LOL Toshiba's $499 HD-DVD player costs over £700 to produce!! They don't make any money back from media sales either.

HD-DVD are in their last desperate throws to capture the market before PS3 and Blu=Ray dominate..

I believe that both formats are going to fail. Remember DVD-Audio and SACD? Probably not, but they were both intended to replace the standard audio CD. They are certainly much higher quality but they still failed. Why? Because CDs, and in this case DVDs, are popular, widespread and well understood formats. I'm certainly not going to start replacing my rather sizeable DVD collection with a new and more expensive DRM-ridden format. I don't care if the picture quality is better, as far as price and convenience are concerned DVD is by far the superior format.

But what if you buy a new games console, and it supports thew HD format, and you want to buy a movie, so you have to make the choice between the $10 DVD version, or the $15 HD-DVD/Blu-Ray version?

Many people will be buying PS3 with Blu-Ray, or XBox360 with the HD-DVD add-on, and will be making exactly this choice. It's a no brainer, everyone will choose the HD version.

SO WHAT.
IM not going to buy either.
IM very happy with broadband.
They should have invested their r&d money on technology to diliver content without such disk n all.

but they got greedy and wanted to sell all sort of expensive stuff, because all this stuff is going to replace cheap stuff that is available in the market, people will go into showrooms and they will have no other option.

That is why my money is going to the cable companies.

this technology is going to be good to count number of blackheads and other stuff makeup is hiding on celebrities faces ;).

Gah...you're all forgetting you need to buy a 5000 TV, oh gosh, excuse me - HDTV to take advantage of .... what is it? 4400 billion colors? I have a 32 inch HDTV and a regular Toshiba DVD player all connected through those red/green/blue cables and the rest of my system (Comcast HD-DVR, Tivo etc.) through HDMI and I honestly don't see the need in going out and buying a 1300 system or a 3500 DVD player/recorder. And to those of you comparing it with HD-DVD - it's 1300 for the blu-ray player with receiver and speakers, so if you're an enthusiast then this is actually a deal. You'd normally pick up high end speakers and receivers for 1300 alone. So really you're looking at around the same price for the hd-dvd bundled with high end speakers and receiver. I hate when it's all in one though - cuz' if 1 thing breaks you either have to send it away to be repaired or kiss your money bye bye.
In any case I agree with Kramy....I think I'll wait 3/4/5 years till either a dual player comes out for 120-150 or buy 2 $80 players (maybe less time if they FORCE me to buy it by not releasing stuff to regular DVDs; then again I'm not toooo worried, afterall I still see videos and cassettes being sold). Then I buy an updated $100 speaker/receiver and I save like 1000 bux either way.
Sure I'd love the quality of a 600 sound system but the difference between a 600 and 100 system kind of blur when you can't play stuff too loud, and it so happens I'm a young modern guy with a young modern girl who live in a posh 2 bedroom apt. in a posh community where you'll get in trouble if you talk too loud and the neighbors hear you....LOL

it's 1300 for the blu-ray player with receiver and speakers

Nope, I made the same mistake earlier down this thread. $1300 is just for the player itself.

Price is irrelevant. Neither standard is going to win the war in the next 6 months. The people likely to buy one of these first to market players are not likely bargain hunters. The early Blu-Ray players are top of the line models with all the bells and whistles a HT nut would want, while the HD-DVD camp is releasing stripped down low feature players to keep costs down. The Blu-Ray side has it right, show people the best the format has to offer right from the start to give them a reason to want to upgrade in the future. By the time these formats begin entering the mass market, the prices for similarly capable players from both camps are likely to be pretty close to each other.

"Price is irrelevant."

Uh huh, just keep telling yourself that.

I will, since I don't have to depend on mom and dad to visit me in their basement once a week to drop off my allowance.

I'd explain what that price comment meant, but you're clearly not going to understand anyway, so why waste the time.

You wasted your time when you first posted that nonsense, and grade school insults don't help your case much. People are buying these things NOW, so price sure as hell does matter. What happens now will determine how popular the formats are when the prices come down later.

I knew what he meant, and he is right. Price isn't irrelevant, its EXACTLY the point. Technlogy will win over.. the people with money to actually BUY it. VHS won out over betamax, why? PRICE! We all know (or should) betamax is better than VHS, but VHS was cheaper, so it took over.

Price is the MOST important part of technology.

I agree.

