Just buy a PS3. Pretty much about the same price and it can play games as a bonus...

Best to stay on shore a bit longer before jumping into these cold waters. Otherwise, might end up feeling Blu ...

It's fun living on the bleeding edge! :)

I love my PS3, it is a lovely thing.

I blame anyone who ever bought a Blu-Ray disc for getting us into this mess. This is what happens when you let Sony win format wars. lol

This isn't new news.

Anyway, the main movie will play in all, its the bonus content that 99% of end users will probably never use won't. Though my wife surely relishes the idea of idea of me stringing an ethernet cable through our living room or attaching a wireless receiver to the blu ray player. I'm sure blu ray 2.1 will have built in wifi...and blu ray 3.0 will have some other piece of technology we can't live without.

Of course maybe by then the blu ray players will have all of the functions that hd-dvd players (rip) now do.

@mightypen: Thats funny. One of the big things the Blue Ray Fanboys keep saying is that the disk will hold more. So you can add more extra content. So that makes BR better....

I assure you, most people buying ANYTHING electronic or mechanical have no idea what they're getting into, good or bad.

Woot! PS3 ftw!

Keep in mind that HD DVD came to the market with all these features intact, and had a method of upgrading players to keep up with the newest development. How a weaker, less consumer friendly (region locking), and more expensive to produce format is winning this war is a complete mystery.

@mightypen:

This is news to the people who keep shouting that Blu-Ray is the better format.

I've been saying this for months to everyone I see and speak to who is considering buying Blu-ray, and I've been saying this for months here.

No one is listening. No one cares that they're giving up all of their rights under copyright law with BR, and no one seems to care that the difference between a functioning Blu-ray player and a worthless brick is a single disc.

I'm still holding my breath. Sony has NEVER won a format war:

Beta (lost)
Minidisk (DOA)
ATRAC compression (lost to mp3 & mp4)
Memory Stick (losing to SD)
Elcaset (I'm not making this up)
SACD (killed both formats)

@Cary:

Minidisc and ATRAC are alive. They aren't well, but they're alive.

Minidisc owners swear by both of them. Probably because they've spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on the equipment. It was obviously a terrible format from the beginning.

You forgot to add UMD-Video, though. It is making a tiny resurgence now that Sony stopped demanding cargo-containers full of money from the studios, but I don't think that will save it.

I can see a lot of mad Blu-ray player owners - can possible even see some sort of class action lawsuit for players which won't work with all the features.

I would like to see the new DVD VMD red laser disk to gain support.

It uses the old red laser, which would mean the discs would cost about the same as current DVD's (and not $10+ more like the 2 blue laser formats)

[en.wikipedia.org]

As the owner of a high end AV Store, I think the current state of consumer electronics is idsgusting. Overpriced soon to be obsolete crap which takes away your rights as a consumer. HDMI? WHat version are we on now? Will it work with your old stuff? Why is Holywood telling us what we can and can not do with our technology that we purchase?

"But with the exception of the Playstation 3, current Blu-ray DVD players were built without future-compatibility capabilities,"

DRM.

"so come this October owners won't be able to take advantage of features like Internet connectivity"

DRM.

"or enhanced interactivity (whatever that means-details are sketchy)."

DRM.

But I don't want a Sony player after what they did with those CD rootkits. Certainly, at least one of the alternatives is usable?

@drjayphd: Huh? I don't like DRM either but don't you think you're a BIT overdoing it with the paranoia?

@suburbancowboy: Um, how are they doing that in this instance? Connect player. Put disk in player. Picture appears, sound plays. Isn't that what they're designed to do?

@sonichghog: If you're using them to store data, that could be true. It depends on your viewpoint. Me I don't care, I want hi-def movies. I'm sick of great-looking HD on my Tivo series 3, then relatively cruddy-looking movies. I just want hi-def DVDs that can hold, say, 3.5 hrs of video without having to swap disks in the middle of the movie.

@dukrous: Simple: because you can actually get (well, a lot more) movies for it. You can have the best technology in the world but if you can't use it for anything, what is the point?

@RvLeshrac: Huh? You never were granted the right to make copies in the first places, yes, even at home. You aren't allowed this right under standard DVD either but someone figured out how to reverse engineer the system nevertheless even though it's illegal to do that, possess the tools, or anything extracted with said tools. That doesn't mean that lots and lots of people don't do it anyway, but under the law it's illegal.

