Don't Buy Blu-ray Players On Black Friday!
11-28-08, 04:18 PM
#1
DVD Talk Godfather
Thread Starter
Don't Buy Blu-ray Players On Black Friday!
http://www.slate.com/id/2205572/
What a dumbass. I agree with the statement about the television size and the benefits not being realized, but come on. Blu-ray players are dropping in price because of overall economic issues, not just Blu-ray specific problems. And not to mention, the manufacturing of hardware becomes cheaper over time, and as Blu-ray players are on the market longer...they get cheaper.
Jesus people. If you're writing for a somewhat popular online mag, do some fucking research.
Originally Posted by person who can't even spell "HD"
Blu-ray players: Early this year, Sony's Blu-ray emerged victorious over Toshiba's HD-DVD in the high-definition video disc wars. Now the market's flooded with cheap Blu-ray players: On Friday you'll be able to snap up $200 units at Best Buy, Circuit City, and Sears, and if you stop by your local Wal-Mart early enough, you might be able to get this Magnavox player for $128.
But try to restrain yourself. Sure, Blu-ray defeated HD-DVD, but its real enemy is the regular old DVD—and it'd be premature to bail on DVDs at this point. First, DVDs still look terrific. Yes, if you've got a big TV that is capable of displaying the highest-definition images, a Blu-ray movie will look incomparably better than the same film on DVD. But if you don't have such a setup—if your HDTV is smaller than about 40 inches or so, small enough that when you sit far away much of its detail fades—the difference between a superfantastic Blu-ray picture and a merely fantastic DVD picture will be less noticeable. And if you've got a standard-def TV, you'll see no benefit from Blu-ray.
At the moment, investing in Blu-ray is risky. There's a reason manufacturers are slashing Blu-ray players' prices—the things aren't selling very well. Meanwhile, several tech and entertainment companies—among them Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix—are working on ways to bring out more HD movies over the Internet, eliminating the need for discs. If these efforts take off, Blu-ray may die.
Instead of buying a Blu-ray player, you could spend your $128 on 8 DVDs or six months of Netflix service. Or, save your money: You won't lose anything by waiting to see if Blu-ray survives. If it does, prices will continue to fall, and by the summer you'll be able to buy a better player for the same amount of cash.
But try to restrain yourself. Sure, Blu-ray defeated HD-DVD, but its real enemy is the regular old DVD—and it'd be premature to bail on DVDs at this point. First, DVDs still look terrific. Yes, if you've got a big TV that is capable of displaying the highest-definition images, a Blu-ray movie will look incomparably better than the same film on DVD. But if you don't have such a setup—if your HDTV is smaller than about 40 inches or so, small enough that when you sit far away much of its detail fades—the difference between a superfantastic Blu-ray picture and a merely fantastic DVD picture will be less noticeable. And if you've got a standard-def TV, you'll see no benefit from Blu-ray.
At the moment, investing in Blu-ray is risky. There's a reason manufacturers are slashing Blu-ray players' prices—the things aren't selling very well. Meanwhile, several tech and entertainment companies—among them Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix—are working on ways to bring out more HD movies over the Internet, eliminating the need for discs. If these efforts take off, Blu-ray may die.
Instead of buying a Blu-ray player, you could spend your $128 on 8 DVDs or six months of Netflix service. Or, save your money: You won't lose anything by waiting to see if Blu-ray survives. If it does, prices will continue to fall, and by the summer you'll be able to buy a better player for the same amount of cash.
Jesus people. If you're writing for a somewhat popular online mag, do some fucking research.
11-28-08, 04:22 PM
#2
DVD Talk Legend
Blu-Ray player prices are now down at around what you would have paid for a good upconvert player. I bought an upconvert player a few years ago and paid about a hundred for it. I guess this idiot doesn't know or bother to tell the readers that Blu-Ray players can also play SD dvds.
11-28-08, 04:24 PM
#3
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
http://www.slate.com/id/2205572/
What a dumbass. I agree with the statement about the television size and the benefits not being realized, but come on. Blu-ray players are dropping in price because of overall economic issues, not just Blu-ray specific problems. And not to mention, the manufacturing of hardware becomes cheaper over time, and as Blu-ray players are on the market longer...they get cheaper.
Jesus people. If you're writing for a somewhat popular online mag, do some fucking research.
What a dumbass. I agree with the statement about the television size and the benefits not being realized, but come on. Blu-ray players are dropping in price because of overall economic issues, not just Blu-ray specific problems. And not to mention, the manufacturing of hardware becomes cheaper over time, and as Blu-ray players are on the market longer...they get cheaper.
Jesus people. If you're writing for a somewhat popular online mag, do some fucking research.
The writer of the article is on obviously quite misinformed about many things..
11-28-08, 04:49 PM
#6
DVD Talk Godfather
Thread Starter
Tru.
