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Just wanted to point that out considering the comment that HD DVD was the consumer friendly :)
Your pointing this out helps prove my point that HD DVD is consumer friendly, actually. I'm generally for the standard that offers flexibility and options for consumers, not the one that forces you to overpay for equipment you can't take advantage of.
I personally don't have a TV that can support any better than 1080i (and I'm not alone), so why should I be forced to pay more than twice as much for equipment I don't need?
HD DVD had exactly what I needed at the price I wanted, hence more consumer friendly...
And I'd gladly give up 1080p support for the more consumer friendly format (HD DVD) which has Internet connectivity and no region restrictions.
It's a good business practice to slash prices when something becomes obsolete. They're cutting losses, and customers are getting the technology at a cheaper price with a decent selection of movies. They didn't make a promise to the consumers to continue releasing movies in that format. They simply sell the product with the promise that it works with all movies that are currently out. Sony should not upgrade everyones last-generation Playstations for them because they no longer support the current PS3 release format.
Early DVD players didn't support progressive scan, DTS, upconversion, etc. Were early DVD supporters "screwed"?
Stop lying!
JE: BLURAY CAN PLAY NORMAL DVDS TOO !!
This product is disappointing from Sony. It is a very low end product; the load times for movies are 2-4 minutes.
Options for screen control are limited. Even though I have a wide screen T.V. (50 inch plasma), it does not fill the screen with the picture. You get the picture with a couple of inches of blank spae below and above the picture.
I have worked with tech support and all options and no resolution to the problem.
BluRay should be great, this is just another piece of junk.
More reactions from buyers here:
http://www.buzzillions.com/prd-676175-sony-blu-...
Consumers didn't vote with their feet. Consumers did not pick Blu-Ray. Consumers didn't pick 'more bandwidth and capacity'. Most consumers wouldn't know more bandwidth from their elbow. The studios picked Blu-ray for them. Sony's large pockets picked Blu-ray for them. Consumers didn't get a say in it.
Ther reason that the image doesn't fir your screen is because your screen isn't the same shape as a cinema screen - the screen that the film was shot to fill. If the image filled your screen it would either be stretched (tall, thin people) or the sides would have to be cut off.
Blu-Ray: A Sony format and is thus BAD. Little they have come out with in the past has been beneficial to the consumer in the past (hello memorystick!). Then to boot, Sony is basically keeping its "partners" from releasing players at a lower competitive price just cause they don't want the PS3 undercut. Guess what... the PS3 JUST HAPPENS to be the only Blu-Ray player that is basically future-proof due to its raw horsepower and firmware upgradeability. So my view is, as a format, its got a fair amount going for it that HD-DVD lacks (yet) but nothing that the average consumer will use(1080p is still rare). Sony backing it is a major negative (just in my opinion).
HD-DVD: It's a more consumer "friendly" format in that it has features that most people will use and supports only what is commonplace. As an immediate format its merely ok, as it doesnt have the 1080p of Blu-Ray for longevity, BUT it does have a much lower price point AND the possibility for future improvements. It is region free for those international movie buffs.
My personal opinion of both is that neither are really needed as movie studios could use decent compression and fit a 1080p movie on a dvd and still maintain fantastic quality which WOULD appeal to 90% of the population as it would allow a much easier transition. I get a lot of TV shows online from HD sources and they look fantastic, but only take up 700mb per 45 min (one hour show minus commercials). That makes a feature movie less than 2.5gb. Put it on a current dvd! Double the data rate, lose 90% of the artifacting, and the average movie is still 5gb, and all but the elitists will be happy.
Here is the state of things tho. People who have already bought into either format defend it fiercely since either one at this point is still a moderate investment and no one wants to see that "squandered". I have not bought either format yet for the reasons listed above and the fact that I will not take part in a "format war". I AM however going out in the next 45 min to buy a new 42" 1080p LCD TV, 6ms response time, and 6000:1 contrast for $950. Honestly. The cost is coming down people, and in the next 2-3 years ALL channels will be HD in some form. I dont tho, get all wet in the shorts over 1080p. I currently have a 37" LCD that does 720p, but the mother in law has macular degeneration and a 20" tv. so my old TV will be a gift and I will get the HD package on my satellite I guess. Why not?
Blu-Ray is a future orientated format, unready for today.
HD-DVD is the format for today, unsure of tomorrow.
