Your HD DVD/Blu-ray purchase plans?

What are your HD DVD/Blu-ray purchase plans?

  • I am thinking of buying HD DVD

    Votes: 28 11.5%
  • I am thinking of buying Blu-ray

    Votes: 33 13.6%
  • I am planning to buy both formats

    Votes: 9 3.7%
  • I am thinking of buying a dual-format player even if it is much more expensive

    Votes: 30 12.3%
  • I will wait for a clear winner, even if it takes years

    Votes: 50 20.6%
  • I will wait until prices come down

    Votes: 68 28.0%
  • Undecided

    Votes: 25 10.3%

  • Total voters
    243
LonghornXP said:
I will "not" be buying either format until they allow my component only HDTV set to playback full HDTV resolutions. I have two HDTV sets with an HDMI input with HDCP

Could not have said it better , But I only have 1 set with HDMI and one with only component and like longhorn said if they dont allow playback through component at full resoultion, I will NEVER buy either one.
 
Ilya said:
Well, as for me, I expect Blu-ray to win the Format War, so I think I will be buying a Blu-ray. Being an early adopter, I will most likely grab one in the first week of its release.
The only question is whether I can resist the temptation of getting that $499 HD DVD in March... :)

Well, Blu-Ray or Sony & Co has ZERO chance to win this war without Microsoft and Windows.
Sony is in pretty bad financial condition, PS3 is still vaporware, though nobody with sane mind took Sony's March-release seriously anyway (Sony is famous about their outright lies when it comes to consoles).
Ice on the cake, as the latest rumour has it, Microsoft set an unusually high of $30 per OS :eek: licensing fee for Blu-Ray....

I'm telling you: unless BDE bend over, grease up and take the mandatory managed copy, there'll be no winner.

PS: one can argue that MS can be bought with implementing their interactive layer (BDE uses a different, Java-based) therefore granting nice royalties but I doubt that'd be a good deal for MS, losing zillions of potential XP MCE customer due to the lack of manageable HD content.
 
Ilya said:
Well, that means you are going with Blu-ray! PS3 is a Blu-ray player. ;)

Yes, and no!

Even if Blu-Ray came out with a $499 player, I still wouldn't purchase it since the uncertainty is too much. However, I can look at purchasing the PS3 as purchasing the PS3 and giving me Blu-Ray functionality.

Once a winner in the format war emerges (if it hasn't already), I will then purchase a player for that format. Until then, I have no intention of supporting any format's hardware other than the PS3.

While the $499 price tag on the HD-DVD player seems tempting, I do not plan on buying any HD-DVD products unless it becomes the winner in the format war.

~Alan
 
Alan Gordon said:
It's been a few years, but didn't Microsoft support DVD-RAM before they supported DVD+R or DVD-R?!
~Alan

No. They supported DVD-RAM because it was older than the others and because DVD-RAM is accessible directly, like a hard drive, without any preformatting etc.
I use DVD-RAM often for carrying backup data because it's very convenient and has great error checking, discs last much longer (30ys) and LG is making these great multi-writers for $40-50 only, so I could just buy one for every machine I'm working on. :D
 
T2k said:
Well, Blu-Ray or Sony & Co has ZERO chance to win this war without Microsoft and Windows.
Even Microsoft is not so sure which format will win. They are keeping their options open:

Microsoft's Xbox corporate VP of worldwide marketing and publishing Peter Moore told Japanese site ITmedia that a Blu-ray Xbox 360 peripheral could appear for the system if the need arises. Moore admitted that Microsoft isn't sure of the next-generation format war's outcome...
 
About the Toshiba HD DVD Player, at Best Buy.com

I thought the HDMI input requirement was for regular DVD upconversion to 720p or 1080i. It has component output as an option. Does this mean we will be have HD for component only HDTVs?
 
Ilya said:
Even Microsoft is not so sure which format will win. They are keeping their options open:
Microsoft's Xbox corporate VP of worldwide marketing and publishing Peter Moore told Japanese site ITmedia that a Blu-ray Xbox 360 peripheral could appear for the system if the need arises. Moore admitted that Microsoft isn't sure of the next-generation format war's outcome...

That's pure politics, Ilya. Such action would require Sony to bend over for MS and introduce mandatory managed copy and MS' interactive layer as part of BDE standards. Won't happen soon...
 
We shall see! Time will tell. ;)
 
klmnoah said:
About the Toshiba HD DVD Player, at Best Buy.com
I thought the HDMI input requirement was for regular DVD upconversion to 720p or 1080i. It has component output as an option. Does this mean we will be have HD for component only HDTVs?
No, I think it's the other way arround. If I am not mistaken 720p and 1080i will only be viewable over HDMI/DVI.
 
klmnoah said:
About the Toshiba HD DVD Player, at Best Buy.com
I thought the HDMI input requirement was for regular DVD upconversion to 720p or 1080i. It has component output as an option. Does this mean we will be have HD for component only HDTVs?

