I just got notification that Netflix was going to go BluRay exclusively starting at the end of February, and that my current HD-DVD selections would be changed to standard format by the end of the year.
Well this just sucks. I hope prices for Bluray players drop to something reasonable by then.
Scott
Yep, we have discussed this in a few other posts. Best Buy just announced they are going with Blu Ray for their primary recommended hardware/software, following Netfix announcement. They said it is clear who has one the battle. They will still offer some HDDVD stuff, but won't push it hard.
I'm just waiting for more HD-DVDs at firesale prices. I am format neutral
So if Bluray finally wins majority, will the HD dvd backers come onboard and then have to re-release all the movies already put out on HD dvd?
I wonder if it really will ever die or just hang around anyway.
There are still betamax die-hards...
I know a guy with a cool laser disc collection.
I know a guy with a cool laser disc collection.
Hey!- I resemble that statement.
So if Bluray finally wins majority, will the HD dvd backers come onboard and then have to re-release all the movies already put out on HD dvd?
they god damned well better. i want top gun, transformers and...actually that's about it for me...once those two are on Blu, my HD A2 will go to another room or to goodwill. shelf space is precious
I know a guy with a cool laser disc collection.
Laserdisc was quite neat. A foreshadowing of the dvd era.
The first movie i saw on Laserdisc was at the RadioShack store my father used to manage decades ago. It was M.A.S.H. the original (the movie, not the store).
oops I just created a whole new thread for the wally announcment... didn'd see this here....
Now to figure out how to delete it
Don't worry. We'll hijack it and rename it something else.
On AVSforum it says Toshiba may also soon announce eliminating HDDVD, this really sucks for those with HDDVD players. What the heck do you do, just use it to upconvert old DVDs?
Yup, I'll keep mine as my main DVD player.
Anybody know if Transformers or other HDDVD exclusive titles will eventally come out on BluRay?
If HDDVD does in fact die, it will be released on BluRay, they wouldn't want to miss out on more money would they?
I really didn't expect HD to go this fast. I honestly thought Jan of 09 was when it would get decided.
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL1627196120080216
That really sucks for all the people that purchased HDDVD players and started to collect the movies. Now I suppose BluRay will jack there prices back up.
it does suck that walmart, best buy and netflix seem to control the world. ok, hd dvd world at least.
this doesnt mean the movies and players stop working. plus we still have a solid up converting player.
later.
Yup, with no competition the pricing will probably go back up until the product becomes more mainstream.
It may take a year or 2 for the market pricing to come down as most people experiencing the recession in the near future will not want to pay $600+ for a blu ray player.
Remember when VHS and Beta machines were priced like that???
That is true, however, if Toshiba drops HD DVD which now looks to be a fact, support/upgrades will at some point fall off the map as well.
That (as it does it betterr than the other players I have) as well as play the HD-DVDs I already have. No need to rush out and replace them in another format
I believe they have little incentive to keep them down lets say. I hope I am wrong though.
Got into a good disccussion regarding this on another thread. I said lets see. Well I have heard every rationalization on why I was wrong, but the fact is b) media was cheaper back last Aug than now.
I hate being right.
Now I suppose BluRay will jack there prices back up.
I sure hope not. I won't be buying a $600 player or even a $400 player. This thing has dragged on long enough. I think the mainstream thinks that while HD is nice for movies, its not a dealbreaker. I am really quite happy with my upconverted dvds. My new big screen adds a lot more wow than a little more resoution on movies. I'm willing to pay a small premium for hd, but not what is currently being charged.
Heck, I can play a windows media high def movie on my current dvd drive. I don't much care what format gets me to hd.
Fred
I just got my 5 free HD DVDs in the mail. Yessssss!
That really sucks for all the people that purchased HDDVD players and started to collect the movies. Now I suppose BluRay will jack there prices back up.
I don't think that will happen. It didn't happen when CD beat DATs and it really didn't happen when VHS beat Betamax. DVD never really had any competition and no one complained about the lack of competition. In the long run, I imagine more people will invest in Blu-ray now that there is just one format. All those people sitting on the fence will jump in sooner rather than later. This mass adoption will lead to economies of scale which should will lead to cheaper players. It's not like Sony has a lock on the blu-ray player market.
