bit-tech.net | Pioneer announces $299 Blu-ray drive

HugoB 3rd May 2007, 15:03

For the (probably) large number of people who only want to watch Blu-Ray movies this is great, but a stand-alone player would be much better, presumably this assumes your hardware is capable of doing all the decoding work hence the low-low price.

Paradigm Shifter 3rd May 2007, 15:04

I've got a Blu-ray drive in my laptop (not through choice, by an upgrade when after a year Acer still hadn't managed to fix whatever was wrong with the original one) but I can't say it's really all that impressive. I've not got any films on Blu-ray, and the discs are too expensive for my tastes to use as storage.

Still, the first step in getting market dominance is getting something available at affordable prices. DVD was expensive as well when it first launched. (I remember seeing DVD-RAM drives costing upwards of £500...) and as you said, now a multi-format drive is $30. But this is a big step for the manufacturers, at least. For the consumer, right now; not so much.

mmorgue 3rd May 2007, 15:21

I would have been more impressed had it been a) bd writable and b) hd-dvd readable. Maybe a bit more expensive but it would have appealed to a wider consumer base. Me thinks...

At the moment I think unless you are 99% sure of who's going to "win" this format race, creating a single next-gen format drive is a losing battle.

inflatable 3rd May 2007, 16:24

At least prices are coming down.. When I can get one for under 100 euro, and it's used by other media such as games aswell, I might get one, not earlier.. DVD is still good enough for me in my PC..

And tbh I think the real future is in downloadable media, not in carriers like HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs.. Broadband internetconnections are getting faster pretty quick, I'm on 24Mbit FTH already which makes downloading big files like HD-movies a non-issue..

mclean007 3rd May 2007, 16:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by inflatable
I'm on 24Mbit FTH already which makes downloading big files like HD-movies a non-issue..

Sadly most of us aren't, and anyway, the internet backbone works on the assumption of MASSIVE contention for bandwidth - if even 1% of current DVD sales transferred to HD downloads at >10GB a pop, traffic would increase enormously.

Also, as soon as you're talking downloadable content, the incentive is there for cheapskate distributors to pare quality to the minimum to save their bandwidth: whereas with physical media, there is no additional marginal cost to make your film 50GB on a single, dual-layer BluRay disc rather than 30GB on the same disc, the additional bandwidth cost to distributors would soon make it very attractive for them to start cutting corners and selling content at the lowest common denominator quality, which might be fine for average consumers on their cruddy no-name 1024x768 cheapo LCDs with sound through the integrated speakers, but won't win many admirers among home cinema enthusiasts who (justifiably) want the best quality on the 1080p + Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD Master Audio set-up they've spent upwards of ten grand on.

Phil Rhodes 3rd May 2007, 17:11

Baaah.

End format war, promise no HDMI link encryption, then we'll talk.

Until then, just imagine me stifling a yawn.

P

themax 3rd May 2007, 17:55

I wonder if Wal-Mart will be stocking the $299 Pioneer Blu-Ray Players next to their $299 HDDVD Players everyone was raving about. :p

mclean007 3rd May 2007, 18:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil Rhodes
Baaah.

End format war, promise no HDMI link encryption, then we'll talk.

Until then, just imagine me stifling a yawn.

P

Yes to ending the format war, but why so worried about HDCP (that's the HDMI link encryption)? Almost every device with an HDMI port (and loads of modern DVI monitors and graphics cards) is HDCP compatible, so why worry?

EDIT: also, if your TV, monitor or gfx card is incompatible, I'm sure you won't have to wait long for cracked software players and a slew of Chinese players which ignore the image constraint token.

Breach 3rd May 2007, 18:10

So they went from outrageously expensive to ridiculously expensive. No R or RW? gonna say a big negative on that one.

This is no different than how DVDs started or any new format though really. The first ones were $1000 or more. Same with CD players. But they had success fairly quickly, HD-DVD and Blu Ray dont seem to be heading that way at all.

