HD DVDs
markdirect -- Thu, 08/04/2005 - 17:12
I hear that a number of companies will be bringing HD DVDs to market in the Fall or Winter of this year. Will I have to replace my existing player or will it play HD?
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New players will be required. Even worse there appear to be two separate formats. Worse even they will require the new HDMI connections on your T.V. What a mess!
Bryston 2BLP Parasound Halo p-3
Infinity Kappa 400 M&K MX-70
NAD T-533 Yamaha MCX-1000
Thorens TD-185 Monarchy 33
Yep, you'll need a new player to see high-def content. And the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray is a real bummer. Also, it is likely that both formats will allow content providers to decide if the component output will pass high-def or downconvert to 480p. If they opt for downconversion, the only way to see a true HD image will be via HDMI; if your display doesn't have an HDMI input, you're SOL!
The good news is that HD DVD players are going to start at $500 and should be available in March or April. TPV has dibs on the first player from Toshiba, and we're planning to publish a review in issue 69 (July/August 2006).
How much later will Blu-Ray players and discs appear?
I'm told that the Pioneer Blu-ray player will be available starting in June. I assume there will be at least a few titles available at the same time, but I don't know anything definite about that. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for any news about this.
Oh yeah, one more thing: Pioneer announced at CES that their Blu-ray player would list for $1800. Compare that to Toshiba's HD DVD players, which will be available in March or April with MSRPs of $500 and $800.
Sony just announced that they would ship their first Blu-ray player in May, with a price of $1000. Note that this player doesn't support the new high-resolution surround-sound formats, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master. The reason is that the chipsets weren't ready in time. The player will, however, output multichannel analog audio derived from the uncompressed linear PCM channels on the discs (48kHz, 16-bit).
Robert Harley