Blu-ray News and Deals

[Wojo 2,458]

"Rapid downloads" are not going to be a viable product for a while, at least not until a standard broadband connection is a lot faster than it is now.

To hell with increasing the speed of broadband connections. Try making broadband connections standardized everywhere that people want it. Too many people live out in the boonies with electricity and telephone, but still rely on springs or wells for their water, and don't have public sewage, either. These people also don't have basic cable or even DSL over the phone lines. Try giving them broadband, too.

They knew the sacrifices when they agreed to live there!

Bullsh1t

[Charlie Brigden 7]

"Rapid downloads" are not going to be a viable product for a while, at least not until a standard broadband connection is a lot faster than it is now.

To hell with increasing the speed of broadband connections. Try making broadband connections standardized everywhere that people want it. Too many people live out in the boonies with electricity and telephone, but still rely on springs or wells for their water, and don't have public sewage, either. These people also don't have basic cable or even DSL over the phone lines. Try giving them broadband, too.

They knew the sacrifices when they agreed to live there!

Bullsh1t

Using spring water is killing the water industry!

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Amazon Launches Massive Blu-Ray Sale

Too bad it's 50% off the list price, which means they're all just normal Amazon prices. Not even a sale.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Blu-ray Unveils Plans to Resurrect LaserDisc!

[Ollie 1,375]

Little late in the day for April Fools isn't it?

[Nick Parker 3,049]

That is what I said when I woke up this morning to find a "school bulletin" that announced a three-hour delayed start! I HATE April Fool's Day, I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT!

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Blu-ray Beats Hi-def iTunes in Blind Test

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,392]

Still have not switched to blu!

[Quintus 6,499]

I'll incidentally switch to Blu-ray when the PS3 comes down to a ton (£99.99). Until that point, I'll be more than happy with good old dvd upscaling!

[Marian Schedenig 11,695]

PS3 is supposed to come down by an unspecified amount in June, I'll pick one up then. But I don't think it'll be useable as a Blu player for my purposes.

[Trent B 354]

I'm using my PS3 as both blu-ray and to play games. It would cost nearly as much to buy a stand alone player. I don't see why you wouldn't want to use it as a regular Blu-Ray player as well since it has one.

[Marian Schedenig 11,695]

Region codes and HDCP, for one thing. The fact that I can't customise the whole thing and include it in my current home theatre setup, for another - I've picked my player of choice, I'm done my own theme and menu look, so why am I not allowed to play Blu-Ray discs on the system that works perfectly for playing my DVDs?

I repeat, I (hopefully) won't start buying Blu before it's sufficiently cracked to play a disc directly on my system without buying crippling hardware or paying for player software that doesn't do what I want. Once I can play Blu discs like I can play DVDs now, I'll be happy to give them money for their content. As long as they force me to buy crippled hardware which does nothing but prevent me from doing these things, I won't.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

PS3 is supposed to come down by an unspecified amount in June, I'll pick one up then.

I remember reading that somewhere. It's already down to $400 for the 80GB. Would they go down to $300? That'd only put it up a little more than the 360. Doesn't really matter since the 360 already costs more in total than the PS3.

[Jill Sandwich 11,171]

I'll wait for the PS4.

[Hitch 60]

Nice to see Ms Goodhead back

[Marian Schedenig 11,695]

It's time again for me to complain about severe restrictions imposed by the Blu-ray manufacturers and for all those who cheerfully don't care about greedy companies restricting their freedoms and dictating where and how they watch their movies to belittle me:

Analogue Blu-ray output being phased out

More details & further restrictions

No, this is not exaggerated or unrealistic:

[Richard P 5,306]

You see, content makes are so unbelievably, bafflingly stupid. Those they are trying to stop with these measures are exactly those who know how to get round it or disable the protection.

Maybe I'm too cynical these days, but whenever something new comes out, you can guarantee that the maker will have exhaustively thought of everything a user could possibly to do deprive them of more profit, and devise mechanisms against it. If those mechanisms get in the way of stuff you're allowed to to under fair use? Tough.

And I just remembered, I was looking at Amazon UK's mp3 downloading thing, and decided to randomly e-mail them about one part of their T&C - that once you've downloaded a track/album, that's it - if your HDD crashes or anything like that, you can't just download it again. I buy from 2 other places that don't have that restriction, so I thought it would be interesting to hear what their excuse is, given that there's zero technical grounds.

[Ollie 1,375]

The last time I checked I'm still satisfied with my regular DVDs.

[Jill Sandwich 11,171]

Seconded. Despite its lossy audio formats and PAL speed-ups, I'm content with my DVDs.

[Hitch 60]

Ditto here.

[Richard P 5,306]

I own zero blu-rays.

And that isn't just because I have no means to play them.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

I love BD. It's not for every movie, and there are some downsides to specific titles and their treatment, but done right, it's majestic.

[Marian Schedenig 11,695]

I'd like the higher resolution, and the non-jerky playback of movies at their original speed. The ffmpeg project is apparently working on Blu support, so perhaps hassle-less free players are in sight.

[fommes 165]

A stupid question probably: can you play R1 DVDs with a (Region B) Blu-Ray player in Europe?

