High fidelity soundtrack most of the time

High fidelity soundtrack most of the time

This decision could not have been made by the consumer because if it were, HD DVD would have clearly been the winner due to the prices of the equipment needed to play back the titles. No regional codes simply meant that if I wanted a movie before it was released over here, I could order one from over seas if it were available. Also, some of the movies that were released only in Blu Ray over here, were available over seas in HD DVD format. Sony simply bought out the competition with the consumers being the real losers. Hail to the superior profiteers! I have the Xbox 360 add-on and planned on getting a PS3 sometime in the future if Sony stopped being so darn greedy about the price and features, however this news still saddens me. HD-DVD would have been the best format in terms of price and features, but now Sony holds the keys to high definition. Judging by Sonys reputation for greed, the HD market will only be left to the die-hard HD buffs out there with the paychecks to afford it. Sony will milk all the money off what I will call the HD war over rush. Sure the war is over, but the the terrorists won! I may want their PS3, but not because I support Sony and Blu-ray, but because I support Konami and Square Enix, but thats a different forum. I tip my hat to HD-DVD and smile in anticipation for price drops for the movies! Having been through the conversion from LaserDisc to DVD and all hype and name calling that ensued, its safe to say that it will only be a matter of time and the economies of scale before Blu-Ray is THE defacto standard even for those of you who cant see the difference between a 480p DVD upconverted to 1080i or 720p. Right now the only discs that can truly showcase what this technology is capable of have been recorded specifically for 1080p viewing vs. the rerelease transfers done digitally by interpolation and rescan and they are few and far between. Back in 99 when the first rumours came out about the new Blue Laser discs and Toshiba and NEC tried to trump Sony by creating HD DVD, the information we fed to every consumer that came through the door of our High End Home Theater shop that specialized in Toshiba sales was that Blu-Ray would be THE format since HD DVD never was designed for the transfer rates and capacity necessary for full 1080p even with MPEG4 compression. Fast forward to 2007 with the slow, arcane, not always compatible HDMI connection, Blu-Ray players that cost you had to have patience and knowledge about whats going on in order to make them work and even then it was sometimes a matter of having to shutdown and reboot is this my PC running Windows or a DVD Player? Then low and behond the PS3 shows up on the scene. Faster than even 1000 SD DVD players to start up, transparent menus, lossless HD Audio, all wrapped up in a game console that the grandkids can play with? Sign me now my Sony Bravia SXRD 60 screen has taken on a life of its own, the Planet Earth series has yet to not WOW anyone whos seen it and totally entrance them for as long as they can stand to watch. Everybody wants more! Its a shame that the studios arent doing a better job of transferring their current titles to Blu-Ray as some of them are less than stellar. So, in response to the original question, it has always been the well informed hypothesis that Blu-Ray would eventually win the war since it was the only one that would support full 1080p transfer rates. We that held to that philosophy were only holding out for an affordabe player that wouldnt require a Masters Degree to operate. Now that the PS3 is available AND you can use it as a full fledged Web Browser and Photo whats holding YOU back? I will not be buying a Blue ray player and I will not purchase a PS Theyre both over priced and overrated. HD DVD is clearly the better choice and I will just stick with it until they discontinue the movies as well. Mean while I will keep stocking up on the HD DVDs as they get cheaper and use my HD player as an up convert player for regular dvds. Congrats Blu! This will now allow folks who have been sitting on the sidelines the incentive they need to buy a hi-def disc product to feed that new HDTV. To those who state downloads are the future, maybe, but a long time from now as the broadband capability in this country is a long way away from fast downloads. Another factor is that many movie buffs want a hardware copy to display on a shelf. To those who state that they must now pay high prices for a Blu-Ray are going to go down as with all electronics. I would venture that you will shortly see BD standalones at 200 by Summer. I purchased the PS3 last April and absolutely love it. It has been a pleasure to use and has played everything thrown at it. No issues. No problems, just hi-def nirvana. The PS3 killed hd-dvd. Executives looked out and saw 7 millio PS 3 blu ray players vs less than a 1mm hd-dvd. Sony gambled and won. Now the mom and pop wave will be on. Bought the HD-A3 on Black Friday for 177 and got a price correction to 133 from Amazon plus 10 free HD DVDs. With the great upconverting available, I have no complaints and will wait to buy a Blue-ray until it is around 150 or less and the firmware issues are set. Now if only Toshiba would release a dual player, I would pay a slightly higher premium for that since I have been so impressed with my current player.