Hands-on: Sony shows off prototype 400-disc Blu-ray Mega Changer

Once again, Sony's booth was front and center upon entering the CEDIA floor, and while most everything there was as advertised, this one particular unit stuck out. Yeah, maybe it just caught out eye because it's around the size of a small refrigerator, but upon speaking with a company representative, we learned that it's actually a 400-disc Blu-ray Mega Changer. The unit on hand was simply there for demonstrative purposes, but Sony intends to launch the BD-Live-capable, RS-232 port-packin' beast in early 2009. There's no word on whether it will ever interface with HTPCs, but we wouldn't count on it. Head on over to Engadget HD for a closer look.

[Bigfoot @ Sep 4th 2008 5:17PM]

400 Blu-Ray discs? Ouch @ people's wallets if they can fill that up.

[brandon @ Sep 4th 2008 6:08PM]

Lets see....
Average BD Player runs $400......
400 BD Players combined.......... Around $160,000
No thanks, I'll just change the disk myself.......

[mm3guy @ Sep 4th 2008 7:28PM]

@Brandon Your logic is a little messed up there, this is a disc CHANGER. It will have one player, and it manages the discs inside. You select a movie out of your 400-disc selection that lies within it, it selects that disc and puts it into the internal player. Though, no doubt this will be expensive. I'll estimate that this will cost $20,000 at the least. And for the discs, at $45 a piece average, it will cost you around $18,000 for the discs alone. And most of those movies will be crap anyways.

[konshuss @ Sep 4th 2008 5:18PM]

can't wait til there are actually enough titles to fill this up.

[pito189 @ Sep 4th 2008 6:20PM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray

"As of August 27, 2008 more than 780 Blu-ray Disc titles have been released in the United States and more than 480 Blu-ray Disc titles have been released in Japan. By the end of 2008, there is expected to be a total of 1220 Blu-ray Disc titles released in the United States."

To put an end to any confusion. =)

[Backlin @ Sep 4th 2008 6:40PM]

So that means you can buy four of these units and you should be covered for a couple of years.

[konshuss @ Sep 4th 2008 10:42PM]

and i'm sure out of that amazingly huge collection i'm going to want the vast majority of those movies in my player... really.

[deyanimay @ Sep 4th 2008 5:18PM]

Jutebox

[Banimal @ Sep 4th 2008 5:20PM]

And its cost will exceed the total income per capita of etheopia

[cripkd @ Sep 5th 2008 3:54AM]

You probably mean their whole buget, per capita means per person, so I guess there's no many countries (in the us its 33-34k per year) that has a per capita income higher than this unit would cost.
In ethiopia anything cheaper than 130 usd would be too expensive apparently so your joke is faulty.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Sep 5th 2008 2:26AM]

That's around (+/-) $300 per year per capita.

[MastrCake @ Sep 4th 2008 5:19PM]

Massive Blu-Ray Pr0n collections, anybody?

http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/12/will-you-be-watching-high-def-porn-on-hd-dvd-or-blu-ray/

[Fraggle Fraggle @ Sep 4th 2008 5:20PM]

looks like a big creepy microwave

[Mark @ Sep 4th 2008 5:22PM]

Wow, this is so much more convenient then a hard driver server!

[Ashley Allen @ Sep 4th 2008 5:24PM]

I would really like one of these, as ripping a Blu-ray collection to HDD just isn't very economic. But I'd like to see them with multiple players inside so I can have this fridge tucked away and various TV around the house can watch different Blu-rays and a time. Then have them daisychainable so when there are enough Blu-rays worth buying you can just add-on as needed.

[Jayflash @ Sep 4th 2008 5:22PM]

400 bluray's!? thats like 20 TB (20.000 GB's) of home video...amazing...could hold a bit of a collection.

[John @ Sep 4th 2008 6:34PM]

And yet, you can get 20 TB of storage for probably less than what this will cost.

[Some Kid @ Sep 6th 2008 9:09PM]

lets see.............
1 TB HDD- about $250
* 20- $5000
i think it would be a bit cheaper

[melo @ Sep 4th 2008 5:35PM]

Dumbest piece of equipment this year.

I can't even find 3 titles worth getting on blu-ray, let alone 400. Why isn't there an environment tax levied against the idiot people that come up with these useless land-fillers?

[Paulmichael @ Sep 4th 2008 10:24PM]

Oh I know, so many landfills piled sky high with multi-disc changers... Won't someone please think of the children?

[Loonie @ Sep 4th 2008 5:37PM]

Bah. If this is going to be called a "Mega Changer", it needs to hold a million discs. This should be called the... er... "Quadro-Centi Changer" or something.

[Engadgetier @ Sep 4th 2008 5:39PM]

Lol. iPhone is becoming more and more a standard unit of measurement on Engadget. look


http://www.engadgethd.com/photos/sony-shows-off-prototype-400-disc-blu-ray-mega-changer/1018169/

[slarity @ Sep 4th 2008 6:16PM]

LMAO that is hillarious!

