AfterDawn: News

'Better than Blu' HD format coming from Sim2

Sim2, manufacturer of high-end home theater projectors is set to launch a new HD disc which it claims is "Better than Blu", a reference to the industry-backed Blu-ray Disc.

The announcement was originally made at the CEDIA event last week where the manufacturer said the launch would occur in January in conjunction with Entertainment Experience. Entertainment Experience currently makes high-end home theater systems which are basically top of the line HP PCs with Entertainment Experience software that the company says offers picture quality better than 1080p Blu-ray discs.



The new system will be bundled with Sim2 projection TVs but there has been no word on price yet.

EE has said that it will be offering movies in the format, and from major studios, for $40 USD and on double-sided dual-layer DVDs with a capacity of just over 16GB.

There was however, no confirmation from any of the Hollywood studios and industry insiders say the format is a sham.

“This high-def alternative is bull; it’s all about Blu-ray,” one insider said. “They’re grasping at straws. The entire industry is all behind Blu-ray.”

Another insider agreed that there was little chance any major studio would agree to the new format especially as it would completely cannibalize all the promotion and money that has been thrown into Blu-ray.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Sep 2008 19:04

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• 16 comments

• SuckRaven

  This is lame. Yes, Blu-Ray will eventually be replaced by something newer and better. This is not that something. And yes, now that HD-DVD is gone, no major studio in their right mind would begin to support some new format, even if it is marginally better than Blu-ray 1080p.
  
  I mean sweet flying f*ck ! People who have already started transitioning to Blu-Ray will hopefully be laughing their asses off, as there is, in my opinion, absolutely no reason to upgrade, unless you are a complete tool and have nothing better to waste your money on.
  
  Plus, I think this format will be squashed out of existance pretty quickly, due to the fact that no one will support it. There is no point in releasing anything new now to comete with Blu-Ray, since most peoples' setups are either at 1080p or lower. Until there is hardware to support greater resolutions, there is no need for another format.
  
  That being said, the current situation does kinda suck, because Blu-Ray discs have no competition, thus if they really wanted to, they could charge a hell of a lot more than they do (which is already too expensive in most cases). Kudos to SONY and all involved that conspired to cause the extinction of the only decent alternative to Blu-Ray that we had.... Not!

  14.9.2008 20:43 #1

• error5

  Quote:The new system will be bundled with Sim2 projection TVs but there has been no word on price yet. Sim2 makes high-end front projectors (not rear projection TV's). This is going to be bundled with their near-top-of-the-line Grand Cinema C3X projector.
  
  
  
  
  http://www.twice.com/article/CA6593287.html
  
  If you have to ask how much it costs then you definitely can't afford it. But here goes: the C3X has an MSRP of $32,495.00. So this system bundled with the projector should be around $35,000.

  14.9.2008 21:00 #2

• NexGen76

  Keyword:high-end home theater

  14.9.2008 21:23 #3

• iluvendo

  Originally posted by NexGen76: Keyword:high-end home theater
  You mean Very high end home theatre

  15.9.2008 00:10 #4

• susieqbbb

  but look at it from a movie studio stand point.
  
  Wouldn't you like to have a better then dvd experiance in a movie theater i have seen lots of movies givin to theaters for viewings and the quality sucks on there projectors so if they can improve on this i welcome it.

  15.9.2008 00:20 #5

• kyo28

  I'll pass on this and so will a lot of consumers, I think. Even the hard-core movie fans will probably stick with blu-ray. I've just started to upgrade my collection from DVD to blu-ray, so I won't be even contemplating to move to a new standard in the next 10 years.

  15.9.2008 05:07 #6

• 13thHouR

  Originally posted by kyo28: I'll pass on this and so will a lot of consumers, I think. Even the hard-core movie fans will probably stick with blu-ray. I've just started to upgrade my collection from DVD to blu-ray, so I won't be even contemplating to move to a new standard in the next 10 years.Not to put a dampener on things but i believe "most" people will be avoiding blu-ray also as it falls into the same niche market as the Sim2 equipment, but i'm sure the usual sony crowd will be keen to discredit my post by showing a few pie charts ect of sales.
  
  But for the same reasons people will not purchase this "new and improved" format by Sim2, is the very same reasons that people will avoid blu-ray, price, why spend £20+ on a blu-ray when the dvd only costs £2-8, that can be up-scaled onto your HD screen?
  
  but, but, the price of blu-ray will drop the sony crowd say, yes and so will that of Sim2's equipment, and if it's about having the best quality picture as blu-ray is marketed why bother with blu-ray when there is equipment already in production that supersedes the format.

