PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3)Cheap HD DVD units arriving this yearCNET - August 30, 2007
Submitted by welshbloke (60)
at 5:01AM PST on August 30, 2007
Based on the fact that the reason we should be happy to shell out so much for the PS3 is the Blu Ray player the news that a $150 HD DVD unit will be on sale before the end of the year could potentially be very bad news for the Blu Ray camp especially when you take on board the recent announcement by Paramount.
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I think the other feature often overlooked is the hybrid capabilities of HD DVD. Blu Ray has them coming but the costs are higher again which if you follow Blu Ray is a common theme. I think it will become common to find HD DVD and DVD combos on single disks that can be read on both a standard DVD player and a HD player.
That said the one reason why I never liked Blu Ray even before it became clear that it was going to be a data choice for the PS3 was the reason why the movies houses chose it and that is increased encryption. BD+ or something similar on top of the encryption used on both discs is THE reason the movie houses chose this format. This has nothing to do with the data on discs or the consumer.
As a consumer we would of been better of with the cheaper to produce HD format. More pressing plants would of been capable of making these discs with less up front cost and that means more competition. I guess todays competition may see players come down in price sooner than they might of it certainly has spun some good deals on both formats.
Both the Wiki articles on the formats I think cover these topics well so I will not try and regurgitate and facts as I will get them wrong.