Holy Moly Blu-Ray Disc Players below $300

I've been in several big box stores over the last few weeks. Looking at 1080p panels for a friend. I have talked with several salesmen, all of whom approached me and were selling me on the "new" High-Def DVD.

There was not a single comment about HD-DVD. I couldnt even drag out a comment. All I heard was Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray, did I mention Blu-Ray.

I would agree with Jkalman's first line: "I'd be careful what you listen to in this thread.". That includes his post, Rysa4's post and what I have to say.

That being said, it has been mentioned by many that the PS 3 is the best Blu-Ray player. I have not seen it because I am very hesitant to put a gaming system on my main TV. I learned this lesson many years ago thanks to my children. They all have gaming systems in their rooms now, but not on the 'family' TV. As they are older now, maybe I will investigate this possibility. Though yes, I have had problems mechanically with first generation Samsung and Sony Blu-Ray players. Hopefully these companies are ironing the bugs out of this new technology.

Jkalman has a valid point that the Blu-Ray is the superior format as far as technology goes. Rysa4 also has a valid point about HD-DVD being cheaper. As VHS demonstarted years ago in it's victory over Beta (also Sony), cheaper generally trumps superior technology. Though this format war could easily turn into a SACD/ DVD-A war too, where both superior sides lose to an even lower technology (MP-3's).

So what's it all mean? Nothing really. There will always be new electronic gadgets and toys for folks to argue over.
IMHO the reason the prices on the hardware is dropping so low is because, not unlike computers, the folks in this industry realize the real $$$ is made in the software.

Cheers,
John

Thats an opinion of course. But a lot of what I am laying out in this post is fact.

Nope. Most of what you are presenting is hearsay.

Whether or not there are "not a lot of manufacturing plants yet" is really meaningless. You can always convert plants or build new ones as needed. The point is, Blu-Ray discs have more capacity per layer per side than HD-DVD. End of story.

I own over 50 Blu-Ray discs, and have rented even more than that. So far I have not seen any issues with Blu-Ray discs not working or not playing due to spots, scratches or whatever else. Besides which, ALL formats suffer from occasional bad batches. I've occasionally had to return regular DVDs over the years due to manufacturing issues. So far I haven't had to return any Blu-Ray discs, but I guarantee that all formats (DVD, HD-DVD, and yes, Blu-Ray) will occasionally have bad batches where something buggy happened while making the discs. The companies producing Blu-Ray discs use special coatings to make the discs scratch resistant as well, making the whole scratched-surface argument pointless IMO. Are you going to take care of your discs or use them as frisbees?

The Blu-Ray specs are in place as well. Blu-Ray is currently using LPCM, but can also use any of the DTS and Dolby standards. Your comment that "you have no idea what you are going to get on the Blu Ray side" is garbage. There are only so many audio standards out there for video discs and Blu-Ray is designed to be backwards compatible by making important older codecs mandatory. Blu-Ray players are designed to support at least the mandatory codecs, so you do not have to worry about being able to play audio or video. Audio is not and will not be an issue.

As far as PS3s working with BD-J (Java). They will work, all that is required is software/firmware updates to the PS3. Java is a programming language, so all it would require is an operating system (or operating environment, or user interface environment - i.e. an embedded software or firmware OS like every preprocessor and digital source unit already has) that can execute Java runtime code. You can run Linux on a PS3, and Linux runs and executes (as well as compiles) Java source code. I should know, I used to do a lot of programming in it.

Stop trying to scare people...

For anyone with any doubts check out the links, but please don't put stock in the bologna people perpetuate about either format:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hd-dvd

Hi JK- Sorry but here is a recent post from a content producer. I have nothing to do with this person or the content of this post.

JBach Dec 20, 2007 2:24 AM GMT As a content producer I find there are three issues that wipe out Blu-Ray: 1.) Almost all Blu-Ray players cannot reliably render the content of an authored Blu-Ray disc. Authored discs play most reliably only on the PS3. The profile describing the requirements to build a Blu-Ray player is STILL INCOMPLETE, which is part of this problem. Reliable playback of a Blu-Ray disc being restricted to a PS3 player is a major issue in the business world. ADVANTAGE HD-DVD. 2.)Blu-Ray advanced authoring requires a Java-based programming environment. HD-DVD authoring is much like creating a web page. Blu-Ray becomes a programmer project, HD-DVD remains more of a web designer prosumer project. ADVANTAGE HD-DVD. 3.)The effort to retrofit a replication plant to do Blu-Ray is VERY significant. HD-DVD replication can be accomplished on a much smaller scale. While this is a one-time factor, the ease and relatively low cost of HD-DVD retrofitting makes more economic sense. ADVANTAGE HD-DVD.

I am sorry if you don't agree with these facts, but these type of concerns are well known and factual and appropriate for inclusion in discussion.

You are clearly an intelligent educated person with some capital behind you as well, but try and keep an open mind for discussion and realize some of us may know something too.

Thanks and have a great New Year!

Here is some information about storage capacities from JKalman's Wikipedia Link. This is exactly what I was referring to as far as most Blu Ray disks being 25 GB to Hd-DVDs 30 GB as an FYI.

As of November 2007, 44% of Blu-ray titles use the 50 GB disc and 56% use the 25 GB disc[90] while almost all HD DVD movies are in the 30 GB dual layer format.[91]

Not a huge deal at this point but does clarify and support what I was trying to say.