MIG-31

LOS ANGELES - Blu-ray stomped HD DVD to become the standard format for high-definition movie discs, but years may pass before it can claim victory over the good old DVD.

Noemi Velazquez, a 44-year-old warehouse worker, can explain why. She took one look at the $399 price tag of a Blu-ray player at a Best Buy store in Glendale, Calif., and kept going.
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Source: Yahoo

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Customgamer1

Yep.

It is as simple as that. I am more than willing to buy a HD player, but $400+ is just a big LOL for me and the general public.

The PQ and SQ are better, but not $400 better!

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Asus Laptop: 2.5 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4gigs DDR 2, Windows 7 64bit! Windows 7 > OSX!

mike2h

this just the same cycle vhs & dvd went thru. what short memory peeps have lol.
the price does need to come down & will. it wont take 'years' tho.
90+% of people out there really dont have thee need or $$ for bd right now. same was true for vhs & even more so for dvd when they 1st came out.
i paid over $500 for my 1st hq vhs deck, close to $700 for my 1st s-vhs deck & right around $1000 for m 1st dvd deck.
needles to say i was thrilled to pay 'only' $500 for my 60 gig ps3. got a good bd player, a great game machine, & a good media center. guess its all relative lol

bty, i was paying $30 + for dvd movies 1st year or so, so while pricing is high, it isnt out of line with previous format releases. in fact, imo it is right in line with dvd release. bty it took dvd 3yrs to become mainstream & it didnt supplant vhs until about 2 yrs ago.
some peeps are just spoiled with cheap long life/ low end electronics. expecting major new tech to be cheap in its 1st year or so is naive. not saying gouging isnt part of the deal, it always is with new tech/electronics. just saying, with its recent release & the format war(wich had a negative overall effect on price), bd is not that unreasonably priced for all us peeps that have to have newest/latest
this xmas should start to see better prices for players & disks that will bring in more mainstream peeps. bd is on the way in will be tru mainstream by xmas next year. dvd will be mainstream another 2-3yrs then will slowly start to fade over the next couple of years. id say that fade time is when we will se the next tru contender for home media/bd replacement, depending on how the whole download thing works out.
all imo of course

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Mousey

Christ, still getting defensive over a format?
My Advice - bloody stop being fanboys.

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Necrosis

Things will remain pretty much as they are until a decently featured BD Live player is released around the $250 mark.

OmegaRED

Yep, give it another year or so then they'll start dropping. If someone released a BluRay player for $99 tomorrow the format would take off.

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mkk

Any official figures for what the bare licensing fee per unit might be today?

MitchRapp

remember that odd uncle or friend who bought the laserdisk player when it first came out? haha...

well I won't be getting into BluRay until it's more affordable ... since the difference in quality isn't as it was from VHS to DVD, it's not such a big fuss.

And while we're at it, VHS took forever to FF and REW, didn't have a menu and only a rare VHS had extras at the end of the movie (like a music video relating to the movie itself)
DVD came in with menus, subtitles in multiple languages, making-of's, deleted scenes, extras of all sorts and the best part is you never had to rewind it and it never got stuck in the player. You just had to worry about not scratching the disk

What more does BluRay/HDDVD bring... ?

MitchRapp

and I also agree with omegared ... if ANY company out there released a BluRay player for 99 bucks tomorrow, it would really jump start the market.
Someone has to sign a deal with the movie distributors and make it like PS3 did (lose money on the player but gain money on game sales...)
Sony LOST money on each PS3 sold but came up with the cash on games and accessories.

OmegaRED

It'll happen, I think right now is just a calm period where they want to make as much off the format before bringing out the models which will take a loss. Next Christmas would be a good time to pump out the cheap models.

Whatever happens, I doubt we're going to see several more years of expensive BluRay players before the prices drop. I expect BluRay to finally hit it's stride when the tv signals go digital and the flat screen tv's go flying off the shelves. Everyone will want a BluRay player then

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mike2h

whos being defensive over a format? or a fanboy? u the only one upset about anything here lmao
i just gave out some general info & some perspective that a LOT of peeps here wouldnt know because they r to young...
gave my opinion on how sale prices will prolly drop & how long it will take for bd to go 'mainstream'. dont see any defensiveness or fanboyism there... & never have been either.
y are you so emotional about this subject?

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mike2h

hey! i was one of those peeps that got into ld's! gave my pioneer elite combo player(played dvd too, great peice of equipment) & my 40 something lds to a freind a year or so ago. or maybe it was 60 someting lds... not sure, was an expensive short lived format so never got that lrg of a collection. not ;ike the around 500 dvds i have. kinda sad lol.

the 3 main advatages bd has over dvd is video quality, sound quality, & storage space. if price were not as big a factor & u have the rt equipment bd is a no brainer imo.

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Judas

i think i can get in LG BLUE RAY/HD with DVD-RW-DL / CD burning capabilities for $199 now

problem solved

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CDsDontBurn

i personally never cared which of the two formats won the "format war." i just wanted it to be over. Now that it's over, all i care about is the price of these devices to go down in price so i can buy one for myself!

but, i'll also need an HDTV to seal the deal, which btw, are also expensive .

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mike2h

what cddb said^! tell u what, since i got my 72" mits dlp i try to avoid watching reg def tv. even tho that tv makes that look good to.
i also like the fact that if material in hd has surround available u get that to. some of those nature hd shows are just awsome.

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CDsDontBurn

*sigh*

i wanna jump on the HD bandwagon already but can't .

