beepclick

tranzparentl

LastAndLeast

True, my step father just bought a cheapo $599 laptop and it had HDMI out.

robinandtami

Lizard_King

Pointless. Unless that laptop is at least 42".

BrockBrockman

Galley

[www.maximumpc.com]

A big $20 more than the comparable Blu-ray only drive they reviewed in the same issue.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

I watch most things now via the VGA out of my laptop on a 40" LCD...

The_Mhor

Michai

Because physical formats do not require backups or entail risk of loss due to hard drive failure; because they are not subject to hard drive storage limits; because they are available instantly instead of after downloading and thus not subject to connectivity or hardware failure during download; because they can be used without network-dependent DRM; because they are not linked to players; because they can be transported apart from players; because they can be shared; because they can be sold or traded; because they can be given as gifts with wrapping paper and bows; because their boxes enable impressive and informative shelf displays; because they allow movie selection in peace and quiet with devices off instead of by the roar of computer and set-top-box fans; because printed boxes offer higher resolution text than computer displays; because it can be satisfying to hold a movie box in hand; because physical media and boxes can make good coasters and possibly trivets.

Brian Sexton

Physical media is going to be MUCH more practical for the masses for the foreseeable future. Most people do not want to wait for a 5GB+ download. Physical media is only a storage medium at this point.

Lizard_King

freakshow1

lucky_you

First, endlessness would require sufficient consumer support for media in both formats to survive, which simply seems unlikely because content-producers do not want to spend money developing and manufacturing content for two similar formats that not only require more work than supporting one format or the other, but preclude the manufacturing and distribution savings of producing a single format.

Similarly, multi-format players will not render the competition meaningless because they will not alleviate the problems inherent to multi-format production, but nor will they encourage consumers to select one format over the other, leaving both uncertainty over which media for producers to support and uncertainty over which media for consumers to select when more than one option is available. Adding to consumer uncertainty-for thoughtful consumers, at least-is the likelihood that if one format does eventually best the other, new players will cease to incorporate support for both formats in an effort to reduce hardware production costs, leaving consumers who have purchased media in both formats stuck with media they can no longer play once they replace their players, whether due to hardware failure or upgrades.

It does seem possible that for consumer data storage both formats could exist similarly to DVD-R and DVD+R, but I really think the pre-recorded media is going to be the deciding factor for hardware sales for the foreseeable future-at least until recorder and media prices reach mass-market prices, which also seems less likely with manufacturing and distribution expenses split over both formats.

Brian Sexton

HDDVD vs. BluRay is not the same as VHS vs Beta. This is the equivalent of SA-CD vs DVD-A. Neither one won that face off because consumers were more interested in iPods. That's right, Low-Fi audio from an iPod beat out the super rich hi-fi of DVD-A and SA-CD. The same will happen with Blu-Ray and DVD-A. Apple will release a rental program that will make sense and everyone will clamor to drop $300 on a AppleTV. Why own a physical format at all? Download and or Streaming is the wave of the future. And the quality will increase with time just like iTunes music has.

We'll be streaming Full HD movies with 7.1 surround from our ATVs in well under 5 years. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will be but a joke some guy reminds everyone about on a tech blog.

dallasmay2

But will people buy HD-DVD versions of movies just to watch on their Toshiba laptops?

Will Toshiba also increase the screen res of all their laptops? An awful lot of laptops that Toshiba sells currently have 1280x800 resolution.

Zadillo

GamerGuyX

However, since everyone views HD DVD as the underdog, maybe this one will do?

[neatorama.cachefly.net]

theimmc

liquidsoapdispenser

ViewtifulJason

Not all PS3 owners even know what Blu-Ray is let alone use it to watch movies, while EVERY single HDDVD add on sold for the 360 is being used solely for HDDVD viewing.

Seiven

Michai