Wake up and smell the coffee. There is no war. The industry has won the battle but is gonna loose the territory to the old good DVD. HD-DVD could have become the successor with similar production costs. There is no way Blu can match DVD pricing unless of course they sell movies at non existing profit margin and overprice DVD movies at the same time, just to help ppl switch.
I didnt buy many DVDs and surely not gonna bother with Blu. However it will be a new niche format for geeks freaks and...
18 Mar 2008 02:23

Thats what i've been saying all along. They dont even need any hardware changes to support x264. However they may be reluctant to do it because of all the piracy paranoia. -- peeps may ignore BD if DVD9 turns out to be sufficient for high def
14 Mar 2008 18:45

To each their own. I like my COLOUR tv, thanks.
12 Mar 2008 02:23

Thats cool and at that price its a steal but why bull$hit?
"It offers a belt drive system for reduced motor noise and rotational stability"
I am no audiophile but in the light of the direct drive system I am not sure how accurate the statement is.
12 Mar 2008 02:20

It used to be when it was MIJ. With MIT landfill taking over the shelves ppl quit buying it.
11 Mar 2008 19:54

Good 1 Duke, LMAO!
11 Mar 2008 19:50

That thing seems bogus to me but for a silent PC i'd rather have it than not.

11 Mar 2008 19:42

Koba wrote: "many HD capable recorders are able to record in HD definition to normal DVD discs."

Do you by any chance know what codecs are used in such recorders? Can they playback x264?
Thanks
11 Mar 2008 19:19

18.4" is not bad as a desktop replacement for execs but watching TV on a lap? The only acceptable laptop screens I've seen are made by apple and even on those they have to sacrifice colours, brightness, contrast and viewing angles for energy savings. Forget laptops, I'm having hard time choosing a 24" lcd display - none of them has a CRT picture quality or even comes close to big LCD TVs from sony and samsung.
1 Mar 2008 00:31

Thats pretty cynical of them. A real green lap should not be just green painted but have a solar panel on top and recharge while not used. That "wood" is still plastic I suppose , although in leather it would look very hot. But do they know how much methane a typical "green" cow makes over its life time?
P.S. Does anyone else see a resemblance with the Vista Cruiser from that 80's show?
29 Feb 2008 22:40

Final Standard Profile. And what 2.0 will be called ? I wouldnt touch anything blu except burners/roms with a 6ft pole any time soon.
27 Feb 2008 16:38

Whether Blu movies will drop to DVD price level remains to be seen. They wasted too much money on the new DRMs and now the consumer will have to pay. They will get us on royalties. As for hardware it will drop real quick. I just checked and a 4x blu rom goes for around $150 I'll probably wait for around that much for a burner and get it together with a 24" LCD.
27 Feb 2008 05:27

Old tech and not exactly cheap. Even korean daytek has 3000:1 ratio and I think is brighter.

Maybe they should call it Surplus 2000 ver.499 OBO
24 Feb 2008 04:09

Should the title not read "samsung offers 22X launcher"?
22 Feb 2008 19:54

I personally was sold on DVD only when I was sure I could back up my legally purchased content for less , so I bought a ROM, then a burner and finally a good sony player and then a divx philips player which kicked the bucket but sony is still used to play CDs. The 2-4 pack Joe may buy whatever he wishes and fight werever he wants. I'll wait for 1080p x.264 standalone playback before I support "the winner"
22 Feb 2008 19:41

"Toshiba will become a big winner if they start producing x264 players that play also DVDs and are consumer friendly"

Yep. Its the best way the tosh could screw over sony, blu and more so the industry. And they have a right to do that, as the real reason for choosing blu was tougher DRM plus region coding. They couldnt care less what consumer wanted (and started to buy in increasing numbers.)
So what would now stop toshiba from making a player that handles 1080p .264 and vc1 individual...
22 Feb 2008 19:18

"Dudes, there is no Blu-Ray you CANNOT copy Net is already booming with BD Rips Been for ages...... if you can afford the empty media. I prefer buy my favorites."

There is a way to watch a moofie off an HDD or isnt it?
20 Feb 2008 03:38

I cant wait to get a Blu ROM and "slysoft" a few movies to the harddrive. I hope it will be around $100.
20 Feb 2008 03:21

I hear ya. Thats why I kinda like the format. Some studios have released many decent movies, but I'm not sure about the new titles:

http://nmestore.com/index.php?cPath=2
20 Feb 2008 03:05

Its certainly good that most rentals will now stock 1 format. Although I dont suppose it is good time to get off the "fence". Blu specs are far from being finalized, in exc. of PS3. There is still some chance VMD will get a boost since there is a niche created. (VMD does not have all the crazy DRMs and players are cheap, and so are the movies).
BTW having a "chosen" format does not guarantee its popularity. A good example is HD audio formats VS conventional CD. Ppl decided they dont need it....
18 Feb 2008 19:14