Want a cheap Blu-ray player?

[FuZzYknUckLeS]

Get a Playstation 3. Specs are as follows:

The PS3 supports standard and HDTV resolutions (up to 1080p60) and connectivity options (such as HDMI 1.3 and component video). In terms of audio, the PS3 will support a number of formats, including 7.1 digital audio, Dolby TrueHD, and others. For the optical drive, a wide variety of DVD and CD formats are supported, as well as Blu-ray Disc. A 20 GB / 60 GB 2.5" SATA 150 hard disk is pre-installed. In the 60 GB configuration, flash memory can also be used — either Memory Stick, CompactFlash, or SD/MMC. For communication, the PS3 will have one gigabit ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports, and will support Bluetooth 2.0 EDR.

Even at the rip-off prices that people are asking now on places like eBay and CL, in the one-grand range, it is a good deal. Best Buy's best price on a Blu-ray player is approx. 1300, and it doesn't give you the option to play games like the PS3 does.

 

[stickdoctor]

true enough that could be a way to go.

But I think that there is a good chance that blu-ray and hd-dvd are gonna fatally wound each other and clear the way for another format to run up the middle.

I know I will not invest in one or the other until there is a clear winner or they start making them interchangeable with each other ( which I believe is probably technically impossible).

Not gonna be the guy who dives into the first betamax of the 21st.

 

[slow__hand]

This time....

My bet is Sony...time will tell..but I think they hit it

 

[westwoody]

Like I said before, Sony is using the PS3 to get their DVD platform out there before the HD crowd does. If Sony sells a couple of million PS3s that would be a lot of catching up for the other guys.
There are a couple of players being developed that work with both standards, but I'm going to wait and see if one dies off.

 

[Juggy]

The HD DvD players are already out there. You can pick up an addon to the xbox 360 for 200 bucks. Comes with King Kong HDDVD. To get true HD or Blueray, you need a 1080P resolution tv. So add another 1500 to the price tag if you don't already have one.

 

[bartendr]

This time....

My bet is Sony...time will tell..but I think they hit it

Cuz everybody knows they clearly won the beta-vhs war.

 

[FuZzYknUckLeS]

The HD DvD players are already out there. You can pick up an addon to the xbox 360 for 200 bucks...

Ya. See, so now we're stuck with both platforms. This "let the consumers decide" mentality of the manufacturers fuckin' bites my ass. In the end, half of us lose and are stuck with obsolete equipment.

ps: anyone wanna buy a slightly used Betamax?

 

[mick_eight]

I hear on the street that the old beta max if you open it up and run bank ,debit or cc cards by the heads it will read them. Any truth to this ?

 

[smackyo]

true enough that could be a way to go.

But I think that there is a good chance that blu-ray and hd-dvd are gonna fatally wound each other and clear the way for another format to run up the middle.

I know I will not invest in one or the other until there is a clear winner or they start making them interchangeable with each other ( which I believe is probably technically impossible).

Not gonna be the guy who dives into the first betamax of the 21st.

a company in england has already developed a cd that will play both formats. it was thought in the beginning to be impossible but it has already been done. so the war may be over before it even starts.

bluray is better anyway. it takes a real keen eye to see the difference but its there.

 

[hitrack]

When the PC drives become more reasonably priced I'm waiting for the 12 yr old kid to crack the DVD protection so HD movies can start hitting the P2P sites.

 

[Maury Beniowski]

Price will win every time, as it did when Sony's Betamax went up against RCA's VHS in the seventies. Costco is selling a HD 1080i Lite-On recorder/player for $359. This will probably drop to $250 in the New Year. Blu-Ray can't touch that price, and probably never will. It may indeed be superior, but history has a nasty habit of repeating itself, and HD is a sure bet. China is producing a significant proportion of electronic equipment, and they can easily take down both price and competition.

 

[Stormrider]

One of the advantages of a HD player (Blu-Ray or HD-DVD) is being able to use watch movies at 1080p, something that the PS3 is getting a lot of flack for not being able to do properly in a lot of cases (and reverting to 480p, instead of going down to 720p or 720i or gasp, 1080i.) Which kinda makes sense since early HDTVs only had 1080i, 480p and 480i - 720 only seem to become popular about a year ago. So it is kinda of wierd that Sony is punishing early adopters - who happen to also be the most likely to want the system.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/746/746492p2.html
For those with HDTVs that only produce images in 720p or 1080i, limitations of the system may keep you from truly experiencing the "Full HD" of the PlayStation 3. One scaling issue might affect PS3 games (and in these cases, only certain games out of the PS3's library) while another issue might affect Blu-Ray movie playback.

Because PS3 cannot scale images up or down currently, owners of HDTVs that are capable of 1080i resolutions but not 720p images will see some next-generation PS3 titles displayed at a maximum resolution of 480p if the game does not have 1080i support. Most HDTV sets are capable of both 1080i and 720p, but a number of CRT HDTVs as well as some older HDTVs models do not support the in-between image format.

On the same token, because PS3 cannot scale images up or down currently, owners of HDTVs that are capable of 720p resolutions but not 10800i images will see their Blu-Ray movies kicked down to 480p because the system can only output BD-ROM videos at 1080i/p and 480i/p. This cases is less troublesome overall than the 1080i-only issue, as most 720p-limited TVs tend to still have scaling abilities built in to convert the video (while most 1080i-limited TVs are either too old to know what a 720p signal is or else just have no means of displaying that resolution because of the screen's technology.) However, for those who have TVs truly limited to 720p, all you get is 480p. And for those whose HDTVs can play 1080i but are optimized for 720p, you don't have the option to watch your movies in the best-possible resolution for your TV set.

I am still undecided between which of the two formats is best, i have a bit of research to do, but i am still sitting on the fence on this one.

Personally, i think Sony needed to cook this one a bit more and fix some of the issues with the system.