W0W!1! SCIENC3!1! Blu-Ray FTW!

[DennisMM]

Thanks very much, Fievel.

Even if I had the money, my living/dining room is only 10x12 feet. A big screen would be even more obnoxious than the medium-sized box I have now. I suppose if I stayed under 42" a slim-screen wouldn't be too obtrusive. It would fit well on the overcrowded electronics tower.

[Lord Voldemoo]

Thanks very much, Fievel.

Even if I had the money, my living/dining room is only 10x12 feet. A big screen would be even more obnoxious than the medium-sized box I have now.

plasma or lcd on the wall would be the way to go.

damned expensive though, for 1080p

Hey guys, I have no clue about this stuff. If I DID buy something cheaper than 1080p, what is better...1080i or 720p?

[MonkeyM666]

I just got a new plasma... Panasonic th477a (??maybe) 42" Plasma yesterday and my GOD it's beautiful. The 360 looks amazing on it and it was pretty god damned cheap. Panasonic are a company on the move baby...




EDIT: MOO! 1080i is better then 720... it's a numbers game. 1080p is very expensive at the moment but unless your a pro user you won't notice the difference between 1080i and 1080p for 90% or the time. Some new plasmas even can downconvert a 1080p pic to a 1080i picture.

I would suggest the Panasonic I just got Moo. Loads of bang for your buck. I work in TV, specifically for a HDTV Channel and this screen is better then everything I look at at work and I have only watched off air HD so far.

[DennisMM]

Nice looking turntable.

[Lord Voldemoo]

cool Monkey, thanks. I'll definitely check out the one you just got as well as 42" is the size i'm primarily interested in.

[tapehead]

Definitely 1080i over 720p

[MonkeyM666]

Nice looking turntable.

Thanks It's my room mates. Technics. We have loads of electronics now...

Moo, when you look for one it's the model with only 1 HDMI input. You;ll see two models in the shop which look exactly the same, but one will be nearly $1000 more then the other. That one has 2 HDMI inputs. If you have 2 machines that have HDMI outputs then go for it but I don't even have one and if I get to a stage where I need another input I'll just buy a switcher.

As a side note Moo, loads of the Master Control ops and other uber tech heads at work say that the plasma game is between Panasonic or Pioneer. The Sony LCD's are pertty good but I personally don't think that large format LCD's are up for the job yet, well compared to newer plasma models.


EDIT: Actually I will say one bad thing about Plasmas.... Operating Temperatures. The Pana I just got has a max temp of 35c! I live in Australia for god sakes how am I suppose to avoid those kinda temps??

[stereosforgeeks]

Rear Projection TVs
2. Sony KDS-55A3000 (Score of 72) (LCoS)

I have the older version of this TV, which was the best LCD RPJ on the market at the time.

This is my setup:

[MonkeyM666]

LCD Rear projection?? You sure about that?

Nice setup by the way...

[stereosforgeeks]

Sony's SXRDs were great sets and they didnt cost an arm and a leg. They have stopped making them, however, as everyone wants thin and sexy.

It's got a great contrast ratio no pixelation at all this is one smooth ass picture.

I used to have a 30 inch wide screen super fine pitch CRT HDTV, which was an amazing TV but I gave it to my little bro for his graduation present when I upgraded.

[MonkeyM666]

I hope that your Sony didn't have that stupid Sony light on the front of it like the new ones. stupid...

[stereosforgeeks]

I hope that your Sony didn't have that stupid Sony light on the front of it like the new ones. stupid...

Nope. I would've opened it up and disconnected it even if it had!

[MonkeyM666]

hehehe.... can we send that to Sony customer service center?

[sonnyboo]

A manager at BEST BUY was telling me that they are going to be returning all HD-DVD's from their in store stock and website to the manufacturers by the end of March...

[Fawst]

Just a heads up on the 720/1080 debate. At this point, 720 is almost "dead." I don't believe there are many new sets in the 2008 lineups that don't have 1080p resolution. Pioneer and Panasonic both have zero 720p sets in their upcoming plasma lines.

And, er, to be perfectly honest... if you're buying a plasma, you're wasting your money if you don't get one of those two brands. Nothing comes close, unless you're fine with spending less money on a blah set just so you can say you have a plasma...

[Chairman Kaga]

Just a heads up on the 720/1080 debate. At this point, 720 is almost "dead." I don't believe there are many new sets in the 2008 lineups that don't have 1080p resolution. Pioneer and Panasonic both have zero 720p sets in their upcoming plasma lines.

