newbie is panicing

[timjmayer]

Ok, I am new,
here is my story and problem.

I bought a A2 player at price match plus 10% for 90.00.
Great deal I know. Since then I have bought 25 new movies and 6 used one from FYE. I am now panicking as I have now invested in the format. I have a limit amount of flexible spending, and in the last two weeks I have been obsessed buying movies, they look great. My best bud, and the guy who talked me into HD just got a bluray today, After talking me into HD DVD he went Blu, and now is try to get me to get another machine. Has anyone else considered going with both? I really don't have the money to, but I was hoping to lend movies with this guy and now I feel like he is a redsox fan and I am a yankee fan.

I am serious, any suggestions would be cool.

 

[GeorgeLV]

Just wait. Blu-ray players will be cheap enough next holiday season in the increasingly likely event that it becomes the next generation format winner.

To save some bucks until then, resist the urge to buy and join a rental service.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Ive got both and rent from Netflix, I could not be happier. I originally bought a ps3 for my BD player because I prefer that format to win. With Paramounts defection and the $98 A2 I could not resist HDDVD anymore. Ive gone from getting 6-7 of 10 movies in HD to 19 of 20

 

[Ilya]

For the price savings that you just made you can buy several months of Netflix membership. Forget about the format war and enjoy the movies! There is a ton of them to enjoy. If you ever reach the bottom of your HD DVD queue and realize that you want more, then you can concider going with the second format (hopefully the price will drop by then).

Remember: you bought the player to enjoy movies, not to enjoy "the format"!

 

[williamkmurphy]

You got your analogy wrong you're the red sox fan and he is the yankees fan. When its all said and done he'll be the one sitting at home with an expensive useless piece of equipment (Arod).

 

[haertig]

If you were worried about investing in a format, and have limited flexible spending, why did you buy 31 movies? No offense intended, but that had to cost you over $500.

If you're now worried, I'd try to get as much return out of them as possible by selling on the used market. If you have some that are not even opened yet, maybe you can return them to the store or at least sell them for a premium "used" price.

You've already bought about 10% of all available HDDVD titles. Which probably covers most the ones worth watching in the first place. At least cut your (perceived) losses now, and stop buying. Rent the rest until you're more sure of your decision to buy HDDVD.

I bought an A2 for $98. And I've only bought two HDDVD titles: King Kong (for demo purposes) and Planet Earth (because I like such documentaries). That cost me around $75 for the pair, and that's about as far as I'm going in the purchase department for a while. I'll rent the rest.

 

[duckydan]

I own both and own a substantial amount of discs. I have no desire to pick a single format as the war will likely go on for a few years (unless warner decides to go with one or another as they are the biggest card holder right now.) If certain titles or companies interest you (for me it is Disney/Pixar that draws most of my business) then go with both. A BD player can be found for around 300-400 if you look hard enough (or go with a PS3) which isn't much of an investment considering it is still technically the early adoption phase and DVD players cost the same.

 

[vurbano]

Just wait. Blu-ray players will be cheap enough next holiday season in the increasingly likely event that it becomes the next generation format winner.

To save some bucks until then, resist the urge to buy and join a rental service.

They will not be under 100 bucks. Probably not under 200 Bucks.

 

[vurbano]

Ok, I am new,
here is my story and problem.

I bought a A2 player at price match plus 10% for 90.00.
Great deal I know. Since then I have bought 25 new movies and 6 used one from FYE. I am now panicking as I have now invested in the format. I have a limit amount of flexible spending, and in the last two weeks I have been obsessed buying movies, they look great. My best bud, and the guy who talked me into HD just got a bluray today, After talking me into HD DVD he went Blu, and now is try to get me to get another machine. Has anyone else considered going with both? I really don't have the money to, but I was hoping to lend movies with this guy and now I feel like he is a redsox fan and I am a yankee fan.

I am serious, any suggestions would be cool.

I own both.

 

[ONUOsFan]

Ok, I am new,
here is my story and problem.

