Adam Tyner

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.

Doctorossi

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.

Spiderbite

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?

E Unit

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...

Dan

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.

bunkaroo

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

Doctorossi

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

DthRdrX

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.

Alan Smithee

I've got True Lies on D-VHS

jackson walker

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/

E Unit

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".

DthRdrX

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.

Coral

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

Spiderbite

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.

kahuna

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.

DVD Polizei

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!

Still have my Top O The Line Toshiby!

Alan Smithee

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.

Adam Tyner

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?

PhantomStranger

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.

Coral

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.

PhantomStranger

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.

Dan

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.

Coral

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.

fumanstan

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.

DVD Polizei

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.