New! Watch Low Quality Video on Your HDTV!

Today Engadget reported on a WiFi media player, the DVX-700, from TransTechnology, which supports playback of Google Video. Overall the box has a lot going for it. It has high definition outputs and can stream media in a variety of formats, it also has a hard drive built in, so you can store media, not to mention it’s also got a DVD player as part of the package. Coming in at $237 for the wired version and $264 for the wireless, it’s really a pretty good deal, that is, if you’re in Japan.

My only gripe with the machine isn’t even with the machine itself, really. One of it’s more unique features is that it allows you to browse Google Video, and stream it right to your set. The problem I have is with Google Video (and YouTube). The video quality is terrible. I understand that for them to have all of their videos streaming to millions and millions of viewers at high resolution would cost a lot. But, just watching a video in your browser at something like 300 x 200, looks terrible. Could you possibly imagine what it’s going to look like when it gets stretched to fit onto your HDTV with resolution up to 1920 x 1080?

I guess I just don’t see YouTube the way many millions of people do. There’s tons of people out there content to watch clips of television shows (and sometimes full episodes) at low resolutions filled with jagged lines and video artifacts. I just can’t deal with forcing myself to watch something like that, unless it’s under a few minutes, and entails amateurs doing something stupid, particularly something that gets them hurt. I guess it’s kind of like how I hate listening to MP3 music that’s encoded at low bit rates and sounds tinny.

Cheaper BDP on the Horizon

Today Engadget is reporting on the announcement of Sony’s upcoming BDP-S300, a ‘low-end’ Blu-ray player. My first thoughts were basically the same as theirs. Sony is announcing a cheaper model, with all the same features of it’s big brother, why? I would tend to assume it’s because Blu-ray isn’t taking off like they’d hoped, but how could you expect it to?

With every new technology there are a group of people to take the plunge immediately, but it takes time for a new standard, to become the standard. There are a few things holding success back, in my mind. First, is Blu-ray’s direct competitor, found in the HDDVD format. A quick search of Best Buy’s website, reveals an HDDVD player at half the price of Sony’s Blu-ray player. Next, not nearly everyone has an HDTV. While the idea is nice, without a display to play HD media, I sure wouldn’t be racing out to buy a player. This, however, is bound to change, with the impending shutoff of analog broadcasting.

Another barrier to entry for the BDP-S1 (the current model) is Sony’s own PS3. I’m not sure if it’s exactly the situation, but it seems to me that the, now readily available and in stock, PS3 might be cannibalizing sales of standalone players. Why, I would ask, would you buy a standalone player for $999.99 when you can save $400 and go with the top-end PS3? Not only does it play Blu-ray movies, but also, it offers excellent next [this]-gen gaming experiences, like Sonic the Hedgehog (notice internet sarcasm). But, in all seriousness, it’s cheaper and has numerous additional features. Even if you aren’t interested in gaming, at all, it is the economical choice.

It is, however, promising to see the next iteration in Sony’s BDP line, offering a substantial price cut, even if it is only to $600 (still the same price as a high-end PS3). No matter how flashy the technology, no matter how many gigabytes of data you can cram onto a disc, price is the number one factor in broad adoption of a new technology. Now DVD players are prevalent in most homes across America. Well, another quick search of Best Buy brings up several results under $99, one, in fact, going for a mere $27.99. So, setting aside predictions of who will win the format war, it is going to take substantial price cuts in both HDTV’s and in High Definition players, to foster the broad adoption that both sides are eagerly awaiting.