That really sucks for all the people that purchased HDDVD players and started to collect the movies. Now I suppose BluRay will jack there prices back up.
I don't know. 5 free movies and the player was under $200 to start with. By the time Netflix does away with their HD-DVD supply, I will have watched some 40-50 HD movies. Fair price of admission.
If the BD players were that price I'd have gone that route. I just guessed wrong this time. Not the first, not the last.
Scott
Waiting on mine. But I did get my 5 free b) disks the other day.
I would offer a different opinion. For about 18 months following the BetaMax demise, I saw little to no sales on VHS tapes, and about an 18% price increase where I was at.
Not sure how lack of competition promotes pricing incentives to the consumer.
Wal-Mart ought to let those of us who purchased the A2's during their 'Secret Friday Sale' trade these in on a Blu-Ray player. That really irks me, they boost the living daylights out of the overall sales of these units by placing the things on an amazing sale and then three months later they drop the players and the disc altogether.
Toshiba Pulls the Plug on HD DVD - Ends Format War
>> From nhk.or.jp:
Toshiba Corporation has decided to withdraw from next generation high-definition DVD production.
The company said it will continue to sell HD-DVD products for a while but will stop further development of HD DVD. Meanwhile, it said its DVD factories in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, would be closed.
Market observers said that Toshiba could suffer a loss of hundreds of millions of US dollars.
I found another link to the story here:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Toshiba/Reuters,_NHK:_Toshiba_to_Pull_Plug_on_HD_DVD/1473Sooooooo... when do we get transformers on bluray?
Enjoy re-re-buying your content...
Good thing my Toshiba A2 didn't work with my Sanyo Z2 Projector, ended up selling it to Lorenzo up in Canada...
I does work great as an upconverting player.
I am still only "out" $12 on the player (after getting rid of 4 of the 5 the "rebate" movies) and about another $60 in movies I bought, but 2 of those are combo DVD/HD-DVD movies, and my wife was going to buy them on straight DVD, which I got the combo ones for about $2 more. And of course I bought Transformers. The others in my collection were free (thanks to CV), so for about $72 I have a great upconverting player that also plays HD-DVD AND I have 17 movies! I don't consider myself a loser in this whole experience. What will stink is when I can afford to grab a Blu-Ray player (when they are more standardized as well) and it won't play HD-DVD like we all know Sony will put into their specs for most future players, and then I would have to have 2 players to watch movies. At that point, the HD-DVD will probably be given away with the movies.
I knew the risk when I decided to buy into both formats, and I've had enough enjoyment out of my HD DVDs to where I don't feel bad about having supported the format. And I'll still get more enjoyment out of it.
Of course, now I get to save up for a Blu-ray Disc player that will do everything I want.
I bought the A2 for $98. I got rid of 2 of my freebie movies for $60... so I paid $38 for the player and 3 free movies. Add the 4 movies I got from CV and I got a helluva deal. I did buy The Eagles live from Melbourne for $20 though. I also bought DVE on HD DVD but it is a combo format so no loss there.
All in all I am not out a lot of money. I will keep my HD DVD player and keep renting from netflix until their supply is gone (which may be very soon). Eventually I will unhook the thing I imagine. Maybe sell it to someone with a huge collection of HD DVD's so they an have a backup player down the road.... who knows?
Eventually, I will buy a bluray player most likely. Probably sooner rather than later.
I've been keeping up on the format war since I bought both a PS3 and Toshiba HD-XA2 in mid 2007. Even thought I was format neutral from a hardware standpoint, I always opted for the HD DVD version of any dual format release. I'm sad that we'll stop seeing HD DVD releases, though my XA2 is a great SD DVD upconverter so it will still have a place in my stack for some time to come. I felt that HD DVD would lose the battle for awhile now as Sony's marketing was much more effective, driving the words Blu-ray into the minds of the public. In contrast, Toshiba's print ads and TV spots were pretty lame, especially their Super Bowl ad. It will be interesting to see how this plays out for Blu-ray hardware and software pricing and adoption in the short term. I smell higher prices and lower sales figures! I'm also waiting on a HD DVD firesale at places like amazon.com. Regardless, I won't be displeased if Sony doesn't recoup the hundreds of millions they threw around to secure studio exclusivity.
i guess returning my player a while back and getting a pc hddvd/BD drive worked out well for me. as much as I'm disappointed that HD DVD is leaving us, i must look on the bright side! i should be able to get some really really cheap HD DVD titles and perhaps even pick up a really cheap HD DVD player in the next couple of months. that stack of Beta players i have would look awful purdy with an HD DVD player as a topper!
