- Thursday, 12 November 2009
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We've got a number of tools in our armoury [Not weapons? Ed.] - Hazel Lewis - UK government minister
Tosh HD-DVD remote goes intergalactic
STAR TREK FANS with HD players are in for a geek treat this Christmas as Toshiba has revealed the details of its remote control shaped like a phaser gun.
The remote will be available free to buyers of the HD-DVD release of the first Star Trek series, starring William 'the wig' Shatner, which is pretty neat considering it will sell standalone for $70.
However, Star Trek fans without HD capability may be slightly cheesed off - the original series isn't being release on standard DVD, only on an HD-DVD / DVD 'combo' disc - with all the best extras being on the HD side of the disc.
It seems that the HD-DVD camp is hoping that the sheer enthusiasm of Trekkies alone will see it through as the leader in HD formats this Chrimbo. Will Toshiba's sales boldy go where no HD format has gone before? ยต
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considering HD DVD dosent lead in a single country then perhaps gimmicks is the only chance they have of beating out blu ray. 

Oh well, at least for trek fans they will have a rare collectors item in a few years. could be a money maker.
At the stores I've been to recently the Toshiba HD-DVD players have been selling quite well. One reason may be price -- you've got a pile of DH-DVD players priced around $150 next to a pile of BluRays at $450. Toshiba already cleared their previous model by pricing it at $100.
I'm going to guess that this one's going to be won on volume, not technology. The average user doesn't want to spend a fortune on a player and they're mostly disinterested in gimmicks, they just want the thing to work. (Ask the wife....)

(You may recall that the Betamax tape system was far, far, superior than VHS -- better recordings, better sound, smaller tapes, you name it. It didn't stop Betamax from losing out.)

BTW. The Toshiba HD-DVD player runs Linux. Anyone up for a hack or two?
Although HD-DVD has struggled with film sales (due there not being many new releases) they are now starting to move forward in a big way. There are some great new titles and box sets and the hardware is dropping in price. 

With the introduction of the cheaper players like Venturer, HD-DVD is making a strong stand. If it wasn't for the PS3 I doubt Sony would have such a good market, with their BD players costing at least twice as much as HD-DVD. It's going to be an interesting 6 months