HD/Blu Ray DVD Player

[Jim]

I have been thinking lately about getting a High Definition DVD player. The problem is, this HD or Blu Ray format seems a lot like VHS vs Beta max years ago.

So, I looked for a single DVD player that will play regular DVDs, HD DVDs and Blu Ray DVDs. At this time, there is no such animal. And, probably, there never will be. It seems that it may be more of an Apple vs PC analogy than the other.

Is this true? Is there no way to build a DVD player that will play all 3 formats?

[Simon]

There may be one coming down the line using a chip from Broadcom Corporation.

There's also supposed to be a new all-in-one disc format from Warner.

This page has some info on a device from Vidabox that's available now I think (but pricey at around $4,400).

Most of that info came from this search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=plays...blu+ray+and+HD

[lorsha]

Things are always so much more complicated, then they need to be. I read in Pop Sci magazine, that Blu Ray is getting more support from the major movie studios, so a battle appears to be on the horizon.

[Jim]

I have been seeing new dvds come out offered in DVD and HD DVD and DVD and Blu Ray and all 3. Netflix offers all 3 so who the hell knows. Sony is funny about their technology. Their PSP3s play Blu Ray and they will probably never make anything that plays HD DVD. Much like Sony and DLP. It doesn't matter that DLP is better than Projection LCD. Since it was developed by Texas Instruments, they won't use the technology.

Someone from Microsoft (I forgot who) said that Blu Ray is the Beta max of today. So, it's easy to see where they stand. They offer only a HD DVD Player for Xbox360.

I think I am just going to wait until either someone wins out or the movie studios decide to always offer all 3 options. Then I will buy 2 DVDs for both formats.

[Jim]

Nevermind, I just read that Sony is going to make players for both formats.

[Cleo]

My neighbor has the HD DVD format.
It has all kinds of features that a regular DVD player doesn't have but it is also very slow and finicky plus I don't see that much difference in the picture over a regular DVD.

Probably the reason your friend at Microsoft said that about Blu Ray is that Apple is pushing the Blu Ray format.

Personally I would stick with regular DVDs until the whole mess is sorted out.

[Greenguy]

Sony is the one that's fucking this all up - I like Sony, but they seem to be the only one using the Blu Ray technology (hence them building one that plays both)

If they built one that did play both, I'd still probably wait a year or 2 until the price came down. My current DVD player does use the RGB cords, so the picture is very good (not HD, but close enough)

[Cleo]

My neighbor's HD DVD players always take like three tries of cleaning the disks and reinserting them and praying to the DVD gods to actually watch the whole movie and every time you stick the disk in it takes like almost five minutes before it actually starts doing something. I can't recall the brand he owns but he has I think three of them and they were the most expensive ones that Front Row Theater sells.

Not ready for prime time…

[Greenguy]

Cleo - new DVD's or rentals?

[Cleo]

Originally Posted by Greenie

Cleo - new DVD's or rentals?

New ones mostly.

Sometimes it will play a disk without issues but even then the player takes so long to actually start doing something after you stick a disk in that we are always wondering if it has crashed which is something else the payers do requiring its plug pulled to reboot it.

I'll try to take a look at what make his players are. Maybe the newer ones are better but his are less then six months old.

[docholly]

This was actually the topic of a seminar at the CEA forum i went to in Oct in SFO. The basic arguement was from Blu-ray is that 9 studios were lined up behind them and from HD-DVD was that well Microsoft, Pioneer and Toshiba were lined up behind them. There was no resolution to which was better etc. and then some guy from the audience said.. hmm our company is introducing a product that will play both.. that's when all hell broke loose, shouting etc.. and Chuckster and I just watched all these old farts argue.

Pretty fucking amusing..

[cd34]

When blu-ray or HD superbit disks come out, buy Blu-ray. (yes, Sony pictures pushed the superbit format)

I can't imagine what the quality of a Superbit Blu-Ray disk would be. My old dvd player actually has a diagnostics mode where you can see the mb/sec of the stream being played, and the few superbit disks we have, are often running at double to triple comparable disks. There are really only a few scenes where the difference really is visible.

It is funny to watch some movies with that and you can see that they changed the compression ratio throughout the movie to maintain the best quality they could and still stay on one layer. Now of only they could engineer that layer switch to be less visible.

[juggernaut]

Jim if you an an xbox you can buy this and give it the once over to see if buying a main unit for the tv system would be worth it. It got pretty good reviews.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x...er/default.htm
and it's only $200

[Cleo]

Neighbor's is a Toshiba HD DVD. If you want an expensive slow player that crashes sometimes and is very finicky this is the player to buy.