I guess in a way, Microsoft helped kill HD-DVD. I wonder what they will do now with the 360 for HD movies. Downloads only?
pull your pants up and stop crying. HD-DVD lost, 1080i cheap players lost. Its over, move on.
Its a little too late to keep trying to push the "consumer friendly" talking point when more Consumers buy Bluray.
Period.
You must like your movies in Dolby Mono
When the average consumer is ready for HD Media, Blu-ray will be in the perfect position: Lots of manufacturers to choose from, the most studio support, the most industry support.
At this point, I question the intelligence levels of the HD DVD fan boys.
Believe me, once you sell your HD DVD player and movies on eBay and put that towards a Blu-ray player, you'll wonder what the hell was wrong with you.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8pl...
Then there's the story of memory cards such as Secure Digital (SD) as in cameras, and other hand held devices, vs Sony Memory sticks at twice the price.
And now they should jump in bed with Blue Ray (a-la Play Station 3!).
"I just don't know"!
I will say this. I don't know why people want the wars to end so quick. Competition is great. Could you imagine just Sony running the show? This war propably helped in a big way to drop prices so quickly on players and getting heaps of free movies when making a purchase.
playing CD's as well and all of the triligy of Borne moves is
in HD DVC.
Before U know it and the A-30 will be $100 and then I will buy one.
CD is not Sony's. It was a joint effort, and mostly developled from Philips current LaserDisc technology.
3.5" is also nothing to be proud of
.
However, Sony Proprietary Crap:
BetaMax
Sony MemoryStick
MicroMV
Mini-CD
UMD PSP only - Movie Format
Now by crap, i don't mean quality, i mean licensing and corporate greed.
Sure BetaMax was better techonologically speaking, but they were stingy and didnt share. Same with memry stick, Mini-CD UMD PSP. Thats why they failed.
Winning the war and still whining. Freddy
One point I want to make clear:
I’m likely not spending any more on HD DVDs. In fact, I haven’t bought any other than the 10 that came as part of my original deal. I’m now enjoying HD content via my HD player solely through HD DVDs from Netflix.
When the point of reference is movie theater ticket prices, it's hard to see how HD DVD (or Blu-ray) owners have "wasted" any money (regardless of which one dies now... or later).
Meaning, it doesn't take watching that many HD movies (via Netflix or another means of getting HD content for your HD player at no additional cost) in a home theater HD setup before the cost justifies the savings of movie theater tickets.
Meanwhile we have a format that is entirely dependent on a game console and it is a Sony lovefest of moronic fanboys. Grow a brain already, the BDA has done nothing but take you for a ride and you love every minute of it. You think they give a crap about the consumers ?
Blue or red lasers will be a thing of the past. There's new technology just around the corner. Just like a hard drive, the GB's increase and get better each year. Buy what you want now...enjoy it....be excited about the next generation of dvd's to come....
You're telling me that ratios tell the story? The story I'm seeing is that both formats have failed, and that it's only a matter of time before, just as with the SACD/DVD-A section of Best Buy, we go back to the inferior DVD format. That's really my prediction, because I think Sony, in trying to force an admittedly superior format down our throats, just killed the high-def movie disc market as thoroughly as they killed the high-def audio market when they set out to kill DVD-A.
Not that I mind. My Toshiba HD DVD unit plays DVDs dern near as well as the cream of the crop in the upscaling DVD player market, and I have a little bit of HD content to show off to people. And if Blu-Ray takes off, I can wait until faster, cheaper, more reliable players come out. I don't mind. I bet the studios who sought to "end the format war" will if many of us do, though. :-
LOL. I just love it when this happens because those retarded Sony haters take all this so seriously. Guess what? You are a minority, retards. 99% of the population don't freaking care about your love/hate of company X.
I almost bought a PS3 right after the warner brother news but the price stopped me. I can not back a side that is just so much more expensive with competition.
I do not care that my hd-dvd player only plays in 1080i since my tv only plays in 1080i.
"Blu-ray players on the market are designed without “future-compatibility capabilities.” This means that bonus features on titles released starting in October will not be playable on current Blu-ray players. Wow."
Do some more research. Most early blu-ray players "are" upgradeable. I own three different models which I upgrade about once every couple of months with new software updates.
Right under price and shipping information on the product page it says the following:
"Free HD DVD Rebate offer: Get 5 Free HD DVDs after Mail-in rebate when you buy a qualifying Toshiba HD-DVD player."
This is in addition to the 2 that come up with it, which makes a total of 7.
