HD DVD fires back: HD-A20 in April for $499, 70 movies on the way
By Richard Lawler 
posted March 28th 2007 3:33PM
posted March 28th 2007 3:33PM
We've had to wait a while, but for those wondering where Universal's exclusive titles were in the upcoming HD DVD lineup, today's press release by the HD DVD Promotions Group may put your mind at ease. While it may still be looking up at Blu-ray in terms of install base and numbers shipped, HD DVD the group still touts the fact that it has a higher tie ratio than "other high definition formats". Also included is the news that the 1080p-capable HD-A20 will ship in April for $499 (down from $599), but the biggest news is the slate of more than 70 titles shipping in the next three months from six studios (Warner, Paramount, Universal, Genius & Eagle Rock). Exclusives like Shaun of the Dead and The Bourne Identity will be available in June among what looks to be a packed month of releases for the format. Curious in their absence are combo releases, with only four HD DVD/DVD (Good Shepherd, Smokin' Aces, The Hitcher & Alpha Dog) discs among the 70.
I see nothing curious about the lack of combos... that was artificially inflating the prices by about $5. a disc compared to the blu-ray release of the same title. They've got all their chips in now...
How many of these titles that are released will be exclusive to HD DVD? All of them? I assume that Universals movies will only be HD DVD, but will Paramounts and Warners be exclusive.
Not sure it's enough to save the HD DVD format, but they aren't going down kicking!
Prepare for the HD DVD ground assault. The Reference MS/Broadcom players are due at the end of this quarter and they may hit at MSRP of $299. The movies are starting to fill up the release schedule and The Matrix Tirlogy should come before the Blu-ray version by my guesstimate of at least 3 months. Toshiba lineup is now pretty solid. The A2 should be selling at the low $300 range the A20 will be $450 and the XA2 will be likely $699. Here we come.
Hmmm, I thought BR already won the format war! Toshiba isn't allowed to release 70 new titles (including no-name exclusives like Borne Identity) and a new lower cost 1080p capable stand-alone player. The upcoming release of bargain HD DVD players will make things exciting.
Questions:
(a) Where will PS3's be in 2 years?
(b) Where will stand-alone 1080p players be in years?
Answers:
(a) supplanted by the next gen console
(b) happily playing 1080p content
I have said this before on this site and I'll say it again. The PS3 impact on the format war is a transient effect. It is hitting hard right now, but will keep fading as months and years pass. When HD goes mainstream, cost will win and Toshiba is winning big on that front. There isn't a significant difference in number of titles available, so that isn't likely to be a discriminator.
FWIW, I don't yet own a HD-DVD or BR player. I have two HDTVs and plan to hop on the bandwagon this summer. Given current knowledge, my money is on the HD-DVD format because they have a better strategy for penetrating the mainstream (non-gamer) market.
If HD DVD can get Fox or Disney to switch, we'll have a real fight. But with Universal as their only exclusive backer, I'm reluctant to buy anymore HD DVDs. Cheaper players don't help if you can't get the movies you want on the format. I'm sure more than one HD DVD owner picked up a PS3 this year.
Good to hear release prices have already been lower. By the time Sony gets its "low price" players out for $500 HD DVD will be below $200. Maybe next year BluRay fanboys!
(hopefully man-cheerleader Dave fills his diaper after reading this announcement)
Every store I go to has like 20 PS3s just sitting there. That's not helping blu-ray much.
Toshiba needs to start buggin New Line to release LOTR as THE premiere HDDVD title and convince Disney to switch. I am getting annoyed at the ignorant people sayin 'I heard blu-ray won'. Let's go Toshiba, pick it up!
The PS3? Supplanted by a new console in two years?
Don't know much about the console life-cycle, do ya? Heck, even if it was 2 years, I'm still pretty sure it'd be playing 1080p content then too. Oh well, it's the internet, where the mighty uninformed dofus roams free in his native landscape.
I still maintain that this "war" is a phantom at best, along with the absurdity of those claiming a victory or dominance so early in the game. There are MANY people, including console owners, WITHOUT HDTVs. And, as I've stated in other posts, many owners are clueless when it comes to connecting their HD sets properly, thinking that just because they've purchased a newfangled, widescreen display, high definition viewing is as simple as turning the darn thing on.
I'm sorry, but many Americans just don't have the know-how or the technical savvy to even begin to understand terms like "progressive scan," interlaced," or "720p." One in six adults is illiterate, so imagine what happens when trying to explain what "Blu-Ray" or "HDMI 1.3 deep color" means to them. Combine this with the earlier Engadget post today, stating that next-generation DVDs account for a whopping 1% of all DVD rentals on NetFlix, and you begin to see that these silly pissing matches only concern early adopters, not Mr. and Mrs. Joe Average.