I would offer a different opinion. For about 18 months following the BetaMax demise, I saw little to no sales on VHS tapes, and about an 18% price increase where I was at.
Not sure how lack of competition promotes pricing incentives to the consumer.
There is still competition. Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and a bunch of others may BD players. The mass adoption of one format will encourage people to buy these players and will reduce the price. That's how EVERY electronic device I've ever owned worked. My first DVD player was $600+ if I recall. First plasma's were $10K+, etc etc. Prices will come down because of mass production/adoption.
I would offer a different opinion. For about 18 months following the BetaMax demise, I saw little to no sales on VHS tapes, and about an 18% price increase where I was at.
Not sure how lack of competition promotes pricing incentives to the consumer.
There is still competition. Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and a bunch of others may BD players. The mass adoption of one format will encourage people to buy these players and will reduce the price. That's how EVERY electronic device I've ever owned worked. My first DVD player was $600+ if I recall. First plasma's were $10K+, etc etc. Prices will come down because of mass production/adoption.
Not players, the media (the movies themselves.)
The cost of the player is really insignificant relative to the cost of media.
I am format neutral from last year. Between the BD30 and AS35, I have about $725 into the pair.
Though its only been a few months, the library has 15 HD-DVDs and 21 Blu-rays.
Even at a say a low price of $20 each (which is NOT what I paid
), that represents $720. So in just a few months of ownership, the media itself as basically equaled the cost of the players.
To build another analogy, lets look at DVDs. Lets say you have about 300. Even at a low ball price of say $7.50 each, that is a $3600 investment. That makes the cost of any DVD player (even say a high dollar unit) really pale in comparison.
With the format war, the consortiums were funding incentives to the consumers. Now there is no format war. There is no need for the consortium to offer incentives. Can;t remember a BOGO since the announcement (other than to clear titles not moving). I had someone say well its after Xmas, did you really expect them? I said yes, why not, I was gettting BOGOs back inAug last year.
I hope I am wrong, but,,,,,,,
I found this interesting:
(taken from audioholics.com)
Blu-ray Lawsuit vs Samsung
by Wayde Robson — last modified February 14, 2008 06:12
A consumer group charges that Samsung has knowingly sold defective Blu-ray players since June 2006 and is looking for $5 million in compensation.
Samsung sold lead plaintiff Bob McGovern a BD-P1200 last summer which has turned out to be incompatible with some Blu-ray disc titles. The plaintiff attributes the player's inability to playback Blu-ray movies to a "defective design and/or manufacture".
Attorneys have noted that the problems have caused many complaints against Samsung and other Blu-ray manufacturers. According to the suit, Samsung has verified that it doesn’t intend to provide any further firmware updates to fix this issue.
A few specific Blu-ray titles are known to have problems in various players (especially Samsung’s BD-P1000 and BD-P1200) including: The Day After Tomorrow and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Many Blu-ray players require regular firmware updates to make them compatible with newer Blu-ray discs.
It’ll come as a surprise to many consumers that simply taking home a Blu-ray player doesn’t mean you can start watching Blu-ray movies. A series of firmware updates are necessary to make the player compatible with newer movies. But what happens when the manufacturer refuses to provide firmware for new movie discs? You get a class action lawsuit against Samsung.
The trouble is probably related to BD+, the DRM (Digital Rights Management) intended to guard against copy protection. Silver Surfer uses a Blu-ray java virtual machine to add BD+ copy protection which is unique to Blu-ray. BD+ is an additional layer of copy protection on top of AACS copy protection already used by both competing formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD.
So has anyone heard when NetFlix will start selling their stock of HD-DVD discs?
