Samsung's BD-P1000: first U.S. Blu-Ray player

Samsung certainly isn't feeling blue about the new high-def DVD formats. In fact, they're touting their BD-P1000 Blu-Ray player here at the big show even though we don't have any Blu-Ray movies with us. We're not sure if the model number was meant to match the price, but the unit will list for around $1,000. HDMI output is included at no extra charge as is backwards compatibility with most of today's standard DVD formats (DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD RW, and DVD R). The BD-1000 should bloom in the springtime here in the US, so we're saving up the grand now; and looking for some of those Blu-Ray movie discs, natch.

[mingistech @ Jan 4th 2006 3:54PM]

will these players work with component cables?



my HDTV doesn't have HDMI or DVI.



i bought my Samsung HDTV right before the digital inputs started to pop up as a standard.

[sunz @ Jan 4th 2006 3:55PM]

very ..ermm .. industrial

[Berniemeister @ Jan 4th 2006 3:56PM]

Wow, they spared no expense in the aesthetics lab, did they? It looks like a BetaMax with blue (duh) LEDs on the front.

[Dennis - Help me fight for my son @ Jan 4th 2006 3:57PM]

Now that's ugly!

[tk @ Jan 4th 2006 3:59PM]

Question. How is this going to affect the PS3. Look at how big that thing is, and for $1000. Surely with the blu-ray tech and the rest of the processor the PS3 is going to be huge and cost $20k

[JJ @ Jan 4th 2006 4:00PM]

Damn that thing is ugly! Looks huge too. I like that they're stepping up with this thing but someone needs to kick their design team in the ass!

[n8 @ Jan 4th 2006 4:01PM]

If you're thinking of laying out a grand for a DVD player that doesn't have any movies for it yet, I'd say you can probably afford to get a new TV with HDMI input.

[lupinstel @ Jan 4th 2006 4:05PM]

I heard that this comes with a set of wheels so you can mod it and take it on the Battlebots circuit as a wedge-bot. But I could be wrong.

[Robert @ Jan 4th 2006 4:06PM]

That thing looks like one of the first VCRs I'd seen in the 80s... UGLY!

[Fred @ Jan 4th 2006 4:24PM]

Along the lines of a 80's betamax.. Now all we need is woodgrain peel-n-stick for the sides

[Jason @ Jan 4th 2006 4:37PM]

PS3 will be heavily subsidized, will almost certainly be under $500 and it would be suicide for Sony to not include a Blu-Ray player and a handful of titles for it at launch.

[Jesse @ Jan 4th 2006 5:09PM]

has anyone announced preliminary costs for blue ray titles? and what do you mean PS3 will be subsidized? subsidized by who? Sony? That is really going to hurt them to have to subsidize that much.

[PJ @ Jan 4th 2006 5:13PM]

The PS3 will be subsidized, but these drives are crazy expensive. After seeing a price of $1000 for a standard Blu Ray DVD player, I now expect the PS3 to cost at LEAST $599...



...but, that doesn't seem to make sense. I am not trying to be a 360 fanboy, but I simply don't see how Sony can lose THAT much money. I mean, if they sold the PS3 at $399 they would be losing, what, $500+ on each machine? Do they think they will make that up on software? It would take several years for the average gamer to spend $500 on games...



...I just have a feeling Sony has bit off too much this time...something has to give, and I think the PS3 will have a VERY high price (not to mention game prices which are rumored to be $70-$80 per).

[Mike @ Jan 4th 2006 5:33PM]

well you guys are mistaking something here. The ps3s blu-ray player will be nowhere near the quality of a stand alone player. Look at the xbox 360 and ps2 and xbox DVD players. Their lack of features is laughable compared to my standalone sony player. I see these console players as such a gimmick. They have so little features and wont look as good as a standalone will. I mean, I cant even see how much time is left remaining in the current title being played on a DVD on my xbox 360, I can only see time elapsed.



Blu-ray and HD palyers will be out for $1000 and that is a dumb move to buy one. Why dont you all wait like me until the format war is over (so you dont get stuck with a bunch of lame laser disc type movies which cost you a fortune). Then when the format war has been decided, the prics will also be cheaper (I assume this will happen by the time the players cos $250)

[kilo113 @ Jan 4th 2006 5:46PM]

for 1k you're better off just buying a bluraydvd computer drive and using your pc to play the movies. it doesn't take much cpugpu power to playback h.264 movies!