DougEdey 3rd May 2007, 18:44

There's already a dongle for removing HDCP

mclean007 3rd May 2007, 19:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougEdey
There's already a dongle for removing HDCP

Yup, but it could be revoked quite easily, effectively breaking it on software released after revocation, whereas there'd be a lot more trouble if they tried to revoke a player after 500,000 units had already shipped, when it came to light that the machine had a remote hack (like the multi-region hacks on early DVD players) to remove HDCP. There is no way they could do it - the public uproar and loss of goodwill would cripple the industry.

konsta 3rd May 2007, 19:24

I think that I'll seriously consider getting a hi-def drive once you can get a combo HD/Blu ray writer at more than 2x speed under £100.

JaredC01 3rd May 2007, 22:18

Personally I'd be fine with a BD/HD-DVD READER in place of a writer. Why? Because I'd be able to watch the content of both blue ray and hd-dvds on my 30" widescreen (loverly), and I wouldn't have to wait an hour or more to burn 50GB worth of data onto a single blue ray disk. TBH, if I really need anything over dual layer DVD capacity, I'll get an external hard drive for half the price of a BD/HD-DVD burner and be done with it.

For an HTPC, I could see the use for a BD/HD-DVD burner, though I'd have to have a nice high def cable/sat signal coming in and plenty of channels to watch/record that are in HD before I'd consider buying a burner. Plus, half the reasoning behind going with a HTPC is so you can store shows on the hard drive of the system and watch them again later. Burning the recorded shows wouldn't be bad for later viewing or viewing at a friend's house, but that would also entail the friend's house you took it to having to have a BD or HD-DVD player (which at this specific moment most people don't have either).

Give me a BD/HD-DVD player for a decent price, and I'll be happy.

HourBeforeDawn 4th May 2007, 00:09

ehh HD has been losing more and more of the market anyways so I would consider buying this drive for its price be nice for an HTPC and hang tight until a Blu-Ray burners come down in price and then use that drive for copy on the fly setups but hey for the price its pretty nice.

Krikkit 4th May 2007, 00:21

But not everything is in BluRay, so a combo reader would be good for film buffs.

Tulatin 4th May 2007, 03:12

Indeed, a br/hd/dvd reader/writer would be very nice at this point, but it does come with a painful problem.

Everything is built to die; and considering you've got two - maybe 3 lasers - your $400(insert pound symbol here, ROB) drive will be dead just in time to move up the line to the next model :(

Lazarus Dark 4th May 2007, 03:20

500gb hard drive=US$150
500gb of bd-r disc=US$400
1tb hard drive=US$400

I could give a rats butt about writing to the new formats. I just want native res content to feed my 1080p 37" Westy lcd! 300 is okay, if street prices can be found at 250, I'll buy it and if there are enough hddvd exclusive titles, I'll even get the xbox hddvd for 175 or so. Blueray-hddvd writing is completely unnecessary considering the falling prices of hdd's.

Phil Rhodes 4th May 2007, 09:55

> Almost every device with an HDMI port (and loads of modern DVI monitors and graphics
> cards) is HDCP compatible, so why worry?

Two reasons - first, I happen to own a Dell 2405, which is one of those which doesn't.

Second, it's obviously being done for political and economic reasons, and I will not be forced to buy a new monitor just to appease the MPAA and their cronies.

Phil

mclean007 4th May 2007, 10:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil Rhodes
> Almost every device with an HDMI port (and loads of modern DVI monitors and graphics
> cards) is HDCP compatible, so why worry?

Two reasons - first, I happen to own a Dell 2405, which is one of those which doesn't.

Second, it's obviously being done for political and economic reasons, and I will not be forced to buy a new monitor just to appease the MPAA and their cronies.

Phil

Fair enough - nice monitor BTW, and if I had one I wouldn't be in any rush to throw it out just to get one with HDCP. However, you don't need the studios to promise never to use image constraint, as there is already (I believe) software that strips the protection from high def discs, and such software will only get more prolific over time. Similarly, I am sure hardware that (perhaps for early models via a remote control hack like multi-region on early DVD players) ignores image constraint is not far off.

Tetsugaku-San 4th May 2007, 16:38

to be fair no HD content has the HDCP flag turned *ON* yet - and prolly never will as the whole thing will collapse - so nothing to worry about really is it :)

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Pioneer announces $299 Blu-ray drive

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