And, er, to be perfectly honest... if you're buying a plasma, you're wasting your money if you don't get one of those two brands. Nothing comes close, unless you're fine with spending less money on a blah set just so you can say you have a plasma...

Well it's somewhat size related though. If you are talking just plasmas I don't think there are any 720s anymore but LCDs smaller than 40" or so are generally 720. I agree with those two brands. We have a Panasonic we got last Christmas and it is gorgeous.

[TheBaxter]

Thanks very much, Fievel.

Even if I had the money, my living/dining room is only 10x12 feet. A big screen would be even more obnoxious than the medium-sized box I have now.

plasma or lcd on the wall would be the way to go.

damned expensive though, for 1080p

Hey guys, I have no clue about this stuff. If I DID buy something cheaper than 1080p, what is better...1080i or 720p?

as long as we're just talking TVs, and unless you're considering CRT rear projection (which you probably shouldn't be considering), 1080i won't be an option. all digital TVs, meaning all plasma, LCD, and digital rear projection sets, are progressive, so they'll be 720p, 768p, or 1080p.

unless you're looking at 50" or larger, or you're going to be sitting really damn close to it, you will probably not be able to see a difference between 720p and 1080p.

[MonkeyM666]

Thanks very much, Fievel.

Even if I had the money, my living/dining room is only 10x12 feet. A big screen would be even more obnoxious than the medium-sized box I have now.

plasma or lcd on the wall would be the way to go.

damned expensive though, for 1080p

Hey guys, I have no clue about this stuff. If I DID buy something cheaper than 1080p, what is better...1080i or 720p?

as long as we're just talking TVs, and unless you're considering CRT rear projection (which you probably shouldn't be considering), 1080i won't be an option. all digital TVs, meaning all plasma, LCD, and digital rear projection sets, are progressive, so they'll be 720p, 768p, or 1080p.

unless you're looking at 50" or larger, or you're going to be sitting really damn close to it, you will probably not be able to see a difference between 720p and 1080p.

No way man, 1080i or P is massively better then 720. There is no comparison. It would have to be a pretty small, like 22", telly for you not to be able to tell the difference. It's physically more lines of pixels... how can it not be better.

I have to say, that I find SD content hard to watch now... and I can't wait until HD is the only format. It's not perfect mind you, it could get much clearer but it's a beautiful next step. I advise anyone out there who's considering making the leap to go for it. HD is a very unforgiving format but it's making everyone involved work harder to give us all a better end product.

[vicious_bastard]

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36428/113/


Quelle surprise! BD player prices increase following the death of HD-DVD. As usual, the consumer takes it in the ass so that Sony can claw back some of the bribes and loss-leaders that helped propel them to victory.

Obviously, the (BD Live compliant..for now) PS3 was the key to the win, but now even early BD adopters are left with expensive, outdated machines which will not be able to handle profile 2.0 features. Features which HD-DVD HAD FROM DAY ONE.

Shame on everyone.

My Bladerunner HD-DVD won't play any more, incidentally, yet has no visible scratches at all. Any advice? Throw it in the bin and buy it on BD is NOT advice, btw.

edit: URL seems to have been slashdotted already, but it could just be my shoddy Chinese internet connection. Oh yeah, bastion of cheap production that it is, China has been refused any manufacturing licenses for BD players for some unknown reason. Not that I'd buy one here anyway as BD is REGION LOCKED, unlike its deceased counterpart.

Semi-rant over.

[RogueScribner]

Thow it in the bin and by it on . . . oh, nevermind.

[AtomicHyperbole]

Well, keep that HD-DVD player, V_B, as you're going to be able to play China's own brand of HD disc soon as it's compatible.

[vicious_bastard]

Well, keep that HD-DVD player, V_B, as you're going to be able to play China's own brand of HD disc soon as it's compatible.

I'm hoping that a sub-culture of HD-piracy emerges for all the [strike]chumps[/strike] techno-savvy folk who bought HD-DVD early on. You'd think that HD-R drives/disc prices would tumble and that the copy protection on the 400 or or so titles available would be putty in geek hands eventualy.

I read somewhere that China, being China, is working on their own HD media to avoid paying anyone any money. It would be awesome if I could get cheap movies here though. I just read elsewhere that Toshiba is reporting a near $1 billion loss for 2007, so surely some sort of deal could be arranged, given the fact that BD won't appear here for a few years at least.

