This is an interesting change of events; it appears as if C|Net has revised their rating of the Samsung BD-P1000 from 6.6 to 5.8. Apparently C|Net has taken the poor performance of Samsung?s Blu-ray player to heart; they now rate the Toshiba HD-A1 higher than the Samsung player that costs $500 more.

The author notes that this revision is based on ?Samsung’s admission that the BD-P1000 suffers from a manufacturing flaw that adversely affects its video quality.? Which again is quite interesting considering that fact that Samsung customer service representatives are reading from a prepared statement that says:

“Our stance is that there is no defect, flaw, or bug with the Genesis chip as incorrectly reported by some blogs.”

It’s amazing how Beyond High Definition has tumbled into a confusing cacophony of press releases, CSR denials and ever evolving stances on the very format that Fox Home Entertainment?s Mike Dunn described as a “Blu-ray no-brainer for the consumer”.

Yes I’m aware that Samsung is but one supplier of Blu-ray hardware but the fact of the matter is, at the moment their the only supplier and first impression do matter.

Update: C|Net’s John P. Falcone explains the revised rankings.

R.Hollis

Not much in the way of details and no release date is mentioned but Caddyshack is coming to HD DVD!

Gophers!

Note: The Man Room?s “release July 27, 2006″ indicates the date the title was announced. At least that?s what I?m guessing because the title is not available (as of today’s date)

R.Hollis

I ran across an internal Intel employee communication on HD DVD, over at avsforum. It sheds some light on why Intel chose to back HD DVD in the first place and drives home some of my biggest reasons for going with HD DVD.

“We are not supporting HD DVD just for the sake of picking a format. Having the next generation of DVD technology out there is in our best interests, and we think HD DVD has the best chance of being successful.

It is the standard most compatible with previous formats, relies on established materials and manufacturing processes, and provides the most features for consumers.

Traditional CDs and DVDs are manufactured of aluminum and plastic with a spin coat on top. This process has a high yield in manufacturing. HD DVD uses this same manufacturing process.

To counter potential reliability problems with data stored only 0.1 mm below the surface of the substrate, Blu-ray uses a film technique similar to that used in silicon manufacture, adding a hard coat on top of a film similar to cellophane (but of higher quality).

The different materials mean that producing a Blu-ray disk with reliability comparable to an HD DVD disk can add up to 35 percent to the cost of the disk.”

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According to SkeekingAlpha by way of Yahoo Finance news Japan…

“Hitachi will be introducing a 2-3 terabyte hard disk drive HD-DVD recorder in 2007″

If this pans out, it would mark the second confirmed manufacturer of HD DVD player/recorders.

Now in all likelihood even if this story is true, the Hitachi player/recorder is very likely for Japanese consumption only but it would open the door for U.S. HD DVD player/recorders manufactured by Hitachi.

Source: SeekingAlpha Japan:

–update– looks like this one was a goof, the author added “Thanks for your comment pointing out the error in my posting about Hitachi’s forthcoming 2-3 terabyte HDD DVD component (not HDD HD-DVD).”

R.Hollis

“Lite-On IT plans to work with Toshiba to launch HD-DVD players at prices less than US$1,000 in the beginning of August while aiming to ship 50,000 Blu-ray players per month before year-end, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily.”

That short, cryptic entry from DigiTimes Systems may very well be the first word of a HD DVD player other than the already released Toshiba HD-A1 and HD-XA1.

One obvious question would be, does ?work with Toshiba to launch HD-DVD players - in the beginning of August? mean the players will be released in August or production will start in August?

Or does this simply mean that Lite-on provides the HD DVD drives found in Toshiba?s players? and if so why the use of the word ‘launch’. Enquiring minds want to know!

R.Hollis

–Update– Confirmed here.

Better late than never I suppose, Paramount has announced their up-coming HD DVD’s releases for July 25th, August 1st and 10th.

HD DVD’s streeting on July 25th include: Sahara, Tomb Raider, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Sleepy Hollow.

The Following Tuesday (August 1st) will see the release of: Four Brothers, We Were Soldiers and The Manchurian Candidate. Followed by: U2: Rattle and Hum, Aeon Flux and The Italian Job on August 8th.

Suggested retail for all of Paramount’s HD DVD’s is $29.95, as always keep an eye out for specials and promotional pricing.

R.Hollis.

Yes that’s what Ultimate AV’s Shane C. Buettner had to say (”Best HD image quality available on any format”) about HD DVD in his Toshiba HD-XA1 review. Now in all fairness he also noted the first generation players aren’t lightning fast loaders and do suffer from minor hang-ups, but take a look at some other comments from Mr. Buettner.

The image quality is, in short, everything we’ve hoped it could be, and represents a significant challenge to Blu-ray or any other format that comes down the pike. The picture is unequivocally the best I’ve seen in my home from any HD source. DirecTV is my broadcast HD source, and sometimes presentations on Showtime HD, Discovery HD, and the HDNet channels approach this level of quality, but they don’t quite get there

HD DVDs are unequivocally more film-like in the complete elimination of compression artifacts, motion artifacts, and certainly in the depth of the image and more convincing color saturation. In fact, I couldn’t see just how prevalent these artifacts are with DVD until watching these discs and noticing that they’d simply vanished. And again, even compared to the best broadcast HD I’ve seen the level of clarity is a clear and mighty cut above with the best discs.

Read Ultimate AV’s Toshiba HD-XA1HD DVD Player review, in full.

R.Hollis

The guys over at AV Forums have scored an exclusive interview with Olivier Van Wynendaele, assistant general marketing Toshiba Europe and have posted a transcript of the interview. Some interesting quotes about HD DVD’s European launch and HD DVD general include:

AVF: So, can you tell us how much they differ from the US machines?

Tosh: Well, what I can say is that our European players will be based on our second generation chassis, so they will be quite different from the players already available in the US today. I can?t give too much detail but, a few of the drawbacks which were reported to us by users in the USA with our two players there will be solved and therefore additional features not available there will be added to the European players.

AVF: Are Toshiba ever likely to make a universal HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player?

Tosh: We?ll keep this very short ? no, we?re not planning to do so for obvious reasons ? we?ve developed with NEC the HD-DVD format. This format was involved with the DVD Forum as the next generation DVD format and because of that, we don?t see why we should make combined players which play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. We believe in our format, we believe it will be the definitive format, so we have no intentions of making a universal player.

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