I sold my Marantz DV9600.I demo'd a Toshiba HD player and then looked at what I could rent with video(zero).I researched and bought a Samsung BD-P1200 on Amazon.Called Amazon and asked for a firmware 2.3 update.I am now in audio/video heaven.For $200 spent on video,I will now search for a A+ CD player. |
I own the toshiba and 2 bd players. While the load time on the tosh. is slow---CONTENT-- drives the marketplace.btw; issues w/ each bd player. |
How will prices for REAL DVD Player VALUE in the market rise? HD-DVD player prices have been artificially low as Toshiba tried to dump players and flood the market in one last desperate attempt to build interest in their format and clear inventories. But how is that "low price" people paid going to feel when they can't get any new titles to play on their machine in 6 months? Was it really such a good deal?
Many manufacturers were sitting on the sidelines waiting to see which format was going to win, and now one has. When multiple manufacturers come out with BluRay units, the price wars will start for those as well. We may not be able to get them for $129, but the format and utility of whatever we purchase will survive past July.
For example, how much are decent SD DVD players now? Unless you want a high end Denon or Arcam (you can still buy an upscaling Denon DVD5910CI for $3800 new - LOL - bet they are flying off the shelves at that price right now), you can get a very decent unit for sound (OPPO 980H) or video (OPPO 981HD) for a little less or a little more than $200. Yamaha and Denon (and Toshiba) also make serviceable SD DVD players for less than $300 on the street. Once all these manufacturers join Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and LG in a price war for your BluRay dollar, prices WILL FALL from where they are now for a mature product with a reasonable shelf life (say, two years instead of two months).
Even Toshiba will throw their weight behind BluRay, and they too will make money as all the manufacturing giants race to get your $$$ and allegiance with the new format. But how would you like to be their HD-DVD Program Manager right now? |
At CES every practically every room that was demoing home theater that tried to use a Blu Ray player froze up. The ones demoing Transformers for instance on HD-DVD worked flawlessly. |
Johnny 53, you need to look up any pro review of the first two hd dvd players which would randomly freeze movies or lock up completely for no reason at all.
Audio buzzes in certain channels via analog, lip sync issues ect
My two hd dvd players both asked which side of a dvd I wanted to view...SD or HD.
The fan noise was too loud, and these two players had the slowest load times known to mankind.
Anytime you pressed menu or stop ect on the remote, the player would have to re-sync, which is something they didn't do too well to begin with.
After you search first HD-a1 reviews, do a google search for second gen reviews and boiling combo hd dvd's in order to get them to play new out of the case.
I bought my first hd dvd player 5 days before launch, and my first BD player the day they went on sale, and have since had one other hd dvd player and two other BD players as well as the PS3. |
Oh...... I guess nobody's heard the BIG news yet.
Toshiba is also throwing in the towel on HD-DVD. So..... don't be surprised if you start seeing Toshibas going for dirt cheap pretty soon.
So now, Blue-Ray has the field all to themselves. So now, I guess it's going to be a Blue-Ray Player for me as well. But right now, I am still recovering from that Panasonic Plasma TV that I just recently purchased. It may take me a while to do that.
But anyway, I see adding a Blue-Ray machine to my home theater system sometime before the year is over. I think I am going to wait until the new ones come out in the fall and see what's going to be on offer then.
Until The Next Time!!!!!!
--Charles--
P.S.: Damn....... I'm glad I've held out and waited. I "KNEW" this shit was going to happen. I "JUST" knew it (LOL)!!!!! |
This whole situation is very frustrating, marketing and back room deals has won over quality, ready for market, reliable product..........are you kidding me? |
Jdodmead ......you mentioned that Blu-Ray has a superior picture. Check out an HD-DVD movie on the Toshiba HD X-A2 player before you make that judgement. |
In NY Times Business section today is Toshiba announcement they will stop making HD DVD players. Its over. Blu-Ray wins. Expect prices to rise.