Except they blame the fact that their format isn't done on a format that was in the works BEFORE Blu-Ray. They're being dishonest about why the early adopters are getting screwed.
"LOL. I just love it when this happens because those retarded Sony haters take all this so seriously. Guess what? You are a minority, retards. 99% of the population don’t freaking care about your love/hate of company X."
Retarded for following the DVD standards committee, eh? Retarded for betting against a format created by a company with a strong track record of fail? I think we all just failed to realize how much cash Sony was willing to crap to force Blu-Ray to win.
So, yeah, the ultimately superior format will win, and eventually people like me will buy a player. However, only a fool would buy before the Christmas season since BD Live players won't be available until at least October. Yeah, I know about the PS3; I'm not going to buy a game console to play movies. so for one more year, I'll hold off on both HD movie purchases and will hold off on purchasing ANY movies as I don't want to keep stocking up on SD movies.
My collection of SD DVDs looks awesome on my HD player though. :-D
And yes, you can get 5 titles in the mail on top of the included two, which makes for seven. The selection is pretty limited but I'm sure some people will go nuts for movies like Pitch Black and Rattle Hum.
A3 1080i (good for me cause my TV is 720p)
A30 1080p
A35 1080p
Yes Blu has a 50gig disk but hardly any of the new movies are released on them, so that is a moot point.
Sony took a bath of 2 billion on the first year sales of PS3. Its a gaming machine first a player second. If someone said I want to by a DVD player would you recommend them to buy a Xbox Elite???
IMO Sony has not allowed or given all the information to thier fellow Blu Ray makerss (ie SHarp,Samsung,Pionner, LG etc) is so that they keep releasing players that are not meeting the future goals. This will make ppl ask " Whats the best Blu ray player to buy.. Well thats the PS3.. The gaming machine"
If you read alot of forums, you will see tha alot of the 1.0 players can't play 3:10 to Uma,Sunshine,PoC:3. Sammy 1300 for example I think I do know the unit is a 1300. Oh sure it is being addressed and a patch is due next week but the thing is "Why must I wait for a patch to come out so I can watch my movie I just spent $30+ on?"
OH. but you know the Toshiba machines since the A2 line all came with 2.0 , pip and they don't require updates to allow ppl to watch movies.
Consumers didn't pick Blu they where forced to go blu. I will contiune to support HD till the last 3 companies change sides. Then I will go back to watching SD movies till the BDA groups can make a dependable player that can equal what Toshiba made.
OH D/L HD movies... won't happen any time soon. I'm in Canada where we have laid miles of fiber optics so some places can get high speed d/l. But ya know my home town the fastest connection is still phone lines. You won't be seeing ppl pulling down HD 1080p with 7.1 DTS surround sound over the phone lines that takes them 5-7hrs, then gotta find a way to hook thier PC to the TV. Tell me how many ppl in all of the US has access to High speed and then ask them if they want to wait 5-6 hrs to get that HD movie to d/l. OH sure MoD is coming but do you actually own the movie or just rent it? What if 2 yrs from now you want to rewatch the movie from MoD will it still be there? Will you have to pay for it again?
Sorry but d/l media won't be happening for atleast 10yrs till they can get the delievery faster, then they have to get ppl to start hooking thier PC's to the Tv's..
But for the AV-obsessed of you who've dropped thousands on your setups, complete with "ultra-high quality" snake-oil cables, you can have your Blu-ray. Enjoy having your wallet in bed with Sony.
Digital distribution is the real future... disc-based movie distribution formats are going to go the way of the music CD sooner or later. It already has for most of the college students I know. The adults and movie studios will catch up at some point.
Even the iPhone is a PC capable of streaming movies over the web.
And broadband penetration is increasing. As of '07, 80% of internet-going households in the US were on broadband, and the broadband companies are increasing the speed of their connections fairly frequently.
Toshiba is seriously thinking of not turning a short profit just to gain future dominance on the future of HD. Warner Bros Paramount have left and Toshiba will regain them very soon(2 months). Millions of HD players will be sold leaving the movie studios NO CHOICE but to once more make HD DVD's for the players. The only way that Blue Ray will get supremacy is if they have a player under $199 on the shelf by April 2008. NOT A CHANCE. Remember that one of the factors that allowed VHS to beat BETA was that they had the contract to adult film. This time around Toshiba has the contract to HD DVD. Toshiba will have 1080i players under $100 by the end of February and 1080p players for about $175 this is how they will prevail. (inside info.)
