Samsung’s Blu-Ray player on sale October

Just in time for a big Christmas marketing push, Samsung is first past the post to launch a Blu-Ray player in the Australian market, the BD-P1000 – or at least, they will be, once the unit is in stores from mid-October.

  
             This black box is Samsung’s Blu-Ray player…

Claiming in their press release to have ‘won the race’ to be first down-under, until units are in stores to physically purchase and take home, it’s probably more the case that they’ve won the race to issue the first press release – but given that Panasonic was demonstrating Blu-Ray vs DVD and new HD 1080p capable models of their Viera TV’s only last week, the press release win might not be Samsung’s after all. One can only wonder if Sony, Panasonic, LG, Philips and others have any plans to get units into stores before Samsung’s are due to appear, just to spoil Samsung’s fun.

That said, journalist briefings have taken place this week, with demonstrations of Samsung’s Blu-Ray player hooked up to Samsung HDTVs to demonstrate the clarity and quality of 1080p high definition video, which is unquestionably better than DVD, and a step above the results you’ll get from all but the most expensive upscaling DVD players which are far beyond the budgets of most of us mere mortals.

The local retailers set to sell the BD-P1000 are Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi, and there will no doubt be in-store demonstrations of the video quality to entice consumers to either open their wallets, ring up their credit cards or take on a four-year interest free deal that will see no interest payments made until 2010. One has to wonder with the pace of technological change whether or not there’ll be some kind of “HD on steroids” format by then or if we’ll all be watching TV from wirelessly-enabled video iPods that jack straight into your brain (sorry, Neo). But unless there is some major technological breakthrough (or the machines decide to take over) Blu-Ray discs, HD-DVD discs, HD video broadcasts and HD video on demand (VOD) should still be with us in four years time.

Of course with the rush to high definition content, it’s good to see that Samsung isn’t expecting us to rush out and spend all of our money on new copies of the same movies we already own on DVD, just because they’re now in true HD format. The BD-P1000 plays regular CDs and DVDs, and through upscaling technology called ‘Hypervision’, does its best to transform your DVDs into much sharper HD-like video.

However upscaling is really a technological cheat, and while it can work well, it is trying to enhance DVD quality video up to five times to match Blu-Ray content, as Blu-Ray discs (BD discs) offer nearly five times the resolution of regular DVDs. If you’ve ever tried enlarging an image you copied from a website, only to see it degenerate into a pixellated mess, you’ll soon come to appreciate how well good upscaling technologies work. But no-one really buys a next-gen video player just to play older content – you’ve probably got a DVD player sitting there already, after all. What matters to a new platform is the native content available for it.

That’s precisely where Blu-Ray does have some strength over the rival HD-DVD camp as it has support from seven of the eight major studios. In Australia, HD content will be released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE), Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, with the initial line-up set to include titles such as Mission Impossible 3 and Ice Age 2, to name a couple. A number of classics and recent favourites like Hitch and Serenity will also be released in the lead up to Christmas 2006 and naturally there’ll be plenty more all throughout 2007.

Besides featuring the now essential HDMI port to digitally transmit audio and video through a single cable, the BD-P1000 also has a 10-in-2 multi memory card interface that supports all the major formats including Compact Flash, SD, XD, Memory Stick and others. As most digital cameras now capture “native high definition resolution” from 2 megapixel and higher quality photos, you can be sure they’ll look lovely on your HD plasma, LCD or other high-def TV. Other expected connectivity includes Component, S-video and composite outputs, while audio supported audio formats include Dolby Digital & Dolby Digital Plus, DTS, MP3 and 192KHz LPCM.

If you’re really aching to spend the cash and watch movies with cinema style sharpness and quality, you’ll be racing out to buy one as soon as mid October rolls around. But if you remember the VHS and Beta debacle (or if you’re too young to remember but have heard the story ad nauseum through your formative years), the question remains – will you buy one, or will you wait to see if any real truce emerges in the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD war? And given technology’s propensity to become cheaper over time, won’t the price clearly be under $1000 once 2006 is over and 2007 has begun?

We’ve no idea about Samsung’s future pricing plans for 2007, but we’re sure there are many cashed-up early adopters willing to spend the cash this Christmas (or at least willing to go into debt) to be first with the latest. (Blame the Joneses!)

With the price set at AUD $1599, are you ready and waiting to take the plunge into the high-definition world where the rays are blue in mid-October? Or will you wait for the Sony PS3 and go Blu-Ray that way? Is $1599 too much to play for a glorified DVD player, or is it worth every penny? Perhaps you’re intruiged by the HD-DVD camp which should offer a cheaper player… Or maybe you’re simply satisfied with your existing upscaling DVD player.

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