Re: HD format war over bar the shouting?

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but AFAIK HD-DVD was around inn the US for at least a year before Sony released the PS3. The fact that outside of the XBox 360 with the HD-DVD drive, only Toshiba seems to be the only big manufacture of HD-DVD players, whereas there are quite a few manufacturers supporting the Blu-ray format ATM.

Cheers, Alan

"Alan Rutlidge" >

Is this a good time to say that I once owned a Toshiba Betacord? :-)) Perhaps poor old Toshiba is starting to get a reputation for backing losers?

Cheers TT

On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:49:00 +0900, "Alan Rutlidge"

Yeah... he's an idiot. And as if 500k units are going to make the difference, even though it was AFTER the HD-DVD startup.

I say that they will both continue for quite some time.

Shout over that, BluTurd retards!

Just so you know, idiots... I own both the top of the line XA1, as well as the PS3.

No. If that were true, they would back you.

Do you have any clue how big Toshiba is?

I'll bet you don't even have a clue as to what they make.

There probably isn't a single Sony product that doesn't have some Toshiba chips in it.

On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:35:07 +1100, "Trevor Wilson" put finger to keyboard and composed:

How many players/recorders can handle DVD-RAM?

- Franc Zabkar

• Beta was released in 1975. It was finally discontinued in 2002. That is a

• Despite a 27 year production run, you can be certain that Toshiba (and Sony, Sanyo and others) made healthy profits from their Beta machines. Hardly a "loser".
• Comparing Beta and VHS to Blu Ray and HD-DVD is disingenuous. The differences between Beta and VHS were fundamental. Although they used essentially the same technology, they were incompatible formats. The differences between Blu Ray and HD-DVD are far less problematical. Minor re-focussing of the laser and software decoding differences are all that is required.
• I note that LG has already released a Blu Ray computer burner (which can also burn DVD+/-) than can read HD-DVD disks for 600 Bucks. It won't be long before we have burners which can play and burn all formats for a couple of hundred Bucks.

Trevor Wilson

Trevor Wilson

My laptop can but I don't believe any of my other drives (or players) can.

Not quite. Combo players have multiple read heads, not just a re-focusing". Get your facts straight.

It was $1200 at release. Perhaps it has dropped by now.

Don't s*it yourself. The most expensive portion of the LG drive's system is the read head "menagerie". That won't be changing any time soon. It is cheaper to have multiple read heads than to make a single optical array that transitions between modes. Just look at DVD CD drives for an example. Multiple heads, and it isn't simply due to the two different laser wavelengths, because that could be solved, given the desire, in a single head system. It is simply cheaper to put a head in for each format. But we PAY for it.

$200 all format players will come into being about the same time the next NEW ultra-high-definition, ultra-high-capacity form factor hits the market. Then, the cycle will start all over again. Just look at video cards for an example. They had slowly dropped from $500 down to less than $300 as each new model entered the fray, but now, they have found a way to charge over $600 each by simply adding memory. So now, there are entire lines of cards based on a single new chip, instead of just one or two offerings.

Despite there being no need for a resolution higher than that which we currently enjoy, there will no doubt be a super high res design come out that a whole bunch of dopes will just have to have.

I saw a pair of $148k per pair speakers the other day. Seems the same group that has gotten rich folks and drug dealers to pay too much for wheels and tires has also figured out that they are too stupid to understand what audio equipment should cost as well.