More news from the IFA 2007 in Berlin - Sharp announced the launch of their first dedicated Blu-Ray player outside of Japan. The BD-HP20S will appear in Europe sometime in the autumn and in the US not long after, presumably in time for it to be found in a number of Christmas stockings across the country.
In terms of spec there’s nothing amazing in the BD-HP20S, just the usual suspects, 1080p res, 5.1 audio, HDMI 1.3, support for Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD etc. It plays well with other Sharp devices that conform to their CEC control standard and offers ‘Quick Start’ which provides playback ‘within seconds’ - this is to counter the oft touted ’slow start’ criticism of Blu-Ray players. The sucker has a nice slim line look to it, measuring a mere 2.7 inches from top to bottom and should fit snugly into most entertainment units.
Unfortunately there’s no pricing available but I would imagine that this puppy won’t be setting you back too much and could be added to even the most frugal of Christmas present shopping lists.
If I’m allowed to use military analogies in the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD war then inteset must be considered a ‘neutral’ participant. Their new Home Theatre Media Server releases, the Maximus and Denzel, both sport a Blu-ray/HD DVD combo drive. Good news for the consumer. The down side is that these ‘neutral’ puppies will probably set you back a pretty penny judging by the spec for the Maximus. Here’s a selection of goodies on offer in the Maximus
2 HDTV, 2 SDTV and FM tuners
7.1 Surround Sound, Dolby DigitalEX, DTS-ES, THX Audio
nVidia GeForce 8600GTS 256-bit GDDR3 memory
3 TB of storage space
Windows XP MCE 2005 Edition
Although these offerings from Inteset are aimed at the top end of the market, hopefully the combo drive option will be available in lower end HTPCs and perhaps we can declare that the ‘war’ is over. But that wouldn’t make for fun blogging, now would it? ;)
No doubt in a build up to a Christmas format war unlike any other we have ever seen, Sony have announced an ‘exclusive’ deal with Target and I quote …
Beginning this fall and continuing at least through the holiday season, Target will feature Sony® Blu-ray Disc® players as the exclusive product in the emerging category of high-definition home video systems, as well as an expanded assortment of Blu-ray Disc movies.
Sounds like a good win for Sony? Well you can still purchase a Toshiba HD DVD player at Target through their website and the exclusivity only applies to hi-def players in the retail stores, so presumably you can still get the latest movies on HD DVD in store. The main point from the announcement (full version) is that Sony Blu-ray players will be featured on aisle-end displays. Sony would have played a pretty penny for this but still a good move in the build up to the spending holiday season ahead.
So, to keep the military metaphors flowing, it’s more of an outflanking manoeuvre than a battle won.
One way to avoid the format wars involving HD DVD and Blu-ray is to opt for the Samsung BD-UP5000, a dual format player. Samsung have just announced that the ‘neutral’ player will be available in October this year and will cost around 550 Euros (US$750), not a bad price to have the best of both worlds. According to the blurb from Samsung back in April
Samsung’s Duo HD player (BD-UP5000) will fully support both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats and their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java. With the Duo HD consumers can enjoy additional studio content such as trailers, director’s comments, more elaborate interactive menus and behind the scene footage. The new Duo HD joins Samsung’s next generation DVD line-up which includes Samsung’s second generation Blu-ray player available at retail this month. Together, these two models offer the consumer a strong line of High-Definition players to match Samsung’s award winning, and best selling, line of HDTVs.
The price stacks up well against the competition with the LG BH1000 rocking in at US$1200. So for all the people who enjoy sitting on the fence this could just be the player you’ve been waiting for.
If the coolness of ads were directly linked to sales of the product (and some people in marketing think it is) then Blu-ray would be wiping the floor with HD DVD after this Sony ad. With imagery of warriors, wolves and sports cars and with its blue laser effects no-one can help it but watch the ad the whole way through. I wasn’t too convinced by the falling sports cars myself, a metaphor of who knows what but I’m a sucker for piano background music and I was expecting to hear Amy Lee’s beautiful haunting vocals start up at any time.
However most consumers are not swayed by bright lights and smoke and are more concerned about the bottom line, so until Blu-ray players drop in price to match the equivalent HD-DVD players then expect more of these funky ads!
Obviously slashing prices has not worked, so now the Blu-Ray Disc Association has decided to bundle five ‘top’ movies with their players as of the 1st of July until the end of September. The package applies to all Blu-ray players and the PlayStation 3.
Unfortunately it’s not a free for all when it comes to choosing your movies, you have to select your five freebies from a list including Chicken Little, The Omen (2006), Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and The Italian Job. Not exactly blockbusters plus you have to mail off a coupon prior to getting your mits on the discs.
It’s also a copy cat technique with Toshiba offering a similar deal just before Christmas last year with their HD-DVD player, but it is a well known and successful technique sure to boost sales … for a while.
I’m not convinced it will be the killer blow that Blu-Ray manufacturers are looking for, but it’s great for the consumer!
Sony have slashed $100 off the price of their Blu-ray player the BDP-S300. This price cut makes the BDP-S300 cheaper than a PS3, which was the cheapest device to view Blu-ray movies on. It’s possible that Sony were losing too much money to customers purchasing PS3s just to watch movies as the PS3 was being sold at a loss. They will be hoping that those customers will now purchase the player rather than the game console.
However at $500 the player is still more expensive than an HD DVD equivalent. For instance the Toshiba HD-A2 is available at Amazon for a mere $250 although this offer runs out mid June. But even after the offer it’s list price should be $400.
So the BR vs HDDVD war is heating up with player manufacturers and movie studios divided. The loss-making PS3 was obviously a brave gamble by Sony and they are now trying to re-coup their losses, but it still looks as if HD DVD has a slight advantage.
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More news from the IFA 2007 in Berlin - Sharp announced the launch of their first dedicated Blu-Ray player outside of Japan. The BD-HP20S will appear in Europe sometime in the autumn and in the US not long after, presumably in time for it to be found in a number of Christmas stockings across the country.
If I’m allowed to use military analogies in the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD war then 
Obviously 