I understand the frustration that comes with not being able to do that anymore, but it seems that from their viewpoint they're afraid of the nasty evil pirates that aren't actually costing them to lose that much (they still make a lot from DVD sales, and haven't ever been able to prove that piracy is a significant problem) and I agree that there should be some sort of mechanism to allow you to do what you want at home, or more trusting of users since 99% of people AREN'T going to do anything dishonest ...

... but it's their copyrighted stuff, and complaining that you can't violate the copyright is a little bit like complaining carmakers install antitheft systems, so you can't break in (even though I know copying movies is not "stealing").

@mightypen: "Though my wife surely relishes the idea of idea of me stringing an ethernet cable through our living room or attaching a wireless receiver to the blu ray player."

PS3. Built-in WiFi. Go figure.

No need to bring the Missus into this after all.

Seriously though, compatability is one reason I truly was rooting for HD-DVD. Ah well, thanks to my PS3, I have both. But it's a shame I'm going to have a huge player taking up space for the dozen or so HD-DVDs I own...

Anyone who has been buying these players KNEW this was the case. No bleeding edge consumer purchases this type of player without knowing what they are buying. It's the bleeding edge after all.

I understand the HD DVD'rs sour grapes considering they DID have a more (currently) complete format but it's pretty clear now that the format war is all but over and Blu-Ray is the way it's going to go.

How about you just skip all the "BD-Live" crap and just sell me the freaking movie for $20 instead of $30? I love films, but with the exception of my Criterions, the extended LOTR, the Indy box set and maybe eight or nine others, I probably haven't even looked at 90% of my dvd's bonus features (not counting audio commentary, because that's perfect background noise for me). And I damn sure cannot see myself bothering to download them).

I agree.. If you want a Blu-ray player, get a PS3. Sony finally got its head out of its ass and are making it into a home entertainment box, instead of a pure gaming machine. The firmware on the PS3 is updated more often than the firmware on regular Blu-ray movie players. So any bugs/glitches are resolved in a more reasonable time frame.

Plus, it's DLNA compliant so you can stream movies and music from your computer or network storage box. And I believe Sony will be offering Divx movie downloads this year.

As for movies.. shop around. Most retail stores are throwing in 5 BD movies with purchase of a PS3. And I believe Fry's and Amazon frequently have "2 BD movies for $30" promotions.

Considering that all the record labels are *finally* abandoning DRM as a failed initiative, I wonder if, by the time that BR 2.0 comes out, they'll shuck the DRM wrapper?

Oh how I love thee internets...

Pure fanboism at it's best has really honed it's edge during the great format wars.

Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray use the SAME DRM AND THE SAME CODECS! Blu Ray offers the addition of BD+ for those studios/content creators that want it.

Bitching about DRM is pretty lame, the disc plays who cares if you can't download it free aside from the people responsible for the whole reason we have DRM now to begin with, the so called pirates.

Everyone knows that if they bought a gen 1 Blu Ray player that 2.0 was down the line and if yuor box didn't have an ethernet port or built in wireless yuo were going to be left out of future versions.

The kind of people buying gen 1 (aside from PS3) BD players are the same kind that will always buy the newest kit. These same people also already knew PS3 was the best buy since it was half the price of most high end Blu Ray players and had the best specs.

HD DVD had some of the features of BD Live or BDJava but it was in SD not HD like Blu Ray and was at max compression.

Blu Ray has room to grow, that's it's benefit. Sure we complain that they're always evolving spec, but imagine if they had this foresight when they put out DVD players? Maybe then it would have just taken a firmware update to go HD?

@dukrous:

Bluray players need just a firmware update to support more layers on a disc while when it comes to HD DVD players, you need a whole new one to support new layers so HD DVD will never see them in the movie market.

Many can realize at this point, if you are going Bluray, you mine as well get a PS3. It will be upgraded to stay with the times and can still do things like display pictures, play, rip and store the music you have, and play game demos or trailers. In the end, it is simply the better value.

Now ofcourse there are two versions of the PS3. I wouldn't suggest to a person who wants it just as a player to get the 80GB model. No need to waste the $100, the 40GB will do the job. If you want PS2 game support, then the 80GB one would be the way to go.

