Sharp introduces world's smallest blue lasers for Blu ray and HD DVD

Thats not bad, I am not sure how long red lasers last but if a blue laser lasts 10,000 hours thats equal to 416 and 2/3 days (1.14 years).

Pretty good other then it costs $580 to get the HD-XA2 HD DVD player, which supports 1080p, I think the similar Blu Ray offering is the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray Disc Player. I found it online from a reputable place for $490.

So its still pretty close in price, once they hit $300 it will be more of a fight, in my opinion. I personally wouldn't want to spend ~$500+ for a gadget that is gonna go out in 2 years.

Peace

Originally posted by Pop_Smith:

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Pretty good other then it costs $580 to get the HD-XA2 HD DVD player, which supports 1080p,

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- The Toshiba HD A20 also supports 1080p output but costs a lot less than the HD XA2; right now they're approx $360-$390 on Amazon USA.

.....but for the vast majority of people 1080p is purely a marketing con right now cos they don't have 1080p TVs
(and if you bought a 720p/1080i HD TV recently enough to be 'HD ready' etc you're not exactly likely to be rushing out to get one any time too soon either).

The Samsung has a real bad rep and being an early BD player is still lacking features compared to the HD DVD players (that's what you get for rushing a system out before the format is finished properly).
I very much doubt it can handle the 1.1 format 'profile' standard due in Oct.
Here in the UK they have been trying to dump them at bargain basement prices (£1000 down to £350 at Richer Sounds for a while) but now they can rarely be found for less than £440....if you can find one actually in stock at all that is.

Samsung caught such a cold with them that they have said they are not bringing in their new BDP1200 player (which can handle the 1.1 profile, apparantly) to the UK (which IIRC started @ $800 in the USA and is now a poor seller @ $600).

I wonder how much life-span there is in the PS3 with it's mk1 blue laser - especially when it's used for both games & films.
How thrilled will (many more) people be when their $600/£425 PS3 goes pop?

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I wonder how much life-span there is in the PS3 with it's mk1 blue laser - especially when it's used for both games & films.

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Probably about the same lifespan as the PS2's disc drive... the day after your warranty expires.

"BLU-RAY DISC ERROR"... I can see it now!

Originally posted by Pop_Smith:

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Thats not bad, I am not sure how long red lasers last but if a blue laser lasts 10,000 hours thats equal to 416 and 2/3 days (1.14 years).

Pretty good other then it costs $580 to get the HD-XA2 HD DVD player, which supports 1080p, I think the similar Blu Ray offering is the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray Disc Player. I found it online from a reputable place for $490.

So its still pretty close in price, once they hit $300 it will be more of a fight, in my opinion. I personally wouldn't want to spend ~$500+ for a gadget that is gonna go out in 2 years.

Peace

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Your interpretation of numbers is wrong. When ever any company specifies working life for any product there is generally a duty cycle number attached to it. Even this 10,000 hour laser will most likely fail in 1000 hours or less if it is running continuously. So under normal usage you would get something closer to 5-6 years of use.

Yeah, i still hear rumors of new features and whatnot for both formats. When all the dust has settled, then I'll step up to HD. Not a minute sooner.