Is it a good time to buy a blu-ray player?

Question

not sure about the final profile? (1.1 or 2)

is the Panasonic BD30 worth considering?

Answer 1

honestly, now might not be the right time to buy a player. I have been looking into too, about getting a blu ray player, but right now the prices are a little pricey and so are the discs. Its funny how we, as consumers, want to jump on the newest thing and disregard the price of the items. at best buy this week, they posted " I Am Legend" in the ads for $34.99. Hmm, $34.99 compared to a regular dvd at $14.99. And honestly, the prices of players will not come down until the movies start coming down and the price of movies wont come down until Sony and China come up with some deal to mass produce all the movies. Im not sure where you reside, but with recession looming in the US, I dont think buying a $400 blu ray player would be priority on a person's list. And people can talk that hoopla about buying a ps3 but with a price tag of $400.....its not the cheapest player either. But like one of the posters said, do your research and read up on articles by tech experts because asking someone at BB and Circuit city is a bad move because all they want to do is make a sell. Treat it as buying a car, take your time and become knowledgable about the product before buying it because the worse thing to do is buy a blu ray player because someone said it will take over dvd. DVD is still strong and will be for years to come until the prices come down on blu ray.

Answer 2

wait a bit they will get much cheaper.

Answer 3

yes it is!!!

blu-ray is the only HD dvd out there!

Answer 4

Hey, this is a great time to buy a Blu Ray player. But if i was you i would get a Playstation 3 due to the fact that its very easy to upgrade and its also already got BD-LIVE so you can get online with certain movies and take advantage of the online features. See and the Playstation3 can support DOLBY TRUE HD for surround sound. but as of April 15 it will be able to support DTS HD which is another HD SOUND TRACK.  and they will do this witha  firmware upgrade. so see get you a playstation3 and you never have to worry about profile or nothing.

Here consider some of these answers to your guy below.

1. Yes a moderate to large 1080p telivision and a surround sound will be good to recieve maximum benifit. BUT... you can do it a little bit at a time like I did. I started out with a 32" LCD and a 2 channel sound system. and bought me a 46" Lcd and then a couple months later got me a surround sound. so that pretty much answers that question. some of us aint righ like him and can afford all at once so we take baby steps. plus its better for research on our next product.

On to his next question.

2. Obiviously he does not own a Blu Ray player, either that or he has a Blu Ray connected to a standard tube TV with no HD cause Blu Ray from all those movies I watched is none the less far more superior and as far as the sound goes, that is simple. There are no dvd players that have a Dolby TRUE HD or DTS HD capability because DVD cant untilze the feature on the disc anyway. and once again he has probaly never heard a Blu Ray disc against a Dvd your ears will make the choice easily.

On to the next question.

3. Oh I love this one, $5-$20 extra dollars LOL I paid $10 for The Water Horse on Blu Ray and it cost $18 at wal mart for tha standard dvd and 26 for the Blu Ray. remember you can find movies at Pawn shops and online. And you can find descent ones too. but dont be scarred to rent them and buy a couple sometimes. use your tactis wisley. you dont have to buyy every Blu Ray from best buy and pay top dollar. you can loopk around and see what else is out there you will be amazed trust me . From what he is telling you, your going to have to buy every movie brand new. what if you really dont want to own that movie. RENT IT.   LOL

and for the last 2 well I can answer both at one time. I explained to you up above why a PS3 is a good play but think about it you can access internet on it and Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto 4 are right around the corner. and with the way our economy is going i wouldnt expect the prices to fall on baby food or underwear for a while so dont listen to that either. And I know you wanna get you one cause you wouldnt have brought up the wuestion. Just get you one man and start with BABY STEPS.

Good Luck Bro.

EDIT

Response to agb90spruce...

See he says that Fail to answer your question when its obvious to see that he didnt read into my answer at all that well at all. Buying a Blu Ray player now is not immature, buying it a year ago is. The stuff that is out today is more mature then ever espescially the playstation 3 which is very consistent with its firmware and software updates. For instance those of us who dont have a Blu Ray player that is capable of DTS HD. will have one when the PS3 updates as of April 15.

Im going to try and Kill this as quick as possible. Let me explain about hardware prices. First, if he dont already know this which I think he dont (agb90spruce) the Playstation 3 was used as a trojian horse for Sony to get Blu Ray on the market and at first people were not buying due to the pricetag of $500-$600 and now that you can buy one for $400 people are buying left and right. People start out buying a game system and end up buying the Blu Ray movies as well. Its pretty bad when you see a lady in her early 50's buying Blu Rays and she says to me that she is playing them on her grandson's PS3.So you see let me give you some numbers. right now there is 10.5 million PS3's in households across the world and with 269,000 sold last month you can see how fast they sell.