  15.9.2008 07:51 #7

• juankerr

  Quote:There was however, no confirmation from any of the Hollywood studios and industry insiders say the format is a sham.
  
  “This high-def alternative is bull; it’s all about Blu-ray,” one insider said. “They’re grasping at straws. The entire industry is all behind Blu-ray.”
  
  Another insider agreed that there was little chance any major studio would agree to the new format especially as it would completely cannibalize all the promotion and money that has been thrown into Blu-ray.This is exactly the difficulty that any new (possibly non-optical) format will face at the outset.
  
  Trying to convince the content providers and movie studios to invest in a new format will be a major task - and would likely entail a lot of $$$$$.

  15.9.2008 07:59 #8

• domie

  Quote:Originally posted by kyo28: people will avoid blu-ray, price, why spend £20+ on a blu-ray when the dvd only costs £2-8, that can be up-scaled onto your HD screen?
  .you can find a brand new dvd release for £ 2 - WOW - tell me where you shop :)
  look at hmv.com online shop , the difference in price between a brand new dvd and brand new blu-ray disc is roughly between £ 2-5 difference depending on the studio - most dvds start at £ 12.99 - 14.99 with the blu ray version between £ 15.99 - 17.99
  where I do agree is that this is too much in either format but an upscaled DVD is nowhere near the quality of a blu ray disc ( only my opinion of course )

  15.9.2008 08:04 #9

• Toshibot

  Why do they say it's better than BluRay when the projector is still 1080P?

  15.9.2008 08:07 #10

• oappi

  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by kyo28: people will avoid blu-ray, price, why spend £20+ on a blu-ray when the dvd only costs £2-8, that can be up-scaled onto your HD screen?
  .you can find a brand new dvd release for £ 2 - WOW - tell me where you shop :)
  look at hmv.com online shop , the difference in price between a brand new dvd and brand new blu-ray disc is roughly between £ 2-5 difference depending on the studio - most dvds start at £ 12.99 - 14.99 with the blu ray version between £ 15.99 - 17.99
  where I do agree is that this is too much in either format but an upscaled DVD is nowhere near the quality of a blu ray disc ( only my opinion of course )i have never seen new dvd with that low prize (£2) and it is most likely a lie.. i would be happy to be proven wrong.
  
  At amazon.com you get some bd movies at $17.9 (most movies $20) which is imo pretty good price and atleast im happy to pay for the quality difference. Only thing to look out for is region coding (http://bluray.liesinc.net/) warner seems to be one of the best studios here since they seem to have only region frees where fox has (exluding few movies) only region locked.
  
  To be honest when i fist saw dvd movie i thought "damn thats not that big improvment over vhs unless you want to watch movies with computer". Where i live we have to pay "licence" to watch aired tv shows so dvd was quite handy here. Without tv-tuner i could watch bought/rented movies without paying a dime for tv "licence".

  15.9.2008 10:49 #11

• eatsushi

  Originally posted by Toshibot: Why do they say it's better than BluRay when the projector is still 1080P?They could be developing a source with 16-bit color/xvYCC colorspace and not necessarily a higher resolution. But on a 16GB dual-sided, dual-layer disc? I'd expect them to need a larger capacity than that.
  
  Originally posted by juankerr: Trying to convince the content providers and movie studios to invest in a new format will be a major task - and would likely entail a lot of $$$$$.Therein lies the problem with this thing.

  15.9.2008 10:55 #12

• eatsushi

  Originally posted by oappi: At amazon.com you get some bd movies at $17.9 (most movies $20) which is imo pretty good price and atleast im happy to pay for the quality difference. amazon.uk has a huge 3 for 2 BluRay sale - 131 titles:
  
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=amb_link_7...ag=bluraycom-21
  
  The US version - not as many titles:
  
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/re...=blurayforum-20

  15.9.2008 12:32 #13

• SProdigy

  Okay, so the movies are supposed to be on "double-sided dual layer" DVDs? And how will you crank out more than 480p on a DVD player? Or is this only intended to work with Media Center PCs with their software, and a computer display capable of better than 1080p? This all sounds like vaporware and would have a tougher barrier of entry than Blu-Ray did.

  15.9.2008 12:41 #14

• salsa36

  I saw like a year ago a new portable game console called Gizmondo trying to compete with the Nintendo DS, it lasted a month.
  
  It will be the same for these people..........

  15.9.2008 19:23 #15

• SProdigy

  Originally posted by salsa36: I saw like a year ago a new portable game console called Gizmondo trying to compete with the Nintendo DS, it lasted a month.
  
  It will be the same for these people..........I think that's when Gizmondo's president made headlines for shady business practices. The device was dead long before that.

  16.9.2008 10:43 #16