CES 2008

Buffalo's new drive doesn't make you pick a winner in the high-def disc format war, and it doesn't make you open up your PC's case to install it. The Buffalo MediaStation Blu-ray HD DVD (BRHC-6316U2) drive is an external USB combo drive that reads and writes Blu-ray discs and reads HD DVD discs. Unfortunately, Buffalo made no mention of eSATA or FireWire, so you're stuck with USB 2.0. It'll cost $649 when it starts shipping later this quarter.

New low: a $200 Blu-ray drive.

(Credit: Sony Electronics Inc.)

Funai announced a standalone Blu-ray player that will dip below the $300 mark when it's released next quarter, but if you've got a PC that's up to the challenge, Sony's got an internal Serial ATA Blu-ray drive that will do the trick for even less. The BDU-X10S drive will cost $199.99 when Sony starts shipping it next month (preorder it here). This BD-ROM (that's read, not write) drive comes bundled with CyberLink PowerDVD BD Edition for playing Blu-ray discs in MPEG-2 or H.264 format. It'll also play DVDs and CDs and will work with XP and Vista PCs.

LAS VEGAS--The winner in the Blu-ray and HD DVD war is the hard drive, according to Bill Watkins, CEO of Seagate Technology.

"People are saying Blu-ray won the war but who cares? The war is over physical distribution versus electrical distribution, and Blu-ray and HD lost that," he said during a breakfast meeting at the Consumer Electronics Show here this week. "In this, flash memory and hard drives are on the same side. The war is over and the physical guys lost."

Bill Watkins

(Credit: Seagate)

Watkins, naturally, speaks from personal interest, but he's got a point. (A former Army grunt and a decades-long Deadhead, Watkins is also one of the more entertaining CEOs in the technology industry to interview.) Consumers haven't been buying Blu-ray or HD DVD players and by the time they do, technology companies will likely be hawking sophisticated on-demand services and Internet Protocol TV. IPTV, in fact, is the dominant theme of the show. Sharp, Samsung, and Panasonic all unfurled content alliances that will let consumers look at headlines or videos from the Net on their TVs.

That's good news for Seagate, because electronic distribution means more hard drive sales. "If (data) is in the cloud I get more storage sales because you have to back up everything," he said.

"Surveillance is a big deal," he added. "You're being filmed right now (we were in a casino) and they've got to store it somewhere."

Hard drive makers are right now living through good times. In the 1990s, excess manufacturing capacity and price cuts led to stagnant revenues and losses for many companies. Since then, many players have dropped out. New markets such as digital video recorders opened up for drive makers. As a result, both Seagate and rival Western Digital are seeing double-digit growth. Seagate has already upped its revenue guidance twice for the quarter that just ended.

And the future continues to look good. Hollywood, Watkins said, will have no choice but to get into home delivery of content in a big way. People are leaving home less and less. And if the movie studios don't deliver their content to their home, people will watch whatever they can find on the Internet. At CES, XStreamHD is showing off a box that gets on-demand movies from a satellite. Actor Michael Douglas is an investor.

"They will watch lousy content if it is easy to do," he said.

Other notes from Watkins:

•  Seagate doesn't have its solid state drive out yet, but it's coming.

•  Flash memory, he added, will never completely take over the hard drive market. The demand for storage is too big. If a flash maker wanted to provide just 15 percent of the world's market for storage in 2012, it would have to invest $50 billion this year alone.

"And right now, no one has made that investment," he said.

He further argued that flash memory gets too much attention from Wall Street. "I'm making 75 cents a quarter, and I get half the valuation of SanDisk or Micron," he added.

•  Consumers still seem buoyant in Europe and Asia, so a lengthy, full-blown global recession may not occur. Admittedly, he adds, that's his own spin.

•  America has got to reform its immigration laws by letting in more immigrants. Nearly 60 percent of the companies in Silicon Valley were founded by people born outside the U.S. Last year, close to 70 percent of the students getting Ph.D.s in engineering were from other countries.

"And none of them got a green card," he said. "Because of this, U.S. companies will have to put R&D overseas."

•  Speaking of foreign lands, the government-to-university-to-private sector triumvirate (the government provides grants, universities invent stuff, and the private sector sells it) that helped build the tech industry in the U.S. no longer works as well as it once did. However, they have copied it pretty well overseas.

"They are following the made us successful and here it's broken," he said. "We used to say that what is good for GM is good for America. Now, what is good for the stockholders is not necessarily good for America. That drives me crazy."

Funai's new Blu-ray player might finally bring standalone Blu-ray players within reach of the average buyer.

