As standalone Blu-ray disc players are expected to retail at around US$1,000, there is a good chance many consumers are going to wait until the launch of the PS3 to get their hands on one of these as a budget Blu-ray player, particularly with its retail pricing expected to be US$499. However, just after Sony announced details about two different models of the upcoming PS3, consumers started reporting about the budget model lacking a HDMI output. While the player can still be connected up by component video due to the vast majority of HDTV sets featuring component inputs, should the studios start enforcing Image Constraint Token on Blu-ray disc content, those owning the cheaper PS3 will suddenly find their budget player turning out to be an expensive DVD player. The ICT restriction would result in the image being downscaled to 1/4 full HD resolution due to no HDCP support over component video, resulting in a picture just a touch better than DVD quality.
Xbox360 owners are not really any better off should they fork out on the accessory HD DVD player, since the Xbox 360 does not offer HDMI output either. This means that even though Microsoft may publicise about harnessing the power of the Xbox 360 console for its HD video output capabilities, this is not much good if the discs released later with ICT cuts the picture quality to a quarter its original size! If you copy, please show appreciation by linking back to cdfreaks.
The more expensive PS3, which will cost $599 in the US will feature HDMI output as well as a few other features such as a flash memory card reader and 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi. Even though both the Xbox 360 and HD DVD player accessory both lack HDMI, it is unclear if HDMI support will be added as an optional accessory later, particularly since Microsoft announced that one of the new accessories to be announced at E3 includes a HDMI cable, so obviously they will need to provide a means of connecting this to the console or external player if this accessory is confirmed.
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The Sony PS3 will be the cheapest Blu-ray disc player on the market for a while and potentially the HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 will also be rather cheap (price will be possibly announced today). Some further info can be read on I4U, c|net and xbox.com |
Once the pricing of Blu-ray and HD DVD players finally comes down, there is a good chance that the movie studios will assume that forcing consumers to fork out on a dedicated standalone player for playing back movies will not be much of a problem. For example, when DVD players first launched, they originally started at several hundred dollars and prices quickly fell below $100 within a few years. Now one can pick up a DVD plaeyr for no more than the price of 2 to 3 movies! Give it a couple of years and the thought of buying a PS3 to use as a Blu-ray player would be no different than purchasing a PS2 as a DVD player at this time. On the other hand, there will likely be a lot of upset PS3 and Xbox 360 HD DVD accessory owners should they find that their equipment has become obsolete for playing back movies.
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Source: I4U News
