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New DVD? It's so unclear
Should you jump on HD DVD? Or wait for Blu-ray? Or would you even notice a difference?
By DAVE GUSSOW
Published March 9, 2006
TAMPA - The upcoming battle between competing high-definition DVD players will take a bite out of David Seto's bank account. For Seto, 30, of Brooksville, it's not a question of an HD DVD player or a Blu-ray machine. He'll buy both "because you can't get everything you want to watch on one. Unfortunately, it's back to the '80s," Seto said, alluding to the old skirmish between VHS and Betamax for dominance among videotape formats. Seto drove to Tampa this week to see a demonstration of Toshiba's HD DVD player at the Sound Advice store on Dale Mabry Highway. It's expected to go on sale March 28. The rival Blu-ray players will follow this spring. If he buys top models of both, his tab could run $2,600. Toshiba has two models, one at $499 and the other at $799. Blu-ray machine prices are expected to run between $1,000 and $1,800. Movies will be expensive, too. While prices for HD DVD discs have not been announced, Sony plans to charge $30 to $40 for its Blu-ray discs. Let the DVD wars, high-definition style, begin. Up to this point, DVD players have been simple and immensely popular, having the fastest adoption rate of any consumer electronics item. Prices have dropped from around $600 at their 1997 introduction to sometimes less than $50 today. Yet even though DVDs have superior quality to VHS tapes, the growth of high-definition TV is bringing about the change. Consumers are likely to be caught in a confusing cross-fire that may rival the legendary Betamax-VHS competition in the '70s and '80s. "I'm not sure consumers are going to care that much initially," said Joni Blecher, an analyst with JupiterResearch. "Only the early adopters are really going to necessarily buy one of these things." And many consumers, even those with high-definition TVs, may be satisfied with the picture quality of standard DVDs, she says. Most people will not notice the quality difference between standard DVD and high-definition DVD as much as they did the upgrade from VHS tapes to DVD. While both technologies have similarities, including resolution, they have at least one major difference: HD DVD discs won't work in Blu-ray players, and vice versa. Current DVDs will work in both. The new high-def players won't play with some older HDTV sets because the players have a new connector. HD DVD backers expect 15 to 20 titles to be available for its March rollout, and 150 to 200 by the end of the year. Blu-ray has not released similar information. "HD DVD, the advantage there is first to market," Blecher said. "Blu-ray has much more storage capacity . . . (and) Blu-ray drives will have more features." In this battle, each side has heavyweights. In addition to Toshiba, in the HD DVD corner are Microsoft and Intel. Backing Blu-ray are Panasonic, Apple Computer, Dell, Philips and Sony. The differentiator may be the movie studios, where Blu-ray has exclusivity with studios such as Disney and Sony. HD DVD has exclusive deals with NBC-Universal, Weinstein Brothers Studio and France's Studio Canal. Paramount and Warner will do both formats. And content is critical. The top reason people buy DVDs, Blecher said, is for deleted scenes, the extra content "you can't get anywhere else." At Sound Advice, Mark MacMichael, an assistant manager for Toshiba in marketing communications, answered questions as part of a 40-city tour the company is sponsoring to drum up interest in HD DVD. A demo disc showed trailers on a 56-inch wide-screen TV from movies such as the Dukes of Hazzard, The Corpse Bride and King Kong. It also had split screen segments with high definition on one side and standard definition on the other. He showed off a connector in the front where peripherals could be connected - devices for games or even shopping on TV, and discussed one on the back that allows for Internet connections for upgrading software or possibly adding scenes from movie studios. "The possibilities are endless." MacMichael said. Information from Times files was used in this report. Dave Gussow can be reached at dgussow@sptimes.com or 727 445-4165. ON THE WEB Blu-ray Disc Association: www.blu-raydisc.com HD DVD Promotion Group: www.hddvdprg.com
[Last modified March 9, 2006, 03:25:59]
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