A Lot of Good News here.

[Doramius]

I read some other articles (but I have to find the sites again) that say that once the market increases in Japan, they will market it freely to outside countries. Apparently, DVD players priced above $300-$400 USD do not sell very well to americans. And people in the UK start to turn away from players priced above £300 GBP or €450 EUR.

http://dvd.ign.com/articles/527/527897p1.html

Another Blu-ray Recorder Coming.
Panasonic enters the market.

July 01, 2004 - Matsushita will release a Blu-ray disc recorder that also supports existing recordable DVD formats, both in single-layer and dual layer recordable discs, at the end of the month.


The Panasonic DMR-E700BD can record up to four-and-one-half hours of high-definition signal on a recordable 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc, or up to nine hours of standard definition digital satellite TV. It can record up to 63 hours of cable television, depending on the video quality mode.

In addition to supporting rewritable Blu-ray discs, the Panasonic player will support DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs to record analog television.

It won't be cheap, either the player or the media. The new recorder will cost around $2,780, the 50GB blank recording disc will cost around $69 and the 25GB disc will cost around $32. Doesn't matter too much for us, since Panasonic doesn't plan on selling the DMR-E700BD outside of Japan.

Sony, which is behind the development of Blu-ray, already has a player on the market in Japan, the BDZ-S77. That device went on sale in April for just under $4,000 and currently costs around $3,000. However, the Sony and Panasonic drives are not fully interchangeable, since the Sony drive uses less storage and a different cartridge type.

At least the price of DVD recorders for PCs is going to drop, by as much as 50 percent, according to PC World. Taiwanese drive manufacturers companies are greatly increasing their volume output this year, which will be good news for all consumers.

Taiwanese companies like BenQ and LiteOn Technology have already shipped one million recordable drives for PCs this year, way up from the 50,000 drives sold in the first half of 2003. They are expected to ship two million drives in the second half of the year, up from the 700,000 sold in the second half of 2003.

[yoda313]

Hello,

COOL! I can't wait for it to be $200 and players for $30 like regular Dvd Players are now!!!

Kevin

[Hardcoreruss]

I have heard that the br players will not have an on board decoder so you will need an amp.

[yoda313]

I have heard that the br players will not have an on board decoder so you will need an amp.

Hello,

Sounds like a RIPOFF!!!

Kevin

[Dr. DOS]

So if you amp is an older (Dolby Surround) amp (not DTS, not Dob Digital) .... would you be screwed... would it 'sample down' so to speak to feed the amp correctly?

5 years before they are mainstream I'm guessing....

[Hardcoreruss]

From what I have read it would down sample.

It seems a stupid move to make the players like this so that people will HAVE to buy a seperate amp if they want to buy a player.

[Doramius]

It's like DVD Players now that only have Composite and S-Video out. Many older televisions don't have composite ports. People have to go through a VCR or some sort of converting box. Most people these days have VCRs, so the transition is not very hard for most people. I think it'll be the same for these players. I have a system that would connect fine, already.

[Hardcoreruss]

It's like DVD Players now that only have Composite and S-Video out. Many older televisions don't have composite ports. People have to go through a VCR or some sort of converting box. Most people these days have VCRs, so the transition is not very hard for most people. I think it'll be the same for these players. I have a system that would connect fine, already.

Don't you mean component

[Doramius]

composite and component are 2 different things. Not all DVD players have component out.