It's Official

[FischerKing]

I'm blu!

To match the new Sony Bravia XBR4 I bought a couple of weeks ago, last night I picked up the brand-spanking new Panasonic DMP-BD30 from Fry's Electronics. Also bought a copy of POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl on Blu-Ray and it looked amazing...

Up next - working on the surround sound. Need to get an A/V Receiver and speakers to really take advantage of the 7.1 that some of the movies are using and are moving towards.

sahwn

 

[dreamcastrocks]

The Onkyo 605/805 is a great choice.

 

[FischerKing]

The Onkyo 605/805 is a great choice.

The 805 is really nice and it is coming down between that or the 705. I don't think the 605 as much for the only reason that it has 2 in/1 out hdmi and that would not provide me with any future growth.

shawn

 

[FischerKing]

ah - nevermind - looks like i could go with a 605 and then when i need to expand on hdmi connections i can pick up an hdmi switcher that will allow a passthrough signal to the AVR out to the tv and speakers. and the switcher is cheaper than the price difference between then 605 and 705.

shawn

 

[Covert Rain]

I am going dual format (HD DVD + Blu Ray player). This war will not be over anytime soon and I refuse to miss out on the HD DVD movies. I just heard from a buddy of mine that swears he can get me a sweet deal on the new BD-UP5000 as soon as it's released (Jan 15). So now I am back to waiting. He works for a major manufacturer and is going to get it for me for wholesale or less.

The latest he told me is that the player will debut for less then what was reported. He stated the street price is going to be around $799 versus the $1200 that was originally reported or somewhere in between. That's still much cheaper then I anticipated.

 

[FischerKing]

I am going dual format (HD DVD + Blu Ray player). This war will not be over anytime soon and I refuse to miss out on the HD DVD movies. I just heard from a buddy of mine that swears he can get me a sweet deal on the new BD-UP5000 as soon as it's released (Jan 15). So now I am back to waiting. He works for a major manufacturer and is going to get it for me for wholesale or less.

The latest he told me is that the player will debut for less then what was reported. He stated the street price is going to be around $799 versus the $1200 that was originally reported or somewhere in between. That's still much cheaper then I anticipated.

I haven't done any research on the UP5000, but the panny is one sweet player with the 1.1 specs for next years releases.

shawn

 

[Sandan]

There is a rumor that the final battle might come due mid Jan

Depending on which way it goes it 'MIGHT' close to finish it.

Warner is rumored to be looking at Media sales of Xmas [discs] not players and will move off their both position based on the result.

Now Blu disks are way outselling HD, so if this is true and Warner backs Blu it will give Blu 75% of the movies.

Remember talking disks here not players.

 

[FischerKing]

There is a rumor that the final battle might come due mid Jan

Depending on which way it goes it 'MIGHT' close to finish it.

Warner is rumored to be looking at Media sales of Xmas [discs] not players and will move off their both position based on the result.

Now Blu disks are way outselling HD, so if this is true and Warner backs Blu it will give Blu 75% of the movies.

Remember talking disks here not players.

right - last week blu-ray hit 76% sales over hd dvd and pirates sold huge moving 160k units in its first week out.

shawn

 

[dreamcastrocks]

The 805 is really nice and it is coming down between that or the 705. I don't think the 605 as much for the only reason that it has 2 in/1 out hdmi and that would not provide me with any future growth.

shawn

I thought about going the same way. I decided that I wanted the extra power, the internal cooling fan, and the extra HDMI port and went the 805.

Be sure to shop around before buying anything.

 

[KloD]

ah - nevermind - looks like i could go with a 605 and then when i need to expand on hdmi connections i can pick up an hdmi switcher that will allow a passthrough signal to the AVR out to the tv and speakers. and the switcher is cheaper than the price difference between then 605 and 705.

shawn

Just be careful in the future when looking for a HDMI switch box. Many of them only pass video and not audio.

I'm pretty picky about my audio/video hardware and have always gone with Denon, but when I upgrade again I'm gonna give that Onkyo a 2nd look, the first is impressive.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Just be careful in the future when looking for a HDMI switch box. Many of them only pass video and not audio.

I'm pretty picky about my audio/video hardware and have always gone with Denon, but when I upgrade again I'm gonna give that Onkyo a 2nd look, the first is impressive.

I looked at Denon, HK, but what I got out of the Onkyo 805 would have cost me hundreds more dollars if I would have gone Denon/HK.

 

[azsouthendzone]

There is a rumor that the final battle might come due mid Jan

Depending on which way it goes it 'MIGHT' close to finish it.

Warner is rumored to be looking at Media sales of Xmas [discs] not players and will move off their both position based on the result.

Now Blu disks are way outselling HD, so if this is true and Warner backs Blu it will give Blu 75% of the movies.

Remember talking disks here not players.

I doubt it. All of those rumors are identical to the FUD the Blu camp has been spreading for the past year. At CES you will see promises by both sides and thats about it.

 

[Covert Rain]

I doubt it. All of those rumors are identical to the FUD the Blu camp has been spreading for the past year. At CES you will see promises by both sides and thats about it.

