Since WB went BluRay Exclusive, Any SD Fans Going Over? (1 Viewer)

[Chris S]

If I recall correctly the problem with "Blue-ray" is that they couldn't get a copyright cleared for the name so they had to take off the "e" in order to make it unique.

 

[Don Solosan]

"I have a recordable DVD player with hard drive. When will the equivalent come out on Blu-ray and at a reasonable price?"

The way the studios are trying to increase control over what people do with their media, maybe never. Who knows?

My DVD player is starting to hiccup at the layer changes. I expect I'll be replacing it in another year or two...

 

[Will_B]

At least the logo looks ok. THe HD-DVD logo, with the HD and a couple semi-circles tacked on to the left, was so amateur.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I have a SD Multi-regional Player with PAL-to-NTSC conversion. And I will continue to own one be it SD or Hi Def, as long as region coding exists.

 

[MielR]

That's what I'm thinking of doing in the near future. Currently, I only own one DVD player and it's a DVD-recorder as well (a Sony RDR-GX7, Sony's first recorder). There's nothing wrong with it- still works perfectly, but I'd like to get a 2nd DVD player for the bedroom. With blu-ray players becoming more and more reasonably priced, I can't see plunking down $ for a decent DVD player, when I can get something that will also play blu-ray discs.

 

[DanMel]

I will replace my dvd player with a Blue Ray when my current dvd player dies but will not replace my current 10 year old 36 Panasonic flat screen TV until it no longer plays with a High def TV. This may be another 10 or 15 years. Since the majority of my movies are watched on a 7" Toshiba portable DVD player, my first purchase may be a portable Blue Ray dvd player. Although I doubt that the picture will look any better than DVD on a 7" screen. Any opinion on that? 75 percent of all my movie watching is on a portable dvd player while at work on the night shift.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Because I can get a nice upconverting Panasonic SD player for $90 while their Blu-Ray player is $500?

 

[Don Solosan]

Colin, that's now. You think prices will still be that high in a year or two or three?

 

[Ray_R]

Same here. I have an Oppo multi-region player and I've been importing alot of DVD's steadily for a few years and that's why I'm with HD-DVD due to the zero regional coding. At least for HD titles though. My HD-DVD to BR ratio is literally 4:1. Alot of the time what I don't like about alot of titles is that they don't carry over all of the extras. I'll never sell my DVD's unless its High Definition counterpart carries over EVERYTHING from the particular release I own. Hell, there're still titles that I'm repurchasing that i regretfully sold over time.
I'm a slow but steady upgrader. I figure it's always a good idea to wait awhile for a certain thing I'm particularly fond of to purchase to go down in price. I'm not even going to BUY Blu-ray since my best friend already owns a PS3. Even then, the HD war isn't anywhere over and those people who say it is, that's calling the results very prematurely.

 

[Ray_R]

Double post.

 

[Travis Brashear]

I'm curious what you think HD-DVD's saving grace will be, then? It was already being outsold 3:1 in favor of Blu-ray before Warner's announcement.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Nope, but I don't need a new DVD player a year or two or three from now - I need one NOW. I just bought a new 16X9 set so I need an upconverting player. I could drop $500 on the Panny Blu-Ray or $90 on a Panny unconverting model - it wasn't much of a contest...

 

[Paul D G]

There's one other point not previously mentioned. You need an HD tv in order to watch high def DVDs. I'd imagine you might be able to hook one up to a standard tv but there's no point in it.

Right now even people with the lowest of incomes can fork out $50 for a DVD player, these people aren't going to buy a $300 HD player and another $1500+ for a tv to play it on.

It took, what, 8 years for VHS to finally die? I would expect that at a minimum. Only when HD tvs drop down to SD tv prices and there's one in every home will SD DVDs disappear.

-paul

 

[John H Ross]

In a word: no!

Several reasons:

1. Unlike many others, I don't see the format war as being anything like over! It won't be over until every major studio is backing the same format. WB are still releasing on both until May. Paramount, Universal and Dreamworks are still HD-DVD exclusive. There are still a LOT of uncertainties and I ain't gonna take that gamble. Considering all the bribes that are floating around, the tables could turn again VERY easily!

2. The quality of DVD is just fine on my 28" Panasonic widescreen telly. Plus I have a Denon 2930 which uses one of the best chips in the world to upscale and has zero - ZERO - layer changes. Therefore it's a better upscaler than ANY current HD or BD player!

3. Many BD discs dump the SD extras which means doubling up on a lot of titles. I don't have the space. Plus you just know they'll be out again WITH the extras and I ain't double dipping again.

4. BD is region-coded although a few places in Europe are now offering multi-region hacks so things are looking up there. I will not buy into a format that prevents me from importing movies from the US. End of.

5. I'm still upgrading (fairly obscure) movies from VHS and laserdisc and catching up with some TV box sets. For the reasons above I'd rather put my money into those right now, rather than pick up ANOTHER copy of Die Hard or whatever.

John

 

[Don Solosan]

Okay, we'll catch up with you next time!

 

[Arild]

Regardless of what the WB move may result in, the format war is over for one single reason; that being the fact that the media is already proclaming Blu-Ray the winner far and wide throughout the world. That is why no one interested in going HD is going to invest in HD DVD at this point. It doesn't matter what the HD DVD camp will try to tell the public - the public won't be listening to them. The war may not be officially over, but the only thing that's left is for the losing side to capitulate.

 

[MielR]

That's a good question- CAN you watch blu-rays or hd-dvds on an analog set?

 

[Blu]

It is something some of us battle on a daily basis. I even had the opportunity to know a guy in college who was named Blu Bean, no "e", like me.
Go figure!
LOL!

 

[Mike_Richardson]

That software stat is heavily skewed because Sony has been running some kind of BD giveaway weekly ever since TRANSFORMERS came out in October. I'd love to see a genuine "ratio" of titles actually purchased and not Buy 1 Get 1 Free, which no question helped Sony's PR establish this mythological "sales ratio" for everyone who drank their kool-aid.

 

[Jerry R Colvin]

Now see, I have a different take. My admittedly superficial reasons for supporting HD-DVD over Blu-Ray were:

1. HD-DVD is a more logical name than Blu-Ray
2. I like the HD-DVD logo much better than Blu-Ray's
3. I like the dark red cases much better than the blue cases

I jumped in last summer and got a great deal, but the writing's on the wall and I will join the Blu-Ray camp some day.... but probably not until they change the design and color of those cases. SD-DVD will do for now.