[Marian Schedenig 11,695]

I think I've heard of the first region-free Blu players being released recently. Took them a while... all the more reason for me to wait until the format's fully broken.

It's nice I can now watch my European Alias and Fawlty Towers DVDs in bed on my PS3. I still don't accept why I'm not allowed to watch my US Friends DVDs there.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

A stupid question probably: can you play R1 DVDs with a (Region B) Blu-Ray player in Europe?

Not unless it's specifically region-free.

Just bought GHOSTBUSTERS on BD. Looking forward to checking it out.

[Ollie 1,375]

Crap, now Toho is releasing the remastered Godzilla films (as well as other sci-fi/ kaiju films) on Blu-ray.

Last year Toho went back and remastered all the original negatives in HD.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

This is a bad thing?

[fommes 165]

A stupid question probably: can you play R1 DVDs with a (Region B) Blu-Ray player in Europe?

Not unless it's specifically region-free.

Just bought GHOSTBUSTERS on BD. Looking forward to checking it out.

So a Region B Blu player or a PS3 from Europe still don't play regular Region 1 DVDs? Argh!

[Marian Schedenig 11,695]

Nope. DRM.

Apparently, HD-DVD was codefree. And that may have played a part in its downfall.

[fommes 165]

Yeah that was probably the reason for my confusion. I so wanted HD-DVD to prevail, just on the basis of its being region-free... Oh, well, money saved I guess.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

You wanted a vastly inferior format to win just because it was region free?

[fommes 165]

Well, it was also cheaper in its production process, so that it was more probable that older films would make their way to the format, so that was an important reason to root for HD-DVD, too, I guess.

And seriously, how many Blu-rays have made full use of the capabilities of the format? (The advantages are, after all, mostly a matter of capacity...)

But I don't want to resurrect the HD-DVD - BR war here; I've never even cared much myself which one of them won (apart from its impact on those two issues...).

[Jill Sandwich 11,171]

Crap, now Toho is releasing the remastered Godzilla films (as well as other sci-fi/ kaiju films) on Blu-ray.

Last year Toho went back and remastered all the original negatives in HD.

Awesome!

[Mr. Breathmask 624]

A stupid question probably: can you play R1 DVDs with a (Region B) Blu-Ray player in Europe?

Not unless it's specifically region-free.

Well, that sucks a fantastic amount of fat hairy donkey balls.

Guess I won't be going Blu just yet.

[Marian Schedenig 11,695]

You wanted a vastly inferior format to win just because it was region free?

What's so vastly superiour about Blu? (I honestly don't recall the differences in detail)

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Blu-ray has a much greater amount of disc space, which can be useful for a lot of things. HD-DVD wasn't even full HD, it's video output only went up to 1080i.

[fommes 165]

Blu-ray has a much greater amount of disc space

Which is why many BRs are barebones, having dropped the regular DVD extras... They're just screw-ups in Hollywood, all of them. Why do I have to check on the internet, with every DVD I want to buy, whether there's anything wrong with it (aspect ratio, scenes missing, extras missing, wrong cuts, censored, transfer, etc.). Sorry, rant over. Move along, move along.

[Marian Schedenig 11,695]

Blu-ray has a much greater amount of disc space, which can be useful for a lot of things. HD-DVD wasn't even full HD, it's video output only went up to 1080i.

Wasn't it something like 50GB vs 40GB? That's significant but not that vast. 1080i vs 1080p is more important.

Aside from HD, 24fps playback is my main reason for REALLY wanting Blu. But the conditions aren't right yet.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Dual layer HD-DVD was only 30GB. Dual layer Blu-ray is 50GB.

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

HD-DVD wasn't even full HD, it's video output only went up to 1080i.

Wasn't that only for the first generation of players?

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Was there more than one generation? It died pretty quickly.

[Trent Hoyt 13]

I bought a Blu player in December. I only have 6 movies and a season of Lost. I want the Trek and Ape movies but I already own them. I don't know if its worth it to upgrade.

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

Was there more than one generation? It died pretty quickly.

Yes there were, and I may be wrong, but I think only the first player had the 1080i limitation. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[A24 5,157]

HD-DVD was 1080P.

Talking about HD quality, your chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

(Pssst ... LCD)

Alex

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,392]

Like investing in a SA-CD player, but keeping the speakers that came with your Akai midi set that you bought 9 years ago for 500 Dutch guilders.

[Hitch 60]

I'll wait for the next generation of DVD technology called "blue ray" or something.

[Jill Sandwich 11,171]

I remember years ago before BluRay was released, people thought the "Blue Laser Disc" technology would be great because the disc's capacity was so large, you could fit SIX movies on it! They'd be able to fit the entire Star Wars saga on one disc!

[Jay 46,245]

HD DVD was absolutely 1080p! HD DVD rocked

[Trent B 354]

I remember years ago before BluRay was released, people thought the "Blue Laser Disc" technology would be great because the disc's capacity was so large, you could fit SIX movies on it! They'd be able to fit the entire Star Wars saga on one disc!

I remember that concept as well Drax.

HD DVD knew it wouldn't survive against Blu-Ray. As stated by other members why Blu-Ray was better.