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garyfritz
Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:48 am Post subject: |
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I'd *prefer* a PS3 for a BD player -- not only is it upgradeable &etc, I figure it will have a MUCH higher resale value than any typical DVD player. I'm not crazy about the bluetooth remote but that's workable.
Now if the things just didn't cost $400...
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WTS
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 1276
Location: Calgary
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:04 am Post subject: |
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Well isn't $400 less than most BR players that are worth actually buying?
What's wrong with the bluetooth remote, is that the extra remote that actually looks like a remote.
I see they are giving away 5 BR movies with purchase.
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garyfritz
Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:43 am Post subject: |
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Yes, $400 is reasonable compared to other BD players. It's just more than I'm willing/able to spend for another HD player.
Because the remote is bluetooth, you can't use it with universal remotes unless you add in extra stuff.
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jask
Joined: 17 Mar 2006
Posts: 10187
Location: kamloops BC
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:34 am Post subject: |
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I really like this one,(from the same site) to summarize:
"we had to roll out blu-ray early and buggy to keep up with HD-DVD , and our soon to be implemented new standards will leave all the players we have sold so far.....unable to play the new media!!! "even the BD people at CES told the interviewer the PS3 was the ONLY player to buy as it could be updated.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Bluray_Early_adopters_knew_what_they_were_getting_into/1199841379
sure the HD guys may seem a little sad right now,but they will get at least one more good laugh 
any reason to think the LG drive will not be able to "upgrade" ?
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Z-Photo
Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 2749
Location: Huntsville - Alabama
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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Thats why you buy a PS3 - plus all the other features....
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emdawgz1
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Posts: 7949
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:07 pm Post subject: |
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| jask wrote: |
I really like this one,(from the same site) to summarize:
"we had to roll out blu-ray early and buggy to keep up with HD-DVD , and our soon to be implemented new standards will leave all the players we have sold so far.....unable to play the new media!!! "even the BD people at CES told the interviewer the PS3 was the ONLY player to buy as it could be updated.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Bluray_Early_adopters_knew_what_they_were_getting_into/1199841379
sure the HD guys may seem a little sad right now,but they will get at least one more good laugh
any reason to think the LG drive will not be able to "upgrade" ? |
I call Bull on that story.
Im supposed to believe that a "representative" from the blu ray camp is telling a media outlet "Representatives at the Blu-ray booth at CES told BetaNews that the PlayStation 3 is currently the only player they would recommend, due to upcoming changes to the platform. But Pioneer, Samsung, Panasonic and Sony have all been selling standalone Blu-ray players to customer "
While their clients Sony, Pioneer, Samsung and Panasonic are mere yards away selling obsolete machines?
Bull 
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emdawgz1
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Posts: 7949
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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Also as i look at the specs for Blu ray 2.0 or BD Live, i dont think i want it.
Blu-ray 2.0, also known as BD-Live, is a new profile of Blu-ray technologies that includes new specifications with the objective to provide new content thanks to Internet connections. At least, that is what it is supposed to do, and what Sony has claimed it should be.
Basically, the specifications required by Blu-ray 2.0 are advanced interactivity features such as live web-enabled, picture-in-picture bonus features, and local storage.¹ For example, movie studios should be able to integrate the possibility to download new trailers or additional bonuses when you own a Blu-ray disk. This can be interesting, because players and PlayStation 3 consoles include 20GB to 60GB hard drives.
I dont believe that profile 1 and 1.1 players will not be able to PLAY new b/r discs. They just wont have the interactivity available... i'm ok with that.
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MYoung
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 369
Location: Madison, WI
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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Downloading trailers to collect them would be a cool feature in a HD player. I used to rip trailers from DVDs and play them before screening a movie with friends. Studios could even have web-enabled voting for what titles to transfer next. Wait, that's a good idea so they probably won't do that. Or maybe they will charge money for downloading trailers. Get as much water out of those stones as possible!
