If you are not planning to invest in Blu-ray, what are you looking forward to?  

I'll wait for other technology. I'm happy with my HD-DVD purchases, but with this being the first time I'm burned on a purchase, I have to say I'm a little gun shy in spending anymore money. I don't mind waiting though.

Heck I got 4 more years of college to finish up.

I don't "invest" in anything. I have BD Lite now with a low profile player. When full BD comes along I will upgrade when the prices hit my price performance point.

I have full HD DVD and that keeps me going for the real deal fix. BD Lite and the LFE bug leave me less than enthralled with BD at this point. (Panny 10 soft PQ and LFE Bug)

Does your "full HD DVD" include onboard decoding of DTS HD MA?

Seriously, I find the characterization of HD DVD as having been "full" to be inaccurate. None of the currently shipped machines of either format had what is clearly the most desired feature on this forum.

Wait? 1080P24 and lossless sound..... Who in their right mind would wait for the next unknown technology to appear out of thin air.... Unless you are OK with waiting a lot of years...

If you won't buy Blu Ray, you simply don't care about quality HD movies.....

I often disagree with you, but not here. 1080 24P and lossless is the real deal. I cannot imagine much of a further leap forward in the home theater world.

If you are not planning to invest in Blu-ray, what are you looking forward to?

What I've noticed is some waiting for more low quality VOD as that is good enough for them. Personally I'm almost thinking the VOD is getting worse now than better and HDTV channels getting worse with some exceptions. Maybe it is due to more HDTV channels being compressed down the lines but I find myself less impressed with Comcast every day aside from some select channels that seem to still look very good. Xbox Live's VOD is very underwhelming (overpriced and under perform)in comparison to blu-ray and I expect the PSN downloads to be as well.



Completed or "Full"specs don't mean squat if they are inferior to begin with which DVD and HD DVD are in comparison to blu-ray. Sure I would have loved if my HD DVD matched my blu-ray's performance but it doesn't. Who knows maybe Toshiba will pull a miracle and offer a firmware update for 1080p 24p. Why upgrade something that is full and dead though ? :0

If they truly were full why were they looking at TL51's? Personally I thought that was a good idea, it would have been great if they upped the bandwidth to match blu-ray's as well.

rlsmith, three different insiders have said DTS-MA is coming, hopefully sooner than later.

B.S. I care about quality HD movies, but I can't afford Blu Ray. I expect it to be 2 more years before BD hits the price performance level of HD DVD. At that point I will buy in. Until then what are those of us on limited budgets supposed to do?

The technology is acceptable. The pricing is incorrect. When BR corrects the pricing, I'll see if it is still the best technology available and decide accordingly.

I have that right now with HD-DVD which has delivered all the classic sci-fi I ever wanted in HD: the remastered old Star Trek series (only the first season), Battlestar Galactica (again only the first season), 2001, Blade Runner, the Matrix and even Forbidden Planet. It's a dead format in the industry but not in my living room.


And that's another thing. I've gone down the list of upcoming Blu-ray releases and there aren't any must-haves for me. Hey, I loved Juno but I think I'll enjoy it on regular DVD.

I won't be waiting years for the next unknown technology but I do think I'll be waiting years for Blu-ray to release things that I'll have to see in HD. I'll be very persuaded if the other seasons of BSG and Star Trek TOS get released for example.

Does this mean that you do not buy releases on BD 25s as that is obviously inferior in terms of capacity?

Waiting for a 1.1 profile player under $200, personally (or the BH200/UP5000 under $300). Not sure how long I'm going to have to wait (maybe the combo units will be moved at closeout prices as HD DVD fades into the sunset).

If I could build a HD format from scratch, I'd much rather go with a solid state media, such as a USB drive. In June 2004, a 256MB thumb drive went for about $80. You can get one that's 1GB for about $10 now. If I extrapolate out, a 64GB thumb drive should hit the $10-$15 mark around 2011.

I am not talking price.. If it is too high now, then that is reasonable to wait... I am referring to those who never want to adopt Blu Ray and / or wait for another technology.

So you'd design a format that may be practical three years from now?

Will you be posting your resume?

Is there any doubt that solid state will win out over optical eventually? Don't you remember those red data cartridges from Star Trek?

Besides, if it's not USB, I'm sure I can pick up an adapter on Amazon. Err....if Amazon is still around.

I have three issues which keep me from investing in Blu ray currently and they are:

1. Dual format player (I have over 150 HD DVDs...I waited to buy DVDs until a HD option was available so I will not be replacing these movies and I would like to avoid two players. If I have to, I can live with two so this is the least important issue.)
2. A BD player of at least 1.1 profile that will decode the advanced codecs internally with available analog output (I don't want to buy a new receiver or the affordability of a Blu ray player is even more difficult to justify. Given enough time I will eventually buy a new receiver so the internal decoding and lack of analog issue will go away some day but in my current setup it is a concern.)
3. Movies that interest me. (HD DVD movie selection was much more to my liking and even though this is personal preference it is my money and I will not buy into Blu Ray until there is a substantial library of disks that I want. This is the most important issue to me and even though looking at the lists of movies represented by the studios (blue vs. red) blue studios had many desirable movies but it seems like the red or nuetral studios released the movies that most interested me. Perhaps my tastes are too old for the current hi-def market. )

I'm only waiting till around June when the next gen of Blu Ray players come out.

