Vegas CES: Google opens up it's video store

I've mostly paid attention to the Blu-ray/HD DVD stuff, although I also read some about the keynotes by Sony, Microsoft, Samsung, Dell, and a few others. Saw some nice HDTV stuff as well. I was going to try to see what else went on during CES later on.

 

I wonder what the quality will be for the NBA games.

 

They have a site. Or did you already know that?

http://www.gigabeat.com/

... it's been out for a while. Didn't it come out before the video iPod? I don't remember.

 

I was watching a bit of Attack on the Show on G4 and I thought they said the Blu-Ray player was $1800, could that possibly be right? What would that mean for possible PS3 pricing?

 

NEC's bluray reader is supposed to cost around $600. I'm not sure which one you're talking about.

 

I touched on that in the Blu-ray thread, but basically the Blu-ray group is probably feeling a little confidant that Blu-ray will win, and thus they are pricing their players at these prices. This also already added on to the fact that this is a brand new technology that will first be aimed at consumers willing to spend an insane amount of money in order to be the first to have it. I believe the BR player you're referring to is part of the Pioneer Elite series, which I think is known for its high-priced devices. It has some nice features (think it can upscale DVDs to 1080p for example), but it along with all the other Blu-ray players are overpriced, as expected.

It remains to be seen what this means for the PS3, if anything. I imagine that Sony will feel more compelled to raise the price higher than their previous consoles ($299), but I don't believe there is actually anything Blu-ray related in the PS3 that will force them to charge a price similar to these other players. So I imagine Sony could price the PS3 at half the price of these players, yet may still offer some of the same features if not more (EXS3 can output at 1080p, something only the $1800 BR player you mentioned can do). So yeah, this seems to create a situation where a sub-$500 console performs as well as a $1000+ device, which seems a bit strange I admit. Nevertheless, there are $20K DVD players out there that probably don't do much more than any $40 players; however there appears to be some sort of market for these high-priced devices, even if the prices clearly aren't worth it. Also keep in mind that there will probably be a few months (at least) for these players to be on the market before the PS3 hits, allowing them to cash in on early adopters. The PS3 be part of new line of BR players that are more price friendly, or at least I hope so.

This is all speculation on my part of course. It is still hard to say what to expect without a firm NA release date, a price tag, or even more information on other BR devices.

Do you have a link or anything about that? I must have missed that. The cheapest BR device I saw was a BR burner, IIRC, which cost like $995 ($1000 was the cheapest for a player, although it didn't output to 1080p). $600 is a lot better than anything I've seen.

 

RC Cola, I'd like your opinion on something. I think this whole hoopla over the next-gen DVD technology could be misplaced. With Video on Demand and Download on Demand from the Internet just cranking up, people may not be willing to pay a lot of money for the newfangled DVDs. Blu Ray seems to have the big advantage but if the HD alternative creates enough confusion to slow adoption, neither one may gain traction. The PS3 will automatically put Blu Ray into millions of households, but the stand alone players may suffer.

Personally, I will get a PS3 by next Christmas or summer 2007, or whenever I feel there are enough games that take advantage of the new technology. But paying a bunch of money for next gen DVDs isn't on my agenda at all. To change my mind there better be some compelling reasons.

Am I alone? What am I missing that should excite me about Blu Ray or HD? Going from (1) Floppies to CDs and (2) CDs to DVDs was huge! But DVDs are small and don't take up a lot of space. You can get a lot of video on them. What's the "huge" next step from something this good?

Just thought of something: Is this whole thing about high definition? I can see where you would need to extra capacity on the new DVDs to store a full movie. Still, the whole thing is predicated on mass adoption of HD televisions by the public which could take a very long time because of the price.

Educate me.

 

You have a lot of good points, and it may be possible that both these formats never get anywhere due to those same reasons (Laserdisc #2 and Laserdisc #3 so to speak).

Yes, the main reason for this change is basically just for HD movies. For some, that alone is worth the jump though. As I said in the other thread, IIRC, the jump in pixels on screen from 480i to 1080p is about the same, if not more, than the jump from VHS to DVD. I'm no audiophile so I can't get much into this, but I also believe these new disc formats support higher qualities of sound as well. So for the home theater enthusiasts, these discs probably are a godsend.

So what about the rest of us? Well, I'll be honest in saying that these formats may not quite offer the advantages over DVD that DVD offered over VHS. DVDs were smaller, easier to store, longer-lasting, and brought things such as a "scene index" and bonus features. Besides maybe the special coating on BR disc for durability, these discs are just like any other discs physically, so they're not any easier to store or anything like that. On the other hand, I believe the Java interface (as well as the iHD interface in HD DVD) might offer some advantages over DVD. I don't know much about it, but they act like there's so much more interactivity it can provide; I believe MS may have demoed something about this at CES, but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. If I understood it correctly, I thought I read something about a feature that allowed someone watching a HD DVD movie to find out the name of a particular actor in a movie instantly if they so wished (kind of like a "that guy looks familiar" thing). I wished I knew more about this other than the PR I've read about it; I guess I all can say is that there might be some advantages to watching a BR movie even on a SDTV potentially. Perhaps some CES reports discuss these features?

