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Standalone Blu-ray player unit sales dropped 40 percent from January to February in the U.S. and only saw a 2 percent increase from February to March, according to NPD's Retail Tracking Service. HD DVD player unit sales dropped 13 percent from January to February, but as production stopped and inventories dried up, sales spiraled down 65 percent from February to March.If you'd like to read more, the NPD Group's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
"That standalone Blu-ray players haven't picked up significantly from HD DVD's loss shows that few consumers were dissuaded primarily by the 'format war'," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis, NPD. "When we surveyed consumers late last year, an overwhelming number of them said they weren't investing in a new next-generation player because their old DVD player worked well and next-generation players were too expensive. It's clear from retail sales that those consumer sentiments are still holding true."
One option consumers are embracing to enhance their DVD viewing experience is purchasing up-converting DVD players. According to NPD's Retail Tracking Service, unit sales of up-converting players were up over 5 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared to 2007, while sales of DVD players without an up-converting feature declined 39 percent.
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It will be 12 to 18 months before this market kicks into gear. Consumer electronics manufacturers need to introduce full-featured players and then get prices down to the $200 level. Until then, non-HDTV owners will certainly favor standard definition DVD players. A depressed economy in the United States could also lead HDTV and prospective HDTV owners to opt for upconverting standard players as they delay buying higher-ticket CE items. In addition, Blu-ray packaged media comes at a heavy premium over standard DVDs, although studios have brought prices down to the low $20-range for some titles.ABI Research has hit the nail on the head with this report. If Blu-ray is to succeed, manufacturers need to stop messing with the specifications and bring player prices down to affordable levels. More information about ABI's new report can be found here. Add a comment
Optical disc drive manufacturers have lowered their prices for computer BD-ROM drives in an effort to kick-start adoption in the PC market. But BD drives, priced three to four times higher than red laser drives and requiring an advanced graphics IC, will struggle for support in entry-level products.
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Jun Dong-soo, chief of Samsung's digital audio-video business, said Monday that he expects the global market to grow at least 80 percent each year through 2012, with worldwide annual sales of 51 million players by that time.If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Jun added that 5 million Blu-ray products were likely to sold this year, or three times more than last year, though he also characterized such an estimate as conservative.
"Our own Blu-ray product sales should increase to 400 billion won ($402 million) this year and surpass 1 trillion won ($1 billion) by 2010," he said in a press release, referring to Samsung's lineup.
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Japanese electronics maker Toshiba said Friday its net profit plummeted a staggering 95 percent in the January-March quarter due to losses related to its exit from the next-generation video HD DVD business.If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Toshiba Corp.'s profit stood at 1.25 billion yen ($12 million), sharply down from 26.17 billion yen a year earlier.
"Our net profit sharply fell due to the end of HD DVD business," Toshiba spokeswoman Hiroko Mochida said, adding the one-time for pulling the plug on its HD DVD business cost about 48 billion yen ($461 million).
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No word yet on pricing or availability. As we find out more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, Sony's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
New for 2008, HDD camcorder connection with all models allows direct digital dubbing from any Standard Definition Handycam Hard Disk Drive camcorder by Sony. There’s no quality loss during digital transfers via USB. Whole dubbing mode transfers everything that’s stored on the camcorder’s hard drive. Alternatively, incremental dubbing transfers only new footage that hasn’t already been recorded onto the Hard Disk Drive DVD recorder.
Also new this year, X-Pict Story is a powerful yet easy-to-use feature for creating your own personal slideshows. Using your remote, slide shows can be built up in moments from images stored on the recorder’s hard drive. A choice of transition effects adds extra sparkle to slide shows, along with your own selection of musical soundtrack from stored music files. The results can be viewed directly on your TV or burned to DVD for sharing or storing.
