Pioneer says new BDR-103 drive will not be combo

Despite our earlier report that Pioneer's upcoming BDR-103 would be a combo drive, supporting both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, it appears that Pioneer will join the legions of soulless hardware makers that will not be supporting both formats. Our sister blog, HDBeat, reports that those quotes from Pioneer officials were taken out of context and that the company has "no current plans" to make the BDR-103 a combo drive. Why can't everyone just be like Ricoh and all get along?

[Via HDBeat]

[farmok @ Sep 4th 2006 11:59PM]

Does anyone think that maybe Sony or Toshiba could have a hand in this as a means to force people to choose one or another?

[Jeff @ Sep 5th 2006 12:43AM]

Don't be cynical. Collusion between hardware makers - it'll never happen!

[Paco From Del Taco @ Sep 5th 2006 1:20AM]

There will never be a combo drive. One format HAS to die. The CE industry has chosen Blu-Ray, so has the majority of movie studios. I go where the support is.

[jim @ Sep 5th 2006 1:23AM]

Just my opinion but I think Sony and the others are shooting themselves in the foot with this nonsense. They want to get sales up - DVD sales are way down. Who wants to jump into a dead format. If I could by a combo player I wouldn't worry about what format the DVD was as long as it had the highest res - 1080p and best sound DTS HD or DD True HD. I'd actually start replacing many of my DVDs if I could get a high res great sound upgrade. Think about how that might help DVD sales. I bet a lot of people aren't buying standard DVDs, HD DVDs or BR DVDs because they are waiting for the high res, high audio and the promise of a technology they could use for years. A combo player that could handle those items would ensure that.

[south @ Sep 5th 2006 1:38AM]

one day in the future, one of these formats will announce that they're stopping production and R&D, and no-one will care because we've all been downloading HD video for years from iTunes or whatever replaces it. hell, even after all this time i still cannot buy either device and then go to my local video store to rent a good movie in that format. and i'm in tokyo, where i can buy any kind of tech i want! that can't be a good omen for anyone.

[Dave @ Sep 5th 2006 3:00AM]

Ha ... ha ... ha! Again!

HD DVD fanboys loose every posible way to have other than toshiba hardware? Shame!
I cant wait to see how long tosh will hang over before crashing in the wall. The money they loose to sell underpriced units is going to lead to disaster to them!

Blu-Ray (even it had a 6 month delay start) is cathing up a lot faster ;) Just wait for the big Players to jump in. Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Apple, TDK, ........ the 120+ big companys and HD DVD is done forever.

[Nexus @ Sep 5th 2006 3:16AM]

Dave, you summed it up beautifully

"Blu-Ray (even it had a 6 month delay start) is cathing up a lot faster"

Yeps, they're cathing all over the show...

[Franssu @ Sep 5th 2006 7:27AM]

Has any of you fanboys contemplated the possibility that BOTH formats will fail miserably ?

Blu-Ray is another interesting format, just like Betamax and UMD. HD-DVD makes more sense from a practical point of view (player is less expensive, discs are easier to make) but has not enough support because the other one had the clever idea to create just another useless DRM layer.

Even dual-format players have not saved DVD-A and SACD from oblivion. And with all the dual-format players that have been announced and cancelled, I really think there's something evil somewhere in the licensing terms.

In fact, I really hope both will fail. The CE industry deserves this for two reasons : not being able to get their act together, and putting the studios before the consumers.

[Paco From Del Taco @ Sep 5th 2006 9:28AM]

Franssu

You'd have to be a complete idiot to NOT put the studios first. No studio support = NO CONTENT. No content = NO CONSUMER. Open your eyes.

[Franssu @ Sep 5th 2006 10:13AM]

Paco From Del Taco, you wouldn't believe the formats that are not officially supported by the studios, but on which they nevertheless agreed to release some content. For example, there's a red-laser HD disc format, called HVD DVD, on which you can find some big-studios titles. If there's a market, they'll release their stuff, period.
The CE industry represents hendreds of times the money of big content companies. Of course they need the content, but then the studios need the hardware to sell thair precious content. The interests of these industries are NOT the same. Without DRM, we could all buy tons of gadgets and enjoy the content we bought on all of them. With DRM, the choice is limited, and therefore some people don't bother buying gadgets that won't play their legitimately acquired content.
Anyway, it's simple. If big content doesn't want me to watch their stuff, then I won't buy it. Their "screw the consumer" attitude is doomed to bite their asses.

[Mark @ Sep 7th 2006 12:22AM]

As far as industry stakes go (most bets on BRD), Sony has more to lose by allowing BRD to exist with HD-DVD on a combo player, thus I'd venture to guess that Sony is the puppetmaster here.

This is also consistent with my observations that Sony holds it's industry partner's interests above that of the consumer, who of course would hugely benefit from a combo player.