Taking Sides - HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

>is it worth it even if i don't play video games in your opinion?

These days, probably not - a new PS3 is still going to cost the best part of $300/£280. Latest gen standalone blu-ray players (as Edward says) will offer most or all of thesame playback/streaming/network functionality and are getting cheaper all the time. I got an LG player earlier this year for just over £100, but even in UK supermarkets you can get players for about £80 now (and sometimes much less on last gen models). Another benefit of a standalone player for me is it's quieter and fits in my AV stand better.

Regarding reliability, my LG replaced a Sony that broke after just over a year (and cost twice as much). Hoping to get more use out of this, but will have to wait and see. From what I've read the blu laser assembly elements are a *lot* more failure prone than good old DVD(fwiw, it seems that PS3s are just as susceptible to this type of problem).

eureka has just started doing blu-only releases

guess it's time

xpost: not arguing with your recommendations, but my PS3 is silent as far as i can tell.

i ended up with a PS3 and it looks great and seems vv quiet.

Yeah, I've never noticed a noise issue with my PS3.

lol omar is a gamer now

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Sega_gamegear.jpg

Reviving again to note Omar's question above from the last revive -- I realize it hasn't even been a full year yet, but any general change in recommendations about kind of player? Signed, Not a Gamer.

definitely getting a blu ray playa for Christmas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEZa3dekjxs

Ned, we have a PS3 and dont really game much at all..Mr Veg does most gaming on PC. but it's a great DVD/bluray player and through wifi it's a good media server for torrents etc. We backup music to a nas drive & can play all that through PS3 too. I love it, because it's not a unitasker.
And firmware updates arent a problem with wifi hookup, it's automatic on startup.

They are $$$ I know, but definitely a good workhorse for the pricetag. Lots of bang for your buck.

So I could get one of the 160 GB slim bundles as noted above and be good, essentially. Then a key question --does this thing handle all DVD regions as well? (Keep in mind I've already got a fairly extensive DVD library from all over the place.)

sadly no, not that I've found....I have a cheap DVD player that I region-code hacked to for those. No region code hack for PS3 that I've found.

Yeah, that could clinch it for me in terms of sticking with a standalone model, then; I don't have oodles of non-R1/all-region discs but I do have a chunk and I'd like to be able to watch them, obv. -- I use a Mac at home so AppleTV was going to take care of various streaming media needs on that front when it comes to my music etc.

i can't believe i've never seen showgirls. so am i going to have to get a blu-ray player or what? can't i stick with dvd?

About your first statement! (Yes, why HAVEN'T you seen that?) Is the DVD version out of print or something?

lol i rly don't know. i finally just watched "Cruel Intentions"

Got a blu-ray player this week along with "The Searchers" and "2001". They're both stunning. Crazy.

Good stuff :) I remember the first time I watched 2001 on blu I was blown away. If you can stand to double-dip on one film, then the Kubrick blu-ray box set is a real treat and thoroughly recommended.

So how long does Blu-ray have left to 'happen' before the next format wars comes along?

Bluray almost certainly the last optical media. Ultra HD is being trialled though it will most likely be as a streaming service which will need superfast broadband which will probably take 3-8 years to deliver.

HD-DVD ftw.

we're still not even close to streaming Blu-Ray quality, are we? when you stream "HD" from Netflix or whatever, i assume you're not transferring anywhere near the ~40 gigs of a typical BD.

xpost

Yeah, still a way off. tbf, HD video compression has come on a long way since the BR standards were set, but the thing that HD streaming cannot manage (currently at least) is uncompressed audio. Even my (UK) cable tv providers HD channels are still "only" Dolby Digital audio. I got a new AV receiver a while back which can handle DTS-HD Master Audio etc and this brings almost as much joy as HD video for me.

pixar films in blu ray are something to behold

^^^

Showing my wife Finding Nemo on Blu-Ray was how I convinced her we needed the PS3.

I just read that on the Bluray of The Apartment you can see the face powder and eyeliner on Jack Lemmon and Fred MacMurray. Exceeding the technological limits of the ers in which the work was produced has its drawbacks.

(ie, I don't want a Bluray player)

Back in the day you'd never have seen that detail on the big screen, what with all the cigarette smoke in the theatre, everyone blurry eyed through being stoked up on whisky and gin since breakfast.

Misread this as "Showing my wife Finding Nemo on Blu-Ray was how I conceived her" etc etc

I think the (kinda jarring at first) details one picks up on like makeup, wrinkles, obviousness of studio sets vs. location shots in a sequence, etc. become less distracting the more you watch. Also, if the film is just plain engaging these things do fade into the b-ground. Some of my SD DVD's upres'd thru my new blu setup look great as well, esp. Criterion stuff (later Melville, b+w Renoir).

However all the stuff I burned from 700 mb avi's originating off some c. 1983 vHS - many of my favorite films like hard to find Rivette/Tourneur/etc. - looks like blobby shit.

anyone seen any good Blu Rays lately?

Do you mean films that are good in themselves, or stuff that shows off the blu medium as well? If the latter then Hugo looks fabulous, as do Melancholia and the Tron set with old and new; Tron Legacy in particular is stunning. Don't know if you're multi-region equipped for blu, but the Criterion BBS Story boxset is *fantastic* and seeing stuff like Head and Easy Rider in glorious grain-heavy HD, with uncompressed audio is a total treat too.

Peeping Tom looks amazing on Blu-ray. Along with Alien, that's the one that has really stood out for me.

Road Warrior bluray is pretty a+

The Star Trek reboot looks amazing on blu-ray.

otm

Yeah, Alien is one I saw recently that was most O_O. Beautiful.

Some recent purchases that look great: "Mysteries Of Lisbon", "Ronin", "Kuroneko", "Seven Samurai", "Excalibur".

There is a simply AMAZING slapfight going on at Jeff Wells's "Hollywood Elsewhere" over the upcoming Criterion Rosemary's Baby blu-ray disc and the proper aspect ratio for the film: http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/07/criterion_cleav.php (It's being mostly propagated by Glenn Kenny.)

(Note: Wells has not called anyone "fat" yet, but "fascist" has been busted out nearly a dozen times.)

Yeah that whole thing is v entertaining!

I'm purple-faced with rage. I've got stomach acid. I'm spitting saliva on the rug.

lol jesus

Who cares? It's not 48 fps so it'll suck.

I liked when Wells got in a tizzy over the Anatomy of A Murder edition and how someone at Criterion dug up a photo taken from the audience perspective at the film's original premiere that proved they were using the correct A.R. and uploaded it to Facebook.

Wells admits he was misinformed, talks about steak, harasses a widow

Oddly enough, the actual ratio was 1:1

all the reality shows out there and THIS isn't televised

priorities

haha, was Wells called a fascist by Polanski?

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/07/letter_to_polan.php

Recommendations for a long-lasting, low-end BR player?

Still not decided on this