I am in the market for a hd dvd player. Should I wait, or what? I've heard blueray has the inside track?
From everything that has been released in the last couple of months, mainly 4 of the 6 major studios and netflix all saying they are going exclusively to Bluray, it appears that they will be the winner. That being said, you have to be careful with Bluray purchases. HDDVD forced Bluray to go to market a little too early, so many current Bluray models will not support features on future discs. (they'll play the movie, but not support web interfaces and extras) The good news is that if you want to dive into the HD market and go after a Bluray player, that Sony made the PS3 pretty much the best Bluray player on the market AND it WILL be compatible with future discs AND its half the price of the similar quality stand alone machines AND it plays games. I am not a Sony fanboy or anything, but I feel that if you are going Bluray, that's the player to get. One note: Many HDDVD players ARE much less expensive and still have SOME support. Also, the A30 and A35 Toshiba players have just had a huge dip in price AND they are very excellent at upconverting your standard DVDs (the PS3 and many other Bluray players are actually not that good at playing regular DVDs, or at least in upconverting them to a higher quality output signal). So there may still be reason to grab a cheaper Toshiba HDDVD player, but I would only get it if I was also getting a Bluray player first.
Is there a blu-ray player out there at say 400 and below that plays all functions? I am confused as to the whole generation thingy? Does blu-ray expect us to buy a new blu-ray player every few years, like the current gaming consoles? If so, that would suck. I spend 4 or 5 hunderd today, i want my player to be flexible. What gives?
I'd say find the cheapest model PS3 you can. The 40 GB model is $400. A lot of people buy PS3 just for the Blu Ray player. Maybe check Amazon and there may be something cheaper.
That's true. There is a report on cnet.com saying that the ps3 is fully upgradeable to blu ray specs 2.0. It's the only thing right now that is fool proof from future iterations of the br system.
I guess nothing is set in stone, but the only differences would be added support for online features and extras (as mentioned). I don't really know what new features they'd try to add to newer Blu-ray players down the road. There could be some things I guess, although I would think they'd be fairly minor and probably specific to certain players by certain companies. Maybe media streaming or something, I don't know. The 40GB PS3 is $399 right now ($499 for the 80GB PS3 that plays PS2 games as well), and as mentioned, it is one of the more "future-proof" players out there. It even offers a lot of features the other players don't, like playing games, streaming media, curing cancer, internet browser, downloadable movies/TV shows (at some point I hope ), and maybe acting as a DVR at some point (may require an accessory or something though). Probably a bit overkill if you just want to watch HD movies on it though. I'll note that Sony will probably make an announcement soon regarding possible PS3 SKUs (80GB PS3 probably discontinued, maybe another SKU introduced). I don't know if this would really affect you, unless they drop the price of the 40GB PS3 or something.
The PS3 is the only real future proof player available right now in that price range. It goes for 400 bucks. It's already been updated through firmware to Profile 1.1, so it can do the picture-in-picture feature that HD-DVD's had since Day One. Assuming Sony updates it to Profile 2.0 and enables DTS HD-MA decoding at some point in the not-too-distant future, it's the best Blu-ray player around. And definitely go with Blu-ray if you're looking to make the leap to HD. HD-DVD won't be around much longer the way things are going.
Ok, I admit that I have not had a lot of HiDef players, and have not had any other player that 'upconverts' a regular DVD, except for my PS3. I have been very happy with the upconverting of regular DVD's on the PS3, but have not compared it to anything else which does the same thing. In what way do you think the PS3 is not very good at upconverting? In response to the OP's question: Unfortunately, it looks like Blu-Ray is starting to pull ahead in this battle. However, I suspect that once this settles down a bit, that HD-DVD will make somewhat of a comeback, once people start to realize the DRM mess they've gotten themselves into. Toshiba's format is far less burdensome than Sony's, which is the biggest likely reason that so many studios have thrown in with Sony. Personally, I can use both formats, and I will be able to play whatever kind of movie comes out, on whatever format. The real issue will be this: when the day comes that, say, I have a hand-held or portable PMP which can play full HD, something similar to my current Archos 605, I will want to be able to use my computer to transfer movies that I own onto my device so I can watch them where and when I want to. Which format is going to work best in that scenario? Which format is likely to not work with something like that at ALL? Toshiba's format is not loaded down with DRM crap, unlike Sony's. When portable technology gets to the point of hand-held HD (and it's not that far off, only a couple more years), consumers are going to re-evaluate which of these formats is going to serve their purposes better. It's pretty amazing how quickly people forget some of the ridiculous things Sony has done over the years, in the throes of what can only be described as unadulterated greed. Betamax, DAT, Mini-Disc, and even selling non-compliant audio and video discs to unsuspecting customers. I predict that within 4 years there is going to be a pretty big backlash against Blu-Ray, and the likely end result will be that they do away with the majority of the restrictive DRM schemes, possibly even being forced to by government mandate, because of consumer outcry. Let's hope.
