LG's BD300 Netflix / Blu-ray deck gets delayed
[Thanks, Jeffrey]
Update: Seems that only some retailers are getting their shipments delayed -- hopefully you get lucky.
Posts with tag delay


It seems that SED's reign as the most perpetually delayed television technology in recent memory may be getting a run for its money, as the Laser TV sets we were totally expecting (ahem) by Christmas aren't making it onto Santa's sleigh after all. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, vice-president of Arasor Scott Wilkie admitted that the sets wouldn't be available by the year's end, but he unsurprisingly passed the blame onto "other key component manufacturers" that "haven't quite ramped up as fast as was expected." Still, Frank DeMartin, vice-president of marketing and product development at Mitsubishi Digital Electronics, supposedly stated that we could see some Laser TV-based announcement at CES 2008, but we wouldn't be shocked if it was simply an updated timetable and a subtle plea for patience. January's just around the bend -- hopefully this will get sorted out soon enough.
MGM's release schedule for the holiday season is getting thinner and thinner. 'Ronin' and 'Red Dawn' are the latest casualties, with both being put on indefinite delay for "marketing reasons." That brings the list of MGM Q4 vaporware announcements to five: 'Battle of Britain' and 'A Bridge Too Far' were pulled last week, and 'The Amityville Horror' was yanked back in October. So what's left? Well, 'Rescue Dawn' now has the dubious distinction as the sole MGM Blu-ray release left for 2007. MGM's been on team blue from day one, and since they're signed up with Fox for home distribution that's not going to change. But with friends like these, who needs enemies?
Bad news from Samsung today: the high-end BDP-2400 Blu-ray deck has been cancelled, and the dual format BD-UP5000 has been delayed. The linked article speculates that the BDP-2400 has fallen victim to the transition to BD 1.1 spec, which occurs on October 31. Worst of all, mum's the word on when/whether Samsung plans on making a 1.1 spec player available. For those who didn't have their heart set on Blu-ray, the bad news is that Samsung has delayed their dual format BD-UP5000 player until December. The silver lining to this December delay could be twofold: the unit will be at least up to BD 1.1 spec conformance; and now this unit's arrival might coincide with your holiday wishlist.
There are a lot of puzzled people out there wondering what the hell the holdup is with the CableCARD PCs that supposedly launched. We have, after all, been promised CableCARD media PCs since Vista's launch in January; a couple early units have made it into the hands of extreme early adopters, but where are all the rest? Well, we finally have some answers from a trusted source close to the situation: ATI's stopped shipping CableCARD tuners to OEMs, and put pressure on its partners to hold off on further sales until it can get some issues worked out. The unfortunate irony here is that the bugs holding untold numbers of potential users back are relatively minor, only affecting switching between digital and analog in a very small number of Scientific Atlanta networks -- in other words, definitely not a showstopper, just an inconvenience. ATI's apparently already got a firmware remedy for the issue and sent it off for certification weeks ago, but once CableLABS is involved you know things aren't going to be pretty (or expeditious). The good news is ATI is expected to resume shipping DCTs at the end of this month, meaning your wait -- which you recently resumed -- will once again be over for those who haven't already thrown their arms to the air and snagged a TiVo Series3.
We hoped to see the first second generation Blu-ray player this month, but Samsung's BD-P1200 has been delayed. Pocket-Lint.co.uk learned from Samsung's marketing manager that the player has been delayed until October in the U.S., and may not launch at all in the UK before 3rd generation hardware becomes available by Christmas. Stoking the hybrid player rumors even more, he said they could "launch a hybrid player or a Blu-ray recorder tomorrow" but are waiting to see what other companies announce. Although Samsung is a Blu-ray supporter, they recently announced an HD DVD-equipped laptop, and have leaked plans for a hybrid player before. Still, October is a long time to wait for an improved player, especially while second generation HD DVD players and PlayStation 3 are on store shelves. DTV Tivo Dealer on AVS Forum, who previously informed us of a delay in the HD-A2, has heard there will be limited quantities available as soon as April. We don't know who to believe until hardware is actually on the shelf, but we're hoping a low priced hybrid player mysteriously appears tomorrow.
There's not too many technologies that eventually surfaced after hitting as many snags as these long-awaited SED TVs, but it looks like the final hurdle may finally be overcome. Canon has just announced that it will buy out Toshiba's stake in the pair's joint venture in order to get that pesky Nano-Proprietary patent lawsuit off their collective backs. The lawsuit claimed that its original agreement to license technology to Canon did not extend to Toshiba, thus presenting quite the quandary when Toshiba kept trying to get its SED displays out to showroom floors. SED TV production, however, is still up in the air, as Canon said that prior plans to erect a $1.49 billion manufacturing facility in Japan is now "under review," and an analyst even mentioned that the company might end up "reconsidering growth drivers to replace SED." Nevertheless, Canon is still clinging to the idea of popping out SEDs for now, although it was mentioned that it would be "on a smaller scale," which isn't apt to give these elusive sets any kind of price advantage whenever it lands. Interestingly, Toshiba still stated that if things went smoothly, it would buy some of the manufactured SED displays directly from Canon and throw its own logo on it, theoretically bypassing the lawsuit and simultaneously snubbing Nano-Proprietary. But hey, we've got no qualms with a little joint venture competition, and considering how every other HDTV price is falling through the floor, we'll bet they need it.


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