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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| MYoung wrote: | | Downloading trailers to collect them would be a cool feature in a HD player. I used to rip trailers from DVDs and play them before screening a movie with friends. Studios could even have web-enabled voting for what titles to transfer next. Wait, that's a good idea so they probably won't do that. Or maybe they will charge money for downloading trailers. |
The PS3 has free 1080P downloads of upcoming movie trailers and blu-ray teasers.
I've probably downloaded/collected over 100 of them. Great 1080P demo clips.
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MYoung
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 369
Location: Madison, WI
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kal
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Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 18114
Location: Ottawa, Canada
TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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| emdawgz1 wrote: | Also as i look at the specs for Blu ray 2.0 or BD Live, i dont think i want it.
Blu-ray 2.0, also known as BD-Live, is a new profile of Blu-ray technologies that includes new specifications with the objective to provide new content thanks to Internet connections. At least, that is what it is supposed to do, and what Sony has claimed it should be.
Basically, the specifications required by Blu-ray 2.0 are advanced interactivity features such as live web-enabled, picture-in-picture bonus features, and local storage.¹ For example, movie studios should be able to integrate the possibility to download new trailers or additional bonuses when you own a Blu-ray disk. This can be interesting, because players and PlayStation 3 consoles include 20GB to 60GB hard drives.
I dont believe that profile 1 and 1.1 players will not be able to PLAY new b/r discs. They just wont have the interactivity available... i'm ok with that. |
Correct. Some of the more advanced 'special features' like picture in picture won't work if you don't have a player with a new profile, but all the core functionality of actually playing back the movie will work just fine.
If you don't want the BDLive (profile 2.0) stuff, then just don't plug the player into your network.
Kal
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kal
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="Clarence]The PS3 has free 1080P downloads of upcoming movie trailers and blu-ray teasers.
I've probably downloaded/collected over 100 of them. Great 1080P demo clips.[/quote]
It's a great feature. My friends always like to watch them before the "main feature". Most are FULL HD 1080p too. I wish however that the sound wasn't just 2-channel. I've yet to notice one trailer that was in full 5.1.
Kal
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garyfritz
Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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Wonder if it will be possible to disable the BDlive stuff? It might be useful to have the player hooked into the network, and unplugging it might be an inconvenient way to kill BDlive.
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kal
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emdawgz1
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Posts: 7949
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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I would also bet that the new protocol allows them to enable DRM. It may let them stream advertisements and such to you.
I dont want to be on the "grid" 
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kal
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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An interesting article on how Toshiba/Paramount/Universal may be trying to better position themselves for a Sony payout:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205604607
| Quote: |
Toshiba Refuses To Wave The White Flag In HD DVD-Blu-Ray War
It's likely that Sony over time would be willing to pay Toshiba to drop HD DVD, so the industry could focus on the one format and end consumer jitters, one analyst suggests.
By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek
January 14, 2008 03:13 PM
Toshiba, which recently suffered a major setback in its fight to dominate the high-definition movie format for DVDs, on Monday dropped the prices of its HD DVD players and said it would beef up its marketing campaign against the Sony-backed Blu-ray format.
At least one analyst, however, said Toshiba had little chance of winning, and its bravado was more likely an attempt to save face and create a better negotiating position against Blu-ray supporters who would like to see HD DVD go away as quickly as possible.
In the meantime, however, Toshiba was defiant, unveiling lower prices for its HD DVD players. The entry-model HD-A3 is now selling for a manufacturer suggested retail price of $150, the HD-A30 with true HD output of 1080p had a MSRP of $200, and the high-end HD-A35 $300.
In addition, Toshiba said in a statement that it would embark on an "extended advertising campaign" to highlight the benefits of HD DVD over its competitor. The campaign would consist of television, print and online advertising, and would include a mail-in offer in which buyers of a Toshiba player could choose five movie titles at no charge from a list of 15.
Toshiba and other supporters of the HD DVD format suffered a major blow Jan. 4 when Hollywood studio Warner Bros. Entertainment said it would release titles exclusively in Blu-ray starting in June. Warner Bros., which accounts for 20% of the DVD market, had been supporting both formats.