I really hope the industry learns from this before the next format war begins in early 2012. Heheh, who am I kidding?

[AtomicHyperbole]

The CH-DVD format (iirc) will be apparently be compatible with HD-DVD players and was developed (with Toshiba, I think) to avoid paying the Bluray/HD-DVD consortium royalties. The diff is lack of features or something.

[King Psyz]

BDLIVE (2.0) has officially arrived tonight with the PS3 update to 2.20 firmware.

Seems the BDLIVE releases are scheduled to start arriving tomorrow.

[TheBaxter]

Blu-ray Surge
With the high-definition video format now reduced to the single Blu-ray technology, it is expected that 29.4 million Blu-ray players will be installed in homes worldwide by the end of the year, according to a study by Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices Services. As of January 1, 10.6 million Blu-ray players had already been sold, most of them included in Sony's PlayStation 3 consoles. Of the additional 18.8 million units expected to be sold this year, 13 million are likely to be included in PlayStation 3 consoles, 4 million in stand-alone set-tops, and 2 million in personal computers. Strategy Analytics projected that by 2012, 265 million homes worldwide will be equipped with high-definition TV sets and that 132 million Blu-ray players will be connected to them. David Mercer, principal analyst for Strategy Analytics said in a statement that those figures, plus "Hollywood's need for a new growth engine, represent huge incentives for the industry to coordinate marketing activities and demonstrate unified support for the successor to DVD."

[TheBaxter]

In its first five days in the stores, the Blu-ray version of Fox's Hitman accounted for 12.6 percent of total sales; for No Country for Old Men, it was 9.8 percent, according to Nielsen VideoScan First Alert and reported by Home Media Magazine. Prior to the demise of the HD DVD format, the number of high-definition disk sales rarely topped 2-3 percent of total sales, the trade publication observed. (An exception: sales of the HD DVD-only release of Transformers hit 4 percent.)

those are pretty impressive numbers, and goes to show just how important the end of the format war was to giving HD content a chance to compete with DVD. those numbers will surely grow once BR player prices drop and more people own one.

[stereosforgeeks]

In its first five days in the stores, the Blu-ray version of Fox's Hitman accounted for 12.6 percent of total sales; for No Country for Old Men, it was 9.8 percent, according to Nielsen VideoScan First Alert and reported by Home Media Magazine. Prior to the demise of the HD DVD format, the number of high-definition disk sales rarely topped 2-3 percent of total sales, the trade publication observed. (An exception: sales of the HD DVD-only release of Transformers hit 4 percent.)

those are pretty impressive numbers, and goes to show just how important the end of the format war was to giving HD content a chance to compete with DVD. those numbers will surely grow once BR player prices drop and more people own one.

It's a little disappointing that the 12.6% went to Hitman and not No Country, but it's good news regardless for the medium.

[TheBaxter]

In its first five days in the stores, the Blu-ray version of Fox's Hitman accounted for 12.6 percent of total sales; for No Country for Old Men, it was 9.8 percent, according to Nielsen VideoScan First Alert and reported by Home Media Magazine. Prior to the demise of the HD DVD format, the number of high-definition disk sales rarely topped 2-3 percent of total sales, the trade publication observed. (An exception: sales of the HD DVD-only release of Transformers hit 4 percent.)

those are pretty impressive numbers, and goes to show just how important the end of the format war was to giving HD content a chance to compete with DVD. those numbers will surely grow once BR player prices drop and more people own one.

It's a little disappointing that the 12.6% went to Hitman and not No Country, but it's good news regardless for the medium.

yeah, but that's just a percentage of Hitman sales, not overall sales. so NCFOM still could have sold more discs total, just a smaller percentage of those sales were in BR format. i really hope that's the case.

it does make sense that more Hitman buyers would buy it on BR though. isn't it based on a videogame? those people are more likely to have a PS3, and thus have a BR player.

[Nordling]

BLu-Ray has seriously curtailed my movie purchases. I'd hate to buy a movie to have it come out on Blu-Ray months later. Right now is similar to the time when DVD first arrived and I stopped buying laserdiscs.

It's hurting me, too, because there's some primo releases in the next few weeks (SWEENEY TODD, TWBB) that I badly want.

[Lord Voldemoo]

BLu-Ray has seriously curtailed my movie purchases. I'd hate to buy a movie to have it come out on Blu-Ray months later. Right now is similar to the time when DVD first arrived and I stopped buying laserdiscs.