I think it'll still go Blu, and if it does, I have a good DVD player until then thanks to the A3 I have something which plays DVDs exceedingly well on an HD set, and I can wait until this fall or winter when newer, fully-capable players come out, or even later if they're too high-priced.
On the other hand, if your blue-sky scenario comes true, I already have a player.
Either way, I feel I've won. It's good to be me. :-D
Seriously though, DVD does everything I need and it's going to be around for a while. Pair it with an upconverting player and a good HD LCD TV and bingo, good watchin'
Yeah; like I said above, I bought an HD DVD player, but at the price it was, it wasn't really a loss, not really. I mean, cheaper than an Oppo and comparable quality...ok, I already went through all that so I won't again, but right now the Blus aren't ready (I know this'll start a flame war, but it's true, it's still early, guys, chill...) and in two or three months I'll start on a 6-month period where I'll only watch TV for about 30 minutes a day, absolute tops. By the time I can watch TV again, BD-Live will be ready to go and will hopefully be at a decent price point.
So yeah...good call man. Stick with DVD, it's pretty darn good.
HD content is here, to stay. Where it will live is really yet to be determined. I would like to see streaming win the "format war" as I have all the equipment I need now to handle it. A decent PC. No $400+ player with $25+ movie disks. That sounds like a much easier transfer to me. For full disclosure, I own a 42" LCD 1080p TV and HD-DVD player. HD-DVD seems like the lesser of two evils to me, even tho it may die off in 1-2 years. I may end up "losing" that money, but I have spent only $170 on the A3 and got 9 movies. I dont like sony so no blu-ray for me. My past with sony is this:
Sony 50"+ rear projection TV with bad main board after 14 months ($980 part, repair declined, toss TV)
DSC-717 camera $1200 when they came out. Memory stick capacity a joke, dead CCD after 15 months. Toss camera.
Sony $400 DVD player when they first came out. Lens outta whack after 13 months. $275 repair, declined, toss player.
I LITERALLY have nothing in my home sony now cause it has all broken. I bought all that stuff around the same time and my opinion of Sony is that they mfg stuff to last just past the warranty period. The other thing is that once it is dead, it costs less to replace it than repair it due to tech prices dropping. Sony's business model doesnt include customer support at all. The least they could do to maintain customers is sell parts at cost on older models to keep customers. Instead I get the impression they double part costs. Just MY experience and I am only ONE person. I am quite sure there are millions of people who have bought nothing but sony and had good luck. Thats fine, but sony has lost me as a customer. I have no real plans on buying a PS3 just to watch movies since its the only completely future-proof Blu-Ray player (future-proof only as long as blu-ray lasts). That seems like it was setup that way, and without the consumer in mind.
Neither format is "bad". Just different, and those differences are disappering. Both do 1080p and have great sound. The only thing HD-DVD has really now is PiP en-mass, and Blu-Ray should be doing something about that soon enough.
To answer Crackinhedz, sure sure, as we all know, every DVD pressed from the studio comes in glorious Dolby mono, I can't imagine anyone needing more. I believe that goes back to my statement about the "elitits". "Well if it isn't (Scottish!!) Dolby TruHD then its CRAP!" The average consumer doesnt have the equipment to run 7.1 TruHD. Dolby digital 5.1 or there abouts is the best 90% of the market has. But its the same as with ALL tech, the top 10% drive the market. Nvidia makes a new video card, sells it for $500+. They sell 100,000+ worldwide. Then the next year they introduce a watered down version of the same card for $250+, that sells millions worldwide. But those hardcore enthusists are what drives the market when they soak up those $500+ cards.
All I am saying is thanks for driving the market, but dont act like ur the majority.
To everyone in general:
What ur doing is inflicting your tastes forcefully on others when you start screaming "X FORMAT IS DEAD! MOVE ON PEOPLE!" Then you yell at someone else for saying the opposite. What ur doing is no better than ANY mfg forcing a format on us consumers, which you just yelled about. You can't yell about having HD-DVD forced on you and then go be a "fanboy" for the other side. You are no better.
Bah, no one will stop what they are doing anywho. Thats why these format wars get passed over by me. Just don't go screaming at any one person unless you know their situation or reasons for buying one format or the other. Another disk format is bad, so they both lose in that regards. If there was a decent HD movie download service that was good, fast, and NOT riddled with crappy DRM, i would drop all my disks today.