Blu Ray Player

[rlogle]

I posted in another thread about the PS3 release date that was posted at Coconuts Movies and Music and about the cost compared to a standalone player.

This got me to wondering if anyone's going to drop over a grand for a standalone BR player. Anyone?

[Phil M]

Randell, I'm the first voter - I voted never.

My main beef is the format war issues - it dawned on me 6 months ago when I had to throw out 100's of VHS tapes, at the time all the Star Trek episodes etc etc - were my pride and joy at the time. Now I've got 100's of DVD's that will follow them in a few years time if I add a new format. On top of this which format to choose? The two camps had the opportunity to settle on a single format and blew it - why should I reward them by giving them my $

On top of this the first generation BR and HD hardware will probably be full of bugs and problems, let them sort it out and bring out the 2nd generation at a lower price.

I'll continue to use my HD DVR, and no longer have the clutter of media occupying space If a HD format, or alternative delivery method prevails, then its time to reconsider.

In the meantime I've listed the formats I've gone through:

45's/LP's/cassettes/8 track/CD's/VHS/DVD's/SACD's/DVD-A
I've reached format overload

[rlogle]

For me that's part of the thrill of this hobby. The waiting on something new, the next, and hopefully better format. The thrill of the hunt and the exhiltation felt when that hunt yields something like 6.1 dts sound, or like HD movies. I, for one, can't wait till November. I'll add the PS3 if only for the BR Player. I'm a junkie, what can I say.

[Sonnie]

I might be confused here... but I voted that I would not buy a standalone BR but I will buy some sort of HD player at some point in time. Hopefully a combo player.

But I wonder... are you asking if we will buy any BR player or specifically a PS3... since that is the title of your thread.

[rlogle]

A standalone player, just as it say's. The PS3 is a combo machine. Should have made the post clearer.

[rcarlton]

Blu-ray prices look too rich for me. Plus, I may have a negative bias against Sony. My gut tells me that Blu-ray will be the next Betamax. I voted never (however never say never).

[elmac]

rcarlton wrote:

Blu-ray prices look too rich for me. Plus, I may have a negative bias against Sony. My gut tells me that Blu-ray will be the next Betamax. I voted never (however never say never).

I will agree with this
Sorry but I have a problem with Sony

[Ayreonaut]

Phil M wrote:

45's/LP's/cassettes/8 track/CD's/VHS/DVD's/SACD's/DVD-A
I've reached format overload

Phil, I'm much younger so my format list only goes back to casettes, but I'm tired of scrapping old media too.

rlogle wrote:

For me that's part of the thrill of this hobby. The waiting on something new, the next, and hopefully better format.

I'm excited about the potential of the new formats too, but I don't want to buy a bunch of movies that some day I'll toss into the trash. I'm leaning much more towards renting for a good long while.

On the other hand, its hard to imagine that we're going to see another revolution in display resolution for a good long while. Is 1080p (or 7.1 surround) going to be "not good enough" some day? Perhaps newer formats will just give us the same thing but uncompressed?

[Stephanie_tva]

I agree with all of your points on this, on a lot of the issues I feel the same way, but I am weak.

I WANT A PS3

I don't want it for the Blu-Ray benefits (that's just a bonus) I am a gamer and I have been reading about the kinetic controllers, the optional hard drive, the 4 processors, the superior graphics not to mention the sheer number of games.

I am rather apathetic to Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as I know that eventually they will have to forfeit one of these technologies, I just want the game system...

I'm just too weak!

[kingkip]

Waiting for a good universal. And by universal I mean CD DVD SACD DVD-A HD-DVD BRD and all their variants. It wouldn't hurt if it also played 8 track and those old wax cylider recordings.

[pierrebnh]

Well, it may not play 8-track, but Samsung and LG do plan to make BD/HD-DVD Universal players:

http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=22245

[John S]

kingkip wrote:

Waiting for a good universal. And by universal I mean CD DVD SACD DVD-A HD-DVD BRD and all their variants. It wouldn't hurt if it also played 8 track and those old wax cylider recordings.

Not to mention all those 78's I have in storage.

I had to vote never in the above poll, but only by default. Never is a very long time. My vote would've gone to a answer that reads something like this:

"Probably, but only when
1) there's a clear format winner, or
2) there's a choice of very good universal players under $200, and
3) easy and cheap rental of discs at the local Blockbuster/Hollywood from a deep catalog of titles."

That will take a while, if it ever happens at all.