[Ethan Rasiel @ Jan 4th 2006 5:57PM]

This picture is of a prototype of the player that was shown at a previous trade show. The actual production unit that we are showing at CES is black and looks completely different. The actual images will be on the Samsung web site beginning tomorrow, when this model is formally announced. If Peter or someone from Engadget contacts me, I'll provide the current image to you now.

[Dave @ Jan 4th 2006 6:12PM]

Sony is keeping Blu-Ray player prices high to make a $500+ PS3 look like a bargain.





Seriously though, Blu-Ray may have more storage and a groovy scratch-proof coating, but if the players are going to cost twice as much at HD-DVD (Toshiba's HD-A1 was announced with a $499 price tag) the paying public will go with the cheaper of the two.



Joe Consumer will walk into Best Buy, see the two systems side by side with identical picture quality, take one look at the price tags and make his decision based on that. Java, iHD, DRM and technical differences won't enter into it.



One thing that may sway him from the cheaper product could be the promise of studio support. However, if one format wins out over the other, you can bet the studios will switch loyaties in a heartbeat.

[Justin @ Jan 4th 2006 6:20PM]

You all are also assuming that it costs $1000 to make one of these players. It doesn't. This happens in the first gen of any new technology--only the people who have to have the latest and greatest buy it, and those people will bear the high price. $1000 is going to cover the cost of materials multiple times over, with the rest covering R&D. It probably (by all reports) is true that Sony and Microsoft lose money on each game counsel sold--but they make it up quickly when you consider addons (controlers, cables, etc) and games which are near all profit for them.

[Murc @ Jan 4th 2006 6:55PM]

I dont think is subsidesed is really the right word.



But he basically means Sony will take a net loss per console, because they are in bed with the Blu-Ray format, and are willing to take the hit as long as it puts blu-ray drives in the hands of millions.

[Jason @ Jan 4th 2006 7:32PM]

Someone recently calculated the actual cost to manufacture the Xbox360 console at approximately $580 per unit, that's assuming deep discounts for MSFT. So how/why do they sell the basic console at $299? Because the average gamer buys 10 or more titles, extra controllers, accessories, live subscriptions, etc, which is where MSFT makes the $$$$.



So it makes perfect sense for Sony to take a hit on selling the PS3 for less than it costs to build it if it will help the blu-ray format (which Sony gets a $30 license for every player built) take off.

[EatingPie @ Jan 4th 2006 7:40PM]

On the price.



Anyone actually notice that this baby can record? No, I didn't think so. :p



HD-DVD drives cost less, yes... but no way in hell they can record nuttin.



-Pie

[David @ Jan 4th 2006 8:11PM]

#21 (EatingPie) : Everyone is describing this as a player, not a recorder. It can play back recordable formats but I haven't read anything suggesting it also can record. Comparisons to the HD-DVD player are valid.

[David @ Jan 4th 2006 8:13PM]

Sorry, my comment was for 22, not 21.

[Matt @ Jan 4th 2006 9:35PM]

@Comment# 18: Of course thats the genius behind it. Think of the situation we had back in 2000, most DVD players costed from $400-$600 and thus most of PS2's early success was built on being a cheap dvd player. The effect this time around can only be even more effective considering the larger price gap.



Now we should all know why this first BD player(I should say first american) costs $1000, because of the early adopters. The first people to get a hot new product will always pay the most. As a BD drive only costs $100 to make.

[Raider @ Jan 4th 2006 10:48PM]

BD has been in Japan since 2003, there has been a unit made by Sony thats been on sale for some time, it even outsold the PSX unit.

They get a license off of Blu-Ray. Also Sony gets license fees from developers for games on the PS3. Of course games are going to be $60 a piece, while in-house games will be $50, the same with the 360.

[Droford @ Jan 4th 2006 11:24PM]

The PS3 is nothing but a Sony subsidized plan to win the High Def DVD war by losing over $600 a console just so they can establish dominance over HD-DVD and drive them out of business quickly. It might actually for once be good for consumers because it could limit the ammount of time we have to go through the format war. They want to finally create a format standard so badly (Beta/MiniDisc/Memory Stick) that they'll lose money out the wazoo initially to do it. Sticking the BD drive in the PS3 is the fastest way to do that short of actually giving them away.



Joe Average Consumer might like that the HD-DVD players only cost $499, but for just $100 more (or so) he can get the next Generation Playstation to play his Madden 2007 or whatever. The HD-DVD player will only play HD-DVDs. The PS3 has games and plays a superior (well in storage size at least) High Def DVD format. Oddly enough, Id be willing to be that most of the people that buy a PS3 probably wont care that it has a BD drive because they wont have a HD TV, but Sony can use those numbers to their advantage to say "Look how many homes have a BD drive vs a HD-Drive!!! LOOK!"



