Posted on 11/10/2007 3:10:38 AM PST by Las Vegas Dave
High-definition movie downloads are years away. How many people would want to spend hours, using current DSL or cable speeds, to download one movie? As for people on dial-up...they'll be collecting Social Security before even one movie finishes downloading.
Bring fiber-optic cable into every house (not curb fiber, where the last stretch is delivered via coax) and HD movie downloads become feasible. You may want to wait into the next decade (and that's assuming you'll ever get fiber-optic at all - if you live outside a population center, good luck!), but for the rest of us, high-definition is here, today.
Last weekend was the best...and worst!...weekend to shop for an HD DVD player. Wal-Mart's sub-$100 pricing forced the hands of most of the other major retailers, who also dropped their prices to unprecedented levels, and HD DVD players were sold out within hours throughout most of the country.
Don't give up, though - Black Friday is less than 2 weeks away! :-) Rumors are thick and furious about upcoming days unbelievable pricing on HD DVD players...so you'd have a good chance of picking up a fantastic bargain soon.
I don't think that's correct.I think Samsung makes a dual format machine.
I haven’t seen a movie released on HD that I really wanted on HD. Mostly I buy DVDs to avoid the hassel of going to the theater. Only handful are worth watching more than once.
I have DVDs I haven’t seen all the way through.
Have you thought about Netflix or another home-delivery-type rental service? Sounds as though that would be tailor-made for you, as you find so few films worth watching more than once - it hardly seems worth buying DVDs for a single viewing. I’m just the opposite - I own hundreds of DVDs (heck, I still have a couple of hundred laser disks!) because there are so many great films I will watch again and again. I tend to collect by directors and actors - for example, just about any film directed by John Ford, Hawks, Reed, Truffaut, Capra, Stillman, Bergman, Cukor, Renoir, Powell/Pressberger, Curtiz, Hitchcock, Wilder, Eustache, Huston, Lean, Cocteau, Kazan, Welles, Leone, Wyler, Clouzot, and so on, is worth repeated viewings...and this is just a short list of some favorite directors. I could make an even bigger list of the great actors. There are literally thousands of films on my wish list...and I intend to own them all. :-)
I’ve thought about it, but basically I just browse through Turner and AMC when I’m in the mood for an old movie. I do own a couple hundred DVDs. I just don’t watch them more than once every two years or so.
You have freepmail...
Of possible interest to the HDTV ping list.
(See text below or click on this link; http://www.tvpredictions.com/hddvd110807.htm )
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HD DVD Players Near 500,000 Mark?
Recent $99 promotional push drives sales.
Washington, D.C. (November 8, 2007) — HD DVD supporters say their favorite high-def format will sell 500,000 players by month’s end.
That’s according to an article by Home Media Magazine.
The publication reports that the recent price cut for the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player has triggered sales of more than 100,000 units over the last week.
Several retailers, including Wal-Mart and Best Buy, last Friday (November 2) dropped the price of the Toshiba HD-A2 to $99 as a special pre-Black Friday offer.
The player has a suggested retail price of $299, but normally now sells for around $199 in most stores.
Home Media writes that roughly 320,000 Toshiba HD DVD players were sold prior to last weekend’s promotional push. With the 100,000 units added to that figure, HD DVD supporters say the 500,000 mark should be reached by the end of November.
While the 500,000 mark would be impressive, it would still fall far short of Blu-ray’s overall home penetration total.
Although standalone HD DVD players are outselling standalone Blu-ray players, Sony’s Play Station 3, which has a Blu-ray player inside, has sold millions of units.
HD DVD and Blu-ray are rival formats competing for the new high-def disc audience.
It is interesting, but it begs the question; How many people who buy PS3s use them for movies? I think that Sony wants to keep the price of Blue-Ray players high as it helps the sale of PS3s. Sony is struggling with poor PS3 sales (compared to Xbox 360 and Wii) and has Blue-Ray to bolster.
My thinking is the winner of this format war is going to be determined by who sells the most movies.
Can you get THX audio when using the PS3 Bluray to play movies?
History has shown that the company that sells license to more company to manufacture with the lower price faster wins.
I do not know if you can get THX audio from a PS3. I do not have a PS3, but I have an XBOX 360. The Xbox is fine for playing games, but is poor for movies (the drive is noisy), the remote clunky, but I thought the video quality good (I’m talking standard def DVDs here)..
All I want to know is which one will be next year’s Betamax?
I hope Blu-Ray wins, simply because it would cripple this community it Sony fails again.
.....or Boxing day......
Thanks, Dave! Which format’s gonna win? .............................. FRegards
Both will win! There is room for both formats (IMO).
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