No to mention that it's rumored that WB is looking for a big pay day as well. They have been playing both sides of the fence since this entire thing started.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

No to mention that it's rumored that WB is looking for a big pay day as well. They have been playing both sides of the fence sine this entire thing started.

If Paramount can get 100M from HDDVD, Warner should easily be able to double that.

 

[Covert Rain]

If Paramount can get 100M from HDDVD, Warner should easily be able to double that.

I agree. I don't think Warner cares which direction they go nor do I think they care. They just want a big pay day from one of the sides. Later they will say "we went with the superior technology" blah blah.....

Meanwhile their bean counters will be counting the money.

 

[Sandan]

I doubt it. All of those rumors are identical to the FUD the Blu camp has been spreading for the past year. At CES you will see promises by both sides and thats about it.

Actually not. It came from the New York Times.

I understand the FUD factor, this has a ring of credibility though. DVD sales are dropping because many people are holding off until the format wares are over. I know I am and I've seen this reported in a lot of places.

As to why it rings true to me .. Well if I'm an undecided studio, I would want to go with the media that is selling the most DVDs.

Personally I have no axe to grind at all as I don't have a player yet. Though I confess the engineer in me would hate to see a repeat of the VHS Beta conflict, where the inferior technology won out.

 

[azsouthendzone]

Actually not. It came from the New York Times.

I understand the FUD factor, this has a ring of credibility though. DVD sales are dropping because many people are holding off until the format wares are over. I know I am and I've seen this reported in a lot of places.

As to why it rings true to me .. Well if I'm an undecided studio, I would want to go with the media that is selling the most DVDs.

Personally I have no axe to grind at all as I don't have a player yet. Though I confess the engineer in me would hate to see a repeat of the VHS Beta conflict, where the inferior technology won out.

There have been rumors and articles in all sorts of media types for 18 months now. When Paramount switched guess how many rumors or news stories preceded it? None. The Blu camp spins crap non-stop to try to influence public perception. Warner already came out and said the rumor was false. I could care less what happens, but I'm just saying most of teh news that has been coming out is FUD.

 

[Sandan]

I guess will will know soon if that rumor is true.

What isn't false is the relative sales of the disk types

 

[MadCardDisease]

I was holding off purchasing a BluRay or HD DVD player for a couple of reasons. Obviously there is the question of who will win. But the biggest issue I had was dropping over $400 on a player alone.

Then all of a sudden HD DVD players became more affordable and I snagged one up. Why did I buy one, well I was very disappointed with the look of regular DVDs on my new HDTV compared to what I saw at the stores that were running HD DVD and BluRay disks. Then there is the upconverting factor, even if the standard goes away, I still have a very nice 1080p upconverting DVD player which I didn't have before with my older DVD player.

For now I have a bunch of HD-DVDs lined up in my Netflix Queue. That's probably how I will watch most of my movies to keep my investment small.

Although I did purchase about a dozen HD-DVDs that really showcase my new system. It's really not that big of an investment for the amazing video and audio I'm seeing. Let me just say it's hard to watch stardard DVDs now.

 

[azsouthendzone]

I guess will will know soon if that rumor is true.

What isn't false is the relative sales of the disk types

Pirates sells 5 million on DVD and 100,000 on Blu Ray and you are calling that an advantage? The studios are looking for mass adoption not a small victory in a large pond. The sales figures are small overall. This week HD DVD will destroy Blu in sales. There are a lot more factors in this than if 300 sells 150,00 on Blu compared to 100,000 on HD DVD when SD DVD sells 8 million. CES last year had the same rumors and speculation leading up and nothing happened as will be the same this year imo.

 

[Sandan]

I'm guessing you are in the HD DVD camp

All the reports I'd heard that Bluray disks were outselling HD DVD but I'm holding off until things are better sorted out

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I'm guessing you are in the HD DVD camp

All the reports I'd heard that Bluray disks were outselling HD DVD but I'm holding off until things are better sorted out

They are outselling them right now. Bluray has been having lots of buy one get one free sales in order to sell more discs.

 

[Gee!]

I'm blu!

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[azsouthendzone]

I'm guessing you are in the HD DVD camp

All the reports I'd heard that Bluray disks were outselling HD DVD but I'm holding off until things are better sorted out

I'm in my own camp. I own a HD DVD player I bought for $99 and a PS3. I am calling it as it is. I've been following the format war for over a year and the sales lead is extremely overblown and pretty pathetic considering the attach rate for the PS3 which is really the only Blu Ray player that anyone has bought. By the amount of Blu Ray players including PS3's on the market, Blu's should be destroying HD DVDs 10-1, not 2-1, and they are not. As a matter of fact, just as I was typing this a Wal-Mart commercial came on for bourne Ultimatum in HD DVD. All I'm saying is that most of the chest thumping has been by the Blu boys all along, proclaiming victories last January, then proclaiming stalemates, and now the warner rumors which are being spread by Blu, not Warner.

 

[Shane]

Whats the Warner Rumor?