Help Blu Ray players

Question

I am considering buying a HD dvd player. Please help me out:

1 - Is it still too early to buy one ?

2 - What formats are there ? I think Blu Ray is one of the two.

3 - What features in a Blu Ray player are important and which aren't ?

Any additional help and advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanky oiu

Answer 1

1. It's early but not too early but they are very expensive and have few features unlike DVD

2. ther is DVD and Blu-ray the other formats have died for good

3 Ability to play blu-ray disks in hi-Def and thats all they can do at the moment.

if you want a blu ray buy a Sony PS£ with the remote you get a game station plus a HiDef blu ray player in the same package for teh same price as a stand alone Bluray player!

Answer 2

http://gadgetshow.five.tv/jsp/5gsmain.js...

Hi Check this review out, its the brand new Panasonic BDP50, the first version 2.0 Blu-Ray Player which i heard about some months ago, the review is good but price is not around £ 500, just had a look for it on google and kelkoo and its not  there, but don't worry if the gadget show have seen it its out very soon, but previously the best one on the market in my opinion and countless others both side of the pond, is the Panasonic BDP-30 Version 1.1, The brand new one is the first to be upgraded to version 2.0 [ For example avoid Samsung bdp1400 at all costs yes you can get it for under £200 in a lot of places but it is version 1.0, and  Samsung do not supply you with an update cd you have to do it yourself from the internet, hard work or what ?] This is the 1 i would pick but wait for Sony's new 2.0 Blu-Ray coming soon and read the reviews but the prices are more expensive, and wait too for Samsung's new one out in next few months.

Hey just found this and even though its american its quite informative like telling you who makes what [under players], and whats coming but beware if they say something is out soon and theres no uk flag that means its region 1, so if you have Region1 dvd's it may be  agood idea to get a  Multi-Region Blu-Ray player but they do say the new Samsung BDP- 2500, is out next month, Sony i would guess before Christmas . I would wait until say December at the earliest or even next Spring, to wait until the prices come down, also even though the sony ps3 is version 2.0 all it does is play the discs and nothing else.

Get the next Whathi-fi from your local smiths or newsagents, and look for a review and what they say about others.

   No its not too early to buy 1 , but really the hardware companies keep adding things to them they could not before, so i would say no wait, HD, there is only format now as Toshiba pulled out in March which was widley predicted by lots of people, plz avoid at all costs you can get 1 cheap but why if Toshiba are not supporting the product no more and no longer making them [ Did you not know there was only format now, but how we got into this messa gain i have no idea, why did they not get together  and say we have this idea etc etc, grrrrr].

Features 1080p v-important, sound quality, picture quality !!!

All players and the discs they play will of course play better because

of the way are produced , like blu-ray discs can hold 40gig or more  and dvd's much less. Check this out too

http://www.blu-ray.com/

Also blu-ray discs are £15-20 brand new , new titles are out every month, don't use hmv/zavvi, buy them online, but even though quite  afew are out there are a lot that is not, and some of the extras on these collections  is not great, not sure about R1, versions though, remember america/canada is region 1 and Europe is R2, So as with dvd's  they will/do get editions before us and discs we do not .

Good Luck, 1 day i'll get one but at mo the time is not right, and 2 can't afford it .  

Answer 3

FYI - Toshiba, the primary developer of HD DVD, no longer supports HD DVD.  In short the High Def format war is over.  Blu Ray wins.  With that, I wouldn't invest in a HD DVD player.  The only High Definition player there is is Blu Ray.

Is it too early?  Not any more since only one high definition format exists.

What features are important in Blu Ray?  Plays regular DVDs.  1080p resolution.  HDMI connection.

Answer 4

Blu-ray players are exceptionally good quality. Its not to early to buy one.

There are no other formats and nothing on the horizon, 'for now.'

The features are pretty much the same as a dvd player but the overall quality of sound and picture of a blu ray is way beyond what a dvd player can do.

You will also need a decent LCD tv to get optimal picture quality. Also if you want a jaw dropping experience, get a 7.1 sound cinema reciever (sony have just released one for £300 and its the best on the market for the price  Sony STR-DG820 ) and a 'good set of speakers.'

Connect everything by HDMI cables, and you will be absolutely amazed. :)

The PS3 does a really good job as stated in the post above, but if you want a dedicated player look at the  Sony BDP-S350 £230, released just a few days ago, again that product is also getting raving reviews.

It all adds up money wise but it depends just how hard you want your jaw to hit the floor when you experience it.

If you dont want to go to those lenghts then just get a tv that is 1080i and has HDMI input and connect your player that way. Picture quality is stunning. (but an overall jaw dropping experience with a cinema set-up lol)