(Do I have to say it?!)
Posted on 01/12/2008 11:34:47 AM PST by LibWhacker
Wow, check out this story just posted on Engadget! More not ready for prime time BR product on the market. Folks are getting really ticked:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/12/samsungs-bd-up5000-is-failing-to-deliver/
Problems like that, and the too-high prices, are the reasons why I still don’t own either an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player.
I plan to get a Blu-Ray player, FWIW.
DUH!
What a mound of shinola! In defense of the ATSC, these things were decided so far in advance of actual product, that it was difficult to look into the foggy crystal ball.
But as for consumers, it meant a whole lot of uncertainty and lots of BS from salespeople, all was doomed to be foist upon us.
Notice that as soon as somebody (Was it JVC Pro's HX2K?) did 1080p successfully, everyone in the industry realized the meter had been pegged, and everyone else looked like a looser.
We had to live through so much Faroudja judder as 24fps film was being splatted out at 50Hz, 56Hz, 59.97Hz., 60Hz, 72Hz, 96Hz, now 120Hz with software interpolation (assumed to be in accordance with directors' wishes, probably slightly more likely than colorized versions were).
Notice now comes Dolby with the HDR technology, which, while it "pops" is merely a licensed, enhanced luminance throw-distance display device technology! They change the gamma in a way we're all supposed to salute, much as they they turned up the brightness in the showroom on the TV models they really wanted to sell.
What all do we have now in the comparable audio space?
- coax connections
- analog stereo connections
- Toslink connections
- 5.1, 6.1., 7.1, 10.2 (you're up on all those, right?)
- last I heard, 7.1's method of "overhead" was not yet decided
- PCM
- DTS
- Dolby Digital
- Pro Logic
- Pro Logic II(x)
- Neo 6
- TrueHD
- DTS-HD
- DSP sound fields
- Digital Cinema Sound System (Cinema Studio EX)
- 32-bit processing
- 24-bit audio vs. 16-bit
- 96kHz, 192kHz, 176.4kHz.
- Ac3, AAC, MP3, FLAC, MP4
Is anyone surprised Tweeter bit the dust?
CompUSA?
Can Circuit City be far behind?
As you said, "What a clusterf*ck!"
HF
(Do I have to say it?!)
Excuse me, but if had to repurchase all of my software each time I upgraded my computer, you can be sure I wouldn't be doing either of those very frequently! Fortunately, that's only rarely the case.
It's bad enough that Microsoft quits supporting their older operating systems every few years! That changes things for the worse, has opened my eyes regarding their business practices, certainly, and makes me think worse of MS, for sure! They've made me a committed Linux devotee.
I'm looking forward to the day all my required tasks can best be done in Linux, a day I suspect and hope won't be too far off!
HF
Newer players will play the old disks.
I take that to mean, "Players are supposed to play all the disks released up to that date," though the caveat may well be, as we have seen recently in several instances, "To be compatible with disks released after the player came out, you may need to get the required firmware upate, even if that should mean new releases we've chosen to make of older disks, just because the older ones became compromised."
With such a system, it would seem software/firmware updates will be de rigeur, a nuisance, and a barrier to many consumers' convenient use of such devices.
I wouldn't mind high-def, but the cost just doesn't seem reasonable to me, particularly since all of this is still in transition stage. The upgrade in image quality just isn't worth the $1K to $2K in equipment, and paying twice as much per movie. I figure in a couple of years the prices will drop enough to make it worth doing.
And people wonder why the iPod+iTunes format is so successful.
Might have something to do with not shoving technical bullet points in your face.
Petronski meant exactly what was said: your current DVD collection will play without issue on any HD-DVD or Blu-Ray hardware.
The issue talked about here is that the Blu-Ray ecosystem is due for a firmware update that will render Blu-Ray discs meant for “Profile 2.0” systems unplayable on current Blu-Ray hardware. Basically, you have to buy a new Blu-Ray player to play Profile 2.0 Blu-Ray discs.
The early adopters got shafted, but it’s an unwritten rule in the gadget industry that they will take the shaft gladly in exchange for being, well, early adopters.
I wouldn't be surprised if Blu-ray drives installed in computers were more resistant to obsolescence than the stand alone Blu-ray drives that just hook up to a TV or home entertainment system. PC's use decoding software like PowerDVD to read the disks and convert the information into video. If the format of Blu-ray disks change, it is likely that just downloading the updates to the video decoding sofware will allow drives attached to a computer to play newer disks.
Expecting stand alone media players to be network connected is generally a bad idea.
Consumers killed DIVX (the pay per play DVD standard not the compression standard) at least in part because they figure it’s nobodies business how many times they rewind and slow-mo certain parts of movies or shows.
If the device is capable of calling home everybody will suspect it’s telling.
The average viewer with a current blu-ray player with updated firmware will be alright. Most consumers don't have their DVD player (HD or Blu-ray) hooked up to the Internet or wish to download media.
you won’t be... blu ray has won
You can play DVDs in a blue ray unit?
Yes
SONY has absolute incompetence in with backwards compatability.
There is zero reason to trust them in the future.
Yes.
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