http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/ Engadget HD Comments for Cheaper Blu-ray? Sony, Panasonic, and Philips say it's coming, honestly http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 25th 2009 3:44PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 25th 2009 3:54PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/
FWIW, I love HD, and don't care to watch TV without it. But my Denon upscaling SD-DVD player does an awesome job at breathing new life into my existing DVD collection. It gives my Sony BDP-S500 a run for the money. So when I see a $7 SD-DVD, or a $35 BD-DVD with the same title, I usually go for the less expensive option.]]>Feb 25th 2009 4:21PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 25th 2009 4:22PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/
Very confusing, but probably symptomatic of what happens when a standard pulls in technology from lots of places. It does make sense to have a one stop shop though.]]>Feb 25th 2009 5:07PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 25th 2009 5:58PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/
"Be aware, however, that the bulk of Blu-ray patent holders have yet to declare their licensing intentions. For example, although many are currently working to establish MPEG LA as the administrator of a joint patent pool, this effort is still ongoing. Thus replicators and content publishers alike remain in the dark as to any further obligations."

http://www.emedialive.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?CategoryID=27&ArticleID=14071

Seems like the discussions in MPEG-LA have broken down, causing this seperate spin off. Problem with it is that it does not include patents from other companies (Samsung comes to mind) so an implementor is left having to figure out how to get a license for the rest of the bits.

It is also quite expensive as today's standards go. As a way of reference, an MPEG-4 AVC patent is only 35 cents or so and goes down from there with maximum caps. FYI, one would have to pay for all the codecs, and current red laser DVD fees on top of it.

And 11 cents per disc? That is quite high. Wonder what the reaction of the studios is.

In addition:

BDA does not play a role in this. They are a standards setting organization. IP collection is handled externally as this press release indicates.

Patent pools like this are voluntary meaning that they include whoever is interested in pooling their interests (in this case, the three companies mentioned). Companies are then faced to pay others not in the pool.

There can be backroom agreements to have one company act as a representative for them in such pools. But I don't see Toshiba or any other major company participating this way.

Finally, it doesn't include DVD per-se. It only includes the part of DVD which these three companies hold IP in. Mind you, Philips and Panasonic have substantial patents in that area but as you note, Toshiba and others (e.g. Warner) must be included for the license to be all inclusive.]]>Feb 25th 2009 6:27PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 25th 2009 6:22PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 26th 2009 5:10AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 25th 2009 10:42PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 26th 2009 5:27PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 26th 2009 10:30AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 26th 2009 5:27PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/02/25/cheaper-blu-ray-sony-panasonic-and-phillips-say-its-coming/Feb 27th 2009 1:38PM