Blu-Ray Dead or Stillborn?

[Chuck Engels]

It also has a couple of large hard drives where I store my library of old 50's sci-fi movies that I can playback...

Paul, I never knew you were an old Sci Fi fan
What kind of collection do you have, favorites, era, ...?

[Paul LS]

My favorites are definately from the 50's... with a few from the 60's. I guess with the invention of the atomic bomb and the onset of the russian threat these movies must have been soaked up by the cinema going public. My personal favorites are generally british, having watched most as a boy... the Quatermass series of movies, "Quatermass Experiment" (1955) released as "The Creeping Unknown" in the US, "Quatermass 2" (1957) released as "Enemy from Space" in the US and "Quatermass and the Pit" (1967) released as "Five Million Years to Earth" in the US. I even enjoy the more even riduculous ones such as "The Trollenbery Terror" (1958) also known as the "Creeping Eye" in the US. There are hundreds of them... I just got "Fiend without a Face" a few days ago, an old 1958 US movie. Generally I buy them on Ebay and now quite a few are becoming in the public domain because of their age.

[Bob]

I remember all those films!

[Ken Jarstad]

Well, I decided to revive this topic and - wow! It looks to me like it could be split into several others now. I have enjoyed the conversation. Responding to each:

China Blue High-definition Disc - I looked into this last year and it didn't appear to have much momentum then. It looks much more promising now since commercial media has already been released in China. I could cheer for this alternative format, too, if it was better for burning videos at home. Although the Chinese bought some of the old Toshiba HD DVD technology cheap they are implementing their own copy protection tech because they know their own folks are famous copyright violators.
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/08/homegrown-cbhd-discs-outsell-blu-ray-by-3-1-margin-in-china.ars
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10303224-1.html
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/02/warner-bros-plans-to-support-cbhd-the-format-war-is-back-on/

I very much liked the idea that I could make an HD DVD video on standard DVD media. Sure it's only 20 minutes or so - just right for family videos. Perhaps the release of this format is behind the recent price drop for Blu-Ray players? We shall see if this format is more friendly to home video enthusiasts than Blu-Ray.

The media boxes such as WD TV HD Media Player, Popcorn, HDX 1000 have been brought up before. I checked the Best Buy web site and was surprised to find the Western Digital device is on the shelves locally - and at a new, lower price - $99.99. I asked if they were popular and the clerk didn't know.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8993217&st=hd+media+player&lp=3&type=product&cp=1&id=1218008588808

I still think these boxes are still too much of a "techy" device. They are interesting to me because they are NOT a gamers box and much cheaper. But how do we convince the friends, family and neighbors to buy one of these boxes if they don't keep movies on hard drives or thumb drives?

The only horror movies I watch are some of the bad video I've shot!

[Bobby]

Ken, there is supposed to be a newer version of the WD box coming out soon, so that may account for the price drop.

[Chuck Engels]

The only horror movies I watch are some of the bad video I've shot!

There is a huge difference between horror and Sci Fi Ken.
Paul is talking about some great Sci Fi films, like 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' or some of the old Flash Gordon movies

[Ken Jarstad]

Oooooooh! (he said, slapping hand on forehead). Yeah, one of the BD films we rented is the latest release of that classic 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'. My wife has some doubts she can stand the excitement.

[Bobby]

Oooooooh! (he said, slapping hand on forehead). Yeah, one of the BD films we rented is the latest release of that classic 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'. My wife has some doubts she can stand the excitement.

On that, a very good friend from high school is married to Arlene Dahl. Quite the New York socialites. I haven't seen him in years, so never met her, but we do exchange emails once in a blue moon.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Looks like BluRay is now definitely dead or stillborn in this thread (poor joke, sorry )

[Ken Jarstad]

Blu-ray player, Magnavox, on Woot today for $60 usd. (refurbished - doesn't play AVCHD)

Topic once again raised from the dead (it's nice to be able to raise something from the dead!)

[Ken Jarstad]

Refurbished Samsung Blu-ray disk player for $89.99 - also plays AVCHD.

http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=5398163&sku=S223-1296&SRCCODE=COMEM578C&cm_mmc=Email-_-Main-_-COMEM578-_-email

[George Tyndall]

Blu-Ray Dead or Stillborn?

During the first 2 days of sales, buyers of Avatar reportedly purchased 1.5 million disks in the Blu-ray version.

[RJ Johnston]

I just picked up a Sony Blu-ray player, BDP-S370, and can use it to hook up a USB device such as a HDD, or stream video from Netflix, for example. It's also Wi-Fi capable. Plays Divx and WMV as well. I thought it was a good deal for $139.99. I felt like Sony and Fry's Electronics really wanted me to have a Blu-ray player. From now on, if I buy a movie it will be on Blu-ray. But I won't be burning on Blu-ray Disc for a while yet as I don't have a Blu-ray burner or a fast enough computer. I've burned one very short Blu-ray movie on a DVD-RW.

[Bob]

During the first 2 days of sales, buyers of Avatar reportedly purchased 1.5 million disks in the Blu-ray version.

At 4 days, it was 2.7 million compared to 4 million regular DVD discs. I've noticed that the Blu-ray section of most the stores I shop at seems to be growing while the DVD section seems to be shrinking. But, Avatar withstanding, I keep hearing that sales of discs (BD and DVD) keep going down.

[Bobby]

I haven't actually bought a disc (BD or DVD) in eons. I guess I filled my collection with the old stuff that I like to get drunk with, and that is it. When we view movies it is either Netflix (BD or streaming) or TW cable's miserable offerings. Not all, but most of the personal video I do lately (and there isn't much) goes on the PBO (Patriot Box Office).

I actually don't like the BDs - too long to load and the diversity of menu and options can get confusing. Yeah the quality is better, but Netflix streaming at 720p seems OK for our use.