At first I truly thought HD DVD was going to do so much better. The HD DVD combo discs were a good idea, but studios sparsely implemented them and proceeded to make them cost more. I don't know about you, but think business-wise.

If the standard consumer who knows little has no worry about if the movie will work in their player or not, it will likely sell more. This way people could get the new movies and get the player later when they had the opportunity. But this didn't happen. Paramount went HD DVD exclusive but decided they were not even going to do any HD DVD combos at all. Warner Bros. was a good supporter of the HD DVD combo format, but now that they went to the Bluray camp, it seems like HD DVD is on a downhill spiral from here on out.

Jeez. Not only are the blu-ray players more expensive than hd-dvd, this comes up.

I smell a class-action lawsuit coming .... people who could AFFORD the blu-ray players in the first place will not stand for this!

@sled_dog:

YEAH! Like this one time, I bought a puppy, and it DIED ON ME, fifteen years after I got him! WHAT THE HELL MAN!?!

@smitty1123: I don't go for the expanded editions either since addons are nearly never captioned (but the LOTR ones were, wow). I used to, then realized I never watched the extras.

The BR movies don't cost that much more than standard on Amazon, though, and as time goes on prices should fall a bit. Eventually they'll probably be about the same as standard DVD. The process does really still cost more due to economies of scale, and blue lasers do cost more than red lasers -- for now.

@Buran: I agree, I am also wondering where all the people that should be complaining that cassette tapes are not compatable with mp3s are hiding.

I wonder, could BD firmware updates be distributed by a disc? Where you would just have to put the disc in the player, hit play and do an upgrade like that? I think that would be a great route for the players providing its possable.

@myotheralt:
Yea, you'd think.

So what makes the ps3 magically not a blu-ray player? ITs cheaper then most ,plays blu-ray 1.1 and can be upgraded to 2.0. Plus you get to play games and the media center capabilities as well.

@myotheralt: My Blu-ray player can do a firmware update by burnt CD.

Early adopters knew? O rly? I don't remember seeing anything on the side of the box that said "we are gonna obsolete your player in a year." I agree that this should be a target rich enviroment for an attorney.

Why should we let the movie companies tell us we need to buy the most expensive equipment and DVDs?
The smart use of consumer money is to use it to influence the competition.
Sugestion:
Due to the dwindling support of HD DVD the players cost will soon be dropping. Take advantage of that. You will loose little. The HD player will upconvert the standard DVDs you have already. The HD DVDs prices will drop with the player prices (more than likeley).
The new movies only on BD will still be on standard DVD too. Save the money. Buy standard DVDs -> upconvert for the time being. BD will get the point and realize they aren't going to make profits off inflated prices if they don't sell any at all. If they don't want another 'Beta-fiasco' they will follow the consumer (not the other way around).

Be a visible consumer not a blind follower.

It's almost guaranteed sony is going to screw the format up. All we can hope for is that 3rd party developers will fix the problems. It sucks sony is going to screw up players and fill the standard with drm and collect royalties, but it's just very hard to support hd-dvd when it holds less data. VHS won because it held twice as much video as betamax. Toshiba screwed up when they released hd-dvd knowing blu-ray held more data. If there is anyone to blame it is toshiba. But with sony claiming they won't be able to sell fully compatible players for almost a year, there is more than enough time for hd-dvd to be fixed or another format to pop up.

That's the reality of living on the bleeding edge. I paid $1400 for my first DVD player in 1997, owning one of the first ones that came to market.

Currently, it sits in my basement because it doesnt' handle dual-layer discs very well, if at all - at the time it wasn't well supported because it wasn't common. It will also not play burned discs whatsoever.

So, now my $1400 DVD player gets outperformed by a $29 WalMart DVD player.

Since I've already got an Xbox 360... I'm now hoping that Microsoft releases a Xbox 360 Blu-ray Player, similar to their Xbox 360 HD DVD Player. Like the PS3, that should have "future-compatibility capabilities," I would imagine, what with its internet connection.

Of course, by the time it's released (if it's released at all), the future may already be here.

And the Sony fanboys were calling HD DVD players paperweights! At least they play all movies in the format.

i want blu-ray to win because they hold more. i'm talking about downloading and having a br burner on my pc.

@