Blu Ray or Oppo?


It so happens that my VCR and DVD player are nearing their end together, in a coordinated sort of way. To replace them I am thinking of two componets:

(1) A DVD recorder + VCR combo. Considering Panasonic DMR EZ47VK, because it seems to get good reviews, but other recommendations are welcome (should have built in tuner).

(2) A better dvd player. This is where I am confused.

The best regarded dvd player seems to be Oppo. But they don't make Blu Ray.

If I get Oppo, it would be great quality and I can live with it until they or somebody else comes out with a well-built Blu Ray. Downside: I have to keep buying standard resolution dvd's, and I won't be happy with those when I do get my Blu Ray player.

If I get Blu Ray, my fear it will be a cheaply made machine which might start flaking on me (Amazon reviews). Upside: I can start building up my Blu Ray collection right now.

What would (or did!) you do?

All comments and advice appreciated.
aktchi
I agree with KennyT, you don't need BR ver2.0. Get yourself a BR player with the Silicon Optix REON/Realta processor chip and enjoy!
Yup...definitely go Blu. Most Blu rays will upconvert as well. Just how much do you believe you have to spend on a Blu ray player to get a good one? If buying an expensive one makes you feel better, get a Denon 3800 or a Pioneer.

I was in a guys home yesterday that was still using a Zenith combo VCR/DVD player with his new Mits 73 inch 1080P television! The picture quality looked like garbage. ;-)

I can't figure out the logic in this too save my life. He had a hard time believing he could get a better picture going Blu ray. lol
Money wasn't an object as this guy is a millionaire..I just don't get it.
Vman71 - What player/s have the silicon optix reon/realta processor chip? Tks.
There's a good argument to be made that the whole HD-DVD "craze" will never actually catch on. Indeed, could be argued that Toshiba made an excellent business decision by bowing out of the war of attrition and ceded to Sony an essentially phyrric victory. Blueray, since winning, really hasn't done much. I'm convinced, and I admit that it is noting more than my opinion and somewhat impressionistic, that HD video will indeed shift to an online delivery format in the relatively near future, and that Blueray will relatively quickly become obsolete. Personally, I have a relatively large DVD library, and have decided not to invest in Blueray at all. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to very badly and patiently awaited the resolution of the format war. But now that it's over, the next format revolution looms way too close on the horizon for me to jump into the last one.

That said, a Blueray player will reportedly do real nice upconversion on its own, so there's no real loss on that front if you need the new new thing. But so will the Oppo. I simply won't invest in Blueray software, so I have no use for a player. I bought the Oppo. Your mileage, however, will certainly vary.
What Mezmo said! That's exactly what I'm talking about. Hasn't anybody noticed that once Toshiba pulled HD DVD off the market, the buzz about hi-def video optical disc has DIED! UltimateAVmag.com has not reviewed a high-rez video disc player since December 2007, and that was a review of the top end Toshiba HD DVD player!

As long as the format war was going on, it kept the buzz alive in the public market. Best Buy and Circuit City had stacks of both types of players and hi-def displays of each format's movies, and they were price-cutting to stir up the competition.

But once Toshiba pulled out, the buzz died and rather than rushing to buy Blu-ray players, people turned to cable programming and downloads to get their hi-def content.

This month's Home Theater magazine had an article about this very phenomenon. Since Toshiba pulled out of the race, the sales of Blu-ray players (not counting Playstation 3's) has gone DOWN!

The triumph of Blu-ray is not a sure thing.