Estimated Blu-Ray release date

[davezen2]

Group Plans U.S. Debut of Hi-Def DVD
Friday April 9 10:50 PM ET


High-definition DVD is coming soon.

The Blu-ray Disc Founders group has announced that its HD DVD players will hit the United States in late 2005 or early 2006. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment is expected to release the first Blu-ray discs.

Though Blu-ray is competing with other HD standards from Toshiba/NEC and Pixonics, the 13-member Blu-ray group is confident that studios will endorse Blu-ray.

 
"We have had very good conversations with the studios," says Benjamin Feingold, president of Columbia TriStar. Columbia TriStar parent Sony is a key player in spearheading the Blu-ray standard. "It will be love at first sight when they see it. People will be stunned with how fast Blu-ray will be adopted."

Feingold believes that consumers will naturally move from the current DVD format to Blu-ray. "DVD sell-through is driving revenues, but we need to raise the bar of excitement," he notes. "HD movies are the expectation."

Blu-ray's discs have five times the storage capacity of a regular DVD and offer more bandwidth than their competitors. The discs also have built-in copy protection and other innovations, such as anti-fingerprint technology.

At a reception held in conjunction with the Digital Hollywood conference at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Los Angeles March 29, director Guillermo del Toro ("Hellboy") extolled Blu-ray's virtues, pointing out the differences in standard DVD vs. Blu-ray in a split-screen presentation of "Lawrence of Arabia."

Blu-ray has brought together competing hardware manufacturers, who extol the format's quality.

"This will be the format for the next 20 years," says Erin Sullivan, director of planning for Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory. "That's why we are working together on the specifications."

Other Blu-ray group members include Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, LG, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Royal Philips, Samsung, Sharp, TDK and Thomson.

A Blu-ray player is on the market in Japan for approximately $3,500. It is not known how much the U.S. players will cost.

Reuters/Billboard

[tazman]

I will probably be viewed as ignorant for asking this but....  I would assume they are designing in backward compatability with present formats with these new players right?  I just hate making assumptions!:rolleyes: :blush: