darkside

I was big on recommending the PS3 until the S350 came out and sold for $200. Now I recommend the S350 for Blu-ray and the Xbox 360 for gaming. You can have both for about the price of a PS3. Many people I know are more interested in the movie aspect so just getting the S350 for $200 and spending the other $200 on movies works perfectly for them. This holiday was the first for people I know to get into BD so hopefully the $200 quality players will be the thing that turns it around.

darthdelegate

How old are you?

JimRochester

I'm hoping to upgrade my s300 to the s350 but I haven't been able to find it for less than $250 since Christmas. I'd like to make the jump soon because S300's are still getting decent money on eBay.

Any deals out there? Amazon is up to $269.

Gizmo

Give it a few more days...CES is only a few days away and I have a feeling we may see some price drops/deals around the same time.

lizard

^I sure hope so. I'm getting tired of waiting for a decent price on the player I want (Panny BD55). I'm pretty patient, but I've been waiting for 2+ years now for a fully functional BD player at an affordable price. Enough already.

JimRochester

I was unaware of the whole Profile shortcoming until after I had the s300. Had I known I would have waited for the next generation.

doubledown44

I had a bunch of movies that I never watched, so I would set up times where I would watch one movie a day that I owned that I had never seen before. It was a great way to make myself watch the movies I owned that I had not watched yet. I ended up watching 150 such movies last year and then posted a list of them on my blog. It was a fun project.

lewisb73

No... not when places like Big Lots offer good movies on dvd for 2-3 bucks a pop...

I am not replacing every one of my movies, only certain favorites...I still buy HD-dvds as well as I now have 4 players for that (stand alone and 360... plus backups of each)

B5Erik

I'm still buying titles on DVD - titles that are unlikely to see release on Blu Ray, or titles that I just can't see spending $15 on (when I can get the DVD anywhere from $2 to $5).

I'm replacing SOME of my DVD titles with Blu Rays (movies with great visuals or movies that I just love and will watch repeatedly over the next 20 years), but nowhere near all of them. I may replace more in the future when Blu Ray prices for catalog titles regularly sell for < $10.

I can say this - even just watching on my computer there is a HUGE difference between Blu Ray and DVD. It's not just the sharper, clearer image, it's better color (more vivid AND more accurate) and better sound, so if I can replace a title that I already own on DVD with a Blu Ray for a good price I jump at the opportunity (if it's a title that meets my criteria above).

mzupeman2

I won't dump 'all' of my DVD's for blu-ray. There are plenty of DVD's that will be fine as is in standard definition for me, and I'm sure TV shows, too. I've purchased movies in nothing but Blu-ray for day and date releases, and I've been replacing the movies I enjoy. For example, I won't be buying South Park Season 12 on Blu. I wont' be replacing stand-up comic DVD's, etc. And not every movie I own on DVD requires an upgrade because I may not care enough.

I am highly interested in buying more old black and white films on Blu though, I was pretty impressed with how good 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' looked.

theflyingdutch

I don't need to see Lampoon's Christmas Vacation in Hi-Def. However, LOTR and other epic movies? You bet!!

The Bus

I find it useless to replace or sell my DVDs as, at some point, Blu-rays will be half the price they are today. Since I can't sell my DVDs for $10-$15 (for something like, say, Pirates of the Caribbean), I'll gladly wait it out.

namja

This is how I see the future of Blu-ray. Movies that you care more about (and really want to own them), you buy in Blu-ray. Movies that you like but don't care enough about, you either rent it or you buy the DVD.

mzupeman2

I'm only talking about pre-existing DVD's though in my collection. I won't settle for less than HD at this point if I don't have to when it comes to films. All day and date releases from now on, I plan to get on Blu-ray.

DVD Polizei

Even if the Blu-ray release doesn't have a Director's Cut, Unrated Cut, etc.? I bought Saw II on Blu because it was the unrated version. Lionsgate was so smart, they decided to release only the theatrical cut of Saw on Blu, and I don't think I'm going to buy it. I mean why do it, when the unrated version is more than likely coming out later at some point. Of course, it's now so cheap, I may get it anyway, just to see it in HD. But still, this pisses me off, and any title which is over $15 and not a more expansive edition, I'm not going to get it.

So, I have criteria which is a little more demanding than you, I guess. If the movie is on Blu-ray, I want the option of watching at minimum, the Director's Cuts and Unrated versions, with the hopes the theatrical versions are on the disc as well.

mzupeman2

I have recieved all four Saw films on Blu-ray for Christmas, I haven't watched the first Saw on Blu yet, but heard the transfer wasn't very good, so maybe they'll re-release it eventually somewhere down the line.

The criteria isn't just set in stone with me though. Unrated cuts such like Saw or Saw II or...etc, are a couple of minutes worth of material that are purely used for marketing gimmicks anyway. Oooo! An establishing shot that wasn't needed! A couple of seconds of extra gore! Those kinds of films, I don't care which version of the film I get, so I'll happily downgrade from the 'unrated' to theatrical, or vice-versa, if it's the only option in Blu. It really doesn't make a difference. We're not talking about LOTR extended cuts here.

But, based on that, I will say, I WILL NOT upgrade my LOTR films on DVD until the EE's are available on Blu. I would love to see LOTR in high def now, yes, but after seeing the EE's years ago, there's no way I could ever go back. Thankfully, they said we'd see these around the time of The Hobbit, so I can wait for that.

There's so many different scenarios that dictate what I will or won't upgrade. That's why this can be such an interesting discussion, because everyone has different criteria and expectations and even feelings of the format itself.

hawk

I'm leaning in that direction.

orangerunner

No, I won't be dumping my DVDs anytime soon.

I don't want to fall into the same trap as I did with VHS tapes. I had a collection of about 300 VHS tapes which I gradually sold off. Upon looking through my VHS collection, I realized some titles I had only watched once or in a few cases I had never watched them.

When I started collecting DVDs, I told myself I'd be much more careful of what I bought. I have about 70 DVDs and no buyers remorse on any of them.

I don't own a Blu-Ray but I find the standard def DVDs look great on my 37" LCD.

I can't see myself re-purchasing titles I already have. It doesn't make sense to sell the DVD for $2.00 and run out & buy the Blu-Ray for $19.95. Especially when the Blu-Ray re-releases have the exact same content, nothing extra except for the sharper picture.

When the Blu-Ray players come down to the $100 range, I'll probably just pick-up where I left off with DVD.

Replacing VHS with DVD made sense. Replacing DVD with Blu-Ray, unless it's a new version with new extras, isn't worth it for viewing on a 37" TV.

Yavin

I'm really too lazy to dump my DVDs for Blu-ray, even though I own quite a few movies on BD/HD DVD that I already have on SD DVD. At today's prices, I'd get literally a couple of bucks (if I'm lucky, per title). Not really worth it for me, though it would free up some much needed shelf space ...

nycdude

Not every TV in my house has a Blu-ray player so I am definitely keeping some of the dvd's I have.

I have learned from the past to get what I really want to keep in Blu-Ray ONLY.

Doctorossi

Do you mean that you had 150+ movies you had never watched on DVD or that you actually had 150+ blind-buys?

SoSpacey

I was adamant about not upgrading my DVDs for Blus 1-1. But space on my shelf is getting tight and I can fit about 30% more Blus on the shelves as I can DVDs. So if I have a chance to upgrade now I will.

Obviously there are exceptions. The transfers of Reservoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects were below par so I am not upgrading those yet, as well as a few others.

i am also selling off a lot of SD DVDs that I just don't watch. Heck I LOVE the Simpsons but I have never even opened a season. They are ALWAYS on TV!

JimRochester

I easily had more than 150 I'd never watched. At it's peak I was picking up 5 - 10 per week however watching maybe 4 - 5. So every week I was falling behind by at least 5. More if I watched something twice. I'm aggresively cleaning out now

cerial442

The stuff in the unrated (especially the first three) is what was edited in order to get an 'R' rating. The director wanted it in there. It may not be as big of a jump as the LOTR extended editions, but I would say its warranted, as I would rather not watch edited films (my opinion).

Doctorossi

Wow! And I had enough trouble keeping up with the movies I love!