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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:05 pm
by sirwilliam
Yeah...I have always been firm in my belief that Blue Ray would win out between the two but did you notice that the third technology that held 1TB seemed to mysteriously disappear?
Wonder if Sony bought them out or had the main guy whacked? I have both players but oh well...looks like HD will eventually dwindle out but I will still buy the movies in both until then.
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:27 am
by complacent
Once you can get a player for less than $100 and a movie for $20 or less, I'll consider it.
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:34 am
by WRXWagon2112
complacent wrote:Once you can get a player for less than $100 and a movie for $20 or less, I'll consider it.
You might just
get your wish.
Consumer electronics maker Toshiba Corp said on Monday it is slashing prices of its HD DVD format players by between 40 to 50 percent
Does this sound deparate? Yeah, probably. But considering that all those "exclusive, Blu-Ray only" movies are actually available in HD DVD format from the U.K. ... and that the HD DVD format does not use region coding ... it means you could get a high-def disc player dirt cheap and still get all the movies you want.
--Alan
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:47 pm
by Libra Monkee
Rumor has it though that HD-DVD is losing... badly.
HD DVD Player Sales Grind To a Halt
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:58 pm
by Sabre
While the news may fall under the 'Duh' category, it's still relatively shocking how
quickly the death knell for HD DVD player sales came on after Warner Bros. announced they were dropping dual hi-def DVD format support in order to back only Blu-ray. According to a Computerworld story, the week after Warner's announcement, sales of HD DVD players dropped to 1,758, down from 14,558 players the week before. In contrast, consumers bought 21,770 Blu-ray Disc players, up from 15,257 the previous week.
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:24 pm
by WRXWagon2112
I'm curious as to whether they include PS3 sales in that "Blu-ray Disc players" figure.
Yeah, unless there's some major change (like studios defecting to HD DVD) it looks like Blu-ray will be the new standard.
Btw, does anyone else have an up-converting DVD player? Is it just me, or do they look pretty good? I'm thinking I could live with keeping my current DVD collection (not re-buying the titles as Blu-ray/HD DVD) until disc prices for high-def movies come down.
Either that or just download the movies in HD. No need for a plastic disc.
--Alan
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:22 am
by sirwilliam
WRXWagon2112 wrote:I'm curious as to whether they include PS3 sales in that "Blu-ray Disc players" figure.
Yeah, unless there's some major change (like studios defecting to HD DVD) it looks like Blu-ray will be the new standard.
Btw, does anyone else have an up-converting DVD player? Is it just me, or do they look pretty good? I'm thinking I could live with keeping my current DVD collection (not re-buying the titles as Blu-ray/HD DVD) until disc prices for high-def movies come down.
Either that or just download the movies in HD. No need for a plastic disc.
--Alan
I have blueray, HDDVD, and the DVD w/ 1080i upconversion. The DVD w/ upconversion does look a little better than a standard DVD but when I play a standard DVD in my blueray or HDDVD player it looks so much better than the DVD player w/ upconversion. I have since removed the DVD player w/ upconversion so it is no longer connected. I don't think it is really worth upgrading from a standard DVD player to another DVD player w/ upconversion...IMHO.
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:38 am
by WRXWagon2112
sirwilliam wrote:...when I play a standard DVD in my blueray or HDDVD player it looks so much better than the DVD player w/ upconversion.
I'm willing to bet that your HD DVD and Blu-Ray players are doing an upconversion, too. Possibly to 1080p. It's just that the converters they use are better quality than that in the upconverting regular DVD player.
--Alan
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:39 am
by sirwilliam
WRXWagon2112 wrote:sirwilliam wrote:...when I play a standard DVD in my blueray or HDDVD player it looks so much better than the DVD player w/ upconversion.
I'm willing to bet that your HD DVD and Blu-Ray players are doing an upconversion, too. Possibly to 1080p. It's just that the converters they use are better quality than that in the upconverting regular DVD player.
--Alan
IIRC, both my HighDef players are only doing 1080i output which is what my high end Denon standard DVD player w/ 1080i upconversion was doing as well. My tv does upconversion to 1080p. The Denon player has Faroudja processing which is one of the best companies in the world for upconversion/video processing so not sure why the High Def players looked better. They all utilized HDMI as well.
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:33 pm
by ElZorro
Good article on why victory may be in sight for BlueRay, it may still be too early to adopt:
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-986412 ... subj=Crave
Trimmed down to the bullet points:
1. Nearly all current Blu-ray players are already obsolete.
2. Blu-ray is best on a big-screen TV.
3. There are still very few movies available on Blu-ray.
4. Blu-ray still has growing pains.
5. Prices have nowhere to go but down.
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 3:53 pm
by Sabre
Some of those points he backtracks on and some are down right misleading....
1.) Obsolete? Come on now... Obsolete as in no longer useful? BS! They will be able to play all the Blu-ray titles into the future. You might not get the PIP stuff that isn't even available yet, but it's going to be a long time before we see this anyway.
2.) Blu-ray or HD-DVD looks good on big TV's compared to standard because everything is blown up!
3.)