(Credit: Funai)

The major gripe against Blu-ray has always been that the hardware is just too expensive, especially when $99 HD DVD players were flying off the shelves at Wal-Mart a few months ago. While videophiles on a budget could opt for the $400 Sony PlayStation3, there hasn't been a real alternative for those looking for a cheaper standalone unit. Funai is looking to fill this gap with its latest announcement of a Blu-ray player slated to come in the second quarter of 2008 for less than $300--which is the lowest price we've seen on any Blu-ray player.

Other than the price, the Funai didn't release many other details about the new Blu-ray player, which it is referring to as the NB500 series. Like all other Blu-ray players released this year, it will be fully compliant with Blu-ray Profile 1.1, which means it can handle "picture-in-picture" video commentary tracks available on some new Blu-ray discs coming out in 2008. Like all other Blu-ray players, it will also be capable of upconverting standard DVDs to 1080p over its HDMI 1.3 output. The NB500 series also includes an SD card slot, which Funai claims can be used to display digital video from a camcorder or digital camera.

Sony has shored up the problems in its electronics, and will concentrate in 2008 on bringing more video content to its devices and improving its software, said CEO Sir Howard Stringer.

"We will see if we can enter the battle against the software companies. This is probably the year we need to demonstrate that," Stringer said during a meeting with reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Monday morning.

One of the first examples of this strategy will be an expansion of the PlayStation Network. The network now is mostly used by gamers. Sony wants to turn it into a platform to deliver video, too. Sony will hold a press conference in two months to discuss changes to the PlayStation 3.

The world, of course, will wait and see. Consumers and analysts for the past several years have complained about the functionality of the software in Sony devices. The company, along with nearly everyone in the electronics industry, has also been trying to bridge the gap between the PC and the TV for years. But progress seems to be occurring across the industry. Microsoft says it has put nearly a million intelligent set-top boxes into homes, and Sharp and Samsung announced new TVs that serve up headlines and weather from Web sites.

Overall, Stringer seemed to be in an upbeat mood. A year ago at the same press conference, he had recently launched into a reorganization of the company and was in the midst of a notebook battery recall. Stringer and others noted that the software divisions didn't talk with the hardware divisions, and neither had much contact with the movie unit.

Now, all of Sony's divisions work more cohesively together, he said. Sales in many key areas are also up. Blu-ray players outsold HD DVD players during the holiday season, Sony asserted. Blu-ray accounted for 70 percent of the standalone high-def video players during the holidays, according to the company.

"Three years ago, we were not profitable in electronics. Now we are seriously profitable," he said. Observers will "also probably be pleasantly surprised" with results for Sony's third fiscal quarter, which come soon. Recent economic trends could put a damper on sales "but it's too early to be pessimistic," he said.

The reorganization has also allowed Sony to start coming out with more innovative products, such as the robotic Rolly device.

"We are now getting into the rhythm of innovation," Stringer said.

Stringer and other executives touted Sony's OLED TVs. The company, however, admitted that making large OLED TVs (the version on the market measures only 11 inches in diameter) is difficult.

Other notes:

--Stringer wouldn't directly comment on whether the Blu-ray consortium paid money to Warner to put its movies exclusively on Blu-ray. Stringer said Warner saw the value of the format but dodged discussing financial terms. "I think you are going to have to take that announcement at face value," he said.

The HD DVD group paid Paramount to commit to publishing its movies on the HD DVD format for a specified period of time in 2007. It was seen as a victory by the HD DVD group, but Blu-ray backers called the deal a form of a bribe.

--Sony Ericsson is going to concentrate more heavily in gaining market share in North America. Worldwide, Sony Ericsson has seen its market share rise to around 10 percent, but the weak place is the U.S., admitted Dick Komiyama, who heads up the group.

--Sony is also looking at incorporating its Cell processor, which currently sits inside of the PlayStation3, in other products. Cell is particularly good at manipulating video streams. The company even held a contest among engineers to design new applications. However, Sony didn't put a firm date on when some of these devices might come out or what they might be.

--The PlayStation 2 will become the device that Sony will use to take on the Nintendo Wii. Titles like Guitar Hero have sold well with PlayStation 2 and consumers can expect to see more casual games and non-core gamer games coming out, said Kaz Hirai, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, which oversees video consoles.

The Panasonic DMP-BD50 looks like it will be the first standalone Profile 2.0 Blu-ray on the market.

