Disc Wars

Note: Hours before this issue was being finalized at the printer, news came out that Toshiba may be ending production of HD DVD players and possibly withdrawing from the high definition disc market. Toshiba had not made a final decision as we went to press. Some changes have been made in this article to reflect the most recent events. Upcoming disc releases may also change as a result of this news.

A long, long, time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a group of engineers and marketing executives gathered around a table to design the ultimate weapon in the fight against Friday night TV boredom. With the mysterious power of high definition flowing through them, they came up with a new form of entertainment, based on the mighty blue laser, and called it … wait, that’s not right. In fact, there were probably two separate groups of engineers and marketing executives, and each group came up with a slightly different, though similar, flat, high-capacity shiny disc for storing high-definition movies. The problem was that the two solutions wouldn’t work with each other, and thus was launched the Disc War.

If the disc war is over now, Blu-ray will be the only high definition format in the US. If you’ve been following the format war between the two rival successors to the DVD, Toshiba-backed HD DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray, then you probably already know that the playing field, while always competitive, got a whole lot uglier in 2008. There was a palpable buzz at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Warner’s departure from the HD DVD format (effective May 2008) preempted any conversation, press conference or product announcement on high-definition. Both Paramount and Universal, the two studios exclusively supporting HD DVD, expressed no desire to change their strategy at that time.

Shortly after CES, Toshiba announced a series of price adjustments aimed at boosting sales of its player making the entry-level HD-A3 only $149.

On the Blu-ray side, CES was quite a bit more active, with new players introduced by Panasonic, Sony, Sharp, Philips and others. Panasonic and Samsung announced Blu-ray home theater packages. Sony announced new Blu-ray PC drives and Blu-ray-equipped media center PCs. Hitachi showed the previously announced Blu-ray camcorder plus a new model that adds a hard disc drive.

However, one of the most significant milestones for Blu-ray supporters was the news that most of the new players will support Profile 1.1, which allows the “BonusView” picture-in-picture feature.

So what prompted Toshiba’s serious thinking in February? When two major supplies of movies, Netflix and Best Buy, turned their focus solely on Blu-ray, the pressure on Toshiba got high. Wal-Mart’s decision to sell only Blu-ray could be a final straw as it was only one day after that news in February that reports came out of Japan from Reuters and NHK that Toshiba was calling it quits.

The Internet is still a threat to disc sales. Streaming, downloading, video-on-demand and pay-per-view all threaten to take the high definition market away from shiny discs completely. Apple TV and Vudu (reviewed on page 56) both offer IP-delivered high def movies now. Web-based services are developing, but so far bandwidth restrictions prevent wide adoption. Streamed and downloaded movies also don’t include bonus features and can’t be loaned to a neighbor.

So what does all this mean for the future of high definition discs? America hasn’t gone out of its way for either formats—because of the format war. Most people were perfectly happy with DVD and perfectly willing to stand back and let battle wage on without them. Last year Americans plunked down about 16 billion dollars for DVDs and only 300 million dollars for high definition discs (both formats combined). Instead of picking sides, they’re electing not to bet.

Here’s a sampling of high def players from both formats, some making the rounds now, some coming later this year.

HD DVD Players

Toshiba HD-A3 $149

Toshiba HD-A30 $199

Toshiba HD-A35 $299

Onkyo DV-HD805 $899

Venturer SDH7000 $229

*LGBH200 $999

*Samsung BD-UP5500 $TBA

Xbox360 external drive $129

Blu-ray Disc Players

Sony PlayStation 3 $399 & $499

Sony BDP-S300 $399

Sony BDP-S500 $699

Sony BDP-S2000ES $1,299

Panasonic DMP-BD30 $499

Panasonic DMP-BD50 $TBA

Panasonic SC-BT100 $TBA

Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD

Pioneer BDP-05FD $TBA

Philips BDP7200 $349

Sharp BD-HP50U $700

*Samsung BD-UP5500 $TBA

Samsung BD-P1500 $399

*LG BH200 $999

Denon DVD-2500BDTCI $1,200

Marantz BD8002 $2,100

*Dual format

Studio support HD DVD

Universal

Paramount/Dreamworks

Warner (only until May 2008)

Blu-ray

Sony/Columbia

Warner

Fox

Disney/Buena Vista

MGM

Lion’s Gate