As of February 5, 2008, there are less than 450 current Blu-ray titles available in North America (not counting discontinued and adult titles). That stacks up well to HD DVD (around 400). But it's a drop in the bucket compared to standard DVD, which has at least 90,000 titles available (including TV shows).
Caveat: Sure, it's small now, but the number of Blu-ray titles is growing slowly but surely. In fact, Blu-ray and HD DVD adoption (combined) has actually outpaced that of the original DVD format, which took three or four years before it really went mainstream.
Well duh on the first paragraph! His Caveat is an obvious CYA since he admits that the adoption rate is higher than the last time a format change took place.
4.) Agree, firmware updates suck...
5.) Don't wee see this with all media?!?!
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 4:20 pm
by complacent
Yep, still going to wait it out.
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:19 pm
by Libra Monkee
I think I'll just get me one a dem new fangled Dual Format players and call it done. That way, no matter who wins, I'm still on top.
Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:57 pm
by WRXWagon2112
For those who already have an HD DVD player or one of those dual-format players ...
get yer HD DVD's while they're hot!!
50% off at Barnes & Noble plus use code
Y4R4K7D for an additional 25% off. That makes some titles $11.25. Shipping is Free if you spend $25 or more.
--Alan
Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:49 pm
by sirwilliam
WRXWagon2112 wrote:For those who already have an HD DVD player or one of those dual-format players ...
get yer HD DVD's while they're hot!!
50% off at Barnes & Noble plus use code
Y4R4K7D for an additional 25% off. That makes some titles $11.25. Shipping is Free if you spend $25 or more.
--Alan
Yep, already jumped on this deal. This is just the beginning of the downfall for HDDVD. My father informed me that Barnes & Nobles is getting rid of all their HDDVD movies so expect to see more sales.
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:48 am
by sirwilliam
Decent deal. Toshiba HD-A3 HDDVD player for $130 shipped at amazon.com. It comes w/ 2 movies plus 5 free through mail-in offer:
LINKY
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:06 am
by WRXWagon2112
Okay, now it's really looking like
the end for HD DVD.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online video rental company Netflix Inc said on Monday it would exclusively stock Blu-ray high-definition DVDs after a decision by some the world's biggest movie studios in favor of the Sony Corp developed format.
Netflix has stocked DVDs using both Blu-ray and the competing HD DVD format developed by Toshiba Corp since they first came on the market in early 2006.
Four out of six major Hollywood studios have recently decided to publish high-definition DVDs only using Blu-ray.
Netflix said that with such a clear signal from the industry, it will only buy Blu-ray discs going forward and will phase out stock of HD DVD by about the end of the year.
--Alan
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:22 am
by Mr Kleen
I'm sure SONY will celebrate the end of the war with a price drop on Blu-ray players...
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:14 am
by Sabre
Actually, the price of the PS3 is supposed to drop in a month or so, so ya, they are dropping in price
Funny thing: This is one war where the porn industry (which was backing HDDVD) might not have actually determined the outcome.
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:25 pm
by sirwilliam
HDDVD prices are being slashed! Check out Amazon.com and Bestbuy!...up to 60% off and free shipping in some cases! My collection is growing like my nose hair! Huh?
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 3:14 pm
by avriette
complacent wrote:I'm inclined to believe that most end consumers are not ready to abandon their DVD collections just for the sake of HD. I don't see many early adopters in this segment. That being said, I'll wait to declair a winner.
(his OP-ED on iVidiots is funneh as well.)
I have two huge boxes of jewel cases with cd's in them, should my dually-backed-up mp3/aac/mp4 collection go away. I plan to throw them out or ebay them or something next move. They're fucking heavy and I don't think I've ripped more than four cd's in the last year, and that's because they were on small labels I couldn't get digitally.
My vinyl I keep because it is precious to me (Floyd's
Pulse,
Shine On, and
The Wall along with various and sundry anthems from 1996 warehouses), and also because I have no real way to get it onto the computer.
But dvd's for me, are going the way of the CD. I hear the arguments about HD vs blu-ray and I get a real rectal itching feeling like
fuck, people, can we just be done
with physical media already?
We rip the dvd's we like, and I'm waiting until I can rip my damn video games. These format differences between consoles are giving me similar itches.
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:35 pm
by complacent
avriette wrote:
But dvd's for me, are going the way of the CD. I hear the arguments about HD vs blu-ray and I get a real rectal itching feeling like fuck, people, can we just be done with physical media already?
We rip the dvd's we like, and I'm waiting until I can rip my damn video games. These format differences between consoles are giving me similar itches.
While I agree with you completely, I do believe you're (we're, weA're, m0Ar, etc) in the minority.
I dare you to pick out 10 people at Harris Teeter who can back up an MP3 collection, let alone rip an entire movie...
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:25 pm
by Mr Kleen
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:14 pm
by Libra Monkee
Netflix is starting to phase out HD DVD also.
Would you like to know more?
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:17 pm
by WRXWagon2112
The only question left is ... should I get a dual-format drive and stock up on the cheap HD DVD movies that are on sale?
--Alan