CES: Blu-Ray players
By Matt Burns 
posted Jan 4th 2006 4:51PM
posted Jan 4th 2006 4:51PM
Samsung and Pioneer both have their first Blu-Ray players up for show and tell at CES.
The Samsung BD-1000 is going to cost
you a cool grand but at least they throw in the HDMI cable. They were smart by making the unit backwards compatible
with current disks so this one unit can replace your current DVD player. This boy should be available sometime in the
spring. Not to take away from Samsung's limelight, but Pioneer has one upped them. Sure, Samsung's blu-ray player does the normal 720p and 1080i, but the Pioneer player does 1080p. But wait, there is more. They have include the ability to stream media (including high definition) from a Windows Media PC through an integrated Ethernet port. You do know that all this is going to cost you a bit more then the Samsung unit, right? Yah, this guy rings in at $1,799 and is going to be branded as a Pioneer Elite. It will be available in June.
The prices of these Blu-Ray players that will be available supposedly after the PS3 launch begs the question on how much the PS3 is really going cost.
1080p and DTS-HD - Just add their new 1080p plasma with the latest 7.1 audio system. That's what I'm talking about! (We do have this little issue called price though...)
According to Sony's new president, PS3 must debut at $399 and if they must delay six months to bring it in at that price, then they will delay six months. I expect the real reason behind the delay was to give their partners an early adopter window when they could charge $1000 and up for one. Although I'm not sure how well that strategy will work with Toshiba's $499 HD-DVD player dropping in March.
Natiahs
I seriously don't get how sony is going to sell the ps3 affordably. We all know they don't make much if any off the system, but if the ps3 sells for under 500 bucks noone will buy a standalone blu-ray player. Maybe thats their plan, I dunno, but its confusing to me.
It's easy to see how Sony plans on sell the the PS3 as an affordable BluRay player, just look at the PS2 for clues.
Everyone spoke of the PS2 as a trojan horse for DVD, but I had a standalone DVD player (Panasonic A-105) prior to purchasing my PS2. I bought the PS2 on release day, took it home and got to compare it to my existing DVD player. Guess what? It sucked as a DVD player; no remote, crappy menus, and you really noticed when a layer changed. Video wasn't as clean as the Panasonic, I noticed a few artifacts. Granted this was early in the PS2 life and I've heard the later versions are much better, but the point is that your $299 bought you a good game system, but a sub-par dvd player.
I'm expecting the PS3 to follow a similar path, providing a sub-par Blu-Ray experience compared to conventional set-tops, and being a gaming console first. It is a PlayStation afterall.