"Do Not Buy A Blu Ray Or HD DVD Player Warning"

[JTK]

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Home_Ci...K9H4A2#Scene_1

CE Industry experts are warning consumers to not buy a new generation of HD DVD or Blu Ray players.

At the same time Industry groups like the Consumer Electronics Association has slashed projections for sales of next-generation DVD players. The war between the two emerging standards has already caused consumer electronics companies to lose money with many now concerned that both standards may have problems.

Even though both next-generation high definition digital video disc standards – Blu-ray and HD DVD – have their own competitive advantages and both offer increased image quality compared to the contemporary standard definition DVD, industry experts advice end-users not to acquire a new player, as eventually only one standard survives and it is not obvious that users will be correct in their assumptions now and may eventually find themselves with a player without content.

"You don't have to decide yet. History has taught us that only one of these formats is going to come out on top, and consumers who choose the wrong product will lose money, time, and, of course, quality home viewing entertainment. Wait to make this significant purchase until after the holidays, and after one of the two options appear to be leading the way to the next level of home entertainment," said Dan Diotte, the founder of disc repair and maintenance company VenMill Industries.

Back in January, the Consumer Electronics Association predicted that more than 600 000 high definition DVD players, worth $484 million, would be sold this year. However, delays of shipments and manufacturing issues have twice caused the organization to lower its forecast, and it now expects U.S. sales to reach only 200 000 players, worth $181 million, by the end of 2006, The Washington Post has reported.

Mr. Diotte believes that there is no guarantee that either HD-DVD or Blu Ray will be the clear leader a year from now, meaning that next year sales of next-generation DVD players may also be lower than expected, which will cost consumer electronics companies another hundreds of millions revenues not received. For consumers, the war may result in lower amount of content available for next-gen DVDs and, if the consumers invest in one format that will eventually disappear, they will lose the investment and need to re-purchase a player, discs, accessories and so on.

One of the ways to revive sales of next-generation players is to develop a player that will support both Blu-ray and HD DVD, making a choice obvious for consumers. However, both consumer electronics companies that planned such players – LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics – said they had dumped the projects.

So far Toshiba's HD DVD has been slightly more successful on the market with five-seven players available starting at $320 in the U.S. and over 160 titles in English and Japanese. Sony's Blu-ray is currently supported by three players and over 60 BD titles on the market.

To quote a certain friend of mine on another forum, who I'll continue to try and get to post here one day:

Originally Posted by Rob Zuber

This is perfectly good advice. The average person out there should not be buying these devices yet (not counting the PS3, since it's a gaming machine).

No. When HD-DVD finally dies, BD will still have to compete with regular DVD. People will be willing to spend only a bit more for the improved PQ. And the studios really want to move away from DVD for several reasons, with the important one being copy protection. The format war may have been good up to the point that both sides decided to go ahead with actually selling their products. Then it became a negative.

I can't state it any better. Someone get Rob to finally start posting here please! I've only nagged him about 30 times by now!

One thing I'll kind of disagree with him on is this: The hardcore enthusiast and early adopter set the tone, as always. The HD-DVD hacks and zealots refuse to accept this fact: The early adopter types don't CARE what it costs. They will open their wallet for the best that they can possibly get from the best companies. Period.

I encourage them to buy into BD and vote with their wallets and finish this thing.

Most people bemoaned this so called format war. We're stuck with it and we have to deal with the cards on the table. So now the trick is: Get it to end the way you want. Vote with your wallet.

This "advice" is at least a year too late anyways.

[hyperdine]

I encourage them to buy into BD and vote with their wallets and finish this thing.

That's the bottom line right there. At the end of the day, consumers will decide the winner of the format war. Always have, always will.

[phloyd]

So far Toshiba's HD DVD has been slightly more successful on the market with five-seven players available starting at $320 in the U.S.

Really? Does anyone have any idea what he is talking about?

[ay221]

Originally Posted by phloyd

Really? Does anyone have any idea what he is talking about?

Yeah that has me confused too. Toshiba so far is the only one making players. Where blu-ray you have Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung. I might of missed a couple more.

[Blackraven]

Originally Posted by phloyd

Really? Does anyone have any idea what he is talking about?

I have no darn idea.

I mean, there are only TWO players on the market: A1 and XA1. I didn't know if he considered the RCA player as a third (which is just a re-branded Toshiba players).

The other two are the A2 and XA2 which should be out before the year ends (unless there is another delay).

But in the other parts of the world, it's a different story.

In Europe, Australia and New Zealand, THE PLAYERS ARE NOT OUT YET.

Amazon.co.uk still says December 31st, 2006 for BOTH players. Talk about missing the yuletide season over there.

In the Toshiba Australia/New Zealand site, it still says "COMING SOON" for both the HD-E1 and HD-XE1 players. Yet the movies are out now. Huh????

And in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the PS3 took the lead over even what MS said that Asia Pacific does not need Hi-Definition.

Umm....yeah right. Tell that to the people at now broadband TV Hong Kong which now offers up to 1080p MPEG-4 quality HD broadcasting.

[Maximus]

My friend and I were talking about 'Analysts' a couple of moons ago, we figured that these guys are basically people who failed in the industry they targeted, and had to find some way of making money, so they go to companies like Gartner and say they are experts in their respective fields. Gartner&Co can't actually hire real experts as they are busy doing whatever they do, so the analyst industry is full of failures making insights into industries they know very little to nothing about.