But lets get this right, thats 10.5 million PS3's/Blu Ray players in households. and thats not even counting stand alone Blu Ray players.

This year alone Sony is actually looking to gain 50% of global market share against DVD whether or not they will get it will remain to be seen but from them only holding 12% in January and now they hold 20% i would say that is pretty good.    And you also have to look at how many more PS3's are going to sell with the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4 that is going to be alot more people with PS'3 and then with the HDTV's that they have, they end up buying Blu Ray movies and so on. So you can see were im going with this. For him to call the format immature is crazy and very misinforming. I would say if DVD is doing anything, there not doing that well for a IMMATURE format to have 20% of there market share. LOL we will see in about 5 months after they release these 2 games what the percentage of DVD and BLU RAY will be then.

On to the next thing, this guy has a 110' inch projected screen. And is trying to tell you that there is no NIGHT and DAY with Blu Ray. YOUR SCREEN IS TOO BIG  HELLLLLOOOOOOO 1080p is ment for screen sizes in the ranges of about 42 inch to about 75 maybe 80 inch. anything after that you need a higher resolution. Say 1440p or 2160p. Why do you think you rarely see screens sizes 32 inch and below with 1080p because the screens are so small you wouldnt notice the difference between 1080p and 720p. and with is case if he had a 110' inch screen running at 2160p he would really notice a difference. So when you put a Blu Ray with its highest resolution being 1080p on a 110' inch screen of course it is going to look just a lil bit better then DVD. In fact DVD on a screen that size probaly looks like c**p.  

So as you can see take it from someone who has a 32 inch, 46' inch, and a 58 inch LCD's to tell you what to expect and my dad has a 65 inch DLP. Which I might add that Blu Ray Looks gorgeous on his TV. But anyway man im not telling you to buy immature equipment. Like he says i was, Im saying that its a great time to buy a Blu Ray player, due to the very bright future of the format and it really dont seem like it is getting dim at all. GO BLU BRO.........GO BLU

Oh yeah and Sony is talking about a price frop on there PS3 to compete with the Xbox 360 and if that happens DVD is going to be put in a bad situation by this christmas.  

Take It Easy Bro.

Look At This 1080p is going to become the standard here soon with these new resolutions on the way. Check the sites below.      

http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/10/forget_1080...

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/6126-bye-b...

Answer 5

i personally dont think its the right time to buy a blu-ray player because its kinda replacing dvd players, so in a couple of yrs time they will be a lot cheaper.

or you could buy a ps3 with its own built in blu-ray player

Answer 6

First, Blu-ray is still a new HD format that may or may not eventually replace DVD. Hardware and features are still being improved and prices have yet to come down to mainstream levels. The only recommended player is the PS3 ... no stand alone players offer as much. But player prices are not the big issue, if you buy rather than rent movies ... disk prices are. Typically BR disks cost $10 or more than the same movie on DVD ... and that adds up fast. Both hardware and disks prices are expected to start to fall by Xmas 2008.

I can't answer for you whether now is the right time for you to buy, but consider the questions below, they may help you decide.

1) Do you have an HDMI equipped, moderate to large HDTV? If not you are not a candidate for Blu-ray. Period. If you do note that maximum benefit requires a 1080p HDTV and a good surround sound system.

2) Are you dissatisfied with DVD audio and video quality? Blu-ray is not night and day better than DVD on an upconverting DVD player. It can be great, but many Blu-ray disks are little better than DVDs except on good equipment.

3) Are you prepared to pay extra for movies (vs DVDs)? As noted above Blu-ray disks are $5-$20 more expensive than DVD's, yet many are not great transfers. Some consumers  consider only certain types of movies to be worth HD (e.g. science fiction, visually stunning). You should consider how you feel ... and what you are willing to pay significant extra for.

4) Are you prepared to pay $350 or more for a Blu-ray player? If you would like to keep the price down, consider waiting since prices are expected to start to fall somewhat later this year (but see the next question). If price is not a big issue and you have answered "yes" to previous questions ... you should consider a PS3 .. it's the best player on the market (particulalry if you don't mind the styling).

