CES 2006: Blu-ray and HD DVD are go

Posted by Rob
January 6, 2006

Phoney war is finally over. Let the format war begin

sony-bluray-player CES 2006: Blu-ray and HD DVD are go

This is it. After months – no years – of speculation, the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps have finally pulled on their boxing gloves and are going to be slugging it out in the only bare-knuckle bout that matters: the fight for the hearts, minds and, most importantly, wallets of US consumers.       

Sony announced that it would ship its first Blu-ray player (pictured) in the summer, when it would be joined by decks from other big hitters like Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer and Samsung. Movie studios 20th Century Fox, Warner Home Video and Lionsgate Entertainment also said they would launch of over 50 Blu-ray movie titles including Ice Age, Million Dollar Baby, Aeon Flux, The Italian Job, Batman Begins and Black Hawk Down.

Not to be outdone, Toshiba also showed off its first two HD DVD players, both of which will not only be arriving much earlier (March), but will also be almost half the price of their Blu-ray rivals – $499-$799 (£284-£455) compared to the $1,000-$1,800 (£570-£1,025) being asked by Panasonic and Pioneer, the only two Blu-ray companies to have announced prices so far. Microsoft also announced plans to offer an HD DVD drive as an add-on for the Xbox 360, although its price and release date has yet to be confirmed.

Accompanying the arrival of the HD DVD players will be a promised 200-strong movie library from studios like Universal including recent hits such as Jarhead and Harry Potter 4: The Goblet Of Fire.

We’re hoping that with the US launches of Blu-ray and HD DVD now confirmed that it won’t be too long before the high definition rivals finally surface in Europe.

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