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mike2h

longer u can hold out better of u are- to a point. the tech is getting better & cheaper every 2-3 months. the equivalent of my $3000 tv can now be had for $2200. & it has better tech! lol.
this is true through all price ranges, the very top &very bottom being the least affected - the top cause thye can gouge the peeps with big bucs even more than the rest of us - the bottom you can only make the components so cheap & cut out so much technology that hings just dont work well or for very long.
just hang in there

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CDsDontBurn

i know, i know.

i want an HDTV to hook up my 360 to it, and buy a BR player to go along with it. i also want an HDTV to replace my 13+yr. old tube TV. oh, and the HDTV i want has to be at least 37in.

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Judas

just buy a benq 24" g2400 1920x1200 monitor... grab a xbox360 vga cable and volla.... excellent ..

plus you've still got room for a dvi cable (computer) and HDMI for anything else you wanna plug in...

seriously, i'd take a 24" 1920x1200 for a 37" 720p/1080i hdtv any day of the week..

i'd also take a 30" 2560x1600 over a 67" 1920x1080 hdtv

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mike2h

^ wtf?
i guess thats okay if you live in a 10x10 cell. do u have any concept of the idea of 'home theater'? otherwise known as 'some peeps dont live in their bedrooms/computer rooms'...

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CDsDontBurn

actually guys, a 24in. monitor would be too large for my desk. my current samsung 22in. monitor just barely fits on my deskt with about 1/4in. of room left on either side.

a 37in. is the smallest i'd go. 48in would be the largest, but i don't think a screen that large would even fit in my room. mainly, because like you said mike, my room is also my entertainment room, my PC room, and my sleeping quarters, all cramped into a 10x12 room

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mike2h

cddb i wasnt referring( though it did come out that way sry to all involved) to situations were a small monitor is needed/neccessary, but to judas absolute pref to small viewing screens based on res... not much of a way to determine what u r going to watch hd programs/movies on imo. also his using res as his defining factor for hd viewing & mixing monitors & tvs pretty much shows a lack of knowledge about hdtv in general.

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CDsDontBurn

lol, true. we all know that 1080i/p operates at 1920x1080 res. no matter what size screen it is that is being used when watching HD movies or TV, and the native monitor/pc resolution would be different.

gawd, i hate it when people call in asking about how to set up their HDTV to be their monitor as well, then use a DVI to HDMI cable and wonder why it doesn't work, or doesn't work well.

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mike2h

lol, cracks me up when people spend considerable/large amounts of $$ on things without doing any research then wonder y things dont work the way they wanted/expected.
while i love having my ps3 hooked up to my home theater- it can get pretty intense gaming sometimes, never have once got the desire to hook up any of my pcs. with tivo & ps3 there isnt any functionality that can be added, & i would much rather game with my existing setup rather than jump thru hoops for what i think would be at best a mediocre experience. & my tv actually has an input dedicated for a computer.
i think its cool all the people that are able to get more enjoyment/usage from their comps combined with home theater or watching tv/movies on their comps. just doesnt make sense for me.

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Knight_Rider

Toshiba coming out with another Blu-Ray killer.

Toshiba unveils another Blu-ray 'killer', millions ask why > News > PC Authority

Al_Vampyre

My guess is that any physical medium has just about had its day, another few years and everything will be downloaded/streamed

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mike2h

while this may be true, it will be more than a few years. average jo is barely getting on the high badwidth wagon, and doesnt have the kowledge/equipment to amke this viable. while setop boxes do take a lot of the pain out, the really high transfer rate needed to watch on demand reg def movies is a long way from being close to widely available. let alone hd. though the sit for reg def is changing fairly quickly.
the biggest prob i see, is that ud ont actually own the movie when all is said & done. for movie watching there is nothing better than grabbing whatever movie out of your collection &throwing it in the player... np & superior sound & audio quality, especially with upconverting being so prevalent( mixed returns on that one tho most peeps dont realise it).
u can get new release dvd for $13-$15 on average & dropping( i see $10 within a year) & the price for bd is also dropping - seeing more & more bd new release for $25, this will conitnue to drop to.
id say it will be at least 8 yrs for tru hd downlaoding to become mainstream/viable & another 5 for reg def. & i mean fully functional with same vdeo & video & audio quality as the disc vers. it will take considerably longer, if ever for discs to go away. there are just to many people like myself who want to actually own something when they buy it & be able to use it whenever & as many times as they want, in the most convenient manner possible.
demanding bastard arent i. lol.

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mike2h

article hit it on the nose with the 'people are wondering if toshiba has taken stupid pills'.
sounds like sour grapes to me, id also be a little pissed if i was an investor in toshiba, seems like a waste of money & resources to me, even assuming they r using technology already in place from their hddvd venture.

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Judas

explain

I prefer pixels per inch

apparently you like to have everything blown up to as high as it can go.

And no my living room is a living room and it just so happens to be where my computer system is setup in a form of being a entertainment room.

I've had my hands on tons of different hdtvs and several different connections, my personal preference is made quite clear that i prefer high resolutions over larger screens.

1080i doesn't = 1920x1080 on most of all hdtvs.... there are noticeable differences between 1080i and 1080p.

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Necrosis

Um..yes & no depending on the quality & bandwidth of the content. Of course 1080p is way better than 1080i on larger displays espeically @ 50" +. For myself I'd prefer to have a larger display w/ 1080p & a high contrast ratio. After seeing 3000+ 1000 or lower looks washed out to me espeically w/ LCDs.