Now that the war is over, are you buying a Blu-ray player?

[loves2watch]

I'm waiting to see what Oppo comes out with as there is talk of them producing a Blu-ray player. I am going to wait for a while anyway to see if Blu-ray is successful or becomes a failed/niche format. Being an early adopter, I have spent many dollars on failed/niche formats and if this format is successful I will buy into it otherwise I will save my money for the next new thing as I have already invested considerably in HD DVD.

 

[Zookster]

I already have PS3, but if prices come down enough (closer to $200), I may have to get a standalone for the GF who complains that we never hang out at her place, though she has an HDTV and an upconverting player.

 

[VinceT3]

I always questioned why I bothered buying HD movies... for me the price was the only reason puchased movies vs. recorded movies off of dish.. *shrug*

At this point I'll stick with recording movies

 

[Weezknight]

I'm actually a little surprised by the poll results. Out of those who don't have a BD player right now, almost 65% don't plan on buying one within the year. I honestly thought that more people would be buying one, just based on the fact that people around here tend to want HD and everything that goes with it.

ETA: The 65% was calculated at the time I posted this.

 

[gilmoreisu]

There needs to be another option since we don't know when the BD players will hit a reasonable price.

Purchase a BD player when it drops below $150.

Or maybe a whole new poll for those still sitting on the sidelines:

At what price point will you purchase a BD player?

 

[navychop]

I honestly thought that more people would be buying one, just based on the fact that people around here tend to want HD and everything that goes with it.

There's a lot of anger still over the loss of HD DVD. Let the grieving process work it's way thru. Later, when things calm down, people will look at buying. Maybe a few 4th of July sales will bring some people around. Long before Xmas this will be a dead topic.

 

[Ilya]

There needs to be another option since we don't know when the BD players will hit a reasonable price.
Purchase a BD player when it drops below $150.
Or maybe a whole new poll for those still sitting on the sidelines:
At what price point will you purchase a BD player?

Some are waiting for the price to come down, others are for the 2.0 players, or for certain title availability, etc. There are too many variables.

The question of this poll is more simple: Based on what you know, do you plan to buy a Blu-ray Disc player this year? And if so, how soon do you expect to do that?

 

[ocnier]

I think critical mass for purchases of blu ray players is around the $100 price point. Sony still has a way to go on this. Maybe by the end of this year, who knows.....

 

[navychop]

I would be dumbstruck if any Blu-ray players (not PC drives) went for under $100 in 2008. If that happens, there will be a lot of crying in CE company boardrooms.

 

[bhelms]

And that's exactly why I voted "no plans this year". As I replied in the other thread - what I currently have invested in HD DVD (player and 20+ titles including the freenees) is less than what I'm seeing the current BD players listed for. And I expect a lot of the HD DVD titles to become very available and very cheap for some time yet. With 500+ titles out there it will be quite a while before I run out of HD DVDs to watch. Loss of competion for BD may not serve us well in the end. Until that sorts itself out, I am content to wait on BD and continue enjoying the format I already have...

 

[gilmoreisu]

The question of this poll is more simple: Based on what you know, do you plan to buy a Blu-ray Disc player this year? And if so, how soon do you expect to do that?

That makes sense. Something I didn't think about was titles. If Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings were all avaialble, I'd probably buy one regardless of price.

 

[navychop]

bhelms:

You might be interested in this posting.

 

[FreddyvsJasonvsAsh]

if they are around the $100 range I might consider it

 

[SpaethCo]

Funny how for some people, upconverted DVD wasn't good enough- until HD DVD bit the dust. Then suddenly, high def doesn't matter, the old stuff is just fine.

I know of a few folks who were like me: just bought their first HDTV in the last 6-7 months and looked at upconverting players for $100 or HD-DVD players for $150 that also did upconverting. Don't get me wrong, the HD formats are definitely better -- just not $400 player + double-the-price-of-DVD for each movie better.

Some people will (or already have) shelled out a premium for BD players, but I think a vast many are willing to sit on the sidelines until players start coming down to that $100 price point and titles start getting within 10-20% of standard DVD pricing. I encourage all of you to go out and buy your standalone BD players now! The faster you encourage market competition for players the faster it will get down to a price point I'll buy in at.

 

[GaryPen]

I figure Panasonic should have one close to the $300 mark before the end of the year. That's when I'll take the jump.

 

[allargon]

I figure Panasonic should have one close to the $300 mark before the end of the year. That's when I'll take the jump.

Hopefully Oppo will have one under $500 that plays DVD-A, SACD, DivX plus profile 2.0 Blu.

 

[navychop]

That would interest me. Especially if it gets down to $300.

 

[Fitzie]

I haven't responded in the poll yet (but I will) but wanted to give my perspective on this issue.

