High Definition Hardware

PS3 Launches in the US

Sony's eagerly awaited HD capable console the Playstation 3 launched stateside on Friday to the sound of Gunfire.

Thousands had camped outside in order to ensure they were one of the first to get their hands on the PS3. One unlucky man was shot in a attempted robbery outside a Walmart. Apparantly he refused to hand over money to two armed men.

Two other Walmart stores were forced to close due to problems caused by large crowds of gamers, some of whom had been there for several days.

Investors are closely watching sales of the PS3 as a key test of Sony's grip on the gaming industry, particularly as it faces rising competition from both Microsofts XBox 360 and the Nintendo Wii.

Sony anticipates 400,000 units to be available in the United States on Friday alone, one week after the initial launch in Japan. The aim is to make 1 million PS3s available in the United States by the end of the year.

Sony is expected to lose money at first on the highly specced PS3 . The machine not only offers HD gaming but can be used to surf the internet, download video and music and play movies in High Definition with its Blu-ray disc drive.

Experts say the PS3 could be around for the next decade and go a long way toward helping Sony stay at the top of the gaming market, while aiding their efforts to make Blu-ray the next-generation DVD standard.

High Definition Formats explained

You may or may not be aware that there are currently two major next-generation optical formats fighting to become the dominant force for storage and replace DVD as the media of choice for both movies and games.

The two formats fighting for supremacy as the next-generation videodisc format are HD-DVD (developed by Toshiba and NEC) and Blu-ray (developed by Sony). The DVD Forum supports HD-DVD, but this does not mean that HD-DVD has won the format war.

Dual format HD players?

Samsung has suggested it may be bringing out a dual HD DVD and Blu-ray player in one box if backers of the rival standards fail to agree on a unified format, a move that would certainly go a long way to averting the much reported HD format war.

Samsung's head of consumer electronics, Choi Gee-sung, told the Financial Times Deutschland: "We would welcome a unified standard but if this doesn't come, which looks likely, we'll bring a unified solution to market.

"It won't be simple but you'll see our solution in the coming year. Consumers will be too confused otherwise," he added in the interview published on Tuesday.

Samsung was initially a backer of blu-ray, which promises higher capacity than HD DVD and better interactivity and security, but a move to back both formats may be a shrewd one with many consumers sitting on the fence hoping to avoid making the wrong choice. 

Sony to release first Blu Ray enabled PCs

Sony have announced they will begin selling their Blu-ray enabled machines in Japan in June. Both laptop and desktop computers will be available.

The Vaio VGN-AR70B laptop is equipt with a large 17-inch widescreen LCD with a 1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels resolution, so it can show 1080 high-definition content with minimal scaling.

The Vaio VGN-RC729DP desktop offers up a digital TV tuner and will be sold with or without a 19-inch LCD monitor.

PS3 pricing confirmed.

After a period of silence Sony has confirmed pricing and a launch date for its much-anticipated PlayStation3. It will launch in Europe on November 17, and will follow the Xbox 360's lead by being available in two flavours: a version with a 20GB HDD costing around 499 Euros (or £340), and a 60GB HDD version costing around 599 Euros (or £410).

Sony appears to have deviated slightly from its earlier talk of global launch, with Japan apparently set to get the new console a week earlier than Europe.

Sony desktop offers Blu-Ray

SonyStyle.com, Sony’s US targeted website, is promoting the new VAIO RC 300 desktop PC, the first Sony desktop to offer a Blu-Ray drive.

As regular High Definition Hardware readers will know, Blu-Ray is one of two major new High Definition formats (HD DVD being the other), and offers PC users the ability to play, burn and store a massive amount of data on a single disc (25GB to 50GB).

TDK first to ship Blu-ray Discs

TDK has started shipping 25 Gigabyte (GB) recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Discs pipping its rivals to the production post.  The 25GB discs sport a single layer, whereas the 50GB discs due to ship later this year feature a dual layer.

 

TDK's write-once type BD-Rs are said to be completely different from that used in the current crop of CDs and DVDs. They utilise an inorganic recording material. In case of the rewritable BD-RE Blu-ray Discs, a specially designed high-sensitivity phase-change recording material is being used.

Panasonic launch Blu-ray player - DMP-BD10

The Sony backed next generation optical disc format Blu-ray, has had significant attention since its inception with most of the major electronics manufacturers showing interest in the format. Panasonic is the latest company to announce the availability of a Blu-ray Disc player the DMP-BD10.

For those not already in the know, Blu-Ray is a 50 gigabyte dual-layer disc, that’s 5 times the storage of a standard DVD! This means the format can hold full length high-definition movies with high quality surround sound audio.

Is there a third contender for the Hi Def crown?

The two main players in the current format war, Sony and Toshiba are each hoping that their high-definition disc technology will become the content standard. However, whilst the two titans battle it out a third player, New Medium Enterprises, has quietly entered the fray.

New Medium first showed off its optical drive and media, the versatile multiplayer disc (VMD), at the huge CeBIT technology show in Germany. VMD cleverly combines some of the best attributes of both Sony’s Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD-DVD.

LG: dual format player is official

Although there have been rumours of a dual HD DVD/Blu-ray player for a while now , LG has now made its plans official. This proposed player has the potential to seriously impact the new-format war by enabling customers to choose not to choose.

Several film studios, including Disney, have also chosen to publish films in both types of format. As discussed previous it does not seem to make sense for the average consumer to take a gamble on the eventual outcome. It may prove wiser to just let the two formats battle it out whilst sitting safely on a dual format fence. However, that decision will be heavily influenced by the cost of high definition films, the success of the PS3 and the price of dual players themselves.

via HDTV UK