American visitors to this site:
The president of OPEC stated he expects to see oil at $200 a barrel (within 2 years). Iran just moved it's oil trade off the dollar to something else (Euro maybe?) and is encouraging other countries to do the same.

Given these and other circumstances, how do you feel the HD market will perform in the next several years, with what appears to be a rather large economic downturn coming?

If you Don't believe we have problems or will encounter problems, you are more than entitled to your opinion, but let's not turn the thread into a crapfest on the state of the Economy, ok? I'm really interested in what like minded people have to say the most.

I personally was thinking about picking out large numbers of my current SD collection and selling it to fund HD purchases. I would really like to have the S350 player when it comes out, and am looking forward to seeing this summer's movies on Blu by Christmas. Given the current state of things I'm hesitant though. How about you folks?

thet said the same in the 80's, when the cd player came out.is all relative. life goes on and people still will buy into it..

I fear that the economy will slow the growth of HD, but I believe blu-ray will survive. I have read stories in the newspapers today about people giving up other items in order to buy Grand theft Auto 4 yesterday. People will have to make some adjustments, but most people will continue to indulge in leisure items. Indeed, if people stay home more because of gas prices, perhaps they will be watching HD tv and blu-ray.

The news for blue-ray and its most popular player is not very good.
I just saw two dispointing articles today.

1. "Blu-ray player sales down despite format victory"
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9932311-7.html?tag=nefd.top

2. "GTA IV for PS3 has 640p resolution"
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,145346-c,games/article.html
Certainly, the second article is not related to Blue-ray, but to its most
popular player.

I am still waiting for blue-ray price to drop significantly before to
invest any money there. I do not know if poor economy will drive down
the price faster. But weak dollar probably will not help.

2. "GTA IV for PS3 has 640p resolution"
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,145346-c,games/article.html
Certainly, the second article is not related to Blue-ray, but to its most
popular player.

I am still waiting for blue-ray price to drop significantly before to
invest any money there. I do not know if poor economy will drive down
the price faster. But weak dollar probably will not help.

It will be interesting to see. It just means I won't be able to buy movies on launch day and will have to wait for them to go on sale. Maybe buy less crap fast food. Small adjustments like that.


And that article is misleading. Yes, it's lower resolution, but it does so many other things better because of that (such as lighting and rendering) that it cancels out and the general consensus is that the PS3 looks better. Plus, I guarantee you GTA IV for the 360 is like Halo 3 in that it's just scaled by the hardware.

We've been down this road in the HDM software forum. Here's one of the threads...discussions on current economy and cost of blu ...how it will effect blu adoption. Here's just one of the threads

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=997409&highlight=blu+ray

PS: The crude market today closed below the price point of $115, which created a new floor and ceiling. It's going to take sometime before we would hit $200 bbl. Mr Pickens seems to think we'll hover between 125-150, which to me is more likely.