10 Reasons Why High Definition DVD Formats Have Already Failed

[mickeypups]

It’s rather likely I’ll buy a PS3… but I’ll wait awhile to be certain the bugs have been worked out. I expect that as a Blu-Ray player it may be nearly as bad as the current PS2 is as a DVD player. With both formats seemingly stumbling out the gate, HD-DVD’s thus far rather horrible reviews and Sony’s continued delays (the Samsung player perhaps-not so bad) and both camps lack of full functionality DTS-HD, 1080i downrez, etcetera, etcetera, it will be a couple of years before commit to purchasing any HD player. I’ll wait until there is a clear winner or 2 winner’s that have achieved significant market penetration; that means competent players under $300, releases from every movie studio and wide public recognition.

[JimP]

I didn't vote in the above poll as my choice isn't shown.

I will get a BD or HD-DVD player when it becomes a bit clearer which format is fully implemented and is more likely to be the surviving format.

If you're inclined to go PS3 with built in BD capability(as I was also considering this), I'd be very careful that they didn't leave off something important like the higher quality audio or some other specification.

Its a bit disappointing that neither of the formats delivered the goods with the first release. I really expected more.

Maybe in time, things will improve.

[Tommy]

I purchased the HD DVD and it acts great at upconverting my existing DVD's. So I dont think there will be any scraping of my old media like I had to do with my vcr tapes. I am replacing some of my movies with the HD version but will probably limit it to newer movies in the future

[MrPorterhouse]

My current plan of action is to buy a PS3 and use that as a holdover until more direction is known on the high def formats. I'm not a huge gamer, but I do enjoy a bit here and there. So, even if the PS3 is less than desirable for Blu-ray movies, I'll have something worth using. I suspect that the PS3 will be a decent player that will work until 2nd or 3rd generation BD players come out.

[Tommy]

MrPorterhouse wrote:

My current plan of action is to buy a PS3 and use that as a holdover until more direction is known on the high def formats. I'm not a huge gamer, but I do enjoy a bit here and there. So, even if the PS3 is less than desirable for Blu-ray movies, I'll have something worth using. I suspect that the PS3 will be a decent player that will work until 2nd or 3rd generation BD players come out.

If your a big gamer this might be worth it but if your primary use of it is for movies I'd stay away from it unleast to 2nd gen consoles come out. Blu-ray has not been off to a good start for there launch. At double the price the picture quality is worse then HD DVD, there claim to fame of 50 gb disks is still non-existent and now Sony is announcing a defective chip thats causing the picture problems in the Samsung but it has already been reviewed to not make much of a difference with the chip put in the proper setting. I dont know if this chip is used in the PS3 or not though.

If the PS3 is less of a movie player then the stand alone player I think you may wind up with quality thats barely better then dvd.

But thats my thoughts of using it for a movie player as I said it your using primarly for games that may be a different story

[bobgpsr]

If and when 50GB BD double layer pressed ROM discs are in reasonable production and HDMI 1.3 AVRs are readily available then IMHO a good HDMI 1.3 BD player may be a valid upgrade for the audiophile/videophile. At that time I would expect studios releasing for BD use VC-1 or AVC for video codecs and one does not have to put up with the huge waste of space MPEG2 requires. The Blue-ray Disc (BD) format does have a technical advantage with its 48 Mbps bandwidth (given 50 GB space is avail). But I am not sure the above scenario will happen. They have had five years trying to make 50GB DL ROM discs and have not succeeded in getting a good yield yet.

Bob

[Tommy]

bobgpsr wrote:

If and when 50GB BD double layer pressed ROM discs are in reasonable production and HDMI 1.3 AVRs are readily available then IMHO a good HDMI 1.3 BD player may be a valid upgrade for the audiophile/videophile. At that time I would expect studios releasing for BD use VC-1 or AVC for video codecs and one does not have to put up with the huge waste of space MPEG2 requires. The Blue-ray Disc (BD) format does have a technical advantage with its 48 Mbps bandwidth (given 50 GB space is avail). But I am not sure the above scenario will happen. They have had five years trying to make 50GB DL ROM discs and have not succeeded in getting a good yield yet.

Bob

I would think that they would need to use VC-1 now since they only have BD25's & MPEG-2 for space issues. If 50's ever do become a reality they wont have as many space problems as they do now.

