http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/ Engadget Comments for Universal announces impending HD DVD price drop http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/Jun 15th 2006 11:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/

]]>Jun 15th 2006 12:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
WeeJames these are brand new cases, they'll probably have new ones later.

If anyone bases their choice of HDDVD/BR on the prices and technology out right now, you're going to get no where. Keep up with the news and let either/both technologies sink in.]]>Jun 15th 2006 12:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/Jun 15th 2006 12:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
No, but the $5 difference is $5 less than what they expect their competetiors to charge. In the end, I don't think it'll matter since the extra $5 isn't going to matter much for early adopters.]]>Jun 15th 2006 12:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
Till then, I wont bother. ]]>Jun 15th 2006 1:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
"...Blu-ray has six of the seven major movie studios behind it: Disney, Fox, MGM, Sony, Warner Bros., and Paramount. Meanwhile, HD DVD has lost some of its luster. Longtime ally Warner Bros. — the studio that worked hardest to make the DVD a success — now supports both formats, leaving Universal the only
studio completely in the HD DVD camp."

This would seem to indicate there is going to be a much wider selection of titles in Blu-Ray format as opposed to HD-DVD. The same way that space on the media over quality of the the media was the deciding factor in the VHS/Beta wars, I think availablity of titles may be the biggest deciding factor in consumers choosing their HD player preference.In either case, both formats may end up losing out if the HD war drags on too long. It may simply be bypassed by the HVD (http://www.hvd-alliance.org) format. Following quote from Sound and Vision Feb 2006:

"HVD With Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD slated to hit stores in the coming months, it's amusing to think that both formats could be bested by yet another disc format: Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD). The massive potential storage capacity of HVD — one terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) on a single disc — easily trumps the other two formats. That's enough to hold 80 hours of HDTV! The technology, which was invented by Japanese company Optware, uses two lasers: a green one that reads holographically encoded data on the disc's recording layer, and a red one that reads tracking information on a second layer. There aren't any products yet, but Optware has formed an "HVD alliance" with other Japanese companies to promote and standardize the technology, and backers include Toshiba. Optware predicts it will have low-cost HVD drives available as early as 2007."

Think about the TV shows now available on DVD. A standard hour show with a 24 episode season could fit 4 1/2 seasons on one HVD. An entire series of most 30 minute shows. Look at the "complete" James Bond or the newly released "Planet of the Apes" collection. These could also fit to one disc. 2007 is not that far away for a working player.]]>Jun 15th 2006 1:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/Jun 15th 2006 2:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
" Q What impact will HVD have on the conventional optical disk such as DVD?
A With the wide acceptance of HDTV, HVD will form a new segment in optical disk market for consumers. HVD will eventually replace DVD."

There is no way it will replace DVD (or the HD formats), if it does not at some point come in at a comparable pricepoint. Considering one of their goals is to become the replacement format I would think they know pricing will be a factor. Also, consider the disc is actually a DVD with a with added layers (http://www.hvd-alliance.org/abouthvd/technology.html), so they are literally just building on top of current DVD technology:

"Then, does HVD need special, sophisticated servo technology? The answer is "No." The servo technology and the address pits are, in fact, not different from those used in the current CD and DVD players and disks. The laser which is used to read address pits is 650nm red laser, also common with DVD players in the market.

Another layer called “Dichroic Mirror Layer” is placed between the holographic recording layer and the substrate to block the green or blue laser, which are used to read/write holographic information, to reach address pits, thus eliminates noise.

To make a long story short, HVD is a disc the holographic recording layer of which is formed on top of a conventional optical disk."

This is why people keep bringing it up.]]>Jun 15th 2006 3:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
I mean, with VHS and Beta-Max, VHS beat it to the market by years... Plus, this was the first time that home playback of movies was available - ever. And VHS lasted about 20 years, we're only maybe 5 years into the popularity of DVDs, and what? We have more stuff?

Please, people, it's just too much hype, only a fraction of upper middle class people will actually buy this crap and only because they feel it makes them more elite than the next guy.

Well, that's the truth about tech, take it or leave it.]]>Jun 15th 2006 3:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
]]>Jun 15th 2006 4:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
Yes, for a tech person, it does seem expensive and rather "not needed" in terms of viable alternatives. However, HD-DVD and Blu-ray ultimately want to appeal to the avergae consumer, and they will not know how to make a HTPC and so forth. They want a box which they can put a disc in, and magical fairies will somehow know how to make a picture appear on their television, and their speakers to map audio.

Most consumers will wait until the prices on the hardware goes down in price (just like DVD) and both camps are betting on this. They will make as much as they can on early adapters, then start to trickle down better and less expensive units as production costs and operating costs decrease over the next couple of years.
]]>Jun 15th 2006 6:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/Of course they also already have HD-DVDs available for $19.49 and $23.99.

So really they're the same price right now on the street, which might mean that the price cut of $5 might end up making HD DVDs streetable for as little as $15.

There's really no demand for the movies now though since nobody owns a frickin' player, so I'd imagine that it's actually pretty hard to sell anything.]]>Jun 16th 2006 3:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/Jun 16th 2006 10:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/Jun 16th 2006 11:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
Yes. The exception being Warner Brothers who is currently sitting on the fence and supporting both formats. Until one emreges as the standard your going to need a player for each format to play all your movies. That or limit your purchases to one format.]]>Jun 20th 2006 1:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/15/universal-annouces-impending-hd-dvd-price-drop/
-Woodie]]>Jun 11th 2007 5:54PM