Correct. It might be enabled in a future firmware update though. Are there some extra DRM issues with Blu-ray that I'm not aware of? Blu-ray has an extra layer of copyright protection with BD+ (although not all movies use it), but I thought they were more or less the same besides that. They both have MMC IIRC, so theoretically, they both allow similar ways to watch movies on multiple devices. Neither have really pushed for it so far though, particularly in the way it was originally designed (doesn't help that not all players support it). I think Sony and Fox are playing with the idea of putting a copy of their movies on the discs that can be transferred to portable devices (like the PSP). The only thing I can think of right now that would cause an outcry would be if studios started enabling the ICT flags, which would limit the resolution to 540p for anyone that didn't watch movies using a HDMI connection. Although again, this applies to both formats AFAIK (part of the AACS). I'm glad none of the studios have bothered to do this so far.
hddvd is going to die ...get a ps3.. and if ur concerned about price..just wait..prices will come down
I suggest you to buy HD Dvd player or Bluray player if you really want to watch movies or something. If you want to go multimedia buy yourself a XBox 360 because it is clearly better than PS3 in every aspect.
Best line of action for now, especially if money is a concern: stick with DVDs and an upconverting DVD player wait for Blu Ray prices to drop I received a Blu Ray player for X-mas, and while I enjoy it and enjoy the jump in picture quality, it honestly isn't THAT huge a jump over upconverted DVDs (usually 720p) to justify the price tags of the players or movies. The gaming, web, and all the other extras on the PS3 pretty much justify its price tag, though. Evan
The only thing that scares me about buying a PS3 is the lack of playing compatibility with PS2 and PS1 games. So... RC... is it safe to say that a newer PS3 model will be able to take the firmware updates to allow it to play PS2 and PS1 games? Shan't we just wait for the drop in price?
My 80GB PS3 wouldn't play my copy of Ratchet & Clank, even though the PS website stated that it was compatible. Backwards compatibility for the PS3 is a joke. Other than that, it is a really good system with almost fluid gameplay.
What does it do that the PS3 doesn't? PS1 compatibility hasn't been cut, and that will most likely never happen. PS2 compatibility is the issue. Generally speaking, if there is a firmware update that allows for PS2 compatibility, it shouldn't be restricted to a particular PS3 model. Any new PS3 models that can handle PS2 compatibility better than the 40GB PS3 will be doing so because they have hardware built-in to do so, not because of some firmware update. On the flipside, there's no reason why any new PS3 models wouldn't be offered the same updates that the 40GB would get (when it comes to PS2 support). Of course, technically speaking, a firmware update can improve compatibility in some PS3s that have hardware to do emulation; some firmware updates have helped out the 80GB PS3 in that aspect for example. Ideally, once they get a software solution working that can emulate a high percentage of PS2 games, the 20, 60, and 80GB PS3s will probably switch over to it via a firmware update, rather than relying on the hardware they have inside (or maybe give the user the option on a game-by-game basis?). Which R&C is it (original, Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, etc.)? You're right that the US Playstation site seems to suggest each are playable (albeit with some issues). I checked the European site out of curiosity though, and it only lists the original R&C and not its sequels. And even that game is barely compatible apparently. I am a little disappointed that some of the high profile games are part of the 15%-20% games not playable on the 80GB PS3. 60GB PS3 FTW!
