HD and Blu-Ray DVD

[Murph]

Ok, I am thinking of adopting one of these, and I am leaning towards Blu-Ray DVD. I like the Samsung offerings on BluRay, and wonder if there are any here who have purchased one of the players. My TV is HD compliant, and its a Samsung.

[thelegend1472]

I plan on going the HD DVD route with my 360 since I already have the unit. But I can't say enough about Samsung. Definitely quality stuff. It depends on who you talk to but "Blu-Ray" seems to be the tech of the future. That's all I sell at Dell. We don't offer the alternative. And I know when you go to Walmart and places...they seem to have more Blu-Ray dvd's available to buy. As far as buying a good unit. www.cnet.com

[ST77]

I want to go to HD but I am holding off for a bit longer I want to see which format is going to win the high-def war as there just isnt enough money for both formats to survive. Add the fact that now some movies are only being released on either HDDVD or Blue-Ray puts me even further away from purchase.

[billbunton]

I've got a Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-Ray (just finished watching The Fifth Element :-). For a second or third generation product, the player really doesn't impress me much. It works, but is kind of clunky and slow. Personally, if I were buying again I'd be tempted to try the Sony player instead (that's not a recommendation, since I've never used it...)

[Crashoran]

I remember reading a side-by-side comparison with HD-DVD having the edge on image quality. I plan on getting the add-on for the xbox360 and the free movies that come with it.

[dbphotos]

Why choose? Get this unit that plays both...

http://www.amazon.com/LG-BH100-High-...5356592&sr=8-1

[fivegrand]

Wait for the adult film industry. That's what will decide which format will "win."

[Murph]

Or this: Soon to be released.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-BD-UP5.../dp/B000VDG0UK

[Donner]

Originally Posted by fivegrand

Wait for the adult film industry. That's what will decide which format will "win."

I read an article a while ago about how the adult film industry isn't actually all that thrilled about the HD stuff. While they will surely lead the way with one format or the other, they have realized that the resolution is soo good that things like razor bump are showing up too clearly. And i don't mean on the neck region...

Sorry to digress.

[Panama Kid]

Reminds me of the days back when everyone was deciding between Betamax & VHS.............

I have a PS3, so, I'm going with Blu-Ray, at first HD-DVD had more dvd's out and it's backed my Paramont Studios, and Sony is pushing the Blu-Ray's, so, it's going to be a while before they decide on a standard format and it's really irratating that there are two. Why can't they all just get along and decide on one format! I'll probably end up buying an HD-DVD as well since I think both formats will be around for a while.

[jon_k]

Don't have a HI-DEF TV, so non-issue for me. I buy DVD's.

HD-DVD is by Microsoft
Bluray is by Sony

Not a fan of either companies. For those squirmish just wait until one format wins and use that format. When it happens, all movies that were once exlcusive to the 'loser format' will be remastered for the format that won.

I won't be making a choice until one or the other wins.

[newtune3]

We have Blu-ray as we have PS3 attached tothe Panasonic DLP. I enjoy the HD movies, but I must say that standard def DVD on my Denon player using and HDMI cable are really really good. The HD mediums are both OK but I am not going to replace my DVD library anytime soon. Let us know what you decide and why.

[HeatherLou]

We went with Blu-ray, since Jeff is a big gamer guy, we got a PS3 in May. Jeff has all these wonderful reasons he think Blu-ray will win. Since he works at Hastings, he is starting to see a trend come up. HD only has Paramount, with the exception of Speilbergs movies, because he is a big Blu-ray supporter. The Weinstien Group, (Planet Terror) and Universal supporting them. Sony, Fox, Disney and everything they own, (abc, Touchstone, Mirimax, & MGM) have all gone blu-ray. Also, Lots of retail places are starting to go exclusively blu-ray (Target) but NONE of them are going exclusively HD. As of right now, for every one HD dvd sold, two Blu-rays are sold. As far as players, its one HD to 9 Blu-ray, but that is a bit skewed, because you throw Playsation 3 into the mix.
A link to all the companies that are involved with Blu-ray.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association

[Terrancelee]

As of November 13, 2007, 336 HD DVD titles have been released in the USA.[3] As of September 15, 2007, 133 HD DVD titles have been released in Japan, while 21 titles pending to be released

As of October 23, 2007, 351[2] titles have been released on Blu-ray Disc in the United States (32 of those titles have since been discontinued). As of October 9, 2007, 179 titles have been released in Japan, with 55 titles planned for release.[3]

I would have thought by now more movies would be released. Good chart of tech info at the end of either of these pages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

I personally think if one of the formats would drop a bomb this holiday season with $100 players, they would win out. Flood the market with players and get it over with.

[jeffkohn]

HD-DVD has a definite cost advantage, and I think this will help them pull ahead. The cheapest Blu-Ray player is $400, but on the HD-DVD side Toshiba has players for $199 (and they were recently on sale for $99). Dreamworks also recently went HD-DVD exclusive. HD-DVD titles also tend to be cheaper.

Blu-Ray has really stumbled on a lot of technical issues, from the poor encode quality of their early releases, to the endless delays in getting the interactive BD-J stuff working. The first Blu-Ray players were lacking in features despite being extremely expensive. If it wasn't for the competition from HD-DVD, we'd probably still be stuck with mostly MPEG-2 Blu-Ray releases without lossless audio. Sony has already had to re-release titles like 5th Element becuase the first BD release was so poor.

I'm dual-format, because with a media PC it was just a matter of getting a combo drive. But I would definitely prefer to see HD-DVD win (which BTW is not just a Microsoft standard, Toshiba is the main backer), so when a disc is available on both formats I buy HD- DVD. Sony is just too arrogant when it comes to proprietary formats, plus I do not think it's good for the consumer for Sony to increase their stranglehold on the entertainment industry, controlling the format and hardware in addition to much of the content through their studios.