I'm in the process of setting up a high def home theater that will be done towards the end of March. Obviously I will be getting a Blu-Ray player. (If anyone has one to recommend with a Samsung LNT-4042, that would be a big help). But my question is revolving around HD-DVD. How long do you think it will take for some of the titles that are HD-DVD only to go over to Blu-Ray? Long enough to get one of the HD-DVD players on Clearance?

It's anyone's guess at this point - Universal and Paramount aren't talking. Nothing has been announced, but I would assume WB titles not on Blu Ray will appear at some point since they have gone Blu Exclusive.

You can get a great deal for a refurbed XA2 right now. I would just buy one of those with a Blu Ray player.

A mod will will probably move this to the HD forum.

I think this could take a year or two. Many catalog titles haven't sold well in either format so who knows if Warner will be in any hurry to bring out stuff like Forbidden Planet on Blu-ray. Universal and Paramount haven't even made it official that they are releasing Blu-rays.

couple of years

Anyone's guess. As others have said, both Paramount and Universal haven't said anything.

I think it could take 3 years or more for all of Universal's titles - after the point where they decide to release on BD. Granted, that includes marginal catalog titles and day and date titles with little lasting appeal. The big movies like the Bourne series and King Kong should come sooner.

7 years, 3 months, 8 days, 2 hours, 7 minutes. Be ready.

I'm not in any big hurry to upgrade any of my titles. The titles that I do have on HD that are available on BD[u] now[/b], I havent even bothered thinking of upgrading to BD. I just dont see the point - They are exactly the same, minus some audio channels.

I still surf ebay looking for HD films that I neglected in picking up and I'm sure getting good deals on WB films because people are just dumping to 'upgrade'.

If you are a big movie fan and want as big of a selection as possible, get one of the Toshiba models from Amazon and enjoy. This is especially true if you are an avid Netflix/Blockbuster Online fan, since the outlay of risky money (just the money for the player) is much lower but you get the same benefits (watching titles like Bourne or King Kong in high def).

But, to answer your question, I agree with others that posted, you have to wait for Universal to announce bluray support (1 year, maybe 2 at best), then it will take probably 2 or 3 more years to re-release the existing titles already available on HD-DVD. Considering the HD-DVD player is only $129, is it worth having an option to watch these movies right now?

I suspect it will be awile simply because the studios new to Blu will focus on titles never released before. Is there really any "must own" titles that would really sell if they fast tracked those?

There a few I want to own (Zodiac for exmaple), but we're not talking Jaws or Star Wars here.

Fairly quickly i would imagine. All those movies are already encoded, they just need to be ported. For Universal and Paramount, thats a large library of already encoded movies sitting there that can be released in no time. I suspect less then a year from when they switch over.

Can you not afford a $100 HD DVD player? You'd rather way 6 month-5 years (if EVER) to get the 300 or so exclusive HD DVD movies?

I don't think they'd want to flood the market, though. I think it'll be a fairly slow process.

IMO the issue is if people want a player, or software, when it's possible there will not be replacments available should they need one.

That, said I'm thinking I might pick up a player and some discs given the clearance sale prices. I agree the price is worth the risk if you can afford it.

I hope Warner gets some of their classics over to us quickly. The main ones I would like to see would be "Casablanca" and "Adventures of Robin Hood". "Casablanca" needs to be ported over very soon IMO since it's one of their flagship titles.

Considering how bad they sold on HD DVD, and the fact that they don't really fit the Blu-ray "PS3 Gamer" style...I wouldn't plan on seeing those anytime soon. Matrix, Batman, V are almost guaranteed, some of the lesser titles like the two you mentioned and Forbidden Planet....years...if ever. IIRC, Forbidden Planet sold less then 1 thousand copies as of October 2007...

I hope they take their time & give us BD encodes. No point in double-dipping if all they do is port over the same HD DVD encode.

There'd be no point in someone who already owns the HD DVD double-dipping, but at the same time, they wouldn't really be the ones these studios would be targeting. I can see some of the highest profile titles being re-encoded, like Batman Begins, but I can't imagine they'd go to that time and expense for much of anything else.

What's the point of trying to label BD folks as "gamers"? I would snatch up classics like Casablanca in a heartbeat.

Sad but true. That's why (unlike some others) I haven't dumped any of my HD DVDs after the January 4th announcement. Won't buy any more either, but I'm in wait-and-see mode for now.

If you don't own the HD DVD, this is a must buy for you when it comes out on BD. I just watched this again this week. Claude Rains is just awesome as Captain Renault...my favorite character in the film.

I would think that WB would bring these out for BD fairly soon. The encodes are all done and look and sound great. I wouldn't worry about the "gamer" label. A few biased posters may think this way...but I doubt WB does.

I won't be double dipping if they re-release any current HD DVD titles on BD though. I already have BATMAN BEGINS, V FOR VENDETTA, and CASABLANCA on HD DVD...they look and sound great right now...even if there is a re-encode I think the difference would be negligible at best.

The only thing that kept me from snagging an HD-DVD player (and Casablanca) back on release day was the uncertainty of the war and that I already have the awesome SD SE (and thousands of others). A continuing of the war, or even cheaper clearance prices, might get me to jump into HD-DVD.

Jumping into HD DVD now is just throwing money away. The only people that don't think HD DVD is going away soon are the people who already have made sizable hardware and software investments in the format. Would you buy into Laserdisc right now? It's the same situation.

It's going to take a good year.

I wouldn't recommend HD DVD for anyone thinking long term, but for instant gratification, there's nothing wrong with it. The players are inexpensive, there's a lot of great software that might not be available on Blu-ray for a while to come, and even if/when the format's abandoned by the studios, the movies you have now will continue to work.