I was checking eBay, but the people trying to jump ship still aren't quite at the bargain basement price that I am looking for. There were a couple of folks that managed to sell their HD-A2 with about 15 movies for about $250, but to me, that is a loss on their part. I have 16 movies and the A2 and no plans to jump ship.
So has anyone heard when NetFlix will start selling their stock of HD-DVD discs?
I was checking eBay, but the people trying to jump ship still aren't quite at the bargain basement price that I am looking for. There were a couple of folks that managed to sell their HD-A2 with about 15 movies for about $250, but to me, that is a loss on their part. I have 16 movies and the A2 and no plans to jump ship.
You and I both. I have only found a few firesale discs on Ebay. Had a bit better luck with Craigslist. Best luck was watching forums for people saying they are jumping ship, and contacting them through email/PM.
I read online at xboxscene.com that microsoft may have a bluray player addon out as early as this may.
People are saying the expensive part is the media, but how many movies do you really watch multiple times? If it is something I am going to watch once, I'll rent instead of buy. Only if I come across a movie that I can see watching a bunch of times would I buy it. I own Tombstone, Braveheart, The Matrix, and Wedding Crashers (might be forgetting something here), but I watch about 4 movies a month from rentals.
Not players, the media (the movies themselves.)
The cost of the player is really insignificant relative to the cost of media.
I am format neutral from last year. Between the BD30 and AS35, I have about $725 into the pair.
Though its only been a few months, the library has 15 HD-DVDs and 21 Blu-rays.
Even at a say a low price of $20 each (which is NOT what I paid
), that represents $720. So in just a few months of ownership, the media itself as basically equaled the cost of the players.
To build another analogy, lets look at DVDs. Lets say you have about 300. Even at a low ball price of say $7.50 each, that is a $3600 investment. That makes the cost of any DVD player (even say a high dollar unit) really pale in comparison.
With the format war, the consortiums were funding incentives to the consumers. Now there is no format war. There is no need for the consortium to offer incentives. Can;t remember a BOGO since the announcement (other than to clear titles not moving). I had someone say well its after Xmas, did you really expect them? I said yes, why not, I was gettting BOGOs back inAug last year.
I hope I am wrong, but,,,,,,,
I guess I have a different perspective because I rarely buy movies. I have been format neutral for about 5 months now, but I rarely buy movies. The only movies I've bought are kid's movies because they watch them over and over and over and over. Otherwise, I get them from Netflix. The few exceptions are what I consider to by my all time favorites (Matrix I, Transformers, Raising Arizona, POTC I, and Princess Bride)
Besides, every studio had a lock on the content from the get go. it's like like other studios were free to distribute Matrix I.
Well lets look at the math on your scenario. Lets say you are 3 at a time user through Netflix at a rate of $17/month.
That equates to $204 annually. Add 5 purchased movies a year at $20.00 each, so another $100 annually.
So $304 annually. Within 2 years you are roughly at the same amount as buying the 2 players to be format neutral.
Another scenario, lets say you are a 4 at a time user at 24 monthly, and that you will only purchase 5 movies ever.
Within 2 years you are at $676. That's real close to the purchase price of 2 players to be format neutral.
Well lets look at the math on your scenario. Lets say you are 3 at a time user through Netflix at a rate of $17/month.
That equates to $204 annually. Add 5 purchased movies a year at $20.00 each, so another $100 annually.
So $304 annually. Within 2 years you are roughly at the same amount as buying the 2 players to be format neutral.
Another scenario, lets say you are a 4 at a time user at 24 monthly, and that you will only purchase 5 movies ever.
Within 2 years you are at $676. That's real close to the purchase price of 2 players to be format neutral.
I'm perfectly in agreement with you math. But most people will want one HD standard. It's better for mass adoption since HD is in its infant stages.
I really didn't care who won, but it was time to move on with one standard.
...but how many movies do you really watch multiple times?
I was wondering about that myself ... i dont think I own more than 25 movie dvds. I do own quite a few concert's DVDs though.
My wife and I much rather spend time on mediocre movies we havent seen than good movies we've already seen. :-)
I am the other way around. I prefer to watch again good to great movies (for me) than watch movies that are of lesser interest to me. Which is probably why I buy.
