[fsimms]

Its all Blu Ray  from this point out!

When I go into Best Buy, all I see are HD-DVD players.  How is Blu Ray going to win if everybody has HD-DVD players?

[ASi_TEK]

They will still have HD-DVD players but they would probably want to try to sell those out first and keep a lower stock of HD-DVD players since the new standard is going to become blu ray/players and media and flat screen monitors. It all works out if you think about it because there will be no more analog tv transmissions starting in 2009, what a great time to really push and sell newer high technology such as blu ray and lower the prices of LCD screens, (which I read are supposed to be projected to be lowered by about 18% this year). The screen I bought in 2005 is now less than half the cost today! 

[Norman Tracy]

Exclusive video from inside the bunker at Toshiba.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

Caution, lanuage gets a bit blue.

[JoshK]

Its all Blu Ray  from this point out!

When I go into Best Buy, all I see are HD-DVD players.  How is Blu Ray going to win if everybody has HD-DVD players?

The BB across from my workplace in midtown Manhattan has a lot of HDDVD players on hand too...something tells me they bought a lot of stock cheap.  They sell blu-ray too but it isn't as prominent.  However their blu-ray movie section is more visible and stocked then the HDDVD.

[kenreau]

I have an older DVD player and I was looking into updating with an Oppo unit until the format wars shake out. 

With the recent CES '08 Blue Ray buzz and traction they are getting, I'm now thinking why not get a Sony PS3 and kill two birds with one stone?

Can anyone comment on the more common stand def DVD video performance of the PS3?  Would it be comparable to an Oppo?


If it helps, I use a Panasonic TH-50PHD8UK plasma with HMDI and composite inputs.  It has  1,366 x 768 resolution and signal compatibility with 1080/60i, 1080/50i, 1080/24p, 1080/24sf, 1080/25p, 1080/30p, 720/60p, 720/50p, 480/60p, 480/60i

Thanks,
Ken

[TF1216]

You can find a lot reviews about an Oppo's performance vs. the PS3 especially on avsforum.com with pics.  I have both units and always used the Oppo for standard definition movies.  I have a blockbuster membership and 90% of the time I watch blu-ray.  That is why I decided to sell my 981 Oppo unit.

When I had my tv ISF calibrated, the calibration professional said to use the Oppo as it was superior to the PS3.  I have never compared the two myself.

[nicksgem10s]

I used my Oppo for SD movies until Sony released an upgrade for the PS3 to upconvert SD to a much higher quality.

It was many months ago.  Once Sony updated the PS3 I sold my Oppo and use the PS3 for everything now.  I have had mine for just over 1 year and it has performed perfectly from day one.

Some complain about the noise from the PS3.  We sit about 11 feet away from my equipment rack and noise is not an issue for us even during quiet passages in movies.  If it was positioned very close to where we sit noise could prove to be an issue.

I did not buy it to play games but it is a pretty nice option as I have rented some and they look amazing.  I really recommend getting the available optional remote control as using the PS3 controller leaves a lot to be desired for controlling movie playback.

The PS3 is a really nice piece of equipment.  The fact that Sony has been supporting it by releasing improvements via update/upgrades is really convenient.  Once you have the PS3 setup for wireless it is the easiest update ever.

I have been thrilled with my purchase and recommend it to anyone wanting to get into Blu-ray. 

-Nick

[Ears]

Very interesting...

Well it looks like putting a larger investment in Blu-ray may turn out to be the right move.

As of today, my Blu-ray/HD DVD ratio is about 4:1 in favor of Blu-ray.   

I also paid really good prices for my HD hardware and software:

Toshiba A35 and A3 were at very low prices + each came with 10 free movies.

My average price for new HD DVD's is about $13 so good on that front too.

Let's see what happens over the coming months.

George

The leaked sales numbers for last weeks Nielsens are 85% Blu, 15% hd dvd, so it looks like you need to buy more Blu to keep your ratio in vouge. 

[Night_Train]

Exclusive video from inside the bunker at Toshiba.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

Caution, lanuage gets a bit blue.

Achtung baby.....ya vole!!!!

[Ears]

Warner made 63 million more dollars on Blu-ray than hd dvd  in 07 despite hd dvd having 25 more releases including The Matrix, V for Vendetta and Batman Begins on hd dvd only.

So it's no big suprise that Warner, New Line and HBO went Blu only to get this silly pillow fight over and get all those consumers standing on the sidelines in the game with one format.

[Ears]

I'm in a bit of a quandary over this issue. 

I would like to get into the next generation for the HT rig, but cannot ascertain which way things are heading. Right now, I'm using a Denon 5910, and I'm pretty happy with it for Audio and Visual. The upscaling of standard DVD is pretty cool. and the only real difference I've seen (so far) with the new players are animated discs (which is readily apparent).

Also, what's the story with the new encoding audio formats? Seems like you either have to get a player that has on-board DACs, or, get a new receiver/preamp that encodes the format.

