The disk may become a reality, but will the player manufacturers permit such a disk to function on their machines?

The Sony branded blu-ray player has been up & running at South Coast Plaza Sony Style store in Costa Mesa(L.A. area) for weeks now, and the image seems little different from the Samsung. It, like the Toshiba, produces a high-quality, hi-def image -- but once again is only incrementally better in terms of resolution, color saturation and contrast than a first-class upconversion of a high-quality standard DVD. So go figure.

Perhaps a second entry after more
weeks of looking at both the HD-DVD
player from Toshiba and the Samsung
Blu-Ray: what I've seen pretty much
matches the professional reports from
Los Angeles Times Research as reported
by staff writer David Colker.

There's just no real 'WOW!' factor and
hence no real 'bang for the buck' so
far. A first-class upconversion of a
high-quality standard DVD is little
different from what you'll see on
either of these players with the
titles released to date. Specifically,
I saw 'Serenity' hi-def version with
an upconverted standard DVD version
side-by-side with 5 other people
at a local major store in the L.A.
area and we were all surprised at
how little was the difference:
incrementally better resolution,
color saturation and contrast, but
nothing to spend hundreds of
dollars on.

I suspect the problem is the
relatively low transfer rate
(HD-DVDs have been measured
at around only 12-15mbps vs.
about 28 for D-VHS which
looks better to me), so
perhaps something along the
lines of a SuperBit HD-DVD or
SuperBit Blu-Ray will do the
trick, but right now it's
no way Jose.

It may all be academic. Recent proffesional tech reviews, including the LA TIMES, have decried the relatively small improvements in image quality in HD-DVD. So, at current price points, it's highly questionable whether either of the hi-def optical disk formats will ever become a mass-market consumer medium. D-VHS revisited? At $500-plus for the players, and $25-plus for the disks, my guess is that's all it'll be.Studio insiders have allegedly said they're looking at BIG reductions in hi-def disk prices to spur consumers along.