Seeing Toshiba and the Blu-ray logo on the same player makes us think 'Photoshop,' but the BDX2000 is a real product.
Toshiba officially conceded the format war in February 2008, but plenty of people thought it wasn't really over until Toshiba put out a Blu-ray player. A year and a half later, that day has finally come. This morning, Toshiba announced the BDX2000, an entry-level Blu-ray player ($250 list price) to be released in November.
While we're always glad to see more competition in the Blu-ray space, the BDX2000 doesn't bring anything special to the table. It supports all the basic features, like Profile 2.0 compatibility and onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio, but there are currently no premium features, such as integrated Wi-Fi or streaming media services like Netflix. There's also no onboard memory, so you'll need to add storage using the player's SD card slot to use BD-Live features.
Considering its midrange price, the BDX2000 will have a tough time competing against players like the Panasonic DMP-BD60, Samsung BD-P1600, and LG BD370, all of which offer streaming content in addition to Blu-ray playback.
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(Credit:
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Now that Blu-ray has won the format war with HD DVD we can all relax and buy Blu-ray players and not have to worry about what physical format our disks are, right?
Maybe not. Besides outside pressure from the combination of high-speed broadband and HD streaming media, a new challenger has risen to seriously challenge Blu-ray's superiority. And it's based heavily on its oldest rival: HD DVD.
Meet China Blue Hi-definition Disk (CBHD), a new HD video disk format based heavily on Toshiba's HD DVD format. Toshiba has licensed its technology to the CBHD group for use in China. The format now has the official backing of the Chinese government and some analysts think it could be the global per-unit HD leader in as little as twelve months. It's already outselling Blu-ray in China. ... Read more
A report has surfaced in Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun that Toshiba, one of the top backers of the HD DVD format, will be releasing a Blu-ray player before the end of 2009.
Toshiba lost with this player; why should it release a Blu-ray player?
(Credit: Toshiba)It's a fascinating concept. the company that spent years trying to tell the world that Blu-ray is inferior is now looking to tell those same people that it really is worthwhile. Wow.
I understand that Blu-ray is becoming more popular. I know that it's slowly, but surely, gaining market share in the disc market. But it's not the only way to bring entertainment to the masses.
The vexed consumer
Tech companies have nothing unless the consumer base trusts them. Whether it's faulty products that break that trust or poor business practices, once it's broken, it could lead to financial ruin. That's precisely why I don't see why Toshiba would want to release a Blu-ray player.
During the war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, Toshiba did all it could to highlight issues with the competing format. It explained why its format was better. And it did everything it could to make Blu-ray look less desirable.
Even after the war was over, Toshiba didn't stop with the Blu-ray bashing. In an interview with TechRadar last year, Toshiba's deputy general manager of HD DVD, Olivier Van Wynendaele, said his company "wouldn't change anything that it did" with its HD DVD strategy.
... Read moreDon Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
For long-term satisfaction, speakers trump video every time.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)A good friend of mine is still fuming over picking HD-DVD over Blu-ray. He's held the grudge so long he just recently dumped the player and even some of the discs and bought a Blu-ray player.
I know another guy who's steamed that his $2,000 6-year-old receiver doesn't have HDMI switching, so to get Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio he plays his Blu-ray over the receiver's 5.1 channel analog inputs. Fine, but the receiver doesn't do any sort of bass management over its analog inputs. The sound isn't so hot.
Do you know anybody who bought a plasma TV in 1999 for around $10,000 who still uses it as their primary display? I don't, but I'd bet most of those buyers are on their second or third display by now.
... Read more
If you aligned yourself with the red team during the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war, we wouldn't blame you if you felt a little turned off to the whole idea of high-def discs. Warner's new Red2Blu program is trying to relieve some of the sting for the losers of the format war, giving owners of Warner HD DVD movies the option to trade in their movies for Blu-ray versions of the same movie. The program isn't free--you send in the cover art from your HD DVDs along with $4.95 per movie, plus a $6.95 shipping and handling fee for your entire order--but it's definitely better than having to shell out another $30 bucks for a new Blu-ray. There are some minor restrictions, such as you can only trade in 25 movies per household and only one copy of an individual title, but the biggest restriction is that the offer is only good for Warner titles.
All the home theater editors at CNET already jettisoned their HD DVD collections on eBay, but we're interested in hearing whether any of the HD DVD faithful plan on using this program. Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
(Sources: Warner Red2Blu via Engadget)
Sony got it right with the CD.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)Betamax was one of Sony's biggest blunders.