That being said, I can rely on a circle to 10-12 people with whom I share DVDs (and hopefully soon BD disks too) so it ends up costing less than renting.
Fully understand; just noting from a business perspective,its highly possible that they have loss the need to provide incentives to the consumer (BOGO, etc.). This will result in a higher cost of ownership of media, until it reaches a point of commoditization.
So, which BD drive would you recommend ? Should I go straight to the "horse's mouth" and buy a Sony ? does that give me more "guarantees" than a Samsung or other ?
I don't have either yet.. been sitting on the fence for a long time.. glad it's over and we have a winner.. did not care which one, just as long as there is one and not two.
I'm not in a rush.. I can wait 3 to 6 months.. maybe a bit more.
I don't watch much TV, just movies. The closest movie theater to me is 250 miles. So far, I've got over 800 dvd's, 200 HD-dvd's and 150 B-Ray.
It's nice to be able to pick and choose through a library on a rainy day.
You are like your own video rental store!
I may use all of this as an excuse to get that HTPC I've been talking about for YEARS! Throw in a combo HD-DVD/Blu-Ray/DVD writer drive and have it all. Of course, I am about to drop a big chunk of cash into some much needed car repairs, so this too will have to wait.
I know how that goes... My car accident set me back quite a bit and my next upgrade will have to wait
The closest movie theater to me is 250 miles.
Where do you live that you have to go 250 miles to a movie theater? I must have hundreds of them within that radius from me.
Stolen from AVS forum:
Paramount, Universal to Be Free if Toshiba Drops HD DVD
Studios will be relieved from contracts, report says.
Paramount and Universal, the only two studios still exclusively supporting HD DVD, will be “immediately released from their commitments” if Toshiba, as widely reported, drops the format this week.
That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, which cites a person “familiar with the situation.”
Warner Bros., which announced before CES that it would be halting HD DVD production in May, would also immediately freed from any agreement.
We’ve already seen reports of HD DVD titles on Blu-ray in the wild, as our friends at EngadgetHD are showing a retail listing for Transformers on Blu-ray. It’s a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt, but we know that director Michael Bay is happy.
Yeah, but there are also Blu-Ray only titles on HD-DVD "in the wild" (overseas) as well, so that stuff has been happening for a while.
Odd thing I saw tonight though. I was at Walmart, and their entire HD-DVD and Blu-Ray display was void of any Blu-Ray or HD-DVD titles, but filled with regular DVDs (even though the sides and top of the display still said Blu-Ray and HD-DVD). I was unable to locate any titles in either format in the store. I should have asked someone, but didn't want to wait for the 1 person working the electronics department who was busy helping some people with a HDTV.
You probably wouldn't have got an answer anyway...You'd probably talk to an old lady who still watches everything on VHS
So, which BD drive would you recommend ? Should I go straight to the "horse's mouth" and buy a Sony ? does that give me more "guarantees" than a Samsung or other ?
I don't have either yet.. been sitting on the fence for a long time.. glad it's over and we have a winner.. did not care which one, just as long as there is one and not two.
I'm not in a rush.. I can wait 3 to 6 months.. maybe a bit more.
If waiting 3-6 moonths, I would recommend waiting on a recommendation
There will be new entries into the market.
If purchasing now, the Panny BD30 has the fewest issues. You can only enjoy the higher codecs though if you have a newer AVR than can decode them as there is minimal internal decoding.
Eventually I may get a standalone player, as for now I'll wait for all the specs. to be finalized, the PS3 is a good player but if the Denon DVD-3800BDCI Blu-ray player drops significantly in price in the next year or someone else builds a player with the Silicon Optix Realta chipset then I may bite.
R.I.P
I think it became apparent to Toshiba, Sony would never let BR die while it has so much at stake with the PS3.
So they have finally replaced all of the nails with 3" wood screws, and locked the clasp shut.
sooo... do you think toshiba will release a bluray player?
I know for myself I am not buying into Blu-ray until either LOTR comes out, or they get a profle 2.0 player. If no 2.0 player is available when LOTR comes out, i will have to cave for a PS3 knowing that I can get 2.0 update via the internet.
