but you won’t be able to get one in the States yet! Oh well, we’ll just wait for the price to go down. Matsushita Electric Industrial – which sells Panasonic, will be selling the player/recorder for around $2600.00. Or at least that is what they estimated it at. It should be on the Japan markets in November. I think if they mark it down to $1500, they may get some bites here in the U.S. But to really sell quantity they’ll need to get it under $1k.
HD DVD has got Blu-ray on the run at this point. HD DVDs players were introduced much earlier than Blu-ray, and so their cost is about half of the Blu-ray hardware. My prediction is that HD DVD will dominate the low-end market, while Blu-ray will stay in the high-end market – sort of in the way that laser disc always stuck around. Maybe it was the really cool looking giant disc, or probably the great quality as compared to some early DVDs, but I kind of miss my laser disc player.
But back to the point, HD DVD is already cheaper. It also has a recognizable name brand, which Blu-ray desperately needs to spread. I mean, DVD has been around for a while. Everyone knows DVD, so HD DVD is just a simple evolution for consumers to understand. Real tech enthusiasts however, always look for the newest and more advanced product. I don’t care what they call it (although Blu-ray is kind of a cool name) – if it has a superior quality, like 1080p, I’m there. No questions asked.
