Blue Ray Coming this Year- Will be Expensive

[zippyjuan]

It will have to come down a lot before many people will be willing to buy them.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20060105215314.html
First, the players:


Blu-Ray Disc Players to Be Available in June for $1800.
Blu-Ray Recorder for PC to Cost $995

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 01/05/2006 | 09:53 PM ]


Pioneer, a leading maker of consumer electronics and a backer of Blu-ray disc technology, announced at Consumer Electronics Show pricing details about its Blu-ray disc player for the living room and Blu-ray disc burner for personal computers. Apparently, the former will cost $1800, whereas the latter is expected to cost about $995.

Pioneer’s new Elite BDP-HD1 Blu-ray disc player will be able to playback various, both single-layer and dual-layer, Blu-ray discs and various DVD media. The device is capable of decoding of H.264 (MPEG4 AVC), WMV and MPEG2 (standard DVD) video streams. The BDP-HD1 will process audio in DTS-HD, Dolby Digital, WMA, MP3 and LPCM formats. The players can output video in up to 1080p (1920x1080) resolutions using HDMI interconnection and multi-channel audio using the same method.

For those operating a networked home, the Elite BDP-HD1 was designed with Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) guidelines. When utilizing the IP networking capability, users will be able to access and easily load protected content currently stored on a DLNA compliant server or Windows XP PC using Windows Media Connect. In addition to photos, music and movies, users can download new content straight to their computer for immediate viewing on a television through the player. The unit’s playsforsure compliance provides compatibility with all existing Microsoft software.

The BDP-HD1 player will be available in June, 2006, for suggested retail price of $1800.

Pioneer also unveiled the pricing for its already known Pioneer BRD-101A burner designed for professionals and content creators for the purpose of testing and evaluating high definition consumer Blu-ray disc titles during the authoring process before replication. The part will be available this quarter for the price of $995.




And the media:


50GB Rewritable Blank Blu-Ray Disk to Cost $60 – Panasonic.
Panasonic Outlines Plans to Ship BD Media to U.S.

Category: Storage

by Anton Shilov

[ 01/06/2006 | 10:45 AM ]


A leading maker of consumer electronics, Panasonic, announced plans to ship blank Blu-ray disk media to the United States in spring 2006. The company will supply recordable and rewritable single-layer and dual-layer discs targeting customers seeking for high-capacity removable storage solutions.

Panasonic will ship four types of Blu-ray discs to the U.S. this year: recordable 25GB single-layer and 50GB dual-layer discs for $17.99 and $42.99 respectively as well as rewritable 25GB and 50GB discs for $24.99 and $59.99 respectively. The blank media can be used with Blu-ray disc burners at the speed of up to 2x and then read by consumer electronics or personal computer equipment capable of Blu-ray discs playback.

Panasonic said its Blu-ray discs employ a number of exclusive technologies developed by the company, which, in addition to time and money required for research and development, also involved usage of production equipment not utilised previously, which are one of the main reasons why the discs cost significantly more compared to typical DVDs and HD DVDs. Still, such price premium is unlikely to be effective for long – Sony, the main driving force behind the Blu-ray – said that in case of mass production the significant price differences between the Blu-ray and other types of media would erode quickly.

The company indicated that it uses developed in-house highly sensitive and durable recording film for rewritable discs and inorganic material which is unaffected by light is utilized for recordable discs. Panasonic BD discs also use an advanced spin coating process technology to form the cover layer with extremely uniform thickness, furthermore, newly-developed surface-treatment technology enables a significant boost in disc resistance to scratches and abrasions, ensuring high reliability and durability, according to the manufacturer.

Panasonic is expected to unveil its Blu-ray disc burners for personal computers (PCs) in the first quarter of 2006, whereas the consumer players are likely to emerge in Q2.

Recently announced PC BD burner and BD disk player for consumers from Pioneer have suggested retail price of $995 and $1800 respectively.

[Thesifer]

Sounds like the problem that plagued Beta-Max.. Overpriced... All over again.

(Better product overall... price not consumer friendly = product fail)

[Butch]

I'm sure it's no big news, but I've read Toshiba will be releasing an entry-level HD-DVD player for $500 this year . . . that is much more within the budget I would expect someone to be willing to pay . . . gotta say I'd put my money on HD-DVD at this point . . . it seems like a strong incremental change vs. the current technology . . .

[Thesifer]

Specially if they come out with HD-DVD Fully backwards compatible so people don't have to get rid of DVD's. They have been saying it will, but still has to be seen to be proven. If so , I'll put my support behind HD-DVD (Cause we know how strong my Support will be !! haha With all my Power!)

[clutchy]

I still haven't figured out the early adopters, but God bless them for driving the continued progress of technology.

These will come down to dvd prices in a few years. DVD was really really expensive when it first came out.

[Grimm]

I'll bet money that HD-DVD comes out even lower cost than planned. They will see the price differential as being the opertunity to crush Blu-ray.

[johnnymk]

Why would a writer be less expensive than a player?

[Grimm]

Why would a writer be less expensive than a player?
I suspect they will both be able to write. The difference is that one is a computer component and the other is a stand alone home theatre component.

[zero2dash]

Man, and I thought DL media was expensive at first...:eek:
Any writer (BluRay or HD-DVD) being over $200-$300 is not going to be accepted widely for a looooooooong time. I remember paying $200 for a 4x HP cdrw way back in the day (when it first hit the market) but those were different times...people nowadays are accustomed to decent burners (dvd ones) being around $50, which is a far cry from when cd burners were $100+ years ago.

Sheesh for those prices you could probably get a terabyte's worth of hd's...:disa:

[clutchy]

Sheesh for those prices you could probably get a terabyte's worth of hd's...:disa:

probably 4 or 5Tb

[johnnymk]

The discs alone are almost $1 per GB. It may be cheaper just to have a bunch of 30 GB or 60 GB hard drives to store each movie.

[Jeffbx]

I suspect the media costs will drop very quickly once production ramps up... I remember when blank DVD media was about $20 per disc.

[Cheesypuff]

I don't like blu-ray, but I also remember cd-r's being like 5 bucks a disc.

[InfiniteNothing]

Specially if they come out with HD-DVD Fully backwards compatible so people don't have to get rid of DVD's. They have been saying it will, but still has to be seen to be proven.

The one in the article plays dvd:shrug:


Pioneer’s new Elite BDP-HD1 Blu-ray disc player will be able to playback various, both single-layer and dual-layer, Blu-ray discs and various DVD media.

[Thesifer]

and various DVD media.

Various DVD Media will definately keep me from buying it.