Filed under: Audio, Gadgets, Tech
Blu-ray players on the horizon for in-car entertainment
The high-definition format wars are currently raging. HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray. The conflict reeks of Beta-Max vs. VHS, although at this point no one is sure which format will survive to become the standard. Regardless of which format prevails, it's only a matter of time before it ends up in a car, and Panasonic recently hinted that it's working on mobile entertainment applications for its Blu-ray technology. The fact that Blu-ray can support 1080p resolution will be completely lost on the 7- to 10-inch LCD screens embedded in the backs of our headrests, but it will allow Blu-ray consumers to play their discs on the go, as well as record an obscene number of Sponge Bob episodes on one disc. Technoride suggests that before Blu-ray reaches car interiors, though, the hardware will need to be ruggedized to handle a jarring commute.
[Source: Technoride]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ryan 12:59PM (7/17/2006)
"Regardless of which format prevails"
-Neither,
Just wait until Apple comes out with iDVD pod type thing, DVD's are will soon be as old school as CD's are becoming
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luxury affair 1:01PM (7/17/2006)
big win for blu-ray!
http://luxuryaffair.com
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G. Snyder 1:42PM (7/17/2006)
Ryan, do you think iPod is a format? or Apple dictates the motion picture assoctiatons moves? We are talking about amounts of data that would suck up a large portion (if not all) of the hard drive of any ipod on the market today.
This comment does not make too much sense.
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Dave 2:01PM (7/17/2006)
This is going to be a niche product for the forseeable future.
Firstly, there just aren't many titles out there for Blu-Ray OR HD-DVD.
The hardware is all expensive regardless of which format you choose. The quality has the potential to be a lot better, but you'll only REALLY notice it on a large, hi-def TV, which, while more common these days, are still somewhat rare in homes, and inpossible to put in most (moving) vehicles short of a conversion van or expedition.
Also, am I really missing much when I watch Spongebob in Standard Def vs. Hi-Def? At the end of the day, this is a totally useless product, unless you have a significant number of blu-ray video discs which you need to watch while in the car.
To be honest, the product that would be REALLY useful for a car would be a multi-format (mpeg4/H264/divx/xvid) player that can play back a whole season of compressed tv shows from one single layer DVD. The quality would look great on a 7 inch LCD and you'd only have to change the disc once or twice even on the longest trips.
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fizzandpop 6:32PM (7/17/2006)
Apart from #3 this seems to be a parade of the ignorant. And I'm sure that as you're all reasonably intelligent people, then this really is the crux of the Blu-ray problem. Blu-ray is just another iteration in the race to get more data into less space, so it has some real benefits to the auto industry. Obviously the best use of Blu-ray in cars is not its ability to store 1080p movies, that's just retarded. What it will be useful for is well, do I have to spell it out? Government tracking and recording of every single move you make in your car, the when, where, how fast of everything you do. It's Total Information Awareness, and it's coming, or here already. I'm just kidding, Spongebob will indeed be its killer ap.
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Ryan 11:56AM (7/18/2006)
#3
No moron, it's not a format. But hard drive storage and online download is going to be the direction it's going to go. I only used the "iPOD" example due to apple's sucess. But the iPOD is really just a hard drive, and this is where it is at. In fact I already download movies online. Then my BOSE home system has a PCMIA (I think that what it is called) card that the computer sends the home entertainment "movie download" to the system then it is stored for viewing on my TV. and if I wish I can burn it to DVD, buy why DVD is old-school if you ask me. To think we will essentially have to carry around a "disk" for just 1 movie is stupid. Especially in a in-car entrainment system.
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