My Thoughts On Tech For March 2nd

Blu-Ray Players, and HDDVD players. OK well lets back up a little, There are two new formats that both produce 1080p resolution. Blu-Ray, and HDDVD. HDDVD is cheaper to make and produce, but only has 15GB of single layer capacity. But Blu-Ray has a cooler name, and holds 25GB single layer disc, and 50GB! on a duel layer disc. Cheaper usually wins. But personally, I would prefer to have blu-ray in my home. A Month ago, it was CES 2007. The big thing was the format war. Blu-ray, or HDDVD? LG came out with a duel format disc player, which played both of the two formats. However, that player was $1,300 dollars. Which is not bad considering that a HDDVD player is $999, and so is a Blu-ray player. However, as usual, the costs have come down. Sony, which is one of the supporters of Blu-ray has announced that they will be selling a $599 dollar blu-ray player. Which gets me thinking, at the end of the year, will there be 1080p disc players as low as $200? The price is not the only thing holding buyers back, the fact that some movie producers are leaning toward Blu-ray, and others HDDVD is also a huge problem. Some of us just do not want to spend thousands of dollars on a disc player. Now for a history lesson.when we look back at the introduction of DVD, we realize that they started out anywhere from $700 to $3,800. And now look, you can get one at Wal-Mart for $20. So we can expect lower prices, we will just have to wait. As far as the different producers problem, Sony, Disney, and Fox are distributing in Blu-Ray. And other companies for Blu-Ray consist of HP, Apple, Dell, and Panasonic. HDDVD, has more of the major studios backing them up. These include Playboy, yes, porn in 1080p, how nice, New Line Cinema, HBO, Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks, & Warner Bro. Other companies that back them up are Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Microsoft, RCA, & Intel. Sure, it would mean putting a little more money into upgrading the centers were the discs are made, but it would be very worth it. 50GB Discs, the best you could get 12 months ago was 4.7GB. Big difference. In slightly less annoying news, ROBOTS ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL! Well, not quite, but they may make you dinner. For the last four years, a group of Japanese researchers have been developing a robot that will work in the kitchen for you. As of today, it can not cook you dinner, but it will pour you tea without spilling, every time, that's more than I can do already. But they can also do dishes for you. True, they are not cooking dinner yet, but this is a start. But if they start feeding you, I am going to decide that we have most definitely gone too far in our love of robots. Who knows what it will do to me. I think it should be a law that all robots that have any sort of intelligence, should have two key fobs. One goes to the military, and the other goes to the owner of the robot. They both are emergency shut off switches. I would feel much more comfortable if that system were in place. What else, ummm, a combo TV Stand-fireplace, find the nearest Starbucks by text message, not much else. I will let you know if something catches my eye.

-Ryan

Here is a link to the features and specs of Blu-Ray, and HDDVD:

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