Neal |
Since it looks like the end of Hd, I would recomend holding off on purchasing a Blu player, until they can work out the kinks. That's what angers me. For the past year I was watching lots of well-made, enjoyable HD DVDs on my totally reliable, upgradeable, and stupid cheap Toshiba HD-D3. Now for the next year or two I'll be doing without as I wait for Blu-ray technology to catch up in features, reliability, and affordability. If anybody comes across some fire sales for HD DVD discs, I'd appreciate the info. |
I have both so I didn't really care who "won". I do believe that Blu has the better hd picture (movie dependent), but the Toshiba Hd players do a much better job with upconversion of std DVD's. Since it looks like the end of Hd, I would recomend holding off on purchasing a Blu player, until they can work out the kinks. Buy a Hd player just for the upscaling capabilities, especially since they are so much nore affordable. |
HDDVD should have won but money talks so back room deals and "Gamers" with the Play Station pushed thru a flawed and rushed techmology.and we are all worse off for it. Anyone who thinks Blue Ray is best simply doesnt understand what is really going on. |
02-16-08: Ears
For once, the superior format [Blu-ray] has won.
How so? Just because it has 50GB in two layers instead of 30? Has anybody on this forum lamented freeze-ups, disappointing digital transfers, or compressed sound on HD DVD? You hear it pretty often about Blu-ray machines and discs. Even a $128 HD DVD player is updatable via its built-in Ethernet port. The only Blu-ray player with that feature is the Playstation 3. Blu-ray discs and players often don't feature or support Dolby True HD, opting instead, at best, to offer uncompressed PCM audio. Since the visuals of the two formats are equal, is Blu-ray using their extra space to store uncompressed PCM rather than more sophisticated lossless compression schemes used in HD DVD soundtracks? HD DVD has featured interactive features and interactive games since the beginning. Even the $128 HD-A3 has it. Blu-ray won't offer this until Blu-ray Live 2.0, whenever that is, and the only current player that will be upgradeable to that standard is the Playstation 3. Soooo... in what way is Blu-ray the superior format? |
Wallmart is clearing out HDDVD and only selling Blu come June, can you hear "Taps" anyone? |
There will be no hd dvd movies or players in a month or so as Toshiba is going to stop losing hundreds of dollars on each player after Blockbuster, Best Buy, Netflix and now Wall Mart have gone Blu.
For once, the superior format has won. |
Yeah, I won't be buying a BR player anytime soon-too expensive, and too many issues with players not playing some movies, etc.
I will just rent and purchase HDDVDs for now. Maybe in a year or so, I'll get into BR. |
I wouldn't throw out my HDDVD player just yet. Sony is a strong company and much like Microsoft in this instance. I think HD DVD is a better product in many regards in the long term, much better capacity vs. BluRay which is based on a different algorithm that requires a lot more capacity to deliver the same product (video as the primary data source). While HD DVD video requires significantly less capacity to carry the same quality video signal, leaving a lot more room for other sources (such as full or higher resolution audio).
The movie company's may like the security of the BluRay better because it requires multiple steps and processing of the code, which is very complicated and much more difficult to success implement. I think that the press on this is driven more by the corporation behind BluRay than the consumers and media providers outside of BluRay control and influence.
Additionally, with additional considerations to copy management and content play management of BluRay, I think it is safe to say that being an early adopter of BluRay may pose a real headache as these issues get resolved, as we have seen with the initial BluRay disc spinners. |
Blu-Ray article from Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/)today;
Samsung Sued Over "Defective" Blu-ray Player
"Anneka notes that, although both Netflix and Best Buy threw logs on HD DVD's funeral pyre today, things are not all going Blu-ray's way. A Connecticut man is suing Samsung, the maker that brought the first Blu-ray players to market, over its "defective" BD-P1200 player. The lawsuit seeks class-action status. The problem is that the Samsung BD-P1200 is a "Profile 1.0" player that can't play some Blu-ray discs and Samsung has no intention (or ability) to upgrade these players via firmware."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080211-samsung-sued-over-defective-first-gen-blu-ray-players.html
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9062002&intsrc=hm_list |
On the heals of Warner Bros. decision to go with Blue-Ray, it appears that a knock-out is close at hand.... |
Swell.
I have "updated" my Samsung 1400 in January and February (every 30 days). I can go up to the Blockbuster and pay $4.50 to rent the latest Die Hard in BluRay to see if it will play now that I have done two firmware updates. If it still does not play do you think Samsung or Blockbuster will refund my money? Never had this problem with any Toshiba HD-DVD player. |