Let's just all be happy that competition between the two camps is making things affordable for true market penetration...until movies on flash drives come along and kick everyone's next-gen butts! (LOL)
>>The A2 should be selling at the low $300 range the A20 will be $450 and the XA2 will be likely $699. Here we come.
**The A2 should be selling at the low $300 range the A20 will be $450 and the XA2 will be likely $699. Here we come.**
Amazon is selling the XA2 for $599 today.
They also have the HD-A2 for $349.99 with no tax or shipping.
HD MIKE
what does it matter if HD-DVD has a "better" strategy for penetrating the mainstream market.
which format is technically superior (blu-ray) and which format has the movies you want to watch (more studios support blu-ray so i'm going to guess they are blu-ray movies)?
a cheap player from toshiba is useless if you're limited to watching films from the weinstein company and eagle rock (who the hell are they?).
What bugs me is that $ony mislead people in thinking that if they buy a bluray player they'll automatically get a 1080p picture on their 720p/1080i TV's. This is so sad. Toshiba is still giving people a choice and they dont have to pay a premium for something that they don't need by still selling the HD-A2 along side the Xa2 and A20. Of course if your TV IS over 50 and 1080p they by all means get the HD-A20 or HD-XA2.
P.S. Even Cnet proved that unless your TV is over 55" inches and you are an "EXPERT" with an keen eye, you can't tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p.
I don't want to waist my money on HDdvd's that I own on DVD already especially when my BD player upconverts them. Universal's movies have been steadily declining ever since Speilberg left like 13 years ago with exception of Meet the Parents 1 and 2, and a couple of Jim Carry movies. Put personal format of choice aside, look at the box office. If you would have never went to see these movies in the Theater then why drop $20-$40 just to try and Help toshiba? I'm looking forward to new movies like Ghost Rider, Spiderman 3, Casino Royal, Pirates 3, ect.... I'm also looking forward to some I held off on buying when HD started hitting the market like Hellboy, Spiderman 1 and 2, Pirates 1 and 2,ect... I'm looking forward to BD-J, There is no way that I'm buying a HDdvd player for Batman Begins and THe Matrix trillogy if BD-J is going to be as good as they say, even if it's not, WB is still format neutral. Which lots of the remainig HDdvd fanbots are over looking and forgetting. I read, once Fox goes neutral... once Disney starts releasing Hddvd it trouble for BD..... WB AND PARAMOUNT WERE ONCE HDDVD EXCLUSIVE THEY SWICHED BEFORE BD EVENY HIT FULL SWING. Sorry for the caps but that is very important as, by your reasoning this is trouble for a format. DIVX was supported by Disney so that shows you they want something like BD to suceed, it's just common sense. Personally I think that Toshiba/MS/GE kenw once WB and Paramount jumped ship, that HDdvd was dead once the PS3 hit the market, and that is why the players are dropping in price so fast. They are trying to get people on impulse, and they are milking current HDdvd owners for all they can. This is clear with the fact the the "Elite" 360 has no Hddvd drive. Sure you can download HDdvd movies for the 360. However what if Pirates 1 and 2 have as much special features as they say? That's 2 full BD 50's if you haven't heard the rumors. 100 gigs. Wow their goes the Hard drive on your elite 360. Oh well you say I'll just save it, stream it to my CPU's hard drive. Which is cool, but HDD are expensive and in a couple of years there will be $5-$10 BD dicount bins at Wal mart. Which is way easier for J6P to afford. Your fooling yourself if you tink that BD players won't be cheaper soon and that they won't be on shelves at Wal-mart soon(xmas). Besides the cheaper sony player coming out. Funai have stated already that they are producing BD hardware. For those who don't know about the company Funai go here http://www.funai-corp.com/. Notice how many wal-mart brands are on this site, and if the sony model this summer is at $599, there is no way that the Funai players will be $500, so don't think that either. Hddvd is seriously milking pepole and it's so sad to see people trying to convince others that BD is a bad choice.
Sorry Rob... but you're just plain ignorant on a lot of points... you can't download HD-DVDs to the 360... You can only download 720p HD Movies for rental. And a lot of people who support BD seem to forget about the 51GB HD-DVD discs that are on the way. Disc space is no issue. And I don't get your point about the Elite 360 not having a built in HD-DVD drive. Why would you expect it to? That's just dumb for MS from a business standpoint. If they are already succesful with having it as an add-on, why are they gonna start losing money on each box again when they're already making money on it now. They don't need to build it in to be successful with it. Not to mention that it's an unnecessary premium for a system that is only going to be using DVDs for games.