(Credit: Panasonic)

Over the last few months month, Panasonic has put itself in the lead of the technological race between standalone Blu-ray players. Back in October, it released the first Profile 1.1 player before the deadline for the specification even hit. Now Panasonic is leapfrogging its competitors again with the newly announced Panasonic DMP-BD50, the first Blu-ray player to be compatible--also known as BD-Live. This means the DMP-BD50 will be able to handle any special features on future Blu-ray discs that utilize an Internet connection, similar to what has already been done on HD DVD discs like Blood Diamond. That's not so much of a big deal right away--we're not aware of any discs that utilize BD-Live features yet--but it's nice to know that it's as future-proof as you can expect right now. The rest of the specs look pretty solid, too. High-resolution soundtrack support is excellent, with onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. Panasonic also seems to hint at 7.1 analog outputs, mentioning that it can be matched with a 7.1 channel amplifier for full 7.1 sound. (We'll update this post when we get more information). Pricing and availability isn't released yet, but we hope to the see the DMP-BD50 earlier rather than later.

Samsung's budget BD-P1500 has a relatively strong feature set for the price.

(Credit: Samsung)

Samsung has been one of the most aggressive manufacturers in the Blu-ray market, releasing the very first player, the BD-P1000, and then following it up with the BD-P1200 and the BD-P1400 relatively quickly. The BD-P1500 is the next product in the line, and it looks to be an incremental improvement on the mostly well-reviewed BD-P1400. One of the biggest upgrades is that it's Blu-ray Profile 1.1 compliant, which means it can play back the "picture-in-picture" features available on some new Blu-ray discs coming out this year. The other important upgrade is soundtrack support, as the BD-P1500 has onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, plus the ability to output those soundtracks in bitstream format. Most importantly, we're hoping the BD-P1500 irons out some of the operational quirks we noticed on the BD-P1400, including an annoying pause with certain discs. The BD-P1500 will be available in May 2008, and pricing is currently unavailable. If Samsung can get the BD-P1500 around $300, we expect it will be popular with early adopters looking to go Blu after the news of Warner Bros. Entertainment becoming a Blu-ray exclusive studio.

LAS VEGAS--Although men crave electronics, women actually make the buying decisions, according to Philips.

Thus, the Dutch electronics maker is launching on a campaign to appeal more to women by making their electronics more fashion forward and elegant, said Andrea Ragnetti, the new CEO of Philips Electronics at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. (The old CEO, Rudy Provoost, has been shifted over to Philips lighting.)

she's entranced with the Ultimate TV

(Credit: michael kanellos)

To that end, it unveiled its Design Collection, a series of TVs, home audio systems, and other equipment with what Philips says will make a statement about personal style.

Some of the products are actually quite cool. Check out the Ultimate Dream TV pictured here: white bezel with a translucent frame. The company also showed off the sleek (i.e. few buttons) Streamium home audio products. (I don't recall Streamium in the Periodic Table of the Elements, but Philips assures me it's near Stronium.)

But take a look at the second picture. It's a large crystal pendant designed by Swarovski that holds a USB drive. The Active Crystal USB drives are shaped like a lock, or a heart. "The Active Crystal range combines high fashion design with the best in technology, creating a fusion of fashion and function," Philips said in a statement.

A heart shaped world, and USB drive

(Credit: Michael Kanellos )

I asked my wife if she wanted one for Valentine's Day.

"I'll stab you," she said.

There's a fusion of fashion and function for you. Philips also has a set of crystal ear buds.

Is Samsung's new combo player still relevant?

(Credit: Samsung)

Just a month ago, home theater enthusiasts were clamoring Samsung's soon-to-be released BD-UP5000 HD DVD/Blu-ray combo player, which promised high-end features like HQV processing and the ability to decode DTS-HD Master Audio (after a future firmware update). But the BD-UP5000 was delayed, and now it's likely to face less demand considering Warner's decision to go Blu.

Watch the Samsung BD-UP5500 Duo HD Player video on CNET TV.

The same goes for Samsung's newly announced combo unit, the BD-UP5500. It appears that the main step-down from the BD-UP5000 is that it lacks HQV video processing, which will disappoint videophiles, but should make it available at a lower price point. Soundtrack support is solid, with onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, plus the ability output high resolution audio in bitstream format. Samsung specifically mentions full support for HDi and BD Profile 1.1, so it should have no problem with special "picture-in-picture commentary" features available on some HD DVD and (future) Blu-ray discs. Rounding out the feature set is an Ethernet connection for firmware upgrades and some HD DVD interactive features.

Just a few weeks ago, a step-down combo player might have been attractive to those looking to into high-def discs without worrying about the format war. But with HD DVD canceling its press conference at CES presumably due to Warner's announcement, the general feeling in the industry is that HD DVD days are numbered--which makes a combo player seem like a waste of money. The BD-UP5500 will be available in May 2008--and we'll certainly know more about the format by then--but don't be surprised if it already feels like an anachronism by then.