5) Do you want to take advantage of special features/extras that require internet access? Profile 1.0 players only play the main movie and basic special features. Profile 1.1 players also play picture in picture and secondary audio features. Profile 2.0  --- which is basically the PS3 right now --- have internet connectivity and more internal memory as well as all earlier capacity. If profile 2.0 -- which is the target future movies will increasingly aim to support -- is important to you you could buy a PS3 or hold out for one of the newer players expected later this year (particulalry if you want one that fits in with more traditional component styling).

My personal opinion is unless you really want to get into Blu-ray now, and cost is not a major consideration, you would be wise to wait. Disk prices can only come down (and choice improve -- there are still fewer than 600 movies). Hardware choices can only improve. And the future of Blu-ray vs DVD can only get clearer.

Hope this helps.

EDIT

Response to Hitman....

Obviously a Blu-ray fan. I'm not convinced Blu-ray is worth the money -- yet. Read both views and decide for yourself.

Your question was whether this was a good time to buy. Hitman fails to address that and recommends you buy now while hardware is imature, and prices are high. I maintain it isn't a good time to buy if you are price aware. That's why I put my answer the way I did.

Superior sound (lossless) is ONLY an issue for the very small proportion of people with BOTH the equipment and the perception to hear it. Besides many Blu-ray disks either don't have lossless tracks or don't do a great job on them. Sure it can be an advantage ... but it's a red herring for the vast majority of consumers. The facts are that if you read the fora a few people rave about the sound improvements of Blu-Ray (and HD DVD) but most don't care one way or another.

Prices for Blu-ray disks -- like anything else -- can be low if you find a bargain. BUT at B&M stores in particular (and even on-line) the price of a Blu-ray disk is inevitably $5-20 more expensive than the same DVD (I didn't say you can't find bargains ... but I can prove my statement a lot easier than Hitman could prove it wrong). Besides .. his own numbers prove my case. The premium for new movies is $5-10, and the $20 (and it can be more) is for catalog titles. Exceptions and sale items do NOT constitute a norm. And in Canada where I am  there are very few bargains on Blu-ray (and it's the same in the UK and Australia). As for buying used ... pretty much forget it (and even then you could get the DVD cheaper if you looked). Blu-ray is a premium format and can be expected to remain so.

As to rentals, yes you can rent. Some stores don't even charge a premium (although others do, or have shorter rental periods), and few stores -- yet -- have much selection.

Re hardware and software prices coming down .. if Hitman is right (I don't think he is) and prices don't come down soon Blu-ray is in trouble (and could actually fail) ... because there is no way the mainstream consumer will buy (particularly with the US recession) until players are in the ~$200 range and disks are (at most) $2-3 more than DVD. You just have to read the fora to see that.

Finally, as to relative picture quality ... I have compared HD DVD and DVD of the same movies. Yes, there is a difference, but on my 110" screen and HD projector it is not night and day. But it doesn't matter what I see or someone else says ... you need to decide for yourself. The fact is that far too many people claim Blu-ray (or HD DVD) are 6x the resolution of DVD. That's a lie (it's 2.6 on average on a 1080p HDTV and 1.6 on a 720p HDTV), but that's assuming you sit close enough to see the extra detail. And many Blu-ray disks don't have pristeen pictures since they were made from poor masters. So ... yes, HD CAN look great but it's missleading to say it (or imply) it always does. Blu-ray is an improvement over DVD (both video and audio) but ... it's NOT NIGHT and DAY better, except in specific cases where the DVD was a poor transfer and the Blu-ray was especially good. To some this is worthwhile .. to others it isn't. Everyone must decide for themselves.

The problem here is that too many people believe the ads or listen to others without checking. The result is people like the poster elsewhere in this section wondering why they are not seeing an HD image from their Blu-ray player on their SDTV. What a stupid waste of money.

Anyway consider all the answers, do your own research and decide for yourself.

Answer 7

Yes it is beacause its not replacing your old DVD player beacause it can play DVD's as other people have said get a ps3 to play them on, its one of the cheepest and easily upgradable. Even if you dont like ps3's you can still have that extra gameplay not just a bluray player.

Answer 8

for the price of one of those i'd buy a ps3 man, you get so much more from a ps3 too and they are about the same price, plus the ps3 will use system updates if you connect it to the internet to update the system and keep it all up to date with profiles and such

Answer 9

It is a good time. They didn't know which one would get the boot, HD DVD or Blu-ray and Blu-ray won. The best player is the PS3. It's the cheapest and it's just as good as any other one out there on the market today.

Answer 10

Get a PS3 it is an upgradeable player. Best deals on movies ive found is at http://www.bluraystockpile.com/.