Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I guess it depends on how you define 'early adopter'. Blade Runner didn't hit HD DVD until a year and a half after the format launched.

The selection of HD DVDs in its first few months was generally dismal -- even worse, I'd argue, than Ultra HD Blu-ray has on offer.

I had a bunch of issues with my HD-A1: aside from being overpriced, it was bulky, clunky, and I found myself fighting to get some discs to play.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

True- I guess that's a better explanation of my lack of regret about HD-DVD, rather than a representation of the initial launch line-up.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I agree. Though I would just stick with the 3D release since that would be the only way I would watch it. But if it includes UHD & 3D, I would not hesitate in picking those releases up.

But first I will need a 4K player and 4K projector. And who knows when that will happen?

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I have a 60" 4K already, but at $399 for the hardware, I may hold back for a bit. And as already mentioned, the first wave of releases isn't all that compelling. Not to mention the $39.99 price tag. I can see these being $20/under in about a year, or even next holiday season. If they want to spur sales, the hardware/software prices will have to drop. Even though there will be no format war this time, I'm fairly certain the hardware will be buggy to begin with.

I also want released some really good large OLED panels (65"-up) to be priced around $3k and under. But I doight that'll happen - for the next several years...

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Being region-free didn't give HD DVD much of an advantage, but I respect that this situation is different (no competing physical format).

I might buy in with a $399 player... $499 if it was OPPO. :)

That was a joke. The way you can tell is the LOL smiley.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Yes. It has a taking area almost twice as large.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

We will have at least three 8K "nearly identical to master" releases of The Fifth Element before we get True Lies released on anything else it seems.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I've got True Lies on D-VHS :)

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Sony leaves Ultra HD Blu-ray player at home, brings 4k SVOD to 2016 CES instead:

http://hd-report.com/2016/01/08/sony...-svod-instead/

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Sounds like Sony is having a really hard time getting their shit together. Might as well just have out a big sign that said "Stay tuned for 2017".

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

It is odd though that Sony does not have an Ultra player ready for launch.

I do wonder if the backed out of the way at the moment in some kind of deal with the others allowing them to launch hardware first.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

It sounds like Sony doesn't have a lot of faith in the format.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

That. And/Or the fact that they don't want to give in to another format when BD is still finding its legs and they make money on every BD manufactured.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Not me the days of me spending that kind of money on any type of player is over. I brought my share of $300-$400 dvd & blu-ray players. I will wait first until I get a 4K tv & then when they drop to below $150.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

This entirely. Sony was ruthless getting Blu-ray to market so they could control EVERYTHING from the point of manufacturing fees to Blu-ray players and everything that had their logo.

Now?

Wouldn't be surprised if Sony tried to even cut a niche market more by launching their own version of Ultra-HD. UBD or some crap, and most of those will be upconverted BD releases.

Maybe UH-DVD has a chance! :banana:

Still have my Top O The Line Toshiby! :banana:

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

That's been true for a long time. They started out with DVD pretty well, but then it seems their media division and hardware division were two separate entities with conflicting values. They released most titles in 16x9 because common sense would say that would sell more Sony 16x9 TVs, but then they reissued many titles in only 4x3! I was pretty sure that they would mishandle Blu-Ray and I was pretty much right about that- movies that they owned, on the FORMAT that they owned, were being licensed out to Twilight Time in high-priced, limited, mail-order only editions while others were licensed to Mill Creek which is basically a bargain basement label! (Not that there's anything wrong with low prices, but some of their releases haven't been the best quality.)

Blu-Ray is NOT perfect and I'm glad they're trying to put out an improved format- if they do it right then maybe it really will be the last physical media format we need. But at least with what they're putting out initially along with the lack of 3D when Blu-Ray already has that, and the general lack of excitement even amongst enthusiasts, shows that it's got a long road ahead of it. I just hope that the industry realizes that like 3D, this won't take off right away and will likely need a few years to really catch on, hopefully also ironing out all its technical issues.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Sony has the largest library of no-bullshit 4K masters in the industry, so I wouldn't sweat about upconverts from them too much.

