It's just one small step on the rough road towards a unified player that will bring peace and unity to a consumer electronics world torn by format war -- or something like that -- but
NEC just announced that they're now shipping a dual-format chip that can power the playback of Blu-ray as well as HD DVD discs. We've still got to wait for a optical pick-up lens that can handle the dual formats, but supposedly
Ricoh has that in the bag, so no worries, right? Well, we suppose there are a million things that could go wrong along the way, but so far most manufacturers are holding to their "early 2007" predictions for the hybrid player, with NEC promising monthly chip shipments of 300,000 by April of '07. The good news is that the chips will be selling for 10,000 yen ($84 US), which is roughly equivalent to the current costs for chips that only read one format. Also, it seems much more likely that the tech industry will be launching a hybrid player in the near future than the relatively far-fetched concept of the major studios getting behind some sort of
all-in-one disc format, so it's good to see the likes of NEC and Ricoh really busting this stuff out.
[Via
Akihabara]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wonderboy @ Oct 10th 2006 9:52AM
This is the answer... very exciting.
I wonder what this will do to release dates though. Me? I'll be waiting two weeks after a movie is released to find out which format (HDDVD/BD, for studios that release both formats) has better quality before I go out and buy it. Really doubt it'll phase most people though, they'll just go buy which ever their silly minds claim to be "superior".
Deluxe @ Oct 10th 2006 9:52AM
Delicious. I doubt either of the two formats will 'win' or 'lose', and things like single-format players will become something of a novelty, like a DVD drive that's + or - only.
smokeyb @ Oct 10th 2006 10:25AM
I am SOOOO investing in NEC. lol
Dave @ Oct 10th 2006 12:28PM
NEC steps into blu again?
Oh, this is really great news for HD DVD! :D
Tom @ Oct 10th 2006 5:38PM
Frankly I don't like any of the solutions coming out. You've got Xbox 360 with it's HD-DVD only and PS3 with it's Bluray only and you've got several expensive standalone machines of both types and now this potential hybrid but of course it doesn't play games... this whole thing is pissing me off. I think I'll just stick to DVDs.
bigRoN @ Oct 11th 2006 12:45AM
I like the fact that we may at some point get to use EITHER format. I would really like to have a HD-capable movie playback player. My current bent is toward Blu-Ray, but if one studio only goes with one format, I don't want to have to suffer by not getting that movie. Despite what some people have said about current standard DVDs... I can EASILY tell the difference between upscaled DVDs and true HDTV. On bigger screens, I can fairly easily tell the difference between the different HDTV formats. In live action (as opposed to animation), look at the facial textures. Except for extremely rare instances, you will never see normal skin pores on an actor's face in standard DVD, yet it is quite common in HDTV. Granted, many older films have a lot of film grain, to soften the picture, but most newer films you can see this. Unfortunately, this also makes picking out CG in live action films standout as well. I can clearly see edges between an actor and false background around them. As my job allows for me to waste time ona regular basis, I tend to visit many home theater stores. I don't know what the movie was that was showing, but the best quality video I've seen of a movie was playing on a Samsung BD player on a Sony 60" SXRD, that was connected via the HDMI... it made me want to go buy a MegaMillions lottery ticket. (Although if I had all the right numbers, I'd actually be looking at getting the Sony SRX-R110 projector.)
Jimowen800 @ Oct 11th 2006 2:12AM
Well either way, we in Australia have to wait FOREVER. But in a way that's good cos by the time anything gets to Australia, we here have had the chance to see how good, or not so good, it is and companies have made their final decisions of which format they will or will not support which therefore allows us to make a better and more informed choice on which brand we waste our money on.