On a different note, whenever I watch BD demo discs at best buy it makes me hate the format cause of the use of MPEG-2. It's just horrible compared to VC-1 which all HD-DVD movies have been using from the start. And all the XLMP downloads are in VC-1 (WMV HD). It's just a superior codec in quality. If HD-DVD had the players being demoed in best buy, BD will fail because people will see the difference and realize how crappy BD is until they use better codecs.
The real question is when will Best Buy actually have HD-DVD players running with demo discs in the stores. And when will they HD-DVD discs be facing customers when they walk in instead of on the back of the first rack of DVDs when BD movies are right there for everyone to see. Sony's paying a hell of a lot of money to BestBuy to help them monopolize the nextgen market. I say screw em.
"The PS3? Supplanted by a new console in two years?
Don't know much about the console life-cycle, do ya? Heck, even if it was 2 years, I'm still pretty sure it'd be playing 1080p content then too. Oh well, it's the internet, where the mighty uninformed dofus roams free in his native landscape."
You are kidding right? It's going to take 2 years for devs to start kicking out titles that take full advantage of the hardware.... how long did the last console cycle run? You really should do some research before you post something like this.
Anyway, I like the HD DVD format myself and am happy to hear the good news. On the other hand, I have to give credit to Blu Ray for being an equally outstanding format. Whoever wins will loose to digital distribution (IMHO) within the next couple of years...maybe before the next console cycle!
"You are kidding right? ... how long did the last console cycle run? You really should do some research before you post something like this."
I did my research after the fact and can confirm my prior guestimate. Look at the #1 competitor for the Playstation. MS released the Xbox late in 2001 (for xmas season) and decommissioned it in the summer of 2005. That's less than 4 years. The Xbox360 is coming up on two years old and is likely slated for replacement in the next 2 years or so. How old will the PS3 be at that juncture? Probably 2 to 3 yrs old.
"even if it was 2 years, I'm still pretty sure it'd be playing 1080p content then too."
While your statement is technically accurate, I don't think gamers are going to keep using their PS3s for movies when the next toy comes out. Why? Because the next toy is likely to play HD media as well and will probably offer features that aren't available in the PS3.
"what does it matter if HD-DVD has a "better" strategy for penetrating the mainstream market."
Sony and Toshiba are businesses. The better strategy usually prevails... one wouldn't label it as 'better' if it had lost, eh? The strategy is important because Sony took the "higher tech" approach, but that comes at a steep price tag. Toshiba is attacking it from the other direction and trying to take the lower cost approach. Do you really think the average (non-gamer and non-technophile) consumer will opt for the $600 player when a $300 player is sitting next to it at Best Buy and has equal picture quality? Do you think they will be swayed to spend as twice as much with little to no realized benefit?
The number of titles between the formats is comparable, with BR in the lead right now. However, most of the agreements between studios and HD formats are non-binding. The studios don't want to produce two formats, but they will reluctantly do so if neither format emerges on top. It would be a foolish "strategy" to do otherwise and stock holders would not take kindly to it.
"You are kidding right? It's going to take 2 years for devs to start kicking out titles that take full advantage of the hardware.... how long did the last console cycle run? You really should do some research before you post something like this."
Could help, but reply this one...
According to DailyTech, PS4 is less than 18 months away and we are now 6 months into PS3. 18+6=24, which is ... 2 years.
http://www.dailytech.com/Next+PlayStation+Version+Could+Arrive+Sooner+Than+Expected/article7153.htm
I only meant to quote the first line...the responder (line 2) was on key.... ;)
I have had it with the "Technically Supperior" crap from the BD fanboys. Translation BD stores more data. BIG DEAL!
Leave the whole gaming crap out of the question. (I own the 360 HDDVD)
Q: Other than content does BD offer a better movie watching experience now and will it ever be than HDDVD?.
A: No 1080P is 1080p HD movies take up less than half the space of a HDDVD. 4 Hours of LOTR will fit on the disc what more do you really nead?
So really what people are saying is although there is absolely no difference in the practical application of this technology and no difference in the experience to the consumer because we have more unused space the technology is better. ANYBODY that tells you ANYTHING different either is ignorant or is lying.
Its akin to saying that my car drives better than your car because I have bigger back seat.
