HD DVD News from IFA
by Pravin on August 31st, 2007 in news.
I had to look in European gadget and technology blogs to find detailed coverage of the HD DVD presentation from IFA. Some of the products and news are very much about the European market, and it’s natural that IFA coverage by the “home team” is going to be pretty good. All of this information comes from DVD Times, Pocket-lint.co.uk and TechDigest.tv, and you can (and should) read these for yourself because I’m only recapping the highlights here:
- Toshiba will have sold 30 million HD DVD-equipped notebooks by the end of 2007, with 16 million of those purchased directly by consumers and the remainder sold to businesses. Whether these are used for movies or storage, it gets HD DVD drives into people’s hands. Toshiba has a 70% share of the European IT market, and HD DVD is being made available even on sub-1000 Euro laptops.
- There will be 400 HD DVD titles by the end of the year. A lot of movies paraded at the Blu-ray presentation yesterday are actually also coming out for HD DVD, including titles from Studio Canal and Pathe (Studio Canal had been mispresented as Blu-ray exclusive). They showed a lot of logos of European companies currently involved with making HD DVDs.
- HD DVD offers great possibilities for live music DVDs, and EMI presented music by Herbert Gronenmeyer (a famous musician in Germany). His HD DVD disc is being released in December, with DTS HD 7.1 audio.
- Toshiba announced the European versions of their third-generation machines: the HD-EP30, and EP35 coming in October. All come with the “5 Free Movies” offer. There’s no HD-EP3 because Toshiba Europe says no more 1080i players for them. With the Venturer at the low-end, Onkyo at the high end, and Toshiba right in the middle, European consumers will have plenty of choices.(We will too)
- Presented a list of hardware manufacturers involved with HD DVD, some of the names overlap with the list presented by the Blu-ray group from the day before.
Except for new player announcements, this was a lot like the presentation put on by Team Blu-ray the day before, and it definitely had a very European flavor to it. I’m glad they debunked any sense of Blu-ray exclusive deals by showing that many of the same parties are involved in both camps.
IFA is not over yet, and there’s likely to be more HD DVD news coming in the days ahead. A lot of products show up on the exhibit floor that aren’t part of these big press conferences, and I’ll report on those tid-bits as they come in. Feel free to share in the comments about any items that you come across.
September 1st, 2007 at 7:54 am
The IT market that you are talking about, I don’t see how this is an advantage. Here’s why: since HD DVD has been unable to produce a burning HD drive, this drive is a HD read only drive. How does this help HD? I like the HD DVD camp’s claim that the gaming consoles which give BR the lead is rarely used for movie viewing, but yet apparently the HD laptop drive is and that’s what helps them?? Doesn’t make any sense. I use my PS3 for BRs, and judging from the bluray.com forum, lots of others do as well.
September 1st, 2007 at 9:25 am
Many people use laptops to watch movies, for example they’re on the road a lot and want to take their entertainment with them on planes, airports, etc. Laptops with HD DVD players present the same back-door opportunity for HD DVD that the PS3 does for getting Blu-ray into people’s houses.
I’m not surprised that the PS3 owners at a Blu-ray forum use their machines to watch movies. That’s like observing that the people eating at a vegetarian restaurant are vegetarians. Most people bought their PS3 to play games, many of them knew it was useful for Blu-ray (I was going to be one of those people). A small minority bought a PS3 only for Blu-ray. Getting your information from biased places never gives you the big picture about anything.
I’m glad you come to HDDVD.com to learn about HD DVD because your Blu-ray sources are incorrect in stating that there’s no HD DVD burner. There is such a thing, but just like the Blu-ray burners, it’s not cheap and if someone’s getting a high-def DVD drive for their computer, it’s much more likely to be a reader that can burn standard CDs and DVDs.
September 1st, 2007 at 10:49 am
See, it’s true you learn something new everyday. It just seems to be Toshiba’s argument to not count gaming consoles in determining BR to HD players out there, because they can claim to have more stand-alone players than BR. Toshiba and the HD camp like to ignore the gaming consoles so that they can make it appear as though they have the higher market share. I talked with a Best Buy salesman when I was buying my PS3, and he said that he had sold more PS3s to people who solely planned on using them for BRs than for actual gaming. He knew that because he told me he always asked the question if they needed anything else, games, controllers, other accessories, and they responded, “No, I just want to watch Blu Rays and this is the cheapest player right now.”
My point in bringing up the forum is that most of the people there list the electronics they have in their home theater as a signature. The vast majority list PS3 60GB, and then list how many BR movies they have. I’d say that average is close to 5-8 movies to 1 game. I currently have 5 movies and 1 game, I’d have more movies if I weren’t a poor college student. Someday.
September 1st, 2007 at 11:21 am
Bring on the fuzzy math, that’s what I say! It’s amusing to see how percentages get added up or taken apart, and people find interesting ways to make 500 customers sound like 50,000. At some point, I expect both sides to bring out new dictionaries with new meanings for words like “few” or “couple.”
September 1st, 2007 at 8:36 pm
I would like to support bret. I’m from asia, living in europe. All of my friends who has Ps3 use it to watch movies. Ps3 games selection are still crap (at least until final fantasy xiii is released). I use my ps3, just like my friends from asia and europe. In europe unlike usa, there is no hd dvd-recordable laptop as of now. So, as of now, we can only watch limited movies (while my collection comes from disney mostly) and cant store data. Toshiba plans to release one, though. I plan to replace my laptop drive with bd-re, and buy external hd dvd drive.
September 1st, 2007 at 10:03 pm
It’s interesting for me to hear that PS3 game selection sucks, because that’s been keeping me from getting one myself, and at least I know I’m not in the minority opinion on this matter. I know there are some good games, but not enough of a library of them for me to get a PS3.
The lucky thing for you, Bret, and other PS3 owners who use it primarily for movies is that unlike people with standalone Blu-ray players, you have a much better chance to become 1.1 and 2.0 compliant because the PS3 is much more flexible than any regular or premium Blu-ray player will ever be. I think the only thing you guys miss out on is DVD up-scaling, but once you’re bitten by the HD bug, you start noticing faults in up-scaled video and desire only real HD.
September 1st, 2007 at 10:16 pm
i read on kotaku.com a while back that there was a study done that said about only 30% of 360 and PS3 users even KNOW about their consoles HD capabilities, let alone their HD movie capabilities.
i know this doesn’t count for EVERY gamer, but it still says something.
and i was just curious as to when the Blu Ray players with “final” specs are coming out?
i hear it’s either the end of this year or early next year.
i don’t mean anything by this, i’m just curious.