HD DVD owners will have to buy new players

[talbers23]

Thats freaking great! I just made sure I sent a text to a co worker who is a hardcore hd dvd supporter letting him know this about his shitty format.

[Sonny]

Oh where to start......hd-dvd sux a$$ !!!

[mike79]

It says they will investigate it, which means they may be able to. Not that i want them too

[Jack Torrance]

Just goes to prove that BD's disc expansion has been part of the plan all along (the announced 100gb disc would only require a firmware update according to Hitachi)... and that the TL51gb hd-dvd disc was merely an afterthought when they finally realized that 30gb is woefully inadequate.

[jason_grumpy]

But but but.. their spec is finalized!



Queue Nelson HAHA guy.

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by jason_grumpy

But but but.. their spec is finalized!



Queue Nelson HAHA guy.

Exactly my thoughts! lol!

[HK-48]

Wow, I don't want to be mean since I am a Christian, but I would be VERY surprised if this 51 disc ever came into existence. It is just HD DVD propaganda to use against Blu-Ray's space advantage, and this, combined with Universal lying in Japan, shows how desperate HD DVD is getting, and I am finding their ways of clinging on to their life.... distasteful at best.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

I am literally crying... and I can't tell if it's out of joy or from laughing so hard at their idiocy! It's funny too because Toshiba could make an official press release stating the fact that the 51GB disc will not be compatible with the previously released hardware and FUD will increase because of it with "they will come out with a firmware update to make it work."

[mcy_999]

Before the HD DVD BL-51 is finalized, we probably will get a firmware upgrade for our BD players to play the new Hitachi 100GB disc's (if not 200GB disc). And I'm sure that HD DVD will die before they start dreaming of BL-101. They are simply in a no-win situation.

[Banjo]

Not to mention the 1080p/24 firmware update is causing problems on the current models too as well.

Future Shop recently had to put up the corrections stating that HD DVD players are 1080i, not 1080p as advertised in the flyers.

[Slapper]

Originally Posted by Banjo

Not to mention the 1080p/24 firmware update is causing problems on the current models too as well.

Future Shop recently had to put up the corrections stating that HD DVD players are 1080i, not 1080p as advertised in the flyers.

One of my best friends has a huge home theater set-up and he DL'ed the new firmware for his Toshiba XA2 for 1080p/24 support while I was over there a couple weeks ago. This guy is 100% pro-HD-DVD...maybe more. Anyway, we fired up "300" to watch it at 1080p/24 on his JVC RS-1 projector and we had lip synch issues (which he corrected via his pre-amp after much tweaking) and then we noticed frame-drop issues. I haven't heard that much swearing in awhile. After he tinkered with menu settings and checked his inputs (which didn't help) we decided to go on AVS and see if there was a problem. I haven't been over there in awhile and I didn't know there was an issue with the HD-DVD XA2 2.5 firmware. He didn't know either.

After reading a few pages of posts I said, "You should've gotten a Blu-ray player."
His reply, "F*** you."

Ah, good times...

[Dalese]

Originally Posted by flyingdutchman

Bwahahahahahhahahahaha.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

In other news for the HD-DVD camp, just two days after Sony DADC announced that they'd replicated their milestone 10 millionth 50GB Blu-ray Disc (click here for the Video Business story), the HD-DVD Promotions Group quickly countered with a little damage control, making sure everyone knew that the DVD Forum was close to approving the spec for a triple-layer 51GB HD-DVD disc (click here). However, industry sources are telling us that NONE of the existing Toshiba HD-DVD players and drives are currently capable of reading them. Indeed, the Video Business story indicates that once the spec is finalized, "compatibility with current HD DVD player and recorders can be investigated." According to reports from Bits readers who were on at CEATAC this weekend, Toshiba reps confirmed to attendees that the triple-layer disc configuration would require a hardware change, meaning that the existing drives are not firmware updatable.

If this all true...

So in order to make parity with Blu-ray, the HD-DVD Promotions Group says you need HD-DVD 2.0. That means buying a whole new player to be compatible with the "upgraded format".

Can you imagine the uproar when (if ever) a new TL51 title comes out and has to have a warning label "This Title Will Not Play on 1st Generation DL30 Players" on it? Will there be two HD-DVD versions of these titles?

Now we know how Toshiba plans to make more stand-alone sales. (Do you suppose Toshiba will offer a trade-in program for those who bought 1.0?) It could also how they plan to dominate shelf space in the stores - two HD-DVD versons for each title!

Let the gloatfest continue!!!


(Pro-blu signature under construction)

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by Dalese

If this all true...

So in order to make parity with Blu-ray, the HD-DVD Promotions Group says you need HD-DVD 2.0. That means buying a whole new player to be compatible with the "upgraded format".

Can you imagine the uproar when (if ever) a new TL51 title comes out and has to have a warning label "This Title Will Not Play on 1st Generation DL30 Players" on it? Will there be two HD-DVD versions of these titles?

Now we know how Toshiba plans to make more stand-alone sales. (Do you suppose Toshiba will offer a trade-in program for those who bought 1.0?) It could also how they plan to dominate shelf space in the stores - two HD-DVD versons for each title!

