Sony Corp. and Pioneer, major makers of consumer electronics, have quietly revealed that they would delay the commercial release of their Blu-ray disc players to August and September, respectively. This means that Toshiba and Thomson will feel pretty comfortable on the market of high-definition video with their HD DVD players.
Sony has quietly changed availability date for the BDP-S1 player to mid-August at its SonyStyle web-site claiming that the device would be available “on or about August 15, 2006”. Earlier it was said that the device is expected to be available in June for the price of $999, which was a lot more affordable compared to Pioneer’s Elite BDP-HD1 Blu-ray disc player. The latter also faced the delay, according to Gamasutra web-site, till September, despite of Pioneer’s initial plan to ship the device in June. The good news, however, is that Pioneer will charge $1500 for the BDP-HD1, not $1800, as projected originally.
Currently only Samsung Electronics is expected to release its Blu-ray disc player in late June, however, the company may again change its plans, as it did in the past.
The reasons for the delays are unclear, but there are suggestions that Sony’s intentions to market four million PlayStation 3 game consoles, which feature Blu-ray disc playback capability, erodes all the inventory of certain components required to build Blu-ray disc players. This does not seem logical, because the first batches of consumer electronics components that cost about $999 are not generally large. For example, Toshiba was only estimated to ship about 30 000 HD DVD players in the first three months. According to some other estimates, 10 000 to 15 000 units have been shipped in the U.S. to satisfy this first wave of demand. Moreover, computer makers – including Sony itself – have been planning to start selling notebooks with Blu-ray support as early as in June.
Traditional single-layer DVDs allow consumers to watch movies in 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) resolution with Dolby Digital audio. The blue-laser discs will provide consumers 1920x1080 resolution as well as DTS or Dolby Digital Plus audio along with some additional interactive features.
Blu-ray and HD DVD formats compete for replacing the DVD standard. HD DVD discs can store up to 15GB on a single layer and up to 30GB on two layers. Its competitor, Blu-ray, can store up to 27GB per single layer and up to 50GB on two layers, but Blu-ray discs are more expensive to produce. The HD DVD is pushed aggressively by Toshiba and NEC as well as being standardized at the DVD Forum, which represents over 230 consumer electronics, information technology, and content companies worldwide. Blu-ray is backed by Sony and Panasonic, which are among the world’s largest makers of electronics. Among Hollywood studios HD is supported by Warner Bros. Studios, New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, whereas Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox endorse Blu-ray.