I'm not so quick to give up on Blu-ray. I think HD discs have a place. I won't go so far as to say it will clobber the DVD juggernaut, but I'm betting it establishes itself over the next couple of years and takes away a large chunk of the sales.

With audio people don't seem to care about quality at all. That is what killed SACD and DVD-A. I don't think the same is true of video. Everyone I have shown HD to has been very impressed and at least three people I know got their first HDTVs this Christmas and are definitely looking into HD players and other HD sources.

That is too funny!

To most Americans, this question is irrelevant since they can't afford a Porsche no matter what. And I know a lot of people who drive Scions, or Toyotas or Fords who can afford a Porsche but DON'T CARE about all that extra performance. The Scion meets their needs and they are happy. But truly, it isn't a valid comparison anyway. The analogy fails for a variety of other reasons. The fact is, you may be goldenEye, but to the average person, there just isn't THAT much visual difference between the two. Not saying it is NO difference, but it just isn't a big deal to most people. I know that is hard for techies like us to swallow but its true.

LOL that statement is so out of touch with reality. Pull ten guys off the street, and they can't tell the difference between your $1000 Denon player and a $40 player from Wal-Mart ON THE TV THEY OWN. Now, I'm guessing if you own that kind of expensive DVD player, you probably have like a $10,000 TV, and yeah, there is probably a difference. But to the average person watching their 26-47 inch screen, it's no big deal. I watch DVDs on my cheap Vizio TV with my cheap Philips DVD player, and they look great to me, and most everyone who has watched movies on them. You are in an extremely small minority thinking that the picture generated by a sub-$100 DVD player is not good enough, same folks who think any steak that doesn't come from Ruth's Chris or Morton's is positively inedible tripe.

Keep in mind that I actually follow this stuff (casually, but far more than the typical person) and you just explained stuff to me. I think that qualifies as confusing.

If they want to make it "clear", they will leave the numbers off the end and call it "Blu Ray" and "Blu Ray Online" and never speak of versions again.

edit: And obviously never change it again.

That's not a bad idea, dave.

I hope Sony read your post.

Whats up with your personal attacks?

I have a 42 Samsung Plasma and most definitely could tell the difference between my $100 Sony Upconverting Player and my A-2..

Why did we not have all of this arguing about upconverting players just a few days ago?

I thought this thread was about Warner going Blu? How again are upconverting players related to this thread?

I think someone else mentioned in one of these various threads that if one has a newer HDTV that that can do the same upconverting that one of these players does.. is that accurate or did I mis-read?

This quote is so hilarious

"We have received word from Paramount/DreamWorks that although they continue to support HD DVD, they will not be making any new high-def title announcements at CES 2008."

We will continue to support HD-DVD! How? You are not making any new announcements or movies? Where is the support????

Honestly though. I'm format neutral and I could care less who wins. I have a DVD -/+ drive in my PC. I use both blank media - and +. I record on both and use both. No reason that I should settle for not having a movie just because of different format. I have both Toshiba A30 and Panasonic BD30. I own about 790 DVD's, 67 Blu-Rays and 42 HD-DVD's. Heck I just bought 5 from best buy a week ago.

Now that everyone is saying HD-DVD is dead. Fine with me. I'll stop by every week at Disc Replay to see what used HD-DVD discs I can buy. They are selling them for about $9-$12 a pop. Maybe even cheaper now that HD-DVD will die. I don't mind. I can still buy a Laserdisc player and a Betamax. If my Toshiba ever breaks and I have 200 HD-DVD's, I'm sure I will find an HD-DVD player out there.

Heck - Anyone remember the CD-I or VCD players that Sears used to sell? I seen one with patriot games the other day on ebay. I also seen movies on 8mm tapes.

I'm not worried, and I definitely won't be repurchasing movies in Blu-Ray.

Just so you know, Universal did the same thing last year at CES.
Its a electronics show, not a 'release dates and titles for movies' show.

This is where Fox went nuts and announced 40+ titles to go on and delay 25 of them.

I know, but if I were Toshiba right now, I would throw everything out to make sure that I stay in the game. That means... Back to The Future, Jurrassic Park, Titanic, Braveheart, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan and all other movies that are just too good to pass up and will keep the format alive.

BDA Conference going on right now...
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/l...s-conferenece/

If I were Sony, I'd put out $199 players right now, even if it's only for one week, a la the A2 sales that Toshiba put out last month.

Well, they're kind of doing that by requiring all players to be 1.1. The numbers are just there for legacy purposes to denote which players fit the required profile and which don't. Then they have "BD Live" for the 2.0 players.

If it is purely between Profile 1.1 and Profile 2.0, someone else mentioned that most B&M store employees will probably only know that the price is the primary difference. I doubt this will be a signficant drawback.

If you look at DVD from J6P's view, DVD is damn confusing too:
- Dolby Digital and DTS support (DVD players for the first how many years did not support DTS, though not an issue anymore)
- Progressive scan vs Interlaced
- Upconverting
- Composite, S-Video, Component and HDMI on the same machine! (Component/HDMI are needed for anamorphic widescreen, and forget about the fact that upconverting to 1080p typically only works on HDMI)
- Coaxial vs Optical audio outputs

They should have sold/dumped all Profile 1.0 players before the 1.1 discs arrive. This will cause issues with people buying a Profile 1.0 player and picking up a 1.1 disc. Already we are seeing slow loading times (up to 5 minutes for some players from various people). I could only imagine J6P spending $300 on a player and being pissed waiting 5 minutes for a movie that was $10-$20 more then the DVD counterpart.

Why don't you just take a break from it then? You think BD is the bee's knees. Others think it is overpriced. Are either of you right? It is a matter of OPINION. YOU can't seem to handle ANY opinion outside your own beliefs. You say "sour grapes" when anyone disagrees with your OPINION on the way things are and will be.

You derail this thread with the best of them, pal.

The difference there is that progressive scan, different video/audio outputs, and upconversion didn't change the way the discs were authored. They were optional enhancements. Even DTS wasn't needed because every disc was required to have a Dolby Digital or PCM track. You didn't have to have a certain version of player to take advantage of certain features (though some early players had trouble with seamless branching).

However, I do get your point that it can be confusing. It's like when I respond to those who say the retailers hate dual inventory by pointing out that movies often have multiple DVD versions that somehow they make room for: it's not completely analogous but close enough.

Oh, and I used composite video on my first player and benefitted from anamorphic widescreen back in 1999 (using vertical squeeze on the TV).

DVD had no competition and people knew you could put it in and play movies. Most people don't, and never, cared about DD, DTS, etc. And DVD didn't ever come out with DVD 2.0.

Maybe it won't be significant. I want a healthy format. I want everyone to buy in. I have a PS3 and it won't affect me.

I still think they are screwing things up from a marketing standpoint, have from the begining, and I don't see any signs that they will get smart about it. They seem to think that everyone will buy into HD discs just because. I don't think that is the case. And I think they are making it more confusing than it ought to be.

I also hope I am incorrect.

Yeah, I hated when I had to replace my VHS laptop, in car VHS player, VHS/gaming system and VHS travel player. That really sucked.

I almost didn't do it because of all the upconverting-VHS players too.

Thanks! BTW This thread is about Warner's decision to move forward with Blu-Ray and not about upconverting players and downselling HD. If people don't want to continue to support HD because of the recent turn of events then they really shouldn't be posting in this forum.

+1

This topic is broad enough to cover those who do not like the decision. Its not only for us BD owners.

Besides, what the hell is left to be said about WB going blu? Until there is new info, there really isnt anything.