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As the first company to introduce a stand-alone Blu-ray player, Samsung reinforces its support of the Blu-ray format with the next generation, full HD, BD-P1500. An ideal player for anyone who enjoys Blu-ray, DVDs or CDs in their home, this groundbreaking model significantly improves the home viewing experience and accommodates each of these formats in one unit. Further, the BD-P1500 can upconvert standard DVDs to 720p, 1080i and 1080p resolutions and offers Full HD video playback capabilities for a crystal-clear picture.At this point it is unclear what BD-Live "Ready" means. While the BD-P1500 will most likely play BD-Live titles out of the box, this could also mean that it is capable of doing so after a firmware update. No word yet on price. However, if Samsung sticks to their original price point, the BD-P1500 should cost around $399. If you'd like to read more, Samsung's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Designed with fans of multimedia technology in mind, the BD-P1500 easily connects to other digital devices through an HDMI 1.3 port with CEC for expanded color delivery and easy home theater control. The P1500 has BD Profile 1.1 Bonus View and is BD Live Ready. With its built-in Ethernet connection and USB input users can quickly upgrade their BD-P1500 with the latest firmware which ensures the player remains at the cutting edge of Blu-ray technology. By making these firmware upgrades simple and easy, Samsung allows consumers to continually upgrade their BD-P1500 with the latest features.
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The 500GB version of the Iomega ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive is available now for a suggested retail price of $209.95. Full details can be found here. Add a comment
Iomega Corporation (NYSE:IOM), a global leader in data protection and security, today announced thenew Iomega(R) ScreenPlay(TM) HD Multimedia Drive, a portable external harddrive that leaves the PC behind, delivering multimedia content tohigh-definition televisions and home theater systems.
The Iomega ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive is a 500GB* drive with thestorage capacity to hold up to 2 million photos, 9,250 hours of music, or750 hours of video**, enabling family and friends to share high-resolutionphotos, music, and video clips in the comfort of the living room, without acomputer.
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The DVD Forum is planning to study (the “Proposed Study”) the possible incorporation of 3D movie technology into The DVD Forum format specifications for DVD-Video and HD DVD-Video (the “DVD Format Specifications”). The DVD Forum plans to study only the feasibility and potential merit of incorporating 3D movie technology into the DVD Format Specifications. Please note that The DVD Forum has made no decision to incorporate such technology into the DVD Format Specifications and does not intend to select any specific 3D movie technology for inclusion at this time. After studying each proposed 3D movie technology, The DVD Forum will decide whether 3D movie technology should be incorporated into the DVD Format Specifications. As part of this study, The DVD Forum may also consider whether measures to achieve compatibility with existing DVD-Video and HD DVD-Video players would also need to be implemented in the event 3D movie technology is incorporated into the DVD Format Specifications.Personally, I'd rather see them through their support behind a high-def format like Blu-ray than add 3D technology to the DVD format. If you'd like to read more, the DVD Forum's entire announcement can be found DigiTimes. Add a comment
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One of the primary challenges facing Blu-ray, says principal analyst Steve Wilson, is that many consumers are not fundamentally dissatisfied with the quality delivered by their conventional DVD players, when “upconverted” to play on high-definition TVs. “We are starting to see an increase in the number of DVD players with built-in upconverters, and the video processing is getting better with each new generation,” he says. “Today about 35% of all DVD players sold include upconversion. ABI Research expects that figure to climb to about 60% by 2013.”More information on ABI Research's report can be found here. Add a comment
Further, the state of the Blu-ray player market is not all that encouraging. The Blu-ray installed base today is heavily tilted towards Sony’s Playstation 3. Says Wilson, “The studios better hope that people are playing movies on their Playstations. Otherwise there’s very little installed base. In 2008 about 85% of the Blu-ray players in the market will be found in PS3s; the dedicated consumer electronics and PC-based types of Blu-ray players won’t catch up in terms of market share until about 2013.”
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``Now, the discussion is over. We will maintain a healthy relationship with Samsung Electronics for the next-generation computer storage market,'' Peter Weber, manager of Panasonic Corporate Communication Europe, said in an interview with The Korea Times, Sunday, on the sidelines of the IFA 2008 International Press Conference here.The Korea Times also mentions that next-generation Blu-ray players will come with built in hard drives to store downloadable content. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
``Panasonic doesn't care about the introducing timing of Blu-ray players. Time is very crucial to step up the marketing for better prospect of such devices,'' he said, adding his company is all set to inject money only for promotion.