The major hitch in the plan is if Microsoft includes HD-DVD in the 360, but only if they don't jack the price up and as long as the offer it as some sort of add on so that people who foolishly paid $1000 for one dont feel alienated.



The other possible hitch is that the other manufacturers feel hosed by Sony for agreeing to make BD-Players and then looking stupid for trying to sell them at Twice the cost of a PS3. I doubt Sony and the BD format could survive if Sony was the only one making players...

[John @ Jan 5th 2006 1:02AM]

^The Xbox 360 has already launched and there is no HD-DVD drive inside.



I personally think people are overstating this format "war". At the moment Sony has all the movie studios backing Blu-Ray, along with all of the PC distributers. HD-DVD doesnt have a fraction of the same support. At this rate HD-DVD could easily fizzle out from lack of support before either format ends up on shelves.

[Squidly @ Jan 5th 2006 10:40AM]

Ha! I have been saying this since the summer. There is no way Sony is going to provide an affordable gaming console by spring 2006.



Lets be real. If the PS3 comes out in May or June what are we looking at? $500 - $600 bucks. At $500 Sony will lose $400 - $500 on the Blu-Ray drive alone. That assumes that all the other components, cell processors & the like cost Sony nothing. Yeah right! At a $500 price point Sony could be looking at a loss of $500 - $600 bucks per console. Like Sony or any company for that matter could afford such a loss. And by the time the PS3 arrives, Microsoft will be announcing their first price cut.



And what about the pending HD-DVD war? Sony claims that �THEROTICALLY� Blu-Ray could have a 50GB capacity. But the fact of the matter is that its THEROTICAL! As of yet they have not been able to develop the algorithms necessary to reach that capacity. They have admitted that they may never get there! ?? The HD-DVD format is a working format at 30GB.



MS announced today at CES that they would offer an external HD-DVD drive for the 360. This would give MS the flexibility to server both HD-DVD & Blu-ray if desired. The PS3 will be stuck w/ the 1 internal Blu-Ray drive only. Beside there are no Blu-Ray movies available yet & it is likely that Hollywood will take a wait & see attitude. This would be very bad for Sony!



Besides, as Bill Gates noted, the optical disk form looks to be on the way out. Solid state Flash Disk & Thumb Drive tech. is rapidly becoming cheaper to produce & there appears to be no capacity limit in sight. Its access time easily outstrips that of DVD, its physically smaller, more resilient to wear & tear & the USB interface is universal. Add the Xbox Live direct download & the next-gen broadband, (Fiber Optic), into the mix & HD-DVD could be obsolete by the time it hits its prime in a few years.



And speaking of Xbox Live, it�s a FACT that Sony flatly refuses to answer the Xbox Live question, instead leaving online play to each developer�s whim. What developer in their right mind is going to create, at their own expense, an online system for their game? Especially if it�s a cross platform game supported by Xbox Live. And will that developer be able to provide additional content as well like free demos of up coming games, user created content, spectator mode, free play weekends or even movie downloads? For all Sony�s talk about next-gen all they offer is online tech that was in use in 1999. Boy that�s forward thinking for you!



Add to that the FACT that many developers have stated that true to Sony, the dev-tools are marginal at best while MS has put together arguably the best dev-tool kit a console has ever seen. Id Software noted that they estimate the 360 is 20% easier to develop on. That will translate into development costs that will inevitably be passed onto the consumer.



So, for the honor of purchasing a PS3 what do you get?



1. A proprietary optical disc system whose biggest selling point is still THEROTICAL.

2. A proprietary optical disc system that has yet to be accepted.

3. A console that is equal or marginally more powerful than the 360.

4. Complete lack of a cohesive online system or community.

5. A price point that could possible be $500 - $600 bucks.

6. High priced Hi-Def DVD media.

7. High development costs.



I guess Sony is betting on their rabid fan base to bend over & take that Sony fist right up the ass! My bet is that that fist will be covered in a coarse grit sandpaper! Enjoy!

[Aaron @ Jan 7th 2006 11:58AM]

"...it doesn't take much cpugpu power to playback h.264 movies!"



Apparently you haven't tried playing a full HD resolution h.264 movie with 5.1 surround. Unless you have at least a 3GHz Pentium 4 or a 2GHz G5 processor, it ain't gonna be pretty.



-Aaron-