[w00t @ Sep 4th 2008 5:42PM]

What the hell, have these guys never heard of hard drives?

Remember when you used to carry all the CDs or MDs you wanted to listen to around with you until iPods turned up? Yeah.... The same conveniences should be found in your home movie setup!

[Douglas @ Sep 4th 2008 10:29PM]

Exactly, I purchased a Sony 100-disc CD player 10 years ago just as big as this. Now I look at my iPod Nano and cringe at the price I paid for not choosing to change the disc myself for a while. You can only listen to/watch 1 disc at a time.

[Aki @ Sep 4th 2008 5:55PM]

While I understand why it's there, the mix of RS-232 with Blu-ray has a great space-western feel to it :)

[Christian Walters @ Sep 4th 2008 5:57PM]

General new release BD price=35 or so USD, which means, this filling this changer=14,000+/- USD! If you have THAT much cash to spend in media, then you DEFINATELY need to get your priorities strait...or you are a hooker. Just sayin....

[Chuck @ Sep 4th 2008 6:01PM]

I hope the tracking system is better than the DVD version; loose power and re-enter everything, bad searches and slow.

[Paulmichael @ Sep 4th 2008 10:27PM]

I'm going to assume it will be much better, because Blu-Ray discs have title information encoded in them don't they? To manually enter that many titles would be such a pain in the ass...

[Pacey @ Sep 4th 2008 6:02PM]

Replacement for the 777es?

And everyone needs to quit hating on this thing. It probably upconverts DVDs as well (not that i know for sure, haven't read a lick about the specs yet).

This obviously isnt meant for the general masses yet. Hell, the 777 was barely meant for the masses when it was discontinued. This is geared for home automation and theater installers and people with more money than the first 10 posters combined.

[Rick @ Oct 17th 2008 9:56PM]

finally, one who talks with knowledge! This unit is the next generation of the Sony DVPCX995V 400-Disc DVD Mega Changer/Player. Look up the Sony DVD changer on Amazon - not only will you see it cost less than $400, it has all the specs and explanations. It plays DVDs, and CDs, and upconverts, and has a menu system. It does not require one to fill it with high priced discs. Put in what you have, and it will play it in the best format. The Blu Ray model promises the same, with the ability to raise the quality bar to Blu Ray level. The primary advantage of these units is that you can put "all your discs" in it, and control one unit at will. No need to store all those DVD & CD cases out in view. Sure, like an iPod with ripped MP3 songs, the storage on harddisk would be ideal and less problematic from a mechanical point of view (changers sometimes jam). But for DVDs, it requires lots more storage GBs, lots of time to rip each movie, and that all assumes that you have and legally continue to have a ripping program (like Real) that lets you rip protected movies and play them on the various screens that you want to use (PC, TV, other TV, etc). Kaleidoscope sells a high end unit near $10,000 that does this. These DVD units just have you put in the disc and use it. Yes, I fully plan to use one in my PC network with Windows Media Center and DVR to screens in my house. I have been waiting for a Blu Ray version, so it can play Blu Ray discs when I start to get those, as well as all the DVDs. I can rip my CDs to my harddisk, play the DVDs on the changer, have a single-disc player for the Netflix rental movie (until I decide to download instead), and get the best use of each format. The biggest complaint I have heard was that the menu system for the DVDs was cumbersome. It should be able to populate a list like the Media Center does for quick search and pick and play. We are all too busy, and really need efficient convenience to actually use this stuff. Remember, a large percentage of VCR owners never figured out how to get the clock to stop flashing 12:00. Ripping, etc, is way too complicated for many who could manage to put discs in a changer. Cheers.

[nunya @ Sep 4th 2008 6:30PM]

ill stick with a 1.5 TB hard drive no thanks

[BowserUSC @ Sep 4th 2008 10:15PM]

Are there that many different titles on bluray?

[Bran @ Sep 5th 2008 1:05AM]

tell me when it hits $99. kthxbai.

[Woody @ Sep 5th 2008 9:04AM]

Hell yeah! Fricken finally! I have Sony's 400 disc DVD changer and ever since I got a PS3 about a year ago I have never used it! I knew it would only be a matter of time before the Blu version came out. Anyone want to buy a 400 disc DVD changer???? Come on! $200!

[Doug @ Sep 5th 2008 1:18PM]

400 BD changer? Are there even 400 BD titles available? Yeah, I know it can also hold CDs and DVDs, but still. This just seems to scream "I've got more money than brains!"

Is this thing even HDMI 1.3a and Blu-Ray Profile 2.0 compliant? If not, it's already obsolete. And we all know that there's be further changes to the Blu-Ray spec, just so manufactuers can justify newer, high priced players...

[Bob @ Sep 6th 2008 6:56PM]

The cd and DVD versions of these damn multidisc players broke every 3 months so why the hell would someone buy the same crap just cause it has a blu-gay lazer.