Recent Comments:
Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics gets reviewed {Engadget HD}
Mar 25th 2008 4:27PM It has TrueHD on it
Vizio becomes Wal-Mart's Electronics Supplier of the Year {Engadget HD}
Mar 9th 2008 7:26PM "It is not a bad brand as others here have sugested. And it is an american brand."
Nope, it's a front for a Chinese OEM, just like Westinghouse (before the Toshiba takeover), Polaroid (TV division), Apex, Cyberhome and all the other weird offbrands. So far Apex and Cyberhome have been taken down due to non-payment of royalties among other reasons. I hope for your sake, your set doesn't break after a few years (it will, none of that junk is designed to last much past the warranty period), and Vizio doesn't have any actual repair shops, and refuses to support sets out of warranty.
http://hdguru.com/?p=107
Rockstar working 'around the clock' to quell 360's Bully issues {Joystiq}
Mar 6th 2008 2:17PM My 360 is a Falcon board, and I have had 3 hard locks on the game
Blu-ray players grab 93 percent of market after Warner went Blu {Engadget}
Jan 23rd 2008 1:22PM And for those on the "cheap" train, Toshiba is selling HD DVD players at a $100+ loss, which at a nickle a disc (and that's being incredibly generous) worth of royalties will require over 2000 HD DVDs sold, MINIMUM to make back that investment. Keep in mind, they've taken this hit on EVERY player they've sold since the beginning (Their loss has been as high as $200 a player).
Playstation, before anyone brings it up, makes $8-10 a game in royalties, requiring a far more realistic return rate.
Meanwhile, Blu-ray decks are higher, or in actuallity, realistically priced. The retailer makes a profit, the manufacturer makes a profit. HD DVD player margins per dollar are less than half of what the retailers make on Blu.
"If these numbers are based on PS3's, how many kids will purchase a blueray movie versus a game"
PS3, nor the 360 addon are included in these figures.
And anyone who thinks that the CEs aren't racing for that magic $199 mark as fast as is practical is insane. They want fast, mass market adoption because they make at best $5 a DVD player, and the studios want it because they want a format whose copy protection isn't cracked wide open. Both sides like Disney (huge investment in Blu promotion in advertising), Fox (spent tens of millions financing the creation of BD+), Panasonic (owns more Blu-ray patents than anyone, including Sony), and the retailers (because they'll move a ton more players). More players=more discs sold= lower software prices.
Blu-ray players grab 93 percent of market after Warner went Blu {Engadget}
Jan 23rd 2008 1:11PM "Sinai, that's why I was hoping HD-DVD would win. It wasn't created by a company that also has its own movie studio."
Totally wrong. Toshiba up until less than a year ago when they sold it DID own their own movie studio in Japan. They distributed US films like Riddick, Band of Brothers, Equilibrium and more.
And Microsoft is looking to buy Universal from GE as we speak.
Rock Band drum kit hacked for Windows {Engadget}
Nov 23rd 2007 2:11AM You can't use it as a midi controller for drums, well not as one that'll be any good as a drum kit
They're not velocity sensetive, it's either on or off. Digital, not the analog you want
SlySoft's latest AnyDVD beta cracks BD+ {Engadget}
Nov 8th 2007 12:29AM "I personally have nothing but contempt for the entire movie industry for blanket assuming all people are pirates. In a world where the realisation that DRM is a complete wast of time, the movie companies roll out the most irritating versions yet."
You have now hit upon the point of copy protection. It's to be extremely annoying so all but the most dedicated users don't bother. The fact that it's taken them 6 weeks to crack the first implementation of BD+ means it was very effective, as about 50% of a disc's overall sales happen in that first month.
They'll just roll out a different implementation of BD+ and patch for this one. You can write a new version of it every day of the week if you want to, unlike AACS it's completely software based.
Bumblebee... in paper {Engadget}
Aug 18th 2007 3:15PM That's not Bumblebee, that's a yellow thing from that Robot movie
Bumblebee is a Volkswagon, and has little horn things
Toshiba selling $99 HD DVD player, with a catch {Engadget}
Jul 15th 2007 12:54PM This show is for retailers and rental stores
They're hoping that the little guys (who are the ones who go to it a lot) will buy a player, like what they see, and then start ordering HD DVDs for their stores.
Toshiba is seriously loss leadering their players in a struggle to survive, $299? That's essentially their cost on the thing. In fact they're selling them to retailers at over $300 each, and then refunding the difference when they sell the units (did I mention that they're non-returnable? That's a big issue for the indy retailers, and did I also mention that you MUST stock HD DVD to stock Toshiba products at all?)
Yes, it is a move of desperation, since they're now essentially locked out of the biggest rental store on earth(the existing test stores will not be ordering new HD DVDs, and their mail order is a small segment of the buis), and Movie Gallery (#2) is currently in such financial straights that they're struggling for credit to purchase new DVDs, let alone expand to HD.
Newest AACS circumvented: The Matrix Trilogy set free {Engadget}
May 17th 2007 2:45PM They should have been smart and banned PC playback of the discs. You don't make the drive, it kills the casual piracy market.
Pirates could very well have BD+ in place (in fact I'd say it's quite likely, since this is about the time the discs should start showing up), and they can revise that daily if they want to with completely new systems.
