I tend to agree with this point... while CES is certainly a pertinent venue for this type of an annoucement, it likely stings the most for people who bought (or received as gifts) HD-DVD goods for the holidays.

OTOH, it wasn't any big secret that there was a format war going on, and the risk for either side to fail for it's consumer base. I mean, this is the ONE MAJOR risk of being an early adopter of ANY tech, especially during a format war. Caveat emptor, buddy... People on the message boards screaming for WB to offer free BD exchanges for HD-DVDs and for Sony (or the BDA) to exhange HD-DVD players for BD players are bordering on lunacy. This is how this stuff works itself out - one side wins, one side loses. Winning side's products continue, losing side's products eventually make their way to the attic collecting dust, once the manufacturing and consumer markets have moved on...

Well... it's a bit of the "chicken or the egg" dilemma, isn't it? The consumers do choose the format, not the studios, by way of software sales. However, when studios look at software sales, they may make decisions for which format(s) to support going forward... BD outsold HD-DVD in every market by a significant margin, and IMHO most people believe (all you have to do is read message boards) that there's A LOT of consumers who decided to wait until a clear winner emerges before buying into EITHER format - CE manufacturers and studios want these consumers to purchase their products (equipment/media) as quickly as possible... which the WB decision should help achieve. Disgruntled HD-DVD owners are a tiny fraction compared to the overall market.

Here's my $0.02 about downloaded content. As a current Comcast HD subscriber, I get a fair number of HD movies on demand already, either paying for new releases or from my HBO and Cinemax subscription. They look and sound okay, but not great, and occasionally you'll see minor artifacts. I'm not certain, but I think they're 1080i/60 and DD.

One of the major benefits of next-gen HDM is full 1080p/60 or 1080p/24 (source-dependent), and lossless audio. I can personally attest that BD movies over my PS3 look and sound significantly better than HD movies-on-demand from my cable provider. While I occasionally will pay for one on-demand, it's because of the convenience along with a hunch that it's a movie I'd watch once but not bother owning. Anything else, I'll buy the BD (if available).

I agree with others that we're not particularly close to having the infrastructure to handle 50GB movies either streamed or downloaded to a central server, for anything but a tiny fraction of the consumer-base that regularly watches movies. This won't be commonplace for awhile, IMHO.

As for the few posters with the stance "since HD-DVD (appears to have) lost, I'll just make due with DVD and HD on-demand, but $%#$ if I'll ever purchase a BD" - all I can think is "wow, you sound like a child throwing a fit" - why would you restrict your enjoyment of movies like that out of spite? You don't like Sony? First off, I think anyone that "loves" OR "hates" a CE company needs a reality-check (and maybe needs to get out of the house more). Second, you can TOTALLY AVOID Sony and still have BD, if it's that big of a deal to you. Buy a Pioneer, or Panasonic, or Philips, or Sharp, or Samsung (etc... etc...) player, and buy movies from anyone but Sony/Columbia.

Overall, I think it'll be years before BD makes major inroads against DVD, unless (as mentioned by others) new-releases stop being released in DVD... which I doubt will happen. What we could see is a two-tier timetable, though, which could nudge things along (i.e. Spiderman 4 might release BD on 4/1/09, but the DVD doesn't release until 4/15/09, something like that). In the meantime, for those with HDTVs and players, enjoy your ability to watch the best picture and sound available to consumers... you're among the few who can.

Agree w/ joe. I don't get why people bash Blu-ray as "Sony forcing their proprietary format at us!" when blu-ray is from: Sony, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, LG/Philips, Sharp, Denon, Loews (sp?), & Panasonic (did I forget any?).

Meanwhile HD-DVD is... Toshiba, M$, Integra (so, presumably Onkyo), and some upcoming no-name Chinese players (maybe yes, maybe no?) - but for all extensive purposes, your only hardware option for HD-DVD is Toshiba, because only Toshiba is willing to sell them so cheaply to gain market share (classic example of "loss leader" business strategy). Just look at the new Integra player - a very solid, very high quality player to be sure, and it's, what 1100 bucks? I bet an Onkyo HD-DVD player will be around $600-700, whenever it's released.

And, FWIW, I can't confirm the accuracy of it, but I recall reading that Toshiba was initially part of the BDA as well... until they decided to break off and start this whole format-war debacle. I feel that the two formats have their own merits, and that BD has evolved more slowly than people want towards it's expected "profiles," but I think it's hard to argue that BD isn't inherently better technology than HD-DVD... and, while that may not be NEEDED now, why wouldn't you WANT the better tech, if cost is essentially the same?

I currently have one high-def player, and it is Blu-ray (PS3, if you're curious). Time will tell if I have to purchase a second, but I see no point in spending $$$ on HD-DVD until BD is obviously on it's deathbed - if that even is how things shake out, which I think may be unlikely.

I think this is relevant news because (unless I'm forgetting any) this is the first "non-Toshiba" stand-alone HD DVD player on the market... isn't it?

So HD DVD stand-alone player manufacturers = Toshiba and now Integra (so, eventually, presumably Onkyo as well)

BD Stand-alone player manufacturers = Sony, Samsung, LG/Philips, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp, & Denon (did I miss any?)