I'm waiting for 2.0 players for $250.

Since that is probably at least a year away, I'm looking at buying AppleTV as a stop-gap, since IMO the price matches the value, unlike Blu-Ray which I feel is still overpriced for the value it offers (again, IMO). I also do not have the equipment where I can appreciate 1080/24 or lossless sound, so that adds to my opinion.

When Blu-Ray players meet my price point (in a year or so), I will then compare again to see where technologies are at, and if I still feel Blu-Ray's value is worth the money. By that time who knows where AppleTV/VUDU (or other) are and what features they will offer.

No. It does mean the using the argument "Full" or "completed" specs isn't always a positive thing always to me. Personally I'm glad things are continually evolving and getting better Much better than having a low standard and being stuck with it forever as it is "full" or "completed".

I'm starting to really like VOD, my Apple Tv is pretty cool along with my cable's HD movies on demand not to mention my Mythtv HD setup or my HD-DVD and 150+ titles and still growing I've really got more HD content to watch than I have time for. I am willing to wait and see if BD :
1. Will actually survive.
2. Lower prices to a reasonable level.
3. Finish their profile specs.
4. Actually have *any* content I would want to buy (I prefer HD-DVD's catalog by a mile).
5. Have all the studios actually support BD with some real blockbuster's from their vaults.

XA2 passes the audio codecs to my fine Pio 94 without a hitch. Has no LFE bug like the Panny 10 and pictures both SD and HD DVD are sharp as a tack.

If you are thinking about getting into BD but plan to wait. Does that count as an answer to the question above?

However price goes a long way to affirm their rejection. It's always interesting how pricing can influence a mind set. Make BR versions of the movies closer to the DVD version (within $5) and you'd see many adopt it.

The OP was clearly asking the question of non-BD owners, so why don't all you BD fanboys butt out and let those to whom the question was directed respond without your constant potshots against anyone who doesn't share your slavish devotion to all things Blu-Ray? Or is that too much to ask?

I don't really understand this. Buy a $299 player- I see them in Best Buy all of the time as open box items. If it lasts as long as most of my other DVD players, over time the difference between that and the $149 A3 that most peole have (I am talking prices before Toshiba "gave up" in january) is negligible. Movies were roughly the same prices- in fact, that was the death of HD DVD- if movies were chepaer to produce for HD, why were those savings not passed to consumers?

I know I'll eventually buy into Blue Ray.

Right now though, it doesn't make sense to me. The players are costly. They still have significant bugs in them. I read these forums and most of you BR owners are salivating over dumping your current players for newer ones with features you're surprised are lacking from your current ones.

I don't want a PS3. Maybe I'm still smarting over the fact that after 9 months I had to turn my PS1 upside down in order to get it to play a game, but that's how I feel. I have a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to Playstations and their CD drives. That was an epidemic problem and I still have a feeling that Sony cuts corners on the drives they are putting into the Playstations.

The Blue Ray catalogue honestly doesn't have me tap dancing yet. I've went through it and there are not enough titles I would immediately buy (at BR prices) to justify the cost of the player

Since I have HD DVD and I have all the Kubrick movies on HD DVD (although I would have loved an HD transfer of Barry Lyndon, Strangelove and The Killing), Blade Runner, etc., I just don't see the point in rebuying those titles and taking a loss when I already own them in HD.

So it honestly comes down to price, players and movies. When all three of those converge enough that it justifies the investment to me, I'll buy in.

Right now though, I'll sit on the sidelines and enjoy my HD DVD's and the upscaled SD I'm growing to like more and more in the absence of those titles on HD.

Now if you tell me in December that Jaws, Raiders of the Los Ark, Kill Bill, Boogie Nights, American Beauty, Lord of the Rings, There Will Be Blood, Sweeney Todd etc. are all gonna be available on BR, then I will want a player. But the only must have titles I see on BR are Close Encounters, No Country for Old Men, Bram Strokers Dracula...those 3 aren't enough to get me drop that amount of coin on the hardware yet.

Why are there so many open box $299 players? Must be that people don't like/want them.

If a person wants a desireable player, don't buy ones they see as open box all the time.

I want a recorder that puts HD lite on cheap DVD-Rs using VC1 or AVC. I'm not interested in HDM's prices, so this would complete a world full of HD lite.

The way I see it, plastic will always be cheaper than silicon. Passive media will always be cheaper to mass produce than active media.


"I think they called them 'transistor units'." -- Scotty from "Space Seed"

the heck with those prices... BR under $200 and bug free..until then, who knows what technology I'll buy.