(No one is going to use BD for backup when buying another hardrive is so cheap and companies use tape)
I like the fact that some of my HDDVD discs play on my DVD player upstairs and THAT is a tangible consumer benifit.
Sony wanted to own another format and put the screws to us as consumers why can people not see this? BETA.. MD .. do I need to remind everyone about this.
PS.
Why does a company like Sony get away so scott free on the monopoly they have? Why do we want to give them more of one? This will be good for consumers how? Can you imagine the uproar if MS purchaced most of the major studios?
Sony Pictures + Sony Electronics + Sony Discs = more money for Sony and pricing control. Not Smart. I am no left wing crazy liberal, but I cant see this as a good thing.
At least with HDDVD there is a open consortium, and remember HDDVD has been handing olive branches all along and trying to unify this platform.
Sony's responce has been what format war we one because we say so WE ARE SONY FEAR US LOVE US BE PART OF OUR GLORIUS PLAN ...... :)
The danger of $ony's monopoly was proven when they hid spyware on their music CDs.
digital distribution (IMHO)
Real digital ditribution of equivalant content is years away. YEARS. How long does it take to download a compressed at 4gb data current over the internet? Hours. 15gb is too much data and none of us want to get 3/4 through a movie and have it die. The internet has not and will not get 4 to 5 times faster and more reliable over the next couple years the infrastructure is not there and that will be BILLIONS to provide. The backbone of the internet is not an order of magintude faster than it was 5 years ago. And the more people that connect with higher and higher speed just makes it slower not faster. Just because you have a massivlely huge connection to garden hose does not make the providers network faster in fact actually makes it worse.
Damn Straight!!!!
>What bugs me is that $ony mislead people in thinking that if they buy a bluray player they'll automatically get a 1080p picture on their 720p/1080i TV's.
When did they do this? I haven't seen anything that shows Sony claiming this.
>At least with HDDVD there is a open consortium, and remember HDDVD has been handing olive branches all along and trying to unify this platform.
Um... how open can it be when only Toshiba has a stand-alone player? I see a Sony, Samsung, Pioneer and Panasonic Blu-ray Player every time I go into Best Buy. Sony doesn't completely control Blu-ray- its the Blu-ray Disc Association:
www.blu-raydisc.com
Check out the logos of the supporting companies. I think you'd be surprised.
As for Toshiba's "Olive branches", the only reason we have a format war in the first place is that Toshiba wanted to keep its royalties from Standard DVD. The rest of the industry went Blu-ray. And before you say "Microsoft is backing them", do you honestly think that they were going to join in with the Blu-ray Disc Association when Sony and Apple are on the Board of Directors?
The 51GB HD-DVDs will never work in any HD-DVD movie players since the drives made up to this point were only made to read 2 layers, not 3. The same goes for the 200GB Blu-Ray discs.
THE HD-DVD CAPACITY LIMIT WILL ALWAYS BE 30GB!!
The 51GB discs will work only with external drives made to support them and their only application will be for storage.
One more thing Mike, this isn't 2006 anymore. Blu-Ray discs that afre now being released from the BD exclusive companies are usually using AVC for their codec. MPEG-2 is beginning to become a thing of the past. And when MPEG2 isused on 50GB discs, it looks amazing, just look at Kingdom of Heaven, MI3 or Black Hawk Down for evidence of that.
Your criticisms of BD come from their missteps at its launch which have since been corrected, and you are sadly misinformed about certain aspects of HD-DVD such as the supposedly upcoming 51GB discs which can never be used for movies since none of the players made to date will read them.
so how many movies do you know of which are more than 30gb? whats that, only blu-ray movies because they use old technology? correct! what could anyone possiby gain from making a platform which holds more than 30gb? with portable hard drives, even mp3 players, its just not needed
If you read the article that you linked, you'll notice that this is nothing more than a revision of the existing console. It's like MS releasing the 360 Elite, not a new console, just new features on the current one. This paragraph from your link highlights this:
"Rather than being an entirely new console, the device will supposedly include the same architecture as the current console but with a new drive bay and attachment area. The new box is said to also include extensive software suite for the managing of content being streamed to a TV or Hi Fi source."
Information from that same source is floating around the web.
This really isn't new information either. Sony has been talking about a "Home Theater Edition" of the PS3 for months. There is supposedly one in the works that will run nearly $1500 and be integrated with a stereo receiever. I read this a long time ago and don't have time to find the article to link.
Additionally, Sony has stated that the PS4 won't come out until at least 2010 on more than one occasion: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entetainment/playstation-4-coming-in-2010-playstation-3-to-be-media-hub-219190.php