Word: toshibas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...mentioned in the magazine a few weeks back, HD DVD is here. I'm not just taking the word of the people at Toshiba, NBC Universal and Warner Home Video, either. I have experienced it first-hand, by connecting the HD-A1 player to a 42-inch plasma TV and a 5.1 surround-sound speaker system. When I compared the HD DVD of last year's sci-fi cult film Serenity with its DVD, the difference was powerful. I called my wife in as a witness, and she immediately noticed the richer detail and deeper color. That's just...
...format, while Warner and Paramount plan to launch titles in both. But it isn't as easy as simply waiting for Blu-ray either: the initial players, expected in July or August, will list for $1,000 or more, as opposed to the $500 list price for Toshiba's first HD DVD player...
That changes this week, when the first HD DVD player out of the block, Toshiba's $500 HD-A1, goes on sale at Amazon.com and major U.S. retail stores. The boxy black and silver device looks like a standard DVD player--and will play standard DVDs--but also contains the hardware necessary to play HD DVDs when it's connected to an HDTV set. (And only when it's connected to an HDTV; you can't watch the new discs on your old sets...
...Toshiba has a head start in this race to the living room, but that won't last long. Samsung plans to sell Blu-ray players by early summer, followed closely by Sony, Pioneer and Panasonic. The first Blu-ray machines will be aimed at video enthusiasts and priced accordingly ($1,000 and up, roughly comparable to Toshiba's $800 high-end HD-XA1) and will be supported with movies from Fox, Disney and Sony. (Paramount and Warner Bros. are making discs in both formats...
...format war reminiscent of Betamax vs. VHS, in which the biggest losers were the manufacturers of the defeated format (in that case, Sony) and the consumers who bought the wrong machines. If you have an HDTV and you're dying to watch movies in their full HD splendor, the Toshiba box isn't a bad idea. If you're a game player, you will probably want to hold out for the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox HD DVD drive. If you're the cautious type, you may want to wait for the dust to settle--and the prices to come...