The Blu-ray has some remaining technical issues which need to be fixed. Additionally, the prices on Blu-ray discs (movies) remains high and shows no signs of coming down. In addition to that, the end of the format war is a very, very bad occurrence for those who have not yet bought B-R, since lack of competition will leave the Blu-ray machines priced very high for quite a long time to come. Those who have celebrated joyously the end of the HD-DVD/Blu-ray format war (as a blu-ray supporter) will find--I believe--that you have secured a pyrric victory. You would have been better off if the war had continued, prices on discs came down as a result, and the Blu-ray machine continued improvement to catch up to HD-DVD.

I have an HD-DVD player, and it's a great upconverting machine. I don't know whether it will be durable or not, I have had mixed results with Toshiba DVD players. As a result, I am hoping to purchase another HD-DVD player as a reserve at fire sale prices to use as an SD upconvert player, to hold in cold storage for the time when my current player goes bonkers. Both Wal-mart and Best Buy should be having clearance sales soon.

I do plan to purchase a Blu-ray player when the price is less than $50. The time frame on this is up to Sony, my best estimate now is probably 2022 or 2023 (about the time essential Blu-ray patents expire).

Best regards to all, and especially those Blu-ray advocates who have what they wanted--a reduction of competition. For myself, I never wanted HD-DVD to completely win the war (well, maybe just a little) so much as price reductions on products through price wars.

Fitzie

 

[tnsprin]

I haven't responded in the poll yet (but I will) but wanted to give my perspective on this issue.

The Blu-ray has some remaining technical issues which need to be fixed. Additionally, the prices on Blu-ray discs (movies) remains high and shows no signs of coming down. In addition to that, the end of the format war is a very, very bad occurrence for those who have not yet bought B-R, since lack of competition will leave the Blu-ray machines priced very high for quite a long time to come. Those who have celebrated joyously the end of the HD-DVD/Blu-ray format war (as a blu-ray supporter) will find--I believe--that you have secured a pyrric victory. You would have been better off if the war had continued, prices on discs came down as a result, and the Blu-ray machine continued improvement to catch up to HD-DVD.

I have an HD-DVD player, and it's a great upconverting machine. I don't know whether it will be durable or not, I have had mixed results with Toshiba DVD players. As a result, I am hoping to purchase another HD-DVD player as a reserve at fire sale prices to use as an SD upconvert player, to hold in cold storage for the time when my current player goes bonkers. Both Wal-mart and Best Buy should be having clearance sales soon.

I do plan to purchase a Blu-ray player when the price is less than $50. The time frame on this is up to Sony, my best estimate now is probably 2022 or 2023 (about the time essential Blu-ray patents expire).

Best regards to all, and especially those Blu-ray advocates who have what they wanted--a reduction of competition. For myself, I never wanted HD-DVD to completely win the war (well, maybe just a little) so much as price reductions on products through price wars.

Fitzie

I have been a bluish-purple since November 2007. But I never saw blu-ray discs for more than HD-dvd discs, even before the BOGO sales(I was getting the 10% Amazon discount for all HD media). The BOGO sales drove me to greatly increase my Blu-ray collection rather than expanding on my HD-DVD discs. I only have my free HD-DVD discs and a couple of Univeral titles I purchased.

My PS3 seems to upgrade DVD's at least as well as my A2. I did hear however that the XA2 was an excellent upgrading player.

Other than Ethernet support from day one, I saw at least as many missing features with the enty level HD-DVD players as with various Blu-Ray players.

Since I have a PS3 I am more isolated from the missing features. I am in no rush to replace it. It already has Profile 1.1 and Live(2.0) support was shown on it and is announced as coming. Internal DTS-HD MA support (still missing in all current players hd/bd as far as I have heard) is reported to be coming. I wish it had bitstream for the new Audio codecs (my receiver supports them) but it does a excellent job of decoding all but the DTS-HD. But DTS CORE is very good, and seems better to me that DD+. The A2 is also limited to DTS core, and does output the DD+ and DD tru at 5.1 rather than 7.1.

I actually did not want Toshiba to quit, but would rather have seen all the Studios gone purple. Than market forces would have probably decided the hardware war, but instead software Media decided it.

 

[Fitzie]

tnsprin outlined a logical perspective from the joint owner of hd-dvd and blu-ray, "No hurry to replace."

This is exactly the position current blu-ray owners should adopt, in my view. The machines are adequate, and will be improved over time. Why hurry? Add to the blu-ray library. The question still to be answered in the hardware marketplace (and the subject of the poll) is what are non-blu-ray owners going to do. Sony had a great high def advantage when they put the blu-ray capability in their PS3 gaming machine, but isn't the gaming market about saturated? How many gamers in the U.S will be available to buy more PS3s?

Thanks for an interesting post.

Regards,
Fitzie