Warner Bros.' defection leaves Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures as the only movie studios releasing HD DVD movies. With so much more content available on Blu-ray starting in the middle of the year, it was unlikely people would buy HD DVD players, analysts said.
Toshiba's latest announcement appeared to be aimed at saving face and building a better future bargaining position with Sony, Michael Greeson, president and principal analyst for The Diffusion Group, told InformationWeek.
"You have more negotiating clout if you continue to actively support the HD DVD format," he said. "If you rollover and play dead, then you have no clout."
It's likely that Sony over time would be willing to pay Toshiba to drop HD DVD, so the industry could focus on the one format and end consumer jitters over buying high-definition DVDs and players. The format wars have kept consumers on the sidelines, preferring to wait to see which format wins before investing money in hardware.
In addition, Toshiba could also negotiate to get some revenue from future Blu-ray-related sales by getting some of its intellectual property into future versions of the technology, Greeson said.
"In the end, you're going to see a pretty big check from Sony to drop the (HD DVD) format," the analyst said. "It's in Sony's interest to get this over with as quickly as possible."
In the meantime, Toshiba is unlikely to get much more than lukewarm support from retailers, since it would be unfair to tell a customer to buy a player that has less content available than its competitor. "It's difficult to rationalize that you're being fair to the customer, if you don't tell them that the content advantage is clearly with Blu-ray," Greeson said.
While continuing its battle, Toshiba could see an increase in sales of its entry-level HD DVD player. That's because the lower price puts it in position to compete against standard DVD players. Greeson said that while Blu-ray and HD DVD players can convert regular DVDs to produce high-definition-like images, Toshiba is trying to use this feature to differentiate its new lower-priced players and thus help spur sales. "That was clever on their part," Greeson said of Toshiba.
The battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD has often been compared to the VHS-Betamax battle that ushered in the VCR era. Sony lost with Betamax, but hoped to avoid the same fate with Blu-ray by leveraging partnerships and the popularity of its PlayStation 3 videogame console, which it released in late 2006 with an integrated Blu-ray disc drive.
Many Hollywood and consumer electronics manufacturers took sides in support of either Blu-ray or HD DVD. MGM, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, and Sony are exclusively releasing DVDs in Blu-ray, while Universal and Paramount distributed only in HD DVD. Warner was the only major studio left supporting both formats, after Paramount chose HD DVD last year.
Among player manufacturers, Sony, Hitachi and Philips favor Blu-ray, while Toshiba and NEC support HD DVD. Toshiba led the effort in the creation of HD DVD.
This article was edited on January 14 to modify an error in the analyst's comments.
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MYoung
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 369
Location: Madison, WI
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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Their source analyst originally stated, and I'm paraphrasing, that an advantage of HD DVD over Blu-ray was the ability of HD DVD players to upconvert DVD to near HD quality. First of all, Blu-ray can upconvert. Second, even when upconverting, there's no gain in resolution. Garbage in, garbage out. Can "near HD quality" be defined as 1/6th the resolution of HD, assuming 1080p? Because that's what DVD upscaled to HD is. Funny how you can be an analyst and get something like that wrong.
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ecrabb
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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That's not how I read it. When the analyst said they were using that feature to differentiate, I think he was referring to the fact that they were doing it on a $150 player. They're essentially saying, "Hey, if you're going to buy a new DVD player, you might as well get one of our HD-DVD players for not a lot more money. It'll make your regular DVDs look better, and you'll have HD capability... for $150." That's something the BD camp can't even come remotely close to doing or saying because their entry level is close to double that price... that's differentiation in action.
Besides, on a couple of the early BD players, wouldn't they either not play or not up-convert SD DVD? I thought I remembered that.
SC
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kal
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ecrabb
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:04 pm Post subject: |
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Ohhhh... yeah, that's BS. Never mind, then.
SC
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