I am contemplating the PS3 as well.
I want to have DTS MA sound though, so I will probably hold off and get a new standalone 2.0 player. I would prefer to let me receiver do the decoding, but If the player decodes it that is fine as well.
I have been waiting for them to come out without audio decoders in the hopes it would lower the price a bit more.
I am contemplating the PS3 as well.
I want to have DTS MA sound though, so I will probably hold off and get a new standalone 2.0 player. I would prefer to let me receiver do the decoding, but If the player decodes it that is fine as well.
My samsung 1400 has been great. But it's a little more finicky with dirtier discs. To date, it only had an issue playing "Dragon Wars" which - ironically - is a remake of a Korean movie/legend. It had scratches on it, and Samsung had issues. I popped it into the PS3 and it stuttered at the same spot, but I was able to fast forward past the problem point.
Other than that, I've had no issues with my 1400. For the most part, people just didn't update their FW. Like I said, Blu-ray is about 3-5 months away from being a main stream player. Not so much because of the much ballyhooed profile 2.0 (I don't use any of the PIP stuff anyway), but because constant FW upgrades are required.
BD30 has LFE issues, so make sure you read up on the thread at AVS.
News from Tokyo today: "Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products."
Apparently, Toshiba has not yet decided on whether they will support blu-ray by making hardware and software for that format.
John
I'm glad to know that they will continue to provide support. I hope that's not an empty promise.
I think Toshiba should start marketing less expensive Blu-ray players that deliver on all the goods and are reliable. Okay, maybe that's a little too much to ask for, but I can dream, can't I?
I have to say that I've yet to find a blu-ray disc that my ps3 coudln't play or would skip on. But I agree that if DTS:MA is important to you then there's no guarantee that it will ever be available on it (while it's certain that there'll be a 2.0 profile update at some point). In my case I don't care since I don't have a newer receiver that can decode multichannel PCM over hdmi as well as the decode the new formats.
All in all though the ps3 is the only blu-ray "player" on sale right now that has the possibility to be upated to match any new player. By the time it's obsolete there'll be cheaper and better players for me to consider.
All in all though the ps3 is the only blu-ray "player" on sale right now that has the possibility to be upated to match any new player.
I am not necessarily putting the assertion into great question, but I am wondering what it means exactly. All HD players are essentially computers; why would the PS3 be more upgradable than the other players? Just curious.
Well for instance if you own a bluray player that isn't profile 2.0 then it's very unlikely that you can update it to it through firmware since it has hardware requirements on top of software. The ps3 has the hardware requirements right off the bat.
You're right that bluray players are "computers" but their hardware is designed to play blurays (and decode sound) only with no margin for anything else really. They don't have the ability to "do" anything else than that, but they do it well (at least you would hope so... Not the case for all players right now).
The ps3 is primarily a gaming console, thus it's more akin to a full blown computer, with more processing power necessary to accomplish many tasks. Provided its memory and cpu/bus are capable of it you can update its functions easily through software.
For instance at first the ps3 didn't upconvert dvds and that was added later through a firmware update. You couldn't do that with a regular player (by that I mean a bluray player that wouldn't have the ability to upconvert dvds, which all do right now) since it would lack the hardware to do so and doesn't have any processing power available to provide it through software.
I guess I need a PS3 primer. Is it true that the $399 40GB model is not backwards compatible with PS2 titles but that the more expensive model is?
Just when you think you can dismiss Sony and be content with a Wii, you get "developments". Harumph.
That's correct. The 40GB PS3 isn't backward compatible, and also doesn't play sacds.
The 60GB is backward compatible through hardware (has ps2 logic boards included).
The 80GB is backward compatible through software emulation (thus not all games are playable).
I have the Toshiba XA2 HD-DVD player. It has now essentially became an expensive SD-DVD player, but I have no regrets; it is arguably the best upconverting player around and this will be valuable as long as we have more SD-DVDs than BR discs. I think Toshiba developed the HD-DVD format better than Sony did for the BR. Now that the format war is over, one hopes that the players catch up to the profiles and are offered at a cheaper price.
