at least DVDs don't look too bad on my HD-A3. Hopefully it'll hold up a couple of years, eh? ;-)
Samsung kills BD-UP5500 combo player before it ever truly lived {Engadget HD}
Mar 7th 2008 1:36AM Eh, it just makes good business sense. If you have a reputation for building junk, and by many reports the 5000 was junk, who's going to spend that kind of money on junk except idiots?
Remember, some of those same idiots that would buy one of these also bought fairly small million-dollar homes with variable-rate mortages and without having the income to support it LOL
In all seriousness, I'm sure other posters hit it on the head; it was likely going to go from expensive to impossible to build dual-format players, and with Toshiba doing the incredibly quick axe of the HD DVD format, it just didn't make good sense anymore.
No, I've not taken advantage of those killer sales yet. I'm still mulling it over. With all the gloom and doom over the economy, I'm a little nervous about spending money on frivolous things...and yeah, I realize that not spending right now only compounds the problem, but like a lot of people, to spend loads of cash right now it'd have to be on credit, which ALSO adds to the problem.
I'm still keeping an eye on falling prices, though. Haven't bought yet, and as I've said here and elsewhere before, I waited a long time for DVD, and I can sure as heck wait for BD. :->
Pioneer "reviewing" plasma business, probably on the way out {Engadget HD}
Mar 4th 2008 2:25PM I just feel sorry for anyone who ever bought one of their plasma TVs. Poor deluded fools, actually thinking that plasma was a good idea LOL yeah have fun burning your wall and a shorter life than a picture tube chumps
Maxell to no longer manufacture discs, blow customers away {Engadget HD}
Mar 4th 2008 2:20PM Same here. I've had nothing but good luck with their MiniDV tapes, and nothing but bad luck with everything else I've ever tried.
Warner's Michael Clayton reviewed on Blu-ray and HD DVD {Engadget HD}
Mar 2nd 2008 11:23AM Ah, but until retailers throw away their entire stock of players, in front of the world, and until they and/or Toshiba give full refunds PLUS the difference toward a Blu-Ray player, the hatchet job must continue!
Warner's Michael Clayton reviewed on Blu-ray and HD DVD {Engadget HD}
Mar 2nd 2008 11:20AM @minimalist:
I see DVDs with multiple angles all the time. Just check the back room of your local video rental place (if they have such a room.)
A comprehensive list of present and future Blu-ray players {Engadget HD}
Feb 28th 2008 12:09AM Ssh...the BD fanboys don't want to be reminded, yet again, that HD actually had advantages over BD. Keep it up and they'll have to work all night to find tidbits that EngadgetHD can use for the dead-horse flogging contest!
A comprehensive list of present and future Blu-ray players {Engadget HD}
Feb 27th 2008 11:33PM Well, the HD DVD players were (more or less) just computers masquerading as standalone players, but yeah, at the prices BD manufacturers are charging, I kinda figured that BD players were mostly just computers...and most smaller form-factor boards have RJ-45 jacks...
Dreamworks Animation isn't ready to quit HD DVD yet {Engadget HD}
Feb 27th 2008 9:25AM Okay, I've been harping on the dead-horse flogging match that Engadget has become, but bravo--you found an actual relevant story! There's still some post-mortem flagellation going on, along with the same sorts of baseless accusations that make Sony fanboys bristle (but it's okay if you're talking about Toshiba since they're evil, right? ;-) but this is a damn funny story.
Well, maybe not so funny. I can't think that Dreamworks would do this without a damn good reason. Maybe you hit the nail on the head. Or maybe Toshiba just hasn't released 'em from their contract. That would be sort of funny in and of itself; hey, guys, we quit the business, but that doesn't let you off the hook, yo?
Am I right in thinking that disc manufacturing can continue without Toshiba, or were they an essential cog in the process?
Netflix switching queued HD DVDs to DVDs? {Engadget HD}
Feb 27th 2008 12:45AM I could have sworn I read about this a week or so ago.
Though right now I can't find it, I could have sworn it was on either Engadget or EngadgetHD. Maybe it was in a comment.
Keep floggin' that dead horse, EngadgetHD!