So I'm asking all you wizards out there, which way is this HD DVD vs. Blue Ray going? Could it suffocate like SACD/DVD audio has?

I don't know what your using for a display, but I see a huge difference on our 40" Bravia 1080p/24 display or our projector on all Blu-ray's compared to dvd.

At any rate, Denon has two Blu-ray players coming out in the first quarter I believe, and Blu is the only way to go at this point.

[Philistine]

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9856126-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt

Latest market data on HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray not looking to good for HD-DVD.

I hope the HD-DVD camp can turn it around, having Blu-Ray come out on top ,I believe, is the worse case scenario for the consumer.  Why? - more expensive, regional coding, confusion on standards and Sony is too anti-consumer.   

[oscar]

Blu-ray has the superior Bandwidth and storage capacity which translates to better picture and sound quality.  Maybe not with most systems (currently) but anyone with a 100+" screen and/or ability to playback lossless/uncompressed audio are likely to appreciate the differences.  PQ/SQ trumps everything else IMHO.  The technically superior format won out.
 
expensive ? wait for economies of scale to take effect (just like with DVD)
Region coding ? minor irritant (too bad most of the BBC stuff is done with non-HD cameras)
Confusion with standards ?  Hows the intermingling of terms HD, DVD, and HD DVD for confusion. (and folks mistaking DVD playback on HD DVD players as HD).
Sony too Anti-consumer ?  That about describes every giant corporate electronics entity (e.g. Toshiba)

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9856126-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt

Latest market data on HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray not looking to good for HD-DVD.

I hope the HD-DVD camp can turn it around, having Blu-Ray come out on top ,I believe, is the worse case scenario for the consumer.  Why? - more expensive, regional coding, confusion on standards and Sony is too anti-consumer.   

[mcullinan]

My Pioneer Elite 95 (Blu-Ray) should arrive today.  I'm looking forward to it.

It was Warner changing sides that made up my mind on who would win "The War".

I think the player received mixed reviews... Im waiting for a great player with great reviews.. Not to mention the 1K retail price.

The thing that sucks about HD DVD losing the battle is that they had a much more reasonable pricing structure, and now that BluRay has no competition it will be that much longer for the pricing to drop.
Mike

[Big Red Machine]

Blu-ray has the superior Bandwidth and storage capacity which translates to better picture and sound quality.  Maybe not with most systems (currently) but anyone with a 100+" screen and/or ability to playback lossless/uncompressed audio are likely to appreciate the differences.  PQ/SQ trumps everything else IMHO.  The technically superior format won out.
   

More storage is not technical superiority.  I have both formats on a 110" screen thru 1080p and you can't tell them apart. 

[JoshK]

Blu-ray has the superior Bandwidth and storage capacity... 

Agreed.

which translates to better picture and sound quality.

lost me there.    This simply doesn't follow.  Necessary but not sufficient condition.  The studios aren't likely doing anything different with the transfer for blu-ray than they would have done with hd-dvd.  I don't think because they have more storage they are necessarily using that potential at the moment.  I think the *can* use it at some point, but I don't think they want to yet, or are even incentivised to do so.  Its like you said, not many will appreciate the difference on their <32" screens, which is their bread and butter. Audio/Video-philes are not their bread and butter.

FWIW, I own a blu-ray player, and don't own a hd-dvd, so don't think my rebuttal is just because I am a fanboy.

[samplesj]

Just to further chime in, the claim that more storage means better PQ is nonsense.   Even the SQ argument isn't real.

I've seen both Blu and HD DVD on a 133" diagonal via 1080p [JVC RS1 fed with PS3 or HD-XA2] (and even 1080i via a HD-A1) and really don't see a overwhealming difference.  None of it was the same movie, but if one was overwhealming better then having seen 20+ movies on both formats I'd be seeing it.  For that matter some of the worst pictures I've seen from a HD source have been blu movies.  We just watched Entrapment on Blu last night and it was still grainy in certain scenes (sky mostly).  For that matter think about the first bluray version of Fifth Element.  I didn't buy it because when I saw it in stores it always looked like #%$%#.  Its still all up to the studio and the format doesn't matter.

Given that even HD DVD has enough room for a full 1080p and still have a lossless audio track (trueHD) where is the difference?

[samplesj]

What I've read was great PQ/SQ. 

Everyone should keep in mind that most blu (or even HD DVD players) are being used as transports ONLY.  If you are using HDMI for audio and video then the audio and video DACs are useless.  This means that for the most part you buy on supported features (and potentially quality of normal dvd upsampling).

[JDUBS]

Just to further chime in, the claim that more storage means better PQ is nonsense.   Even the SQ argument isn't real.

How about Superbit DVD's?  They use additional bitrate for better picture quality vs. regular DVDs.  I can see that happenning with Blu-Ray / HD-DVD.

[Ears]

Blu -ray had 93% of stand alone sales last week in the U.S. and 83% of software sales.

Add in the PS3 on top of stand alone sales and ....( insert own conclusion) here.