Panasonic discusses Blu-ray technology

[mjh]

Taken from this article published on CDFreaks.

The most interesting part of the little Q&A, IMO, is this tidbit:

"Blu-ray is the only technology that produces 1080p resolution and is the ultimate entertainment experience," said Panasonic spokesperson Jeff Samuels. "Most CE companies are producing Blu-ray players: Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, Denon, Toshiba, Samsung, LG, etc."

Toshiba making Blu-ray players now? Did hell freeze over, or was that just a Freudian slip on the Panasonic PR person's part?

 

[Shawn]

Definitely not. They are pushing their new upconverting DVD players now.

 

[mjh]

Considering how many people have large DVD collections and are not ready to hop on the Blu-ray bandwagon, offering decently price upconverting DVD players may not be a bad idea in the long run...

 

[Arkaign]

Toshiba will certainly be making BR players in 2-3 years, or risk losing gobs of money, as the market for regular or upconvert DVD players will be like today's VHS market.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: mjh
Considering how many people have large DVD collections and are not ready to hop on the Blu-ray bandwagon, offering decently price upconverting DVD players may not be a bad idea in the long run...

The flaw in that logic is that the only reason for upconverting is to play low resolution sources on a higher resolution display which lacks acceptable scaling. Yet even cheap TVs have good scaling these days and indeed the cost difference between an upconverting DVD-only player and a BD player (which can also play DVD) is negligible and better spent on a better TV. Upscaling was mostly a marketing scam to justify one last DVD player upgrade cycle.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: mjh
Considering how many people have large DVD collections and are not ready to hop on the Blu-ray bandwagon, offering decently price upconverting DVD players may not be a bad idea in the long run...

That's bad logic, because it's not an either-or situation. Why not try for maximum profit and do both?

 

[mjh]

I'm not saying Toshiba will never release a Blu-ray player, but I am not really surprised they have a larger focus on promoting its upscaling DVD players at the moment. For all I know, they have a couple of different Blu-ray players they are working on...

Like Arkaign said, and you guys implied, Toshiba would be foolish not to release a Blu-ray player at some point in the future.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: mjh
I'm not saying Toshiba will never release a Blu-ray player, but I am not really surprised they have a larger focus on promoting its upscaling DVD players at the moment. For all I know, they have a couple of different Blu-ray players they are working on...

Like Arkaign said, and you guys implied, Toshiba would be foolish not to release a Blu-ray player at some point in the future.

:thumbsup: Yep. Business is business, and Toshiba is not a n00b at this. They certainly tried damn hard with HD-DVD, which was a very good product, but now that the future is pretty cut and dry, they will probably bite the bullet, make the BD players, and enjoy the profits.