To answer Eric's question, I will post Wikipedia's excellent explanation:
"On November 1, 2007, the Grace Period Profile was superseded by "Bonus View" as the minimum profile for new players released to the market.[65] With the exception of the PlayStation 3, profile 1.0 players cannot be upgraded to be Bonus View compliant.[66] On December 17, 2007, the PlayStation 3 became Bonus View 1.1 compliant through PlayStation 3 System Software version 2.10.[67] When software authored with interactive features dependent on "Bonus View" hardware capabilities are played on profile 1.0 players some features may not be available or may offer limited capability. Profile 1.0 players will still be able to play the main feature of the disc, however.[68] The first BD Live titles (War and Saw IV) were released by Lionsgate in January 2008, despite the fact that no players existed to play the web-enhanced content.[69] BD Live (Profile 2.0) players are expected to be released in early 2008. Various reports have indicated that the PS3 will be updated to support the specification, taking full advantage of the player's Ethernet and Wifi connectivity and hard drive storage space."
John
Hopefully now Paramount will get their head out of their backside and start releasing Blu-ray disks again, then we can get Raiders of the Lost Ark in HD!
Universal has decided to go Blu, at this point Toshiba has no plans on going in that direction.
News
Toshiba will be manufacturing robots that eat Sony products.
Better buy your robot insurance now.
Hm... Still sounds a bit speculative to me... If you ever come accross more specific items, please let me know (I'll keep my ear to the ground also).
Found this (which is probably what you were referring to):
Damn! The table does not paste well.
Seems like the differences between "final profile" (1.1) and 2.0 are more mandatory local persistent storage and mandatory Internet access.
So people going from 1.1 to 2.0 won't be affected too much (only extra features). But it is true that going from 1.0 to 2.0 is somewhat a big leap!
Universal has decided to go Blu, at this point Toshiba has no plans on going in that direction.
News Once the sting wears off, Toshiba would be pretty silly if they opted not to get into the Blu-ray market (can they get rid of the silly-ass dash in their name??? GEESH)
If there's money to be made, they will jump right in.
Eric,
That's correct, also that's provided profile 2.0 is the final version, which seeing how bluray has managed its standard so far isn't for sure... That's why I would wait a bit before buying a standalone since there can be so many things that can change!
sigh...I knew this was going to happen but I really just have had such lousy luck with Sony products I just never wanted to give them money again! Oh well. What's amazing is that if you are not interested in getting a PS3, it's kinda hard to find a quality Blu-Ray player that has all the options that a cheaper HD-DVD player (like my A3) has/had built-in! I am going to just wait it out until towards the end of the year...it will be weird to have two (well, three, including the xbox) disc players in my system! I guess I am growing up a bit...
speaking of which, my M60's arrive tomorrow!!!!!!
best,
mike
We all knew that it happened, but the news is out. The official price tag for the "incentive" for Warner Brothers to go Blu-Ray exclusive??? $400 million USD! And that is just one of the studios that they paid off...
I still don't see how they can ever make up the amount of money that they "invested" and are still loosing on the sale of every Blu-Ray device.
They should have just paid all of us here $400 million (that we could split amongst ourselves) and we could have just told the world to go Blu-Ray. At least then I could afford a player that has everything that Blu-Ray has been promising and won't have future compatability issues once they finally come out. Of course, then again, Toshiba paid Paramount an unconfirmed $250 million and will have nothing to show for it pretty soon.
So the studios probably coaxed both companies to enter a format war so they would get huge paid off!
Exactly! HA! Good one EFalardeau
That's correct. The 40GB PS3 isn't backward compatible, and also doesn't play sacds.
The 60GB is backward compatible through hardware (has ps2 logic boards included).
The 80GB is backward compatible through software emulation (thus not all games are playable).
Thanks for that most eloquent explanation. I really got lucky when I plunked down my money at Costco last summer for a PS3. I was not as informed as I should have been, but it turned out that their deal at the time was on the 60 GB model, so I'm set.
When I was at the mall the other day, considering a PS2 game purchase, all the store employee could tell me was that the 60 GB PS3 was the best one to have. It could play
all the old games, the 40 GB wouldn't play
any, and the 80 GB would play
some. Now I know why! Thanks!