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Sony's Prototype 400-Disc Blu-ray Mega Changer Spied in Dark Corner
Posted by Wilson Rothman at 6:22 AM on September 5, 2008
Last year at CEDIA, Sony made a splash with a refrigerator-sized Blu-ray home server with 200-disc changer. This year it's nowhere to be seen, but in its place, Sony is showing a 400-disc changer of a more sensible size. The company isn't saying much, except that it's coming in 2009, it's going to be BD-Live capable, and that it will have RS-232C controls for the home-theatre hardcores. Great! Now all you need are 400 Blu-ray discs worth owning. (It will hold DVDs and CDs, too, of course, but why waste it?)
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
sparx104
Posted 6:58 AM 5/9/08
I have a Sony 200 CD changer which appears to be of the same design. It's the most unreliable machine I have ever had.
It jams frequently and has broken several CDs as it jams during loading then spins the carousel looking for the next disc. It got to the point that I removed all the screws from the cover so it could be taken off quickly.
Given the price of Blu-ray discs I hope they've fixed that little problem.
sparx104
SEJerome
Posted 6:55 AM 5/9/08
@davekaybsc: Agreed. I have sony's current 400 dvd changer and while it does the job, it's very slow to load and unload, and it's difficult to pull out specific discs when I want to take them on the road. My last three plane trips, I've loaded my iphone up with video and left my laptop at home. I plan on ripping all my dvds into itunes as soon as multi-TB hard drives become cost effective (I'm guessing within two years, if not sooner). Optical media is becoming so obsolescent so fast that I might never buy a BD player at all.
SEJerome
homerjay
Posted 6:54 AM 5/9/08
The day Redbox rents blu-ray's for a buck is the day I'll invest in a player.Until then, I'm on auto-pilot.
homerjay
likefunbutnot
Posted 6:48 AM 5/9/08
I have a Sony ES 400 disc SACD jukebox.
It probably has 200 SACDs in it.
That is essentially every SACD ever released in the genres of music that I like, for the entire duration of time that SACDs have been available (eight years?).
I have had a BluRay player for almost two years.
I own two movies. I have watched each of them twice.
I think I will pass on another enormous changer.
likefunbutnot
davekaybsc
Posted 6:46 AM 5/9/08
Megachangers used to make a lot of sense, but with TB hard drives so cheap, there really isn't a need for them anymore.
davekaybsc
Parapraxis
Posted 6:37 AM 5/9/08
Simple:
399 copies of Iron Man HD
1 copy of Debbie Does Dallas Blu-Ray.
Parapraxis
enchantedduck
Posted 6:37 AM 5/9/08
wow... I cant imagine how much it would cost to fill that thing up with movies.
enchantedduck
Late_Night
Posted 6:36 AM 5/9/08
Man, Giz is piling on the content today! Can't keep up. What is this post about?
Late_Night
bu11etman
Posted 7:38 AM 5/9/08
Now just give it usb 2.0 and a burnmode so I can backup my music :D
bu11etman
Techguy1138
Posted 7:34 AM 5/9/08
Does anyone know if this forces you to watch the copyright notice each time you switch a disk? That is one of the big things that put me off a dvd changer.
Techguy1138
estephanovich
Posted 7:47 AM 5/9/08
Now I believe what samsung said about blue ray being dead in 5 years, I remember back when the 100's of cd jukeboxes came out they were a really hot idea, and then a year or two later the Ipod came out making the CD jukebox a joke, you no longer needed to have this huge mechanical dinosaur in order to be able to play your entire cd library, instead you could fit it all in your pocket.
estephanovich
Erwos
Posted 8:48 AM 5/9/08
@davekaybsc: 400 Blu-Ray movies is, conservatively speaking, something like 15TB. 15 TB HDDs plus the computer and controllers for them are going to run you more than this will cost, almost guaranteed.
Erwos
heroineworshipper
Posted 9:32 AM 5/9/08
The DLNA promos will continue until someone uses it.
heroineworshipper
unspellable
Posted 11:43 AM 5/9/08
There are 400 movies on Blu-ray?
This is a banner year for Blu-ray.
unspellable
VakeroRokero
Posted 1:14 PM 5/9/08
They never heard of the Tivo?
This stuff was pretty cool 20 years ago, 10 years ago it was nice, 5 years ago was pretty much forgotten, and now it's irrelevant.
VakeroRokero
FrankenPC
Posted 12:52 AM 6/9/08
I'll pass. Until they figure out a way to upgrade the internal disc player...forget it. Talk about planned obsolescence.
FrankenPC
Richard429
Posted 7:46 AM 5/9/08
Sold!!!! I am trading in my Sony 300 DVD changer as soon as possible!!!! Lets hope this comes in at the price of the current ES changer.
I have a multi terabyte server that I have backed up some of my movies to but HTPCs and extenders are not reliable enough. I love it when you want to showcase or show off. But my wife and baby don't want to have to reboot something to get up Elmo's big adventure. That Sony works every time. Slow, but every time.
Oh and audio support on PCs SUCK!!
Richard429