11-28-08, 05:15 PM
#7
DVD Talk Legend
So what is the difference in paying $128 for a Blu-Ray player versus whatever a decent enough DVD player would cost? Surely it's not very much. So if Blu-Ray were to fail you just have a slightly more expensive DVD player. Big deal.
11-28-08, 05:19 PM
#8
Suspended
Upconverting players could be had for $40 or so for "similar" brands. $100 extra is a lot if the format up and dies for some over a cheap upconverting player. But just like HD DVD, that would mean cheap, cheap movies so it may be worth it 
.
.
11-28-08, 05:42 PM
#10
DVD Talk Legend
An upconverting DVD player can be had for $50 or so, but getting stuck with a player for only $128 isn't the problem - it's getting stuck with movies that can only be played on these players. You'll have limited choices of BD players in the future if/when your current one dies. It's a problem with any format that fails or becomes niche. Some may not find this to be a big deal, but others will.
11-28-08, 07:11 PM
#12
Suspended
Funny, my sister has been on the phone with me for about an hour telling me how she bought a "SAMSUNG BLU-RAYED DVD player" (she was amazed at Wall-E BD we watched yesterday). Looks like I'm going over there to hook it up, make sure its 1080p and 24fps, bring her an HDMI Cable and upgrade her firmware. I tried talking her into a Sony but she has a 46" Samsung 1080p 120mhz HDTV so she wanted everything to match.
.
11-28-08, 10:14 PM
#14
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This is a point that has always bugged me. Couldn't the players technically be described using either "Blu-Ray" (format name) or "blue ray" (the color of the laser ray that is, after all, employed by the players)?
Just saying.
Just saying.
Last edited by DVD Guy ATL; 11-28-08 at 10:29 PM.
11-28-08, 10:49 PM
#15
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
no, because the laser is actually violet.
11-28-08, 11:18 PM
#16
DVD Talk Godfather
An upconverting DVD player can be had for $50 or so, but getting stuck with a player for only $128 isn't the problem - it's getting stuck with movies that can only be played on these players. You'll have limited choices of BD players in the future if/when your current one dies. It's a problem with any format that fails or becomes niche. Some may not find this to be a big deal, but others will.
11-29-08, 01:08 AM
#18
DVD Talk Hero
How hard is it to remember Blu-ray Disc?
Not Blu ray, Blue Ray, Blu-Ray, Bluray, BlueRay, BluRay, Blooray, Blue-ray, ...
And it's BD, not BR. People saying BR annoy me just as much.
However ... you're right. This is a secondary issue. More importantly, I wish there was a quicker adoption to Blu-ray so that prices will come down faster.
The first DVD player that I bought was back in October 1999 (just before I joined DVD Talk), and I paid $140. It took me about 4 years to amass 400 DVDs, and I paid less than $10 per DVD (the first 100 DVDs were at ~$7 per disc). Blu-ray is nowhere near that in terms of price. I paid $400 for my PS3 last Christmas (the 40GB bundle with a game and an extra controller), and I've bought just over 30 BDs in the past year at an average of $20 per disc.
11-29-08, 09:54 AM
#19
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
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Yup, this is why I was reluctant to get into HD-DVD fire sales and what not. It's hard to get interested, no matter how cheap, on something that you know won't be around for awhile. I personally don't think Blu-ray is going anywhere anytime soon though, even if it hasn't been as big a hit.
11-29-08, 11:39 AM
#20
DVD Talk Legend
Does anyone know why they (Sony) would take a step backwards like that? sorry if it seems like I am overreacting but this really does blow my mind.
11-29-08, 12:02 PM
#21
DVD Talk Hero
It because it wasn't cost-effective for Sony to include the hardware for PS2 BC in the later runs of PS3s when they were trying to meet price points and not keep losing money on the PS3s. So, as 80GB models were rolled out, Sony went to software PS2 BC, but only a portion of PS2 games would be able to played on these PS3. Now, PS2 BC on the newer PS3 will be getting worse and worse.
11-29-08, 12:38 PM
#22
Sorry to take this off-topic, but this reminds me of something that still has me scratching my head. I have a friend who just bought a PS3 recently and she comes to work one day and says "I thought you told me the PS3 could play PS2 games?". My reply to that was well yeah of course it can. I don't own one but that's what I get for assuming things. I figured maybe it just needed a firmware update or something so I checked the PS3 website only to find that the early PS3's were BC, but the ones in production now are not. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
Does anyone know why they (Sony) would take a step backwards like that? sorry if it seems like I am overreacting but this really does blow my mind.
Does anyone know why they (Sony) would take a step backwards like that? sorry if it seems like I am overreacting but this really does blow my mind.
11-29-08, 01:35 PM
#24
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
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11-29-08, 01:38 PM
#25
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Bugs me also. But you're dating yourself namja, only those of us who have been in this forum since the beginning remember or care about the Blu-ray Disc/BD discussion.