I think Sony's proprietary thing is going to be this streaming platform. They're not going to bother with their own proprietary physical medium; there's nothing more proprietary, after all, than owning the entire ecosystem and not having to share. They announced support for Ultra HD BD on a software level pretty early on, which they presumably wouldn't do if they were going down their own road.

The most worrisome thing here is that Sony basically gave up on Blu-ray outside of day/date releases, paring back their TV-on-BD support quite a bit and content to license everything out to smaller labels instead. While they're supporting Ultra HD BD for now, who knows how long that will last?

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

The party for UHD is over before it started if Sony doesn't support the format in practice. They were heavily invested in the idea of BD winning the format war because they believed losing it would affect the PS3's market share.

I wouldn't freak out so quickly that Sony didn't show a player. That could be explained away by a number of things that have nothing to do with their intended level of support for UHD.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I really doubt that'll be the case.
Even today with a vast number of ways to get 1080p content, there are still plenty of 720p TVs being made/sold. There'll be less people jumping on Ultra HD-BD than regular BD... and a lot less 4K content available elsewhere (ie. OTA) - so there'll be less need to produce higher-cost 4K TVs that many won't take advantage of.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I believe a plurality of Blu-ray owners will eventually migrate to UHD. However, it may take longer than the studios want.

The signals each major Hollywood studio sends to the market are a critical component of UHD gaining market acceptance. I do worry about retailers balking at carrying another physical format in any significant capacity.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I don't know if I said this earlier in the thread, or if I said something completely different...

But my current stance is: I'll start buying UHD discs (of titles I care about) immediately, but only if they come bundled with a Blu-ray or at bare minimum, a UHD Ultraviolet digital copy. But the films have to be a true 4K master, not a 2K upconversion.

I'll hold off on a UHD disc player until they're cheap enough for me. A $500 OPPO would be nice, but I'd probably skip it this round and go with something under $200.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

If a lot of people take this stance, then I think it'll be even tougher for UHD-BD to have a chance.
There are a lot of BD movies that don't come with a DVD copy - and DVDs are much cheaper to make. I think the cost of BDs will make the bundling of it with UHD-BDs more rare since it'll drive up the cost too much.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I could see myself buying UHD if a Blu-ray was bundled too, but the price would have to be right which I can't imagine it will be for my limit anytime soon.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Considering my own Oppo BDP-93 became a literal brick with them not being very helpful at all, I'd invest in a Samsung or Panasonic player, where both companies are heavily invested and don't rely on their hip name to sell products exclusively, and will take off their beanies and put down their $10 coffee drinks to actually trouble-shoot an issue. You'll save a lot of money and headache.

Not saying I won't EVER buy an Oppo again, but with technology changing so fast, Oppo let me down and wasn't offering solutions to my Blu-ray issues. I mean, it literally stopped working after about 2 years. Out of warranty. I was fucked. My $80 Samsung BD player performs about as good (actually loads discs quicker), and I haven't had any issues (other than the top touch-navigation being super sensitive but I don't normally use it to eject or play discs anyway as I use the remote). It also navigates much quicker through online streaming apps.

I'm sure we'll have some Oppo users claim just the opposite, and I welcome that input, but Oppo is not all that, and has went the way of so many other tech companies, which is, bending over to the studios and making their products incompatible with discs because of ever-changing software protection paranoia.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I can't see them bundling UHD-Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD and Digital codes all in one package either.

The Blu-ray/DVD combos made sense because DVDs were cheap to include, they were more versatile for computers, portable DVD players, secondary set-ups etc.

Blu-ray is already somewhat of an elite format (compared to DVD) that is still relatively expensive to manufacture, not compatible with most computers & portable players and secondary set-ups are usually still DVD, all of which make them useless in the eyes of any cutting-edge UHD-Blu-ray buyer.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Price and what's in the product itself beyond the specs would get me to buy it.

As of right now? Don't care for it.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

You do realize that UHD-Bluray was heavily pushed, by Sony Creative Software, into the BDA as the further evoltuion of Blu-ray Disc? No way do they cut it's legs out from underneath opening the possibilty of another format being pitched in the future.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I think I'm in denial that I would have to collect and new medium. Long live bluray...

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

If my current Bluray player died in the next couple years and there were midrange UHD players that played both Blu and DVD, I'd probably get a player. But I'm certainly not rushing out for one on launch day.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Remember all the excitement when bluray and hddvd first came out? I don't feel any of that for UHD-blurays.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Was that excitement? I guess a lack of a format war this time doesn't make it as exciting.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

There is definitely less enthusiasm on the Internet this time for a new format. Blu-ray discussion forums have died a soft death in the past couple of years as it has become old hat for most owners.

I really thought the winner of the HD DVD/Blu-ray format war would have been more successful in the marketplace. There was so much hope in 2006 since most wanted a better alternative to DVD.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

Same here.

Back in the day, I was tempted to pick up a PS3 shortly after its release. But I came to the realization that there were hardly any video games I was interested in, and hardly any first-released bluray movies which interested me.

(Eventually I picked up an Xbox360, instead of a PS3. By then, I didn't care anymore about any bluray functionality).

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I obviously can't speak to your specific experience, but in general OPPO has excellent customer service. Sorry to hear that they weren't helpful to you.

That said, if you think either Samsung or Panasonic will give a flying crap about you if your player dies after the warranty has expired, the only person you're fooling is yourself.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I would care a lot less though if my $100 Samsung or Panasonic blu ray player crapped out versus my $500 OPPO player.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

My Oppo BDP-83 has served me well for quite some time, and to my surprise last year Oppo actually helped out the legacy owners who couldn't play new Fox discs (again) like X-Men DOFP with a new firmware. I fully expect to have to get a new player soon but since my Oppo is region-free modded internally I'm sticking with it as long as I can. The PS4 is right next to it if I can't play a new disc in it. Well worth the $500 I paid for it.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

The other big thing I'm taking a wait-and-see approach in regard to ultra hd bluray, is whether the computer optical drive manufacturers bother to release models which can read the ultra hd bluray discs.


Already in the case of bd-r computer optical drives, there's only really two (and a half) manufacturers left who are still actively making OEM bd-r drives:

LG and Pioneer. (The "... and a half" is Samsung).

Most of the other companies in the optical drive business, seemed to have stopped manufacturing bd-r drives and/or are just selling off the remaining inventory.


If there is no way of checking ultra hd bluray discs on the computer, then I will probably not buy uhd bluray at all. (ie. I have a paranoia of random bad sectors on optical discs due to manufacturing defects and/or disc rot).

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

this time 10 years ago (exactly) I was chomping at the bit to at least see what HD/1080p would be like. Even though I only had an XGA projector, at the right price point ($500) I was ready to jump in.

In contrast my apathy to 4K right now is even more pronounced than my enthusiasm was then. I could care less, but not by much. By the end of 2006 my focus was all about "when is ___ gonna get released (on HDDVD)?!?" .
I know for the next several years at least that my focus will still be "when the hell is ____ gonna be released on BD?!?" and not "OMG, why is it taking so long for ____ to be released in 4K?!?"

Also as i look to the years ahead and start to envision equipment upgrades, I can honestly say a 4K player is nowhere on the list.

Re: Let's talk about Ultra HD Blu-ray
 

I'm not sure if it was this thread or a Vudu thread, but isn't there a Disc-To-Digital program to upgrade from Blu-ray Disc to Ultra HD Digital? I saw on the Vudu page that the Ultra HD movies run $30 each, so I wouldn't mind getting a better price with the DTD.