The videocassette format was introduced in 1975, and initially sold well. But when JVC's VHS tape cartridge was introduced in 1978, Betamax quickly lost its lead. The media loved Beta for its superior picture quality, but Standard Betamax tapes were only 60 minutes, and VHS 3-hour tapes could record more TV shows.
VHS was more popular, but Betamax refused to die. Production in the U.S. ended in 1993, and the last Betamax machine in the world was produced in Japan in 2002.
Ah, but the Compact Disc was a hit from the get-go. On August 31, 1982, an announcement was made in Tokyo that four companies, Sony, CBS/Sony, Philips, and Polygram had jointly developed the world's first CD system. Talk of the CD's demise are premature, sales are still in the hundreds of millions of discs a year.
The MiniDisc was introduced January 12, 1992. The recordable music format was originally based exclusively on ATRAC audio data compression, but the format never caught on in the U.S. MiniDiscs were popular in Japan and Asia as a digital upgrade from cassette tapes.
Which reminds me, Sony's ill-fated Elcaset came out in 1976. Like Betamax, Sony was trying to make a higher quality tape format, in this case better than the Philips Compact Cassette. Elcaset was better, but it was too large and cumbersome. Elcaset was a flop.
... Read more
Bundled with full seasons of Battlestar Galactica and Heroes, it's like getting the player for free.
(Credit: Frys)Now, hear me out. No, you haven't traveled back in time to 2007, when HD DVD was still a viable format. And, no, I haven't lost the last of my marbles. Here's the skinny: Frys.com has the Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD Player for $49.99, plus around 8 bucks for shipping.
Why on earth would you want this thing? For starters, it comes with Battlestar Galactica season one and Heroes season one. That's about 35 hours' worth of mighty good viewin' right there.
It also comes with King Kong. I mention that for people who like movies about giant monkeys and the women who love them. I'm not one of those people, but to each their own.
More perks: the player upscales regular DVDs, adds an extra USB port to your Xbox, and comes with a very slick media-center remote.
Yes, I know: it's a dead format. But there are around 400 HD DVD movies and TV shows floating around out there, many of them selling dirt-cheap on eBay, Craigslist, etc. So, if you like movies and TV shows and own an Xbox 360, this is a nice little impulse buy.
OK, you can commence telling me I'm insane.
Limited time only: Random HD DVD player for sale.
(Credit: Buy.com)Just got my Buy.com "Weekly Deals" email blast and noticed that there's a promotion for a $59.99 HD DVD player with two free movies. The DVD player is some no-name job--the Venturer SHD7000--that I've never heard of, and no specs are available. Not sure who would buy this (HD DVD is dead, in case you've just emerged from a coma), but I suppose if you had a large HD DVD collection and are in need of back-up player you might be tempted.
Anybody still buying HD DVD players or movies out there? No surprise, discs are running pretty cheap--both used and new--on Amazon and EBay.
Microsoft on Sunday cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 Pro model game console with a 20GB hard drive from $349 to $299.
Microsoft on Sunday unveiled an Xbox 360 with a 60GB hard drive. It's expected to go on sale in August.
(Credit: Microsoft)The company also introduced a new Xbox 360 model with a 60GB hard drive. It will go on sale in stores in the U.S. and Canada for $349 in early August.
Microsoft's announcements, which were widely expected, come on the eve of the start of this week's E3 video game industry trade show in Los Angeles.
Rumors of the Xbox price cut swirled on popular gaming blogs Joystiq and Kotaku last week. The two sites received snapshots of Kmart and RadioShack fliers advertising the $299 price.
Microsoft announced in May that Xbox 360 had become the first next-generation video game console to hit 10 million units sold in the United States. All told, Microsoft said it has sold 19 million Xboxes worldwide.
Just when you thought there was finally a closure to the video format war, we've heard more news on the Chinese HD DVD specifications from TG Daily. With the world's largest population backing, the defunct Toshiba-led format will undoubtedly have high hopes for a comeback. CH-DVD uses a combination of HD DVD as well as Chinese proprietary video encoding, copy protection, and technologies.
On a separate note, Toshiba is betting its chips on a new DVD Download/DL standard that promises better picture quality and possible access to Web content. The former is widely believed to be based on the Japanese company's SpursEngine 1000 processor, capable of delivering an enhanced video-upscaling performance than existing DVD players. The download element, meanwhile, will bridge Blu-ray's value-added interactivity features with its supposed live Internet connectivity.
(Source: Crave Asia)
