Blu-Ray hardware, titles to hit stores May 23rd
By Evan Blass 
posted February 27th 2006 8:00PM
posted February 27th 2006 8:00PM
After years of waiting and hundreds of
Engadget posts, the much-anticipated but seemingly just-out-of-reach high definition optical disc technology known
as Blu-ray has finally, at long last, been given an official launch date by Sony. Early-adopters, you have just under
three months to lie, cheat, and steal your way to getting off on Tuesday, May 23, because that's when you'll need to be
on a 12-hour line at Best Buy to get your anxious little mitts on a Samsung BD-P1000 and eight critically acclaimed
launch titles such as "Resident Evil Apocalypse," "XXX," and "A Knight's Tale"- with
another eight classics like "Species" and "SWAT" to follow on June 13th. Also available soon after
launch will be more Blu-ray hardware, including Pioneer's BDP-HD1, Sony's BDP-S1, and several BD-equipped
Vaio PCs, also from Sony. As we'd heard before, the Samsung player will retail for around a grand, and Sony will be charging
$23.45 for new flicks and $17.95 for catalog titles.[Via Zatz Not Funny]
So anyone know what's going to happen with the region-free thing ? Are Blu/HD movies region coded ? And I believe the HD players will still play standard DVDs - are they going to be region free players ?
hd movies? sweeeet! full resolution restricted to HDMI only? go screw yourself. watch as this goes the way of dvd-audio and the super audio cd.
honestly this isn't a very big jump in terms of advancement. the mp3 format (mainly) and all the other audio codecs are the true successors to the CD, i see movies going the same way in some hi-def file format... as soon as a a higher speed internet is more commonly available.
Re: post #47
I own a Mitsu 73" HDMI display (fresh from the factory in 9-05) and it only accepts 1080p input from the Firewire port. Go figure. That was the best out there at the time. It's not easy to see what these players can do, as detailed specs on these upcoming players are sparse. I think we'll just have to wait and see what is possible with 1st gen 1080p HDTVs. Although regular 1080i content looks superb, so perhaps it won't matter between 1080i and 1080p.
The new Sharp blue-ray dvd recorder supports besides the 25GB blue-ray DVD also the former 4.7GB DVDs. If I read the english translation right it has a twin tray to digitally dub a standard DVD to blue-ray disc. The BD-HD100 has a 160GB hard-drive and a digital tuner. The DVD recorder has the HDMI digital interface.
I wish everyone would just relax. Ultimately the Market will decide which format triumphs, if any, as I suspect hybrid players will ultimately take the cake. Compatability will be worked out. Early adopters always pay the premium, but the rest of us reap the benefits. Look at DVD players. First ones were priced in the thousands of dollars. Now I can pick up one for $40 that plays better than those first offered.
Additionaly, what has me so excited is the storage capacity of these discs. There is so much potential there. I want to know when a Blu-ray Recorders (specifically BD-RE - rewritable) for PCs will be available. Those will open up a world of possiblities for storage/backup/archiving/transportation.
Do they want Blu to fail?! What's with these movies :|
Glad they're finally getting them to market though.
I found this Microsoft's employee's posts on the format war very informative, despite being partisan.
http://slashdot.org/~benwaggoner
I just want to point out that the prices Engadget says ,the 23.95 and 17.95, are retail prices here and wholesale prices on the page it links too. Which is correct? If these are wholesale prices there is no way i will be buying any of these B rate movies in Hi-Def.
I suppose the Blue-Ray players do not have an upconvert function for current gen DVD's.
I'm waiting.
"VHS vs. Betamax - VHS won
MultiMedia Compact Disc (Sony & Philips) vs. Super Density Disc"
here are 2 more that might be a good deal more applicable:
MD vs. DCC
SACD vs. DVD-A
in BOTH those cases *neither* format "won" any sort of great marketshare victory over already established 'old' or 'inferior' formats.
MD vs. DCC is expecially telling... in that both those formats were DRM-slathered from the beginning. the DRM-free CD-R is what eventually kicked both their asses around the block. what everyone wanted in the beginning ... recordable CDs... and what both Phillips and Sony refused to initially supply them with... instead offering the crap of DCC and MD... is what the consumers eventually got to have.
point being... if you don't want some DRM restricted crap like Blu-Ray of HD-DVD... but would like the HD quality. wait. and don't buy either. you'll eventually get what you want.
"high grade monster cable"
hahahahahaaahahah....sony fans are such mindless brand slaves. Monster cable is overpriced junk aimed at big-box impulse buyers. I agree with buying decent cabling, but monster cable just isn't it.
NOTE: Over standard Component your resolution will be limited to 480/540p.
This is not a limit of the technology of Component cables but rather a FORCED limitation of copy protection schemes forced onto the manufacturers by the movie studios (no shocking surprise in Blu-Rays case the company is both movie studio and hardware manufacturer).
Ridiculous.
wouldnt spiderman 2 be a better choice on blu-ray
Blu-ray is better than hd-dvd. I will own it on launch, along with a new hdtv.
I am a little late here so this probably won't get read, but I just have to say a few things. First of all, it is still very much to be determined who will win the format war. For all of those people saying they are going to go with HD DVD simply because it is cheaper - you may be the ones who get laughed at. Cheap doesn't mean a thing if there is no content available. Sony's Blu-Ray appears to have alot more backing from the studios at this time. As for playing CDs, if this becomes important, this will likely be fixed with a firmware update; the hardware - red laser is present. I do agree that the difference is not as big as VHS to DVD transition, but in this age of $2000 dollar projectors capable of producing good 100" images another $1000 will get you a stellar image for the cinema experience at home. At a total of $3000 - $4,000 that is considerably cheaper than the much less impressive picture offered by many plasma tvs sold to those who are more concerned with how thin there tv is than they are with whether or not they can actually stand to look at the images it produces. I guess the old saying, "to each his own" rings true once again.
HDMI can support 1080p, but it depends on the company to fully support it. As always info can be found on Google if you want to know more, but here is a short answer => http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11246_7-6388574.html
What I don't understand is why people are saying ditch BD and go HD because of AACS. They both use the same standards and both will have restrictions on first-gen hardware (for the life on me I cannot understand why it takes so long for these standards to be finalized... too many chefs in the kitchen I think. *sigh* I'm looking forward to BD if it can survive but I've been waiting for years for DVD-R DL media to be fully realized! I've lost so much faith in the DVD-Forum over this x.x).