Format war may be almost over?

[Paulo Teixeira]

Sony is releasing a more affordable standalone Blu-Ray player called the BDP-S300 for 600 bucks. It’s going to be a lot slimmer than Sony’s previous standalone player, the BDP-S1. Expect to see it in stores this summer.

Still, you can get a 20 gig PS3 for 500 dollars and a 60 gig PS3 with WiFi and memory card slots for 600 dollars and both of them include 1.3 complaint HDMI ports.

At least the slim design of the BDP-S300 should hopefully attract buyers.
http://news.digitaltrends.com/article12357.html




Toshiba is releasing the Qosmio G30-AV6, a multimedia notebook that burns HD-DVDs.
http://marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=2575
Price $2,999

[Jeffrey Butler]

So what's the running opinion on the JVC SRDVD-100U ProHD DVD Player? Does it stack up against some of these new players? I'm not looking for a home theater unit as much as I am just a box to archive and watch the raw .m2t streams from the camera on. However, being able to play BluRay or HDDVD would be a nice bonus - though (for me) not for 2x the price. The SRDVD-100U ProHD DVD Player is $379 from B&H...

[Chris Luker]

How about this news?
http://www.dailytech.com/Bluray+Tota...rticle6257.htm
Bluray is selling more than HDdvd since the launch of the PS3...

[Don Blish]

Jeff, based on the my HDV file sizes from my Sony HDR-HC1 (1080x1440 60i), I estimate that you could only get 23 minutes of this material on a DVD single layer or 46 min on double layer. This is at the 25mbps rate of such cameras, or CineformAspectHD/PremierePro2 edited output. If thats OK with you, fine. Most of my projects are longer than that. The JVC is $379 now at B&H but a Sony BluRay burner for your editing computer, model BWU-100a is down to $699 now. Of course, then you need the newly announced Sony BDP-S300 player ($699) for your TV...so it adds up....but you paid plenty for your camera too.

[Paulo Teixeira]

Originally Posted by Don Blish

Of course, then you need the newly announced Sony BDP-S300 player ($699) for your TV...so it adds up....but you paid plenty for your camera too.

Actually, its 599 not 699 for BDP-S300.

[Paulo Teixeira]

http://www.i4u.com/article8123.html
http://www.emedialive.com/Articles/R...rticleID=12465

2 discs http://www.discmakers.com/shop/ItemD...D=DUP010-10058
4 discs http://www.discmakers.com/shop/ItemD...D=DUP010-10059

[Paulo Teixeira]

http://www.informationweek.com/hardw...Sfeed_IWK_News

[Vincent Croce]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

Hi Douglas,

IIn fact, just today a friend who works in printer technology and marketing asked me about DVD-RWs. He had no idea about the DVD types. He thought the "-" was just a dash.

Jon- It IS just a dash. Dash and plus are the 2 dvd formats. N'est ce pas?

[Paulo Teixeira]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

My heart sank when I realize this Blu-DVD player won't play old RCA CED Video Discs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacit...lectronic_Disc

It's plays everything but this....what a cruel joke!

I would have wanted it if it also played back SVHS PAL and DVCPRO tapes

[John C. Chu]

The Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player is now selling for $299, with 5 free movies by mail.

This is a darn good deal...and pretty much the magic price point for a lot of people.

As a side note, making a HD DVD with footage from my Canon HV20, authoring it and burning it on a regular DVD-R is a nice little trick--and one of the main reasons I got my Toshiba back in January.

I can't believe we are at a point where we can shoot in HD and then make a HD disc that plays on our HDTV.

It's a brave new world...

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

The Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player is now selling for $299, with 5 free movies by mail.

Not bad: http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HD-A2-...5917051&sr=8-1

It will be interesting to see if this stems the shift toward Blu-ray with the introduction of the PS3.

[Bruce S. Yarock]

What are the options right now for burning/authoring an hd dvd? We edit on PPRo with Cineform Aspect HD. Since we do weddings, etc. our final product is at least an hour.
I shoot with a Canon H1, sony FX1 and Canon HV10.
Thanks
Bruce yarock
www.yarock.com

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Bruce S. Yarock

What are the options right now for burning/authoring an hd dvd? We edit on PPRo with Cineform Aspect HD. Since we do weddings, etc. our final product is at least an hour.

The latest version of Adobe Encore reportedly supports Blu-ray authoring, and you can buy a Blu-ray burner for $599 or so. Render your finished timeline to HDV 1080i at 25 Mbps and you should be able to fit about two hours on a single-layer Blu-ray disc costing ~$10-15 each. I'm not sure what the best options are for authoring a Toshiba HD-DVD, but some people are rendering to H.264 and burning to standard red-laser DVDs (which gives you HD playback but no menus).

[John C. Chu]

Originally Posted by Bruce S. Yarock

What are the options right now for burning/authoring an hd dvd? We edit on PPRo with Cineform Aspect HD. Since we do weddings, etc. our final product is at least an hour.
I shoot with a Canon H1, sony FX1 and Canon HV10.
Thanks
Bruce yarock
www.yarock.com

On the Macintosh side, the only option of making HD DVDs, as of right now, is DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2. The workflow is exactly like making a standard DVD--you can still make menus, chapters, multiple audio tracks etc.

However, there is no ability to take a take advantage of the sophisticated menus features in the new format[picture in picture type of stuff, menus popping up and overlaying the movie etc.].

The real rub with HD DVD is that there are no burners or media currently available that I see.

You can fit 30 minutes of HD on a single layer DVD-R. With a dual layer DVD-R, one can fit an hour of HD. [Never tried dual layer]

It's a good cheap option till true burners become available.

On the horizon, there is rumblings of even cheaper HD DVD players from China...might be the ticket to share family videos.

And of course, you have to put the discs in the new generation format cases to complete the package:

http://www.gadgetizer.com/2006/03/17...from-seastone/

http://www.seastonemedia.com/

Blu-Ray is blue---HD DVD is red.

[Paulo Teixeira]

Toshiba been offering 5 free DVDs for a while now and the reason for the HD-A2 being that cheep is because it isn’t 1080p. Amazon is selling it for around 307 to get rid of them because their probably hard to sell. The player that’s replacing it, the HD-A20 has 480p but the Amazon price is 460. For 40 dollars more you get a 20 gig PS3 that’s not only a 1080p Blu-Ray player but also a game system.