As pretty much expected Samsung's launch of the BD-P1000 Blu-ray disc player on Saturday went off to a slow start with players struggling to leave the shelves. Worse still, the Hollywood news website MovieWeb reported about plenty of confusion if anything amongst the consumers. This would most likely be the case for consumers who saw the players for the first time and have no idea what's the difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD. At present, the player is selling for a hefty US$999, with a choice of seven Blu-ray titles to choose from. The player is expected to hit the retail stores in the UK in September.
If consumers were depending on Sony to launch the first Blu-ray disc players, they would find themselves waiting another while again with Sony now pushing back its Blu-ray launch yet again, this time to around October 25th according to Sony Style's website. It was just a few weeks ago that they delayed the launch to August 15th from July. According to a Sony spokesperson, the launch has been reportedly delayed as a result of software-related issues and not HDMI as some have thought, especially with the finalisation of the HDMI 1.3 interface standard.
|
Hollywood news website MovieWeb reported that Samsung's BD-P1000 DVD player, which hit the shops five days after the first seven Blu-ray films on 20 June, aroused "little sales activity" but "plenty of confusion" among consumers. Samsung may find comfort in the news that Toshiba's rival HD-DVD player is also said to be selling slowly. Quote from Tom's Hardware about new Sony delay: Without any announcements or warnings in advance, the release date posted on the Sony Style Web site for its upcoming BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc player was updated last Wednesday to read, "On or about October 25, 2006." The previous date had read August 15, after having been delayed from a late July date just two weeks ago. |
With even poor sales being reported for the much cheaper Toshiba HD DVD player, it looks like this battle will go on for a good while yet before it starts to become clear which side starts leading. The slow start may also be a had sign as we could end up seeing something like what happened with Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio, the two high definition audio formats that have aimed to take over the Audio CD.
Source: Computing News
Next: Magix Audio Cleaning Lab restores music adds effects
Previous: Cache explorer - free drive caching test tool 
[edited by Crabbyappleton on 27.06.2006 02:52]
The start is weird itself. How can Sony be a leading developer and then let Koreans have the fattest piece of pie, that is to make millions on a new to the market product. Or are they expecting people to get pissed with raw and buggy and then to fork out for the real thing in October? I just hope by then ppl will have realised what a dirty game Hollywood tries to pull off.
Cheers.
Also of course it had a slow start it's opening weekend this is not a mass consumer product yet. They are probably estimated less then 50,000 units to be sold before PS3 comes out. Toshiba has announced they are expecting 250,000 units to be sold by end of 2007. Maybe if they had huge adverst on tv for it then I would think they were expecting a huge turn out but they are not pushing it like a "must have" right now.
[edited by psychoace on 27.06.2006 04:49]
The thing is, with the prospect of one of these formats dieing off, there really isn't a way to future proof your collection.
People would be wise if they stand still and wait, wait and wait for this thing comes clear!
People, stick to your DVD, wich is good and don't waste your hard earned $$$
Well the companies would want you to buy the same movies in HD, lol and you accept it and buy them?
i say no, i don't buy them! i already have them in dvd, why do i would want to buy them again? to see more colors? lol
