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Ken cited the fact that HD DVD is still being offered in the original 250 stores and through Blockbuster’s online rental service. He claims that those 250 stores are stores where there are large numbers of early adopters and the latter, he believes, is Blockbuster’s major growth market.If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Thus, he is not fazed by Blockbuster’s decision. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that this is potentially a bigger win for Blu-ray than it is a loss for HD DVD, based on the figures he’s given to us.
He remained adamant that HD DVD was on top at the moment and claimed that dedicated HD DVD set top boxes are outselling Blu-ray set top boxes at a rate of three to one in the US. In the last six weeks, the Promotional Group has sold over 50,000 HD DVD set top boxes on promotion in the US, proving that once the price is right, consumers will buy into the technology.
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| · Support Blu-ray driver · USB 2.0 interface(high speed) & card reader · Support SD/MMC/MS/XD card · Support 1G NAND Flash · DISC Playable: Blu-ray disc/H.264/MPEG4/DivX/XviD/DVD/SVCD/VCD/CD/MP3/Kodak Picture/Photo CD/WMV9 · Support: DivX 3.11/4.02/5.02/5.03/5.05 and later, DivXPro, XviD, Nero digital · PAL/NTSC/MULTI TV system compatible · Full function remote control · Support 4:3 & 16:9 TV mode · High Definition video(HDMI V1.3) output · 10/100M BaseT Ethernet (RJ45) · Mini PCI interface, Support wireless home networking · SATA HDD socket · Building in HDD |
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Blockbuster Inc. will rent high-definition DVDs only in the Blu-ray format in 1,450 stores when it expands its high-def offerings next month, dealing a major blow to the rival HD DVD format.This isn't good news for HD DVD fans. With Blockbuster going Blu-ray, it probably won't be long before smaller video rental services do the same. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
The move, being announced Monday, could be the first step in resolving a format war that has kept confused consumers from rushing to buy new DVD players until they can determine which format will dominate the market.
Blockbuster has been renting both Blu-ray and HD DVD titles in 250 stores since late last year and found that consumers were choosing Blu-ray titles more than 70 percent of the time.
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Japan's Toshiba Corp. has slashed its sales target for high definition DVD players and recorders after disappointing sales in the U.S., putting a damper on prospects for one of its growth businesses.While the price of HD DVD players have come down considerably, most consumers are still holding off, waiting to see which format wins. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
"Sales in the U.S. have been slower than expected, and we are going to have to lower our U.S. sales forecast," said Yoshihide Fujii, head of Toshiba's digital consumer business.
The electronics group now expects to sell 1 million next-generation optical disc players in North America by the end of calendar 2007, down 44 percent from its previous estimate of 1.8 million unit sales, a Toshiba executive said on Tuesday.
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Three weeks into its aggressivespring retail and marketing campaigns, the North American HD DVDPromotional Group today announced HD DVD is significantly ahead in thededicated consumer electronics player market with 60% of all highdefinition set-top players sold. At the same time, high definition moviesales for HD DVD reached an all time high for the month of May, exceeding75,000 movies the last week of May alone.While these numbers are impressive, its going to be interesting to see what happens when Blu-ray backers respond with their own price cuts. If you'd like to read more, Toshiba's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Overall high definition sales hit a record last week as well, hitting$5.2 million in actual consumer spending, which was 31% higher than theprevious record for the two formats. This highlights the growing consumerappetite for HD content across the board.
Sales of dedicated consumer electronics players are a criticalindicator in the adoption of the high definition formats, given the highattach rates to these players. With the successive price drops by Toshiba,weekly player sales doubled in April when the price dropped from $499 to$399, doubled again during the first week of the latest promotion in lateMay, and increased again last week.
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Sony isn't done with the BDP-S1 either. They will be releasing a new firmware update next week that adds support for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby True HD. If you'd like to read more, Sony's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The new BD player is compatible with most standard DVDs and has the added feature of 1080p upscaling through HDMI to 1080p capable HDTVs, improving the picture performance of existing DVD libraries.
The model also supports AVC-HD discs encoded with x.v.Color (xvYCC) technology, a new international standard for wide color space. The standard expands the current data range of video approximately 1.8 times allowing the player to output more natural and vivid colors similar to what the human eye can actually see.
The new BD unit incorporates BRAVIA TheatreSync utilizing HDMI connectivity, which integrates the operation of the player with a compatible BRAVIA flat-panel LCD television or audio/video receiver. With the touch of a button, you can automatically turn on and switch inputs to match connected devices.
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Toshiba’s recent price drop on its HD DVD players and aggressive retailer pricing over the holiday weekend have driven up sales as much as tenfold at some retailers.If the rebates weren't enough, Toshiba is giving away five HD DVD movies with each player purchased. At these prices, this is a hard deal to pass up. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Since Toshiba began offering a $100 instant rebate on HD DVD players, sales have grown between fivefold and tenfold, depending on the retailer, said Jodi Sally, VP of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products.
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Under a licensing agreement in its final stages, consumers may get the right to make several legal copies of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies they've purchased, a concession by the movie industry that may quell criticism that DRM (digital rights management) technologies are too restrictive.Ars Technica has reported that Managed Copy will not be implemented until AACS has been finalized. However, a few studios are expecting it to be in place by the 2007 holiday season. Of course, the way things are going, AACS could be cracked wide open by then. Add a comment
The agreement, if supported by movie studios and film companies, could allow a consumer to make a backup copy in case their original disc is damaged and another copy for their home media server, said Michael Ayers, a representative of an industry group that licenses the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) copy-prevention system.
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Samples of the MB86H51 will start shipping on July 1st and are expected to cost about 30,000 Yen ($247US). More information can be found on Fujitsu's website. Add a comment
Fujitsu Limited today announced a new large-scaled integrated (LSI) chip that can compress and decompress full High-Definition (HD) video (1,920 dots x 1,080 lines) in the H.264 format(1) in real-time. The new chip, the MB86H51, is the industry's first one-chip LSI for full HD H.264 High Profile(2) video processing with embedded memory. Sample shipments will start from July 1, 2007.
This new chip enables high image quality recording, playback, and transmission of full high-definition video over a wide range of fields from consumer to industrial applications, such as for digital video cameras (camcorders), hard disk digital video recorders (DVRs), home network devices, security cameras, and broadcasting equipment.
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The BDP-LX70 will be available in Japan in late June for a suggested retail price of 170,000 yen ($1,400US). Full details can be found here. Add a comment
Pioneer Corporation announced today the introduction of the BDP-LX70, a Blu-ray Disc Player, for the Japanese market.
With the start of terrestrial digital broadcasting and the spread of Plasma and other high-definition televisions in recent years, interest in high-definition video images is growing rapidly. In November, 2006, the first Blu-ray Disc titles were released in Japan, and further releases of high-definition content are expected in the future.
In response to the growing demand for high-definition video contents, Pioneer has decided to release its Blu-ray Disc player in Japan, following its first entry to the North American market last year.