As for HDTV adoption, there's always been this sort of "the chicken or the egg" thing. People didn't buy HDTVs because there wasn't any HD content to watch on them; companies didn't offer HD content because there wasn't a large number of people with HDTVs. Now, with all the HD channels starting up, HD gaming, and these HD movies, consumers now have a reason to spend some money on a HDTV. Of course, the HDTV manufacturers have to play along as well, and although it may be high hopes on my part, I think that might be happening. At CES, I think Samsung showed off a 50" DLP 1080p HDTV (with 2 HDMI ports) that will go on sale in April, and had a list price of $2899 IIRC. For a 1080p HDTV, that's a great price (correct me if I'm wrong). Factor in any discounts that you might be able to get off of the list price through certain dealers as well as any price drops as time goes on, and that price becomes even better. And then you can also factor in any price drops on the 720p HDTVs as a result of these newer TVs. This is just considering televisions using current technology. Supposedly, OLEDs and carbon-nanotube TVs (SEDs are an example I think) are supposed to offer better quality than pretty much any current technology out there today while also being much cheaper to produce (may not be seen initially though). It might take some time as well as some kept-promises by these huge corporations, but an HDTV might become quite affordable to the average family within a few years...maybe even sooner.

And that really shouldn't be a problem for these disc formats since they probably wouldn't reach DVD-level sales until al few years down the line anyway; remember that DVD first came out around 1996-97, IIRC, yet I didn't even have a DVD player until 2001-2002, and that was my PS2. On top of that, I didn't even really watch DVD movies until some later. Thanks to the PS3 (and maybe the Xbox 360, although I don't like the decision) as well as the tremendous support by movie studios, I would expect a shorter time frame for these new formats, but it will still be a long, gradual process before they become mainstream. FWIW, my first BR player will be the PS3 and I'm more excited about the gameplay opportunities BR might offer (depending on the drive speed) more so than watching HD movies on it...largely because I don't have a HDTV yet.

Also, all of this post is if we just treat these as movie formats only. There are some advantages to games, data storage, and some other areas as well. Although these areas may also see some competition with some other form of storage, including HVD (holographic discs), something I don't necessarily see happening when you view these as movie formats. BTW, IMO, something like movies over the Internet probably won't be effective until broadband becomes more available, similar to HDTVs in a way. It would take me probably a day at least to download a DVD (let alone something on BR), which isn't exactly something I'd like to do. The "broadband over powerline" thing as well some of the WiFi tech (WiMax???) sound great, although it would still probably be a few years before they make it into a large number of homes. I'm assuming that even if I'm lucky, I'd probably have an HDTV with several BR movies before I get broadband speeds in my hometown. I'd love (and I do mean LOVE) to be wrong though.

edit: Oh yeah, I also wanted to add that although the PS3 may be a great deal as a BR player for a long while, keep in mind that we won't see near as many price cuts on the PS3 as we will on other BR devices. Right now, the PS2 is still $150, which isn't quite the same value it once had if you look at it just as a DVD player. Expect to see something similar with the PS3.

 

Google's going to own the world soon.

Coolest thing on that page (beside Google Video): Google Earth on cell phones and in car dashboards.

 

Google Earth gives me the creeps.

 

How is that their answer? I just checked out their site and there is no mention of video support. I've been looking for an alternative for the video ipod. I want a player that can play video, like the ipod. I might just have to get that ipod video. (I got a gift card to get the Ipod video but haven't used it yet)

 

Why not get the ipod? I love mine.

 

I just checked out the Microsoft keynote and they showed off the Gigabeat. I don't know why it isn't on the website, but the one they showed off had video playback (30GB and ~4hrs of life IIRC). I'm not sure if there are any smaller videos out there that show this, but here's a link to the MS keynote as well as some others:
http://digitallifetv.com/blogs/digitallifetv/archive/2006/01/04/3973.aspx

BTW, the MS keynote also shows what I was trying to describe earlier about some extra features provided by BR/HD DVD, not to mention some Vista and Xbox 360 stuff (nothing spectacular though).

 

Uprising, just get the Ipod. It does everything you want it to do, has tons of support, and you've got a freakin' gift card for it. Everything else is too uncertain.

Faos: I think they do update pretty regularly, but can only use the newest images available? Not sure. Unless Google has their own satellite or something.

 

I, for one, welcome our new internet overlords.