Recent Comments:
DirecTV enjoys fruitful Q1, demand for HD / DVRs to thank {Engadget HD}
May 7th 2008 4:20PM DirecTV also jacked their prices up several times to get that revenue increase. Not only the normal increase, but they forced their longer term subscribers to migrate to a new account type (+ $2) that provided fewer HD channels, but for $5 more you could have them back.
Paramount payoff confirmed by Viacom earnings report {Engadget HD}
May 6th 2008 5:01PM Is it a $29 million payoff, or did it just cover Paramounts expenses for killing their blu-ray line, current and in-progress. They had substantial money tied up in product development that they had to eat. Not to mention some unreleased discs that went into the landfill.
Panasonic's DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player gets US release {Engadget HD}
May 6th 2008 4:48PM Why just those two -- you seem to admit they have a point. It looks to me like Sony is really jacking up the licensing fees to get back all those subsidies. Blu-ray may be the better format technically, but it is also the more expensive one by far. Funny how Sony's PS3 is the only viable choice. Wonder how the other hardware companies feel now about backing Blu-ray.
A&E Television networks launching Crime & Investigation HD channel in Q4 {Engadget HD}
May 6th 2008 11:32AM Don't mind an upconvert, but I do mind it when it's stretched.
Poll: Have you purchased a Blu-ray player post-fallout? {Engadget HD}
May 4th 2008 3:29PM They will never obsolete the current BD players, just as they never obsoleted Mark 1 DVD players that didn't do DTS or progressive output. You might not get all the new features, but if you want to watch BR movies, it will work just fine.
If DRM or any other "improvement" prevented older BD players from viewing future BD discs, the class-action suit would cost billions.
Poll: Have you purchased a Blu-ray player post-fallout? {Engadget HD}
May 4th 2008 3:23PM Anyone who believes that upconverted DVDs are noticeably better than SD alone needs to explain where that added resolution comes from. Same disc, same bits.
If the new player has better resolution with the same bits on the same disc, then the old player was crap, or the scaler in your TV is crap. Or both.
And if you also believe that there is no difference bwteen Blu-ray and DVD then it's CERTAIN that your TV is crap.
Poll: Have you purchased a Blu-ray player post-fallout? {Engadget HD}
May 4th 2008 3:14PM "either they subsidized them or they didn't."
Well, you can take things out of context if you want. Toshiba lost $1 billion on trashing millions of players and parts, and writing off R&D, marketing expenses and all those studio bribes. Not so much in subsidy.
The argument blu-ray apologists make is that current blu-ray prices are no higher than HD DVD would be if they won, and they base this on the "fact" that both sides heavily subsidized players.
At the $299 list of the A3, Toshiba would have broken even or made a small profit. In that sense they were not subsidized. Promotions at $99 or sale prices of $199 would have meant subsidies of between $50-150 depending on actual build cost and retailer arrangements. But nothing like the PS3 subsidy of $500 at launch.
Fast forward to today, where the blu-ray costs have come down some, and HD DVD costs would have too, and you'd have full 1080p HD DVD players under $200. Maybe not the A35, but certainly the A30.
Versus the $399 and $499 that standalone BD players sell for.
Now, I own a blu-ray player and am only buying BR discs. But that doesn't mean I have to believe that BR is the better deal.
Poll: Have you purchased a Blu-ray player post-fallout? {Engadget HD}
May 3rd 2008 2:18PM The idea that Toshiba subsidized the price of their HD DVD players is hogwash. Only hear that from people who were very anti-HDDVD (probably PS3 owners) during the format war.
I've been through the bill of materials for the HD-A2. It's online in the service manual and linked on Wiki. As in engineer with lots of experience in building things and pricing parts, it was pretty clear that the early-2007 cost of the A2/A3 was $150-$250 FOB China.
So, there were some subsidies to get the prince to $200, but not all that much, and certainly not "hundreds." Just another Blu-ray fanatic talking point/delusion.
Now, the PS3, with its multiple Cell CPUs and gobs and gobs of memory, hard drive, graphics, etc, PLUS a blu-ray drive, costs lot and lots more. Probably still costs Sony $400 to build.
Now, HD DVD is dead, and I, for one, welcome my new blu-ray overlords, but can we stop with the propaganda already?
Poll: Have you purchased a Blu-ray player post-fallout? {Engadget HD}
May 3rd 2008 2:08PM I have more money than brains, so I added the Panny BD-30 to my A35. Which meant I had to upgrade my AV system to get more ports/HDMI/audio decoding/etc. Cost quite a bit, actually.
But here's the thing: I'm tired of waiting for stuff. There is ALWAYS a new feature to wait for. I missed the whole Laserdisc thing waiting for this and that. When DVDs came out I bought the first Toshiba player made and then upgraded to a Panny progressive which I still have. Also have an Oppo for for DivX. Turns out that my old Panny progressive and my Sony SXRD ourperform any and all upconverting players I've seen, so not much use for those.
If the Panny BD-50 works as promised and plays DVDs better than the BD-30, I'll probably sell the lot on eBay and just go with that.
But I'm done waiting for stuff. eBay makes that a little less painful.
Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending April 27th, 2008 {Engadget HD}
May 3rd 2008 3:40AM And the $37 unit price is indeed bogus. You would need 10's of thousands of set sales for that. Or is everyone paying list?
