FINALLY!

I couldn't be happier!

YEAH!

Long live Blu-ray!

Let's move forward...

I'm happy too, but not because I'm a Toshiba hater, or technology lover.

Hopefully, the DVD industry can move forward without any devisive wars draining resources from their efforts. I hope that translates to better products, because the last generation DVD's were functional at extremely restricted levels. Inoperability was not available possible of the time. The Orient is not known for its software prowess - I hope they put more effort than minimal effort into Blu-ray software and firmware. I hope they solve inoperability problems.

What does this mean for us common folks? Replace the old DVD player? Do Blu-ray players also play audio CD/DVD's? What happens to our stock of blank CD's for burning? - or blank DVD +/- disks? Burners?
- And anything else relative to everyday use?

- Do we go through another round of replacing a lot of equipment? (Hope not!)

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Jo Disler:
What does this mean for us common folks? Replace the old DVD player? Do Blu-ray players also play audio CD/DVD's? What happens to our stock of blank CD's for burning? - or blank DVD +/- disks? Burners?
- And anything else relative to everyday use?

- Do we go through another round of replacing a lot of equipment? (Hope not!)

For now you don't have to anything if you don't want to. But if you choose to...
you can buy a Stand-along Blue-ray player or a PS3 ( Playstation 3 ) if you want to have the capability to play HD movies or still play Standard DVD's that are up convertered. I would recommend buying a PS3 because it is the only Blu-ray player that can be easily upgraded to take advantage of future firmware upgrades which will come out later this year.

For now, Standard DVD's will be the norm but somewhere in the future, the movie studio's will probably start migrating to Blu-ray and away from Standard DVD's ( but this will probably take years )

I just saw Terry's blog on this same subject concerning the PS3

This message has been edited. Last edited by: macjeff,

quote:

Originally posted by Terry White:
This also puts Adobe in a very good spot as CS3 Production Premium is (currently) the only solution for end-to-end video editing, production and Blu-ray output/burning on the Mac

I don't know this as a fact but I thought some of Apple software did something for HD-DVD's but not Blu-ray. Even as Apple was in the Blu-ray camp.

I was wondering how long it would take for the last two studios to officially announce their conversion to Blu-ray. Univeral ( this studio never produced any Blu-ray disks ) annouced within a couple of hours after Toshiba capitulated that they would start producting Blu-ray Disks Still now official word yet from Paramount

Apple DVD Studio Pro allows authoring of HD-DVDs, but doesn't actually allow you to burn them. So the feature was pretty useless and is more so now.

quote:

Originally posted by macjeff:

quote:

Originally posted by Terry White:
This also puts Adobe in a very good spot as CS3 Production Premium is (currently) the only solution for end-to-end video editing, production and Blu-ray output/burning on the Mac

I don't know this as a fact but I thought some of Apple software did something for HD-DVD's but not Blu-ray. Even as Apple was in the Blu-ray camp.

Blu-ray players will not only play your existing DVD's etc, but they will also up-convert your standard def DVDs to look better on your HDTV.

There is no hurry, but if you were in the market for a new player anyway I would start looking at Blu-ray.

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Jo Disler:
What does this mean for us common folks? Replace the old DVD player? Do Blu-ray players also play audio CD/DVD's? What happens to our stock of blank CD's for burning? - or blank DVD +/- disks? Burners?
- And anything else relative to everyday use?

- Do we go through another round of replacing a lot of equipment? (Hope not!)

quote:

Apple DVD Studio Pro allows authoring of HD-DVDs, but doesn't actually allow you to burn them. So the feature was pretty useless and is more so now.

Maybe Apple was just looking into the future - since there won't be any players soon, why burn a disk?< g>

quote:

Originally posted by Terry White:
There is no hurry, but if you were in the market for a new player anyway I would start looking at Blu-ray.

As far as looking, the best thing going right now is a Sony Playstation 3. it's firmware upgradeable, has plenty of horsepower, and one can play games if one wants; it's basically a computer!

Yaaay Blu-Ray!

Here is an excellent summary of the last several years of the battle between HD-DVD and blu-ray

Paramount last studio to adopt Blu-ray..


http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/02/21/paramount.adopts.blu.ray/

quote:

Originally posted by dix99:
Paramount last studio to adopt Blu-ray..


http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/02/21/paramount.adopts.blu.ray/

About time they make the announcement. Paramount and Universal will now sell more movies than ever with the Blu-ray format.

I wonder how long it will take for them to ship their first blu-ray disk ?

I'm sure that this format battle will be studied for a long time ( like every other format war over the years )

Here is anther good article summarizing the Origins of the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD War

Some leftover details still unresolved from the HD disk war.

Even though Universal and Paramount are now completely in the Blu-ray camp, Movie studio DreamWorks is still tied to HD-DVD via Toshiba

Toshiba lost the war but still benefits from Blu-ray's victory. Toshiba will have a joint venture with Sony on the chip that powers the PS3

I know the HD-DVD is now finished, but Costco are selling them at $79.99, with 2 free movies in the box & 5 free after mail-in. As I needed a new DVD player & it about the same cost, I went and got one.

quote:

Originally posted by dix99:
I know the HD-DVD is now finished, but Costco are selling them at $79.99, with 2 free movies in the box & 5 free after mail-in. As I needed a new DVD player & it about the same cost, I went and got one.

For that price, you are getting a very good deal. The HD-DVD player will work really good as a reqular DVD upconversion player. Plus there are lots of good sale prices on HD-DVD movies. You might want to get some of those. When these movies get re-released as Blu-ray, I highly doubt that they will ever see these low, clearance, sale prices

This might be a reason there's no Blu-ray in the latest laptops (doesn't explain the Mac Pro/iMacs though).

I hadn't considered battery life to be a factor. So I guess that would be a reason for now. But like you said, it doesn't explain the lack of Blu-ray support in desktop Macs.

quote:

Originally posted by Jack Beckman:
This might be a reason there's no Blu-ray in the latest laptops (doesn't explain the Mac Pro/iMacs though).

tomorrow March 4th, Universal will be lowering the price on HD-DVD's. Discounts from these new list prices will make HD-DVD movies very attractive. Good deals for sure and a good way for Universal to clear out stock

quote:

Originally posted by dix99:
I know the HD-DVD is now finished, but Costco are selling them at $79.99, with 2 free movies in the box & 5 free after mail-in. As I needed a new DVD player & it about the same cost, I went and got one.