Who here will be buying a Blu-Ray player within the next month?
 

Well, this is a natural question to ask. Given the current situation, how many of you all will be buying a Blu-Ray player sometime soon (within the next month or so)?

Personally, I just bought into HD-DVD within the last month, but I am planning on picking up a (new) PS3 for Blu-Ray within the month. Given the current and foreseeable Blu-Ray hardware landscape, this seems to be the safest bet. I don't plan on paying more than $200 out of my own pocket though (thanks to gift cards and the good ol' underground economy), so that's how I'm rationalizing the purchase. And since I only have until tomorrow to decide whether or not to return my HD-A3 (which is a bit too soon), I will be keeping that one as well. So I will be neutral ... for as long as that still means anything.

What are everyone else's plans?

Not me, as I posted in the Warner thread I'm going with an upconverting DVD player and enjoy my existing SD library.

If I do buy a PS3 I'm going to wait for a redesign and/or price drop.

The only player I'd be comfortable getting in terms of updating would be the PS3, but I'm not willing to pay $400 for it and I don't think Sony will be doing much of a price drop on it either. The other player I like, the Panasonic BD30, is $500 at Best Buy so that's WAY too high. I'm hoping that once the BD50 is released, that price will drop in half at which point I'd be fine jumping in.

Sorry, can't afford it now and am still stinging from the whole failure of HD DVD. Like some others on this board, I have a feeling that even Blu-Ray will end up a niche format and never take off like DVD so I'm worried about taking yet another chance.

If the players get cheap enough, sure, I'll bite, but even $200 would be too much for me to sink into a BR player at this point. (I got my 360 add-on cheap via some game trades and am glad I hadn't invested more in a standalone)

Downloads are the elephant in the room. I have 1K SDs and 20 HD-DVDs (just bought a machine in Nov). If a combi player reaches a reasonable price (300?) I'd grab one.. otherwise, I'm once bitten, twice shy by this inanity.

Definitely not buying into Blu Ray within the next month.

If I ever get into Blu Ray, it'll be with a dual-format HTPC. At this point, nothing else will be acceptable to me, as I've been anxious about setting up my own media server anyway.

I probably will. Looking at the Sharp Blu Ray for $300.00 at Value Electronics. I have the money from selling my HD player and a few movies.

No. I already bought one a week ago. ;)

I go back and forth....from anger and denial, to actually considering it.

On the one hand, I have an XA2, and it's a hell of an upconverter. I don't want a PS3 in my HT, I'm not a gamer. The SAPs are not final spec and are pricey....plus, methinks we've seen the last of the BOGO's for a while. :(

On the other hand, there's a deal at SonyStyle.com where you get $100 off first purchase by signing up for their Visa Card....plus there's always NetFlix for the software.

I was wondering this too. I am stinging from the apparent death of HD DVD. I didn't buy into HD DVD for any fanboy reasons, it was simply cheaper to buy into.

BluRay is the winner, but its not gotten significantly cheaper. And while I'll likely have no choice to buy into BR for a HD disc format, I won't be doing anytime soon. Once players get into the $150-$200 range...then we'll see.

If I make enough money selling my PS2 and all of my Guitar Hero stuff on eBay, I might get a PS3 this month.

Going to wait for a better deal. No Hurry to buy BluRay. I will be NetFlixing/Blockbuster 90% of the time anyway. Will either buy a PS3 40GB or the Panny BD30 when ready.

I don't think I will or ever. I just bought a A-35 player and between that and the family DVD players until they break. UNtil that time, I will stick with buying SD-DVD releases and whenever possible HD-DVD's.

I was pretty much planning on buying on PS3 this month anyway for my birthday, but this week's announcement made my decision alot easier. I feel like I can do so now, being pretty confident that Blu-Ray will be around for awhile.

Got an open box Samsung BDP1000 3 weeks ago at Best Buy for $129. It has its quirks, but WAY more stable than my XA1, and the HDMI->DVI actually works.

Really glad I got this player before the WB announcement. Totally took the sting out of it. I actually started kinda toward the BR side because the Sammy can play rental discs, unlike my XA1.

Nope. Not buying a Profile 1.0 player. What a waste of money.

I'll wait for the Samsung Dual player in Q2 or get a 2.0 player when they come out. I'm not gonna settle for anything that can't play all the features of a disc t.

That's why I spent money on the Panasonic BD-30k. I looked at Profile 2.0 specs and I couldn't care less about them. Profile 1.1 looked like everything I needed and wanted, so I jumped in.

Not until I can get a fully functional player for an affordable price. There aren't any on the market yet that have the specs I need nor any at a price I'd be willing to pay. There's no hurry anyway.

So, I'll wait for the dust to settle.

I already got me a PS3. Way too expensive buy a player for another room.

Not just yet, I'd like a standalone BD player for my basement theatre, but will wait a while longer for the prices to come down and another generation (maybe...;)). I currently use a PS3 for my main player.

I'm actually more concerned with BD title cost then the player. The player is a one time outlay. As soon as one drops to about $250 I'll consider it (I use a PS3 AND A3 in my dedicated theater room, but I'm setting up a 2nd system in the living room and only have an A3 in there).

But I won't bite until I'm sure you can regularly get the titles in that $15 range (or less) as you can now. If they go back to $25 as I suspect they will, then I won't bit even if the players come down.

You mean on average, right? Because I haven't seen any BR (or HD-DVD) titles at $15 but when you factor in the BOGO deals, then yeah, it'll be <$15. But as has been said, if Sony wants to continue sales, they need to keep going with these sales.

Oh, I'll buy one, but I think prices will be significantly lower in three or four months. I can wait.

I bought a PS3 over the summer. I'm a gamer anyway, and it will have a game on it I really want eventually (right now it functions as a Tekken 5 online / Blu Ray / PS2 gaming machine). We have I think 4 BDs (compared to about 35 HD-DVDs).

I've now got my eye out for a dual-format player with Reon HQV that can be made region free for SD-DVD. If such a beast appears with a reasonable (sub $500) pricetag, I'll pick it up.

I do believe this is the beginning of the end for HD-DVD and, as I type this, I am going through my current DVDs and selling them off to various used DVD buyers, DVD Planet, DVD Talk Exchange users, and e-bay buyers. I will use the proceeds to invest in a player and a few Blu Ray titles to get started with. I'm keeping about half of my 170 SD DVD titles (for now anyway). I am excited that I can finally be confident I'm upgrading to a winner.