Jamz3k

Just seen this and am completely tempted! fantastic price for some new technology!

Toshiba HD-E1 HIGH DEFINITION DVD PLAYER - cheap High Definition DVD Player - Dixons.co.uk

pslewis

And if Blu-Ray wins the battle??

Jamz3k

who cares at that price?

Plus the likelyhood is that neither HD-DVD or Bluray will win the battle as average joe cant tell the difference between HD and SD on there 32" Techwood lcd screens.

The only winner will be Downloadable content to your Xbox/PS3/media server.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I think most people can really tell the difference between normal footage and HD. Issue is that there are still a lot of people who have not even gone digital yet. Now we are trying to tell everyone that they need to change again.

Add to that, the HD content is limited and expensive when available. There is a chance that it will never catch on if the media serving companies think they can get away with just the basic definition, using the spare bandwidth for more QVC style channels....

Maz

iTrader: (34)

What is the price of HD DVDs? It's okay the player being cheap but a moot point if the DVDs themselves cost an arm and a leg.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

One issue which I think will be critically important, yet which the mainstream press seems scared to mention, is that DVDs are easy to copy, but the new hi-def formats aren't (yet). I doubt it'll necessarily be the first cheap players that get one format or the other off the ground - it'll be the first cheap burners - and I doubt that AACS will do much to get in the way either. Hackers love a challenge.

Look at DVD-A and SACD, for example: difficult or impossible to copy, and both total commercial failures. Without a ready supply of free content, the incentive to buy the players just wasn't there - so no legitimate discs got sold either. All the sanctimonious "piracy is theft" comments didn't help then, and won't help now either.

pslewis

Good point there ...........

The Film industry, like the Music industry, are so greedy that they destroy all attempt to make people pay more than a reasonable amount for discs.

Make HD or Blu-Ray discs £5 each and no-one will bother copying and everyone will buy them and the players to play them.

PeteBrant

It will, for an important reason. The consumer will not have a choice. Manufacturers have invested billions in HD technology, it will not be allowed to fail.

How? To remove the alternative of course. Manufacturers make bugger all on DVD players, and the simple way to stop people buying them is to stop making them. Exactly as has happened with CRT televisions.

The Electronics giants need you to buy the same item over anbd over again in order to survive. So they make new and improved models of the same thing.

In 4 or 5 years time you will not be able to buy a standard def DVD player - You will only have a choice of BluRay or HD DVD (If that, in all likelyhood, BluRay will be the only format).

GazTheHat

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

But wont those players still play DVD's? If so it's only those who want to buy the HD version will have to.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

We've already seen with audio that people aren't prepared to pay more for a higher quality format that's harder to copy, especially when there's a format war to confuse things. Why should video be different?

Jamz3k

blu-ray/HD-DVD will only be for hardcore movie fans with good home cinema setups in my opinion as the biggest jump in quality is not in picture but in sound quality!

Still 80% of the public think that upscaling DVD players are HD players so the whole things a pile of *****

Still want one though as i cannot stand the noise of my Xbox whilst watching films

PS 300 in HD stunning!

PeteBrant

Correct, but again - You won't be able to buy product on standard DVD in 4 or 5 years - Same as with VHS now.

It's going to happen, in 4 or 5 years time, maybe sooner, all that will exist in any meaningful for is HD DVD and BluRay.

And we will not have a say in it.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

What, like you can't buy music on CD any more?

SACDs are completely backward compatible, why isn't everything released on those? A: because they cost more to make, and people aren't prepared to pay the extra.

The end of DVD might happen when everyone already has a hi-def player - discontinuing them any sooner would be commercial suicide.

Imagine DVDs were discontinued overnight. It might take me 6 months to save up for, or get around to, buying a hi-def player, during which time I wouldn't be buying any movies at all. If everyone were suddenly put in the same position, the studios would die within weeks.

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

I think you'll be buying it via the net and streaming it direct to your TV in around that timescale. I never get these people who have a huge DVD collection. In most cases once you've seen the film that's enough. I've never bought a film DVD in my life.