Dual-format = LG (and Samsung? or not yet?)

I do think it's interesting that the first non-Tosh HD DVD player lists for 1100 bucks... I've read for some time that Toshiba heavily discounts their players, trying to gain market share for high-def disc player penetration - this would seem to support that.

To be fair, the same is said for the PS3 - but game system consoles are always loss-leaders, with the real profits made on software sales (from what I've heard, anyway).

Overall, interesting news... it'll be fun to see what happens during the holidays this year; I'm starting to get that "SACD/DVD-Audio" feeling about the HD DVD/BD format war...

Jeff,

I for one don't think the price is insanely high, for what you're getting. Pioneer Elite's 50" 1080p plasma monitor from last fall STILL is selling for 8 grand. The 750 series 50" Panasonic will likely have similar performance to that tv, for half the price.

BTW, Sony XBR and Sharp don't make 50" tvs, the closest comparison is a 52" - from a major authorized online retailer for both, the current gen (92 series) 52" Sharp was $5k, but just had a price drop to $4,500. The Sony XBR2 52" is $5k (XBR3 is $5300). Panasonic is a leader in plasmas, subjectively I'd put these model lines of theirs at "mid-high" grade overall, and a thin margin behind Pioneer Elites (high end I'd say are Fujitsu and Runco, low end plasmas are Vizio, etc.)

Yes, Panasonic makes lower-end, "mass market" HDTV model lines, but these particular models are not them (fyi, so does Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp, etc. - they all tend to make higher-end model lines as well - last year, for example, it was Sony's XBR2 and XBR3, Samsung's 96 series, etc - this year it looks like we'll see XBR4 and 81 series as their highest end products).

FYI: I do not own a Panasonic TV. I currently own a Sony XBR direct-view CRT, which has a phenomenal HD picture, the only thing is the size (tv is 32" 4:3, so HD is about a 29" equivalent screen size). I'm excited to see what comes out from all of these manufacturers this summer (esp. Pioneer, from what I've heard about their 2007 CES presentation).

Cheers - have a good weekend.

Looks like the author got it wrong - stating "If missing out on the reference quality color is acceptable to you, the TH-58PZ700U (pictured above) is due next month for a mere $3,999.95." but then below it lists "TH-58PZ700U - $4,799.95 - April"

It should've said "if dropping 8 inches of diagonal screen size is okay, you can get the TH-50PZ750U for $3,999.95" - or - "if dropping the reference quality color is okay, the TH-58PZ700U will set you back $4800 instead of the full $5500"

One other thing to think about - not sure how it'll play out in 2007, but at least in previous years, how long (if ever) have these things sold at full MSRP? Seems like every time you turn around, they're 10, 15, 20% or more off of list, and dropping like a rock. If you can get a high-quality, 50" 1080p plasma this summer for under $3k (maybe even under $2,500?) that would be pretty sweet.

1080p 58" plasma for below $4k??? Yikes. I can't wait to see what the 50" versions are going to cost (as that's already on the larger size of what my room would require), and what we see out of Pioneer this summer as well! (yes, yes, I know - most agree that Pio is a higher end product therefore more expensive, but I can't imagine that Panny's best plasmas wind up selling for half of what Pio's best plasmas in the same (or nearly the same) size range (I'd heard the Elite 1080p 60" plasma due out this summer/fall might be in the $10k range).

I actually don't think these things'll matter for most consumers - especially once we see the new crop of A/V receivers with HDMI 1.3, many of which will (should, at least...) have the ability to decode the audio stream internally. Denon's are coming this summer I believe?

People who're going to invest in a next-gen high-def player are also probably going to want a receiver with HDMI switching, and probably don't already own one, IMHO.

I guess the other option is sending the HDMI feed directly to the display, with the audio digitally back out as PCM to the non-HDMI receiver and switch everything manually or with a Harmony-style remote, but IMHO it's a more elegant solution to have an HDMI 1.3 Receiver w/ 2-3 HDMI Inputs do the switching and decoding, with the source components being an HD STB (i.e. Comcast) and high def player (i.e. PS3 or second-gen Samsung), along with a solid HDTV display option (I'm looking forward to seeing the upcoming offerings from Samsung, Sony XBRs, and Pioneer Elites in *hopefully* summer 2007)

Dave R,

You make a good point in your conclusion with "don't like it don't buy it" - but I think your guess that small businesses (i.e. 30 employees) will buy these up as a business expense is short-sighted. EVERY business, publicly or privately owned, has a responsibility to its owners/shareholders. Increasing productivity among the employees may help boost revenue but quality management will ask "at what cost?" and will do at least a very basic "cost/benefit analysis" of the issue at hand. I find it hard to believe that any small business firm with solid management would drop $45k (30 emp. x $1500) to upgrade everyone's KEYBOARDS with negligible (if any) increase in usefulness and/or productivity. In fact, it's RARELY ever cost-effective to ever be on the "bleeding edge" of any technology, so esp. for small businesses it almost never makes good business sense to be an "early adopter" of anything.

People who'll buy this thing when it's available are those who always have to have "the most expensive (insert product type here)" so that they can say it to their friends/colleagues. Personally, I think a $1500 keyboard is ridiculous, but to each his/her own.

Cheers.