[MrPorterhouse]

Tommy wrote:

If your a big gamer this might be worth it but if your primary use of it is for movies I'd stay away from it unleast to 2nd gen consoles come out. Blu-ray has not been off to a good start for there launch. At double the price the picture quality is worse then HD DVD, there claim to fame of 50 gb disks is still non-existent...

Tom,
Yes, I understand the current situation and poor launch of Blu-ray, but I also realize that Blu-ray as a technology was rushed to market(what new launch doesn't have its problems), and the primary problem that we suspect is the authoring of the discs. We don't know if VC-1 and Dual Layer BD discs will solve everything, but one would really have to think it would. I know Sony doesn't deliver on promises, but I can't really see how VC-1 and dual layer couldn't help. Also, even though dual layer discs are slow to market, they will happen. The new manufacturing process for BD discs is just radically different(which will keep costs higher than HD DVD) and getting commercial quantities takes a big ramp up time. Its one thing to make a disc in the lab and another to crank out thousands per day, but it will happen.

So, that begs the question, How will the PS3 do as a BD movie player? We can't say. I'm not looking for a permanent player, but rather something that will play discs so I can test out the format. Having HDMI 1.3 would be a huge feature if the BD movie capability is decent because I could take full advantage of any high resolution audio into a HDMI 1.3 receiver(when they come out in 2007).


My plan:
Nov/Dec 2006: Buy PS3 and start BD movie watching and high def gaming

Late Summer 2007: Buy HDMI 1.3 A/V Receiver or Pre/Pro, maybe buy new 1080P display

2008: Buy stand alone High Def Movie player(whatever format is superior at the time)

[Tommy]

MrPorterhouse wrote:

Tom,
Yes, I understand the current situation and poor launch of Blu-ray, but I also realize that Blu-ray as a technology was rushed to market(what new launch doesn't have its problems), and the primary problem that we suspect is the authoring of the discs. We don't know if VC-1 and Dual Layer BD discs will solve everything, but one would really have to think it would. I know Sony doesn't deliver on promises, but I can't really see how VC-1 and dual layer couldn't help. Also, even though dual layer discs are slow to market, they will happen. The new manufacturing process for BD discs is just radically different(which will keep costs higher than HD DVD) and getting commercial quantities takes a big ramp up time. Its one thing to make a disc in the lab and another to crank out thousands per day, but it will happen.

So, that begs the question, How will the PS3 do as a BD movie player? We can't say. I'm not looking for a permanent player, but rather something that will play discs so I can test out the format. Having HDMI 1.3 would be a huge feature if the BD movie capability is decent because I could take full advantage of any high resolution audio into a HDMI 1.3 receiver(when they come out in 2007).

\

Agreed any new technology is going to have problems. Alot of hopes are on BD50's and VC-1 solving problems but they have been working on BD50's for 5 years now and are still not a reality. I dont know if there stuck at this point or not but I havent heard anything positive or negative on there progress at producing these disks in awhile and I have been looking. I would like to atleast get an estimated timeline of when these disks will be available for use for the titles.

VC-1 will definetly help especially if there stuck with BD25's for awhile. But Sony is still announcing that MPEG2 is superior so I dont expect them to change there stance on that anytime soon. Warner has announced they will in the future switch to VC-1 for bluray for there titles but are currently still releasing the titles using MPEG2. I dont know the other studios position on it.

[MrPorterhouse]

Tommy wrote:

\
VC-1 will definetly help especially if there stuck with BD25's for awhile. But Sony is still announcing that MPEG2 is superior so I dont expect them to change there stance on that anytime soon. Warner has announced they will in the future switch to VC-1 for bluray for there titles but are currently still releasing the titles using MPEG2. I dont know the other studios position on it.

Yeah, Sony is holding onto MPEG-2 as if their life depended on it, and will continue to because they cash in on it. However, I think Sony is realizing the impact of the poor launch and other Studios are taking note of it, too. VC-1 is the fastest and easiest quick fix and I hope Sony and other the other Blu-ray studios switch sooner rather than later.

This begs the question, why not just kill off Blu-ray as a movie format? Well, that makes sense on some levels, but Sony is commited to Blu-ray as a format for gaming(that's fine) and as a format for PC(that's fine too). In other words, Blu-ray is permanent. If HD DVD were the format for movies(which will also be used as a PC format), then we still have 2 formats that will not play together and confuse people. Having one format is much easier to get the mass consumers to learn and jump in. How long will Microsoft and Toshiba fight for their format? It is perfectly acceptable to me to have a separate high def movie format, so I don't really care. This war is already getting old.