I also agree, I don't know anyone here who can be bothered shelling out for a HD-DVD or Blue ray DVD player yet! the only people that have them are the people that bought Playstation 3's and even they can't be bothered buying the DVD's for it!

 

I've got a PS3 & am up to 50 Blu-Ray movies,

Will likely be getting a standalone player later on to take advantage of DTS HD Master Audio... but then again, Sony may just put out a firmware update with it for the PS3 anyway.  

In all honesty though, if I just had a regular CRT T.V, I wouldn't have bothered with the movies, but would still have gone for the console for the simple fact that I've been a PS fan since day one.

What truely converted me to HD movies was watching my Blu copy of Spider-Man 3 on a friend's HD projector on a 100" screen through my PS3. He had the regular DVD & we kept going back, doing the old a/b test with them & the difference was totally night & day.

 

Well in terms of the whole format wars I think Blu-ray had this locked up a wile ago now, especially if anyone has been checking out the video store aisles as of late. I even got the HD Player for the Xbox 360 for Christmas (as a gift) but I don't think I'll be building any sort of collection for it outside of a few choice titles (Transformers, 300, Face-Off, probably only a few more(all 3 of which were freebies  )). I'm just not seeing any support for HD-DVD and the fact you can barely find anything as it is for the format, Blu-Ray it seems has a healthy steam of good titles for it. The fact Warner Bro's has now gone totally Blu-Ray and that it seems Paramount more or less stands alone now I think really puts the ball squary in Sony's camp and I predict the final death blow will be when stand alone players start creeping down in price which will most likely happen throughout 08.

Anyway just my   I'm no expert on this issue but my prediction is everyone will be running around by next Christmas including myself buying Blu-Ray players for themselves as HD-DVD will be more or less dead at that point.

 

Nice to see the end is finaly near. I haven't even upgraded to an HDTV yet. I felt no need to upgrade since I wasn't going to buy a new player only to have that format die and have to buy another one.

 

I hope it is over soon. I would like to great a player but been waiting to see how things come to light first.

 

Recording capacity is bollocks, it's the only think BR beats HD-DVD in. Well, the greater capacity also allows the inclusion of an uncompressed CPM track, but seriously, you're not gonna be able to tell the difference unless you're a some kinda golden-eared HiFist.

For one thing, HD-DVD technology is more mature. You got "profile 1.0" players that aren't even able to use all the special features from the newer discs which require like a profile 1.1 player or something, and profile 2.0 is in the future...forcing you to buy a ridicilously expensive player all over again. Blu-Ray's like at the frikkin' alpha stage compared to HD-DVD which is a product far more ready for retail. Blu-Ray also uses java which is just plain bad news, loading times are ridicilously long, BR hacks and coughs on special features HD-DVD plays back just fine...

The final nail in the coffin is the region lock though, which HD-DVD doesn't have. Good news for consumers, but it gives distributors gray hair and I think this is why they're so eager to support Blu-Ray which does have region coding; it's for the exact same reason as it was for DVD, and this time it's not quite so easy to crack, either. Those assholes just want to control prices and distribution rights.

If Blu-Ray wins, they'd damn better develop that technology to the finish and make a region free player soon, otherwise I'll just fart in the general direction of the whole Hi-Def bullshit.

 

too bad, i guess i wont be able to watch my Matrix HD-DVD collection...or maybe i'll be able to snatch a HD-DVD player and movies for cheap in time.

...but all the stores i've been to, the amount of HD-DVDs and BR are about the same.

 

well, BR is supposedly getting porn...Pirates (staring Jesse Jane, Carmen Luvana, Janine Lindemulder , Devon, Teagan, etc) is one if the first...

what's funny is that it's supposedly they will have both "R" and "Unrated" versions...i haven't seen the "R" version though.

 

Um, actually Ive seen it on HD-DVD. Dont ask me how I know that  

 

i said i havent seen the "R" version...but i did see the DVD "unrated version"  

 

That's not true. You probably won't notice the difference between an HD movie at 1080i vs. 1080p on a TV less than 40" But you sure as hell will notice a difference between an upconverted DVD running at 1080i and a HD-DVD/Blu-Ray running at 1080i.

 

Oh, and as an update to this, New Line has indeed comfirmed they are going Blu-Ray exclusive as well.

The HD-DVD camp has cancelled their press conference for tomorrow at CES.

 

I am now hoping for a BR Lord of the Rings Extended Edition set!!  

Oh snap! So is that like admitting defeat early or something? Also kinda odd since they still have Universal and Paramount as exclusives.

 

As much as I'd like to say this is HD-DVD admitting defeat, I don't think they will do that until Paramount/Dreamworks figures out how to get out of that stupid ass contract they just signed.

They probably just need time to spin the Warner/New-Line news. That'll be a tough nut to spin though.

 

I really didn't care who won the war, I don't plan on getting a PS3, & don't personally have an HD TV, so I don't plan on buying the HD-DVD player for my 360. I planned on just waiting out the war until there was a winner...

BUT...

My stepdad bought a Combo Blu-ray/ HD-DVD player for his HD TV, & I have to say that we are VERY Unhappy with Blu-ray. He Bought 10 Movies: 5 HD, 5 BR. All 5 HD movies work just fine, no problem, & look fantastic.

The Blue Ray on the other hand is a different matter. Out of 5 movies, FOUR of them DIDN'T work in some way or another. One had a black picture in picture box that wouldn't go away, though when the DVD menus were pulled up, they went OVER the PIP.
Another movie had sound but no video.
Yet another Movie had a different language (french I think) dubbed over every audio track(& yes we tried MANY times to change the Language & audio Functions)
The Final Movie would randomly skip chapters while watching the film.
The only one that seemed to work was Stargate.

After checking reviews on line, we are seeing a TON of Blu-ray movies with defective discs out there, But very little in terms defective HD-DVD. I'd have to say at this point, Until Sony & Blu-ray get their act together, Our Family is putting thier money & Support behind HD-DVD.

 

So this helps me make decision on which way to go. My question is this, how is the PS3's blu ray player? I know on the PS2 the dvd player was subpar. I was thinking of going the PS3 rough just because you get the dvd player and games all in on shot.

 

The player good. It's also a very good upconverting DVD player.

 

This is bad news. Deliberately restrictive formats stink. Nobody should be able to tell me what hardware I"m allowed to have hooked up, etc. The region lockout on DVD discs was already going too far.