I bought a A2 player at price match plus 10% for 90.00.
Great deal I know. Since then I have bought 25 new movies and 6 used one from FYE. I am now panicking as I have now invested in the format. I have a limit amount of flexible spending, and in the last two weeks I have been obsessed buying movies, they look great. My best bud, and the guy who talked me into HD just got a bluray today, After talking me into HD DVD he went Blu, and now is try to get me to get another machine. Has anyone else considered going with both? I really don't have the money to, but I was hoping to lend movies with this guy and now I feel like he is a redsox fan and I am a yankee fan.

I am serious, any suggestions would be cool.

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do at this point if you're not willing or able to buy a BD player/PS3. Just look at the bright side: you have a good player that will have a good catalog of great-looking movies.

If you were that concerned about "picking the wrong side," you probably would have been better off waiting another year or two, but in either case you'll still have a good player that will play a lot of good movies and upconvert your SD DVD's.

I personally own both and prefer Blu-Ray, but I have no problem with HD-DVD. The only thing you're losing at this point is access to certain movies (Disney, Fox, etc) that are BD exclusive. If you're a die hard fan (no pun intended) of some of those movies, you'll have to either hope that HD wins out and they re-release them on that format or wait and save up for a BD player. Otherwise, enjoy what you can get on HD and upconvert the BD-exclusives that you have on DVD.

As others have said, getting a Netflix account in lieu of buying and using the money you'd save to buy a BD player is not a bad option, if you really want both. At the rate you're buying, you could save up enough pretty quick.

 

[jjb721]

Ok, I am new,
here is my story and problem.

I bought a A2 player at price match plus 10% for 90.00.
Great deal I know. Since then I have bought 25 new movies and 6 used one from FYE. I am now panicking as I have now invested in the format. I have a limit amount of flexible spending, and in the last two weeks I have been obsessed buying movies, they look great. My best bud, and the guy who talked me into HD just got a bluray today, After talking me into HD DVD he went Blu, and now is try to get me to get another machine. Has anyone else considered going with both? I really don't have the money to, but I was hoping to lend movies with this guy and now I feel like he is a redsox fan and I am a yankee fan.

I am serious, any suggestions would be cool.

This is entertainment. HD DVD and BD combined cost less than taking a family of four to a couple of major sporting events. As others have mentioned, Netflix is cheap and I have had great service from them. I have an HD A20 and a Philips BDP9000 feeding a Sony KDL46XBR2 and am very happy with all.

 

[timjmayer]

thanks

alot of good answers. I agree, I am going to join netfix and rent for awhile, and try to stash some money away. Maybe I will buy a BluRay if the prices go down a bit, but I will enjoy the HD DVD for now, and not worry about what could or will happen. I understand thats the life of cutting edge electronics.

Thanks for all the advice

 

[bhelms]

$98 for a player is not really an "investment", not in the Grand Scheme Of Things...! Even with the cost of the movies (and you can recoup part of that by selling them) you're still a long way from a level of real investment that you might end up regretting. Enjoy what you have for now and even if you end up going BD in the future, what you have already spent on HD DVD can't be considered wasted!

For giggles and grins - When HiFi VHS VCRs were just hitting the market ('84 timeframe), I bought a Panasonic for close to $1,000 !! (That was when $1K went a whole lot further, too!) Back then we did not buy VHS movies often ($80+ typically) but we rented everything that had a HiFi track. In time they all did. Over the years I bought a total of 4 HiFi VCRs. The last one was about $90, IIRC. I have a whole bookcase full of VHS tapes, but I haven't watched any of them since converting to DVDs, and now HD DVDs, about 8 years ago. I haven't regretted one penny spent on any of the higher-end technology stuff. The >> wow! << factor, enjoyed in the moment, was always worth it...!

Welcome to the forum, BTW...!

 

[Jamey K]

Microsoft & Apple have been at this for years. Sign up for Nexflix and enjoy the show.