There is nothing strip down about Toshiba's HD DVD player. The only strip down player is Samsung's player(only blu-ray player) which does not support the new advanced audio codec from Dolby Digital and DTS nor does it have an ethernet connection like the Toshiba.

Makes you wonder if mom and dad are visiting him in their basement considering he doesn't know the value of a dollar.

This is exactly why I support HDDVD.

HDDVD player is $500. Even IF BlueRay wins in the end, my HDDVD player will still play any HDDVD's I bought AND upscale DVD's.

By the time that happens, how much do you think a BlueRay player will be? Probably $500. So I can then buy a 3rd gen BlueRay player. I've then spent $1000, had HDDVD for 3 years (pure speculation) and also would have a 3rd gen BlueRay player.

Seems like a much better option than spending $1300 on a player now and then more on an HDDVD later if the tables turn that way.

I'm going to beat everyone by waiting 5 years and then picking them up at the local electronics store for $79.99 and $129.99.

Haha, suckers! :D

Assuming you can get the movies on HD-DVD.

There are quite a few studios that are Blu-Ray only, whereas only 1 that is HD-DVD only.

This alone is a reason why HD-DVD will die.. The VHS/Beta wars were won buy the movie studios, and things will be the same this time round.

Blu-Ray has the studios, it's also technically superior, and when PS3 launches, will also be the cheapest hardware (media will be pretty much the same HD-DVD/BluRay).

*There are quite a few studios that are Blu-Ray only, whereas only 1 that is HD-DVD only.*

For NOW! If there is money to be made on the other side of the fence, you can best believe they will sell there. They won't ingore HALF the players based soley on principal.

HD-DVD already has a large following.. They said the same thing about Cassettes, when Records were still available.. They said the same thing about DVD when LD's were still popular, Same on DVD players when CD's were available, VHS vs Betamax, the list goes on an on.. EVERY technology starts off "exclusive" to the market.. they want to be FIRST not ONLY, that's the difference. For those few, very few, who can afford to blow 1300 bucks and THINK they will exclusive access, let them have it..

Hell even the AMD vs Intel controversy proved that Intel (even being superior and had 90%+ market share) didn't stop AMD from catching up. Games were going to be sold as "genuine Intel compatible" or exclusive to Intel.. It started off that way, because I had a couple of games that flat out wouldn't even install if they didn't detect an Intel Processor.. So your argument, holds ZERO weight.

Eventually, ALL movies will be made on ALL formats. The studios will be not only stupid otherwise, but its not even practical to limit the technology.

Blueray may be superior, but PRICE will determine the eventual winner.

"Hell even the AMD vs Intel controversy proved that Intel (even being superior and had 90%+ market share) didn't stop AMD from catching up."

Your obviously a fool. AMD have not caught up with Intel at all. Intel have over 80% market share!! It may have dropped from the giddy heights of 90% marketshare 10 years ago, but they certainly arn't losing any real marketshare.

With the latest Core Duo 2 chips, which wipe the floor performance and power wise with anything AMD have to offer, I would expect them to regain a small amount of marketshare back..

$1,300!!! This is why in "my opinion" HD-DVD is going to win. Hmm $500 > $1300.

That's what I have been saying as well. Movies are the main drive for the new formats CURRENTLY, and for that reason, Blu-Ray won't truley be able to play catchup until the PS3 comes out.

Movies? I'll go for the lower HD resolution to save me $700, thank you. Heh, well actually, for now I'll stick with DVD.

One other thing--Thompson released a new HD-DVD player today, probably to dampen the sales of the first BD-ROM player: http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/06/22/thompson_hddvd/

PS: I wonder where Mark Gillespie is... :)

1300 for a player? Sanyo has one for 499! WTF!

I saw one that's going to be $800 a few days ago. $1300 seems pretty steep.

Article title is a bit misleading, but the first sentence clarifies it...
Panasonic on Thursday announced plans to debut its first Blu-ray Disc player, along with a matching receiver and speaker system for home theater enthusiasts.

I don't think the speaker system is included in the $1,300 price, it just says that they are also releasing it.

"Panasonic's DMP-BD10 player will cost $1,300 USD"

Oh, ouch, guess I read too much into "along". :)

Actually, the entire system costs $13,000: http://www.tgdaily.com/2...ic_blu_ray_home_theater/

Yes, the player alone is $1300, and THG says it suspects the whole HDMI 1.3 compliance thing is the reason for the steep price tag.