DVDFile

Sony BD player; hybrid playback

Mixed Messages Concerning the Sony BD Player

A helpful reader who placed a pre-order for the Sony's BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc player on the very first day SonyStyle.com accepted them wrote to say that he expects to receive one of SonyStyle’s first five hundred units, possibly to be shipped today.  But yesterday, there was an article published indicating that a Sony spokesman confirmed that there were additional firmware issues that had to be resolved and the player wouldn’t be available to consumers until December 4th.

Which is accurate?  And when can we expect the player to become readily available?  I’m looking into it.  If the reported delay is true, I’m going to be very frustrated.  I’m anxious to start reviewing Blu-ray Disc releases for you.

Sony BD Player Addendum (10.23.06)

A kind reader wrote to report that he received an email message from SonyStyle.com concerning the BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc player, “There has been a change of availability date for this product. We now expect to start shipping no later than December 4th. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this change, but this is necessary to ensure that the product meets our highest performance expectations.”  In other words, there are engineering or production problems. 

Sigh.  This does not bode well for Blu-ray Disc and Sony in particular, exacerbating the already unfortunate situation associated with the PS 3’s reduced production level.  I must console myself with the knowledge that within a few months, this very rocky Blu-ray Disc product introduction will be behind us and the market will finally have an opportunity to assess both formats and vote with its collective wallet.

Mixed Messages Concerning the Potential for a Hybrid Player

It was reported that at a recent CEA industry forum, proponents form both the HD DVD camp and the Blu-ray Disc camp sparred verbally.  Mark Knox represented the HD DVD Promotion Group.  Pioneer senior vice president of product development and Blu-ray Disc Association spokesman Andy Parsons represented the other camp.  Like good politicians tend to do, Knox and Parsons stuck to their predefined messages.  But there was one notable exception.

Neither voiced a problem with the concept of a universal player that would accommodate both HD disc formats.  They stated that no legal impediments exist in either format’s licensing agreements to preclude the development and marketing of such a player.  This would seem to contradict previous reports that Sony’s licensing agreement specifically forbids Blu-ray Disc technology from being integrated into a hybrid player.

Rest assured that I’ll follow this situation as closely as I can.

Is the Solution a Home Theater PC?

VidaBox LLC has officially announced the world’s first dual HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Media Center lines.  Its rack-mountable LUX and MAX systems can now be equipped with separate HD DVD and a Blu-ray Disc ROM drives and suitable software to play both high definition disc formats.  The systems will offer HDCP-compliant HDMI outputs to ensure that the full resolution of HD discs will be conveyed to the display (particularly critical when or if the studios activate the image constraint flag for HD analog component output).

Equipped with massive 3,000 or 3,750 GB hard drives and up to an AMD 4600+ dual core processors with 8 GB of RAM, the systems can do so much more, not the least of which is to act as a high definition PVR or TiVo.  And therein lies the problem.  The combined SRPs of the top end, second generation Toshiba HD DVD player and the Sony or Panasonic or Philips Blu-ray Disc player is $2000.  The LUX starts at $3,499 and the MAX starts at $4,399.  So for home theater playback of HD on disc, this isn’t an economically efficient solution.  But if you’re in the market for a complex and capable media center that can also play back both HD disc formats, these systems might be worth a look.