NO, you only get the up conversion and the HD DVD full resolution on the HDMI output. The component outputs 480, so those of us with component only inputs on our HDTVs will not get any advantage from the HD DVD players. We can go HDMI to DVI and then to component, but if the signal has HDCP which all the movie HD DVDs will have, you will only get sound no picture. Until legislation requires backwards compatibility those of us with component only input HDTVs are stuck with 480 resolution for HD DVDs.
 
I'm going to wait and see what "Gotchas" the new players have.... If the copyright management is too draconian, or the pricing isn't there, I'll stick with my DVDs until a clear winner emerges.

I still haven't bought a DVD Audio or SACD player since I can't play them anywhere but home. It has to work in my computer and car stereo or I'm not interested...

With DVD is different as I only watch movies at home or on my portable DVD player. They will have an easier time of convinceing me. I usually jump in when the machines hit $299 which should be about 12 months in, but ONLY if they don't crazy (the rumor that they will disable hardware that plays any pirated discs by loading "keys" to the machine or via an internet connection will keep me out of the pool. Ditto if they downrez to anything but a component connection. MY TV only has 1 DVI connection which my satellite receiver uses. It has to work over component video or I'm not upgrading)
 
Ilya your right it's the other way around. With this HD DVD Player you will not be able to view true HD throught it's component outputs. Also this DVD player isn't upconverting a 480p signal to so called 720p or 1080i like regular DVD players are doing.
 
I have 4:3 HDTV. Told my wife about what you guys are stating that HD DVD players only work with HDMI. So I told her I wanted to get new 16:9 HDTV to have the HDMI input. She gave me "the Look". The look that states that I will kill you if you spend that kind of money again on a fracking TV. ::(
 
Ilya said:
Well, as for me, I expect Blu-ray to win the Format War, so I think I will be buying a Blu-ray. Being an early adopter, I will most likely grab one in the first week of its release.
The only question is whether I can resist the temptation of getting that $499 HD DVD in March... :)

I think I better put you on the first allocation list for at least one of the HD DVD players and some select HD DVD discs list, just to be sure you don't miss the early spring allocation.

I just don't know if you should get the HD-XA1 or HD-A1 or should I save one of each?

-Robert
 
SACD-Hybrid will work in your car or on your computer.

BobMurdoch said:
I'm going to wait and see what "Gotchas" the new players have.... If the copyright management is too draconian, or the pricing isn't there, I'll stick with my DVDs until a clear winner emerges.
I still haven't bought a DVD Audio or SACD player since I can't play them anywhere but home. It has to work in my computer and car stereo or I'm not interested...
With DVD is different as I only watch movies at home or on my portable DVD player. They will have an easier time of convinceing me. I usually jump in when the machines hit $299 which should be about 12 months in, but ONLY if they don't crazy (the rumor that they will disable hardware that plays any pirated discs by loading "keys" to the machine or via an internet connection will keep me out of the pool. Ditto if they downrez to anything but a component connection. MY TV only has 1 DVI connection which my satellite receiver uses. It has to work over component video or I'm not upgrading)
BobMurdoch i was reading your post about not buying a DVD-Audio Player or Super-Audio Player because you can't play them in your car. Well your right about one of them the DVD-Audio CD will not play on a regular CD player. SACD-Hybrid CD's can be played on your computer or in your car.
 
Why do we need Microsoft for watching movies?

T2k said:
Well, Blu-Ray or Sony & Co has ZERO chance to win this war without Microsoft and Windows.
Sony is in pretty bad financial condition, PS3 is still vaporware, though nobody with sane mind took Sony's March-release seriously anyway (Sony is famous about their outright lies when it comes to consoles).
Ice on the cake, as the latest rumour has it, Microsoft set an unusually high of $30 per OS :eek: licensing fee for Blu-Ray....
I'm telling you: unless BDE bend over, grease up and take the mandatory managed copy, there'll be no winner.
PS: one can argue that MS can be bought with implementing their interactive layer (BDE uses a different, Java-based) therefore granting nice royalties but I doubt that'd be a good deal for MS, losing zillions of potential XP MCE customer due to the lack of manageable HD content.

I have a simple question. When did it become important to get Microsoft's support to watch a movie. My DVD player has nothing to do with Microsoft and I hope neither does HD DVD or Bluray. A typical movie watcher is not going to worry about what OS the player is running. While the geeks among us (I am one of them) may be interested in having home networking, etc with Windows based computers, I don't see that as a requirement to sell DVD players. I think studio support and PS3 and prices of the players are going to play a bigger role in determining which format succeeds. I think neither format is going to be popular for the first couple of years given that people are used to getting really cheap DVD players and the quality is good enough.

PS: I am hoping Apple will come out with a nice media center that will allow me to enjoy my digital content without Windows annoyance. I am still dreaming :)
 
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