[Deciazulado]

So far Toshiba's HD DVD has been slightly more successful on the market with five-seven players available starting at $320 in the U.S. and over 160 titles in English and Japanese. Sony's Blu-ray is currently supported by three players and over 60 BD titles on the market.

I love it when "serious" journalists are closet FUDers!!

A: Seven HD-DVD players now? I'll be mean and say: Maybe he counted the actual numbers of machines without glitches? (j/k, HD-DVD owners )

Isn't it the other way around?
Let me count the ways. I'll even use fingers!
One: Samsung
Two: Phillips
Three: Panasonic
Four: Sony
Five: PS3 20GB
Six :PS3 60 GB
and Seven: Pioneer (Well it's not for sale yet but I get to play with it everyday in Magnolia Heights )

Now let me use my other hands fingers.
One: Toshiba A1
Two: Toshiba XA1 (X for Xpensive version. Ok i'll stop kidding)(But aren't these models discontinued?)
Three: RCA
Four: XBox Core plus Add-On add on
Five: Xbox plus Add-On add on

and Six and Seven: A2 and XA2 (do these ones even have a date? I sure would love to play with them at Magnolia Heights too but only the A1 is there)


B: 160 HD-DVD titles in Japanese and English but only 60 Blu-rays??? (See he even put US in there. His alibi? Hoping most people didn't notice? (well he didn't say he was refering to INTERATIONAL HD-DVD numbers, just that they had English and Japanese soundtracks. Sneaky. Apples and Oranges (Or would that be Macs and Windows?). So he's comparing international total HD DVD releases to the AVS Blu-ray US release list NOT UPDATED SINCE OCTOBER! Total sneaky. Have these people no shame when they want to influence people? I guess they haven't.

In my lists (Which I admit can always be a few % off cus I'm not totaly omniscent ) I have 155 international HD-DVDs vs 124 international Blu-rays (And I still havent confirmed several Japanese/UK releases yet to add to that) Or 128 US HD-DVDs vs 116 US Blu-rays.

I guess 160 HD-DVDs vs 60 Blu-rays sounded more appropiate for Fudding

Caveat Emptor!

(If you don't know Latín, that means Buyer Beware!)

[Deane Johnson]

Originally Posted by ay221

Yeah that has me confused too. Toshiba so far is the only one making players. Where blu-ray you have Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung. I might of missed a couple more.

You can probably add LG shortly. They've displayed one under glass in the UK and my understanding is that there has been a fight among the executives about when to show it in the US. I'd guess CES in January.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Deane Johnson

You can probably add LG shortly. They've displayed one under glass in the UK and my understanding is that there has been a fight among the executives about when to show it in the US. I'd guess CES in January.

I think you guess correctly. Several times I've seen more than one insider on AVS and other places allude to, and I quote: "A Blu Valentine's Day surprise" or something to that effect.

Rumor has LG being the favored $500 MSRP or so stand alone BD player entrant.

We'll see, but I certainly think that LG goes Blu and shows it off at the next CES.

[Deane Johnson]

If two things were to happen, LG showing a $500 MSRP player and Universal supporting Blu-Ray, I would think it might be the equivalent of the fat lady singing.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Deane Johnson

If two things were to happen, LG showing a $500 MSRP player and Universal supporting Blu-Ray, I would think it might be the equivalent of the fat lady singing.

I agree and I fully expect both of those things to happen within the next 6-12 months.

And specifically, I don't think Universal will stop supporting HD-DVD. I simply think they'll move into a simillar pattern like Paramount and Warner currently are.

But in the end, that still means BD has 100 percent studio support the very second that happens and that's the end.

[Blue]

This has been summed up in the title EXPERT!
X is an unknown quantity and SPURT is a drip under preasure. So there is one accurate thing in that post (about the only thing). As for the rest, come on children sit around it's time for another Fairy Tale. Once upon a time...

[ProvenFlipper]

Only 60 BD titles huh? Well how is it that I have 72 of them behind me? And I would love to see the 5-7 HD-DVD players this guy is talking about.

[Blackraven]

Originally Posted by ProvenFlipper

Only 60 BD titles huh? Well how is it that I have 72 of them behind me?

Haha, so true.

It looks like the ignorant HD-DUD fanboys/trolls have been OWNED. Or is it the analyst that has been owned?

[bferr1]

He must be counting every player model individually.

HD-A1
HD-XA1
HD-D1
HDV-5000
Xbox 360 drive
HD-A2
HD-XA2

There's your seven player models to choose from, counting the as-yet-unreleased A2 and XA2.

[partridge]

HD-DVD and blu-Ray players now available in the UK at least:

http://play.com/Electronics/Electron.../Product.html#
£449.99

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Elec...r/Product.html
£849.99

Nasty price difference! Though on the same site they have 34 HD-DVD's and 46 Blu Ray discs to buy.

Anyway, I'll heed the warning by buying a PS3!

[frankc4s]

Just noticed that John Lewis has stopped selling in the Toshiba HD-DVD player online???

Still selling the Blu Ray players from Samsung and Panasonic

Cheers

FC

[Blu-ray San]

Originally Posted by phloyd

Really? Does anyone have any idea what he is talking about?

That right there is just a really dumb Xbox / HD DVD fan

[DV92Camaro]

WOW!!! This guy is an analyst? LOL. He's far from off. Like way out there.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by frankc4s

Just noticed that John Lewis has stopped selling in the Toshiba HD-DVD player online???

Still selling the Blu Ray players from Samsung and Panasonic

Cheers

FC

I would think it is because projected availability of the fabled XE1 is now late January.