Let the gloatfest continue!!!


(Pro-blu signature under construction)

They'll probably have a name change to keep confusion down. Maybe SHD DVD(Super HD DVD).

With a new catchphrase "The Look And Sound Of Perfect, Until Such Time As 3.0 Arrives"

[SKRUhddvd]

this news breaks just before the christmas season! how the hell will they sell any hddvd players now! i wonder now if the hddvd camp will be split into two factions the ones that can play all the movies and the ones that cant?

[tron3]

Originally Posted by SKRUhddvd

this news breaks just before the christmas season! how the hell will they sell any hddvd players now! i wonder now if the hddvd camp will be split into two factions the ones that can play all the movies and the ones that cant?

So within their own camp there will be the "haves" and "have nots". Brilliant marketing stratagy.

So what do we call this new "break through"? X3 DUD?

[CAB]

This is bad news for the consumer if the HD DVD group is being intentionally vague on backwards compatibility. I'm forced to take a wait and see attitude. It still looks like quite a lot of speculation either way. My feeling is that this isn't something that the HD DVD supporter wanted because they believe it is needed, rather to take away a talking point for the BD crowd.

I suspect that if TL-51s turns out to work in existing players we wouldn't see them before this conflict is close to resolution (one way or the other). Another thing to point it is some simple math: 400,000 players x $400.00 per player = $160,000,000.00. Would anyone here put it passed the HD DVD group to replace/update the hardware if it meant $billions over the next 10 years?

[domerdel]

yeah i read this on videobusiness.com and no where does it say "not compatible" but they are investigating it...

I am confused about the following quote:

Many Blu-ray supporters have pointed to their own 50GB BD releases as a competitive advantage to HD DVD, which to date has generated 15GB and 30GB discs. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Oct. 30 BD release of Spider-Man 3 is among upcoming Blu-ray titles containing 50GB discs.

They make it sound like SM3 is the first and only movie to utilize BD50? I mean, think of it from a consumer perspective, BD50 sounds "too new".

http://www.videobusiness.com/article...dustryid=47213

[Dalese]

Originally Posted by domerdel

I am confused about the following quote:

They make it sound like SM3 is the first and only movie to utilize BD50? I mean, think of it from a consumer perspective, BD50 sounds "too new".

http://www.videobusiness.com/article...dustryid=47213

The article reads as if 50 gig Blu-ray discs are a new item and not something available all along.

IMO this works to Blu's advantage. Think about it... A consumer who is wanting to go high-def reads the article. HD-DVD will be getting 51 gigs sometime in the future, Blu-ray has 50gb titles now. A little research and he/she finds out that Blu has lots of titles in 50gb, HD-DVD has only 30gb movies. Add into that the possibilty that the current HD-DVD players will not play 51gb movies when (or if) they come out.

More titles with more gigs from more studios that will work on more players.

More is better. Blu is the format choice.


(Pro-blu signature under construction)

[BluOgre]

Originally Posted by Dalese

If this all true...

So in order to make parity with Blu-ray, the HD-DVD Promotions Group says you need HD-DVD 2.0. That means buying a whole new player to be compatible with the "upgraded format".

Can you imagine the uproar when (if ever) a new TL51 title comes out and has to have a warning label "This Title Will Not Play on 1st Generation DL30 Players" on it? Will there be two HD-DVD versions of these titles?

Now we know how Toshiba plans to make more stand-alone sales. (Do you suppose Toshiba will offer a trade-in program for those who bought 1.0?) It could also how they plan to dominate shelf space in the stores - two HD-DVD versons for each title!

Let the gloatfest continue!!!


(Pro-blu signature under construction)

What's funny is this happened already with DVD. I remember when I worked at the store level in a Blockbuster, the Matrix DVD was the biggest headache ever. I swear I had to credit that DVD more time on people's account than I can remember.

Basically it was incompatible with older/cheaper DVD players. So it's not like this hasn't happened before although I think the difference is big because the cost of these highdef players initially were huge. I remember paying $600for a second generation DVD player (top of the line back then) and it seems to be a drop in the bucket with the top of the line players for highdef right now.

[w_tanoto]

Originally Posted by flyingdutchman

Bwahahahahahhahahahaha.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

In other news for the HD-DVD camp, just two days after Sony DADC announced that they'd replicated their milestone 10 millionth 50GB Blu-ray Disc (click here for the Video Business story), the HD-DVD Promotions Group quickly countered with a little damage control, making sure everyone knew that the DVD Forum was close to approving the spec for a triple-layer 51GB HD-DVD disc (click here). However, industry sources are telling us that NONE of the existing Toshiba HD-DVD players and drives are currently capable of reading them. Indeed, the Video Business story indicates that once the spec is finalized, "compatibility with current HD DVD player and recorders can be investigated." According to reports from Bits readers who were on at CEATAC this weekend, Toshiba reps confirmed to attendees that the triple-layer disc configuration would require a hardware change, meaning that the existing drives are not firmware updatable.

From reading the article of AVwatch (Japanese), I understand that they did not mention HD DVD TL is compatible or not, but I read that HD DVD-DL/DVD SL or HD DVD SL/DVD DL are certainly won't work in current player.