It's hurting me, too, because there's some primo releases in the next few weeks (SWEENEY TODD, TWBB) that I badly want.

I'd have thought that there would be almost simultaneous release for big releases at this point. I guess the format war isn't long dead, but I'd have thought they would be more on the ball in getting blu-ray versions out quickly.

[Evil Hobbit]

I just watched Blade Runner on blu-ray. Good heavens what a beauty.

[Nordling]

I don't see how those studios reluctant to back Blu-Ray are in a hurry because DVD profits, although plateaued, are still making a hefty amount of money for them. Blu-Ray owners aren't going to pick up the latest romantic comedy or parody movie - they want LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, STAR WARS, LOTR. So they'll take their time to put those out, and let the fervor build.

[stereosforgeeks]

BLu-Ray has seriously curtailed my movie purchases. I'd hate to buy a movie to have it come out on Blu-Ray months later. Right now is similar to the time when DVD first arrived and I stopped buying laserdiscs.

It's hurting me, too, because there's some primo releases in the next few weeks (SWEENEY TODD, TWBB) that I badly want.

I'd have thought that there would be almost simultaneous release for big releases at this point. I guess the format war isn't long dead, but I'd have thought they would be more on the ball in getting blu-ray versions out quickly.

A lot of the big releases are the same day, but not all.

[Evil Hobbit]

Highly anticipated and now confirmed:

BAND OF BROTHERS comes to Blu-ray!

[Nordling]

That, I will buy.

[Evil Hobbit]

July will bring Batman the Movie to blu-ray. That's right! Adam West spanky pants in High-def.



Source

[Eunuch Provocateur]

Is there a comprehensive list anywhere of upcoming Blu-ray Movies?

[Fievel]

July will bring Batman the Movie to blu-ray. That's right! Adam West spanky pants in High-def.



Source

My gods... that packaging actually makes it look serious.
Serious as in "this is not a rubber shark that you hear thudding as it's kicked" kind of serious.
Cool package.

[Tyrone_Shoelaces]

Universal announces Blu-ray slate

[Tyrone_Shoelaces]

Musicians embrace Blu-ray format. More specifically, Neil Young is going to release everything he ever recorded on Blu-ray. Not sure about the downloading stuff to the disc part. I thought that stuff was stored on the player.

[stereosforgeeks]

Musicians embrace Blu-ray format. More specifically, Neil Young is going to release everything he ever recorded on Blu-ray. Not sure about the downloading stuff to the disc part. I thought that stuff was stored on the player.

Cool for a home theater but not for anything else at the moment.

[stereosforgeeks]

Dear Criterion Collection Newsletter subscriber,

We’ve got some exciting news for this fall, and we wanted you to hear it first.

Our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We’ve picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we’ll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.

Here’s what’s in the pipeline:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

Alongside our DVD and Blu-ray box sets of The Last Emperor, we’ll also be putting out the theatrical version as a stand-alone release in both formats, priced at $39.95. Our Blu-ray release of Walkabout will be an all-new edition, featuring new supplements as well as a new transfer; we will also release an updated anamorphic DVD of Nicolas Roeg’s outback masterpiece at the same time.

[King Psyz]

you beat me to it!

[stereosforgeeks]

you beat me to it!

Thanks Uni!

[Peven]

I would prefer to see a hi-def edition of "Life Aquatic" or "Darjeeling Limited" among Wes Anderson films. still, that is a tasty list to start with

[stereosforgeeks]

I would prefer to see a hi-def edition of "Life Aquatic" or "Darjeeling Limited" among Wes Anderson films. still, that is a tasty list to start with

I thought Darjeeling would be among one of the first as well.

[Peven]

I would prefer to see a hi-def edition of "Life Aquatic" or "Darjeeling Limited" among Wes Anderson films. still, that is a tasty list to start with

I thought Darjeeling would be among one of the first as well.

well, its just that the color palate of Darjeeling and Life are the most diverse, bright and vivid of Wes's films i think they would be the prettiest tranfers

[stereosforgeeks]

I would prefer to see a hi-def edition of "Life Aquatic" or "Darjeeling Limited" among Wes Anderson films. still, that is a tasty list to start with

I thought Darjeeling would be among one of the first as well.

well, its just that the color palate of Darjeeling and Life are the most diverse, bright and vivid of Wes's films i think they would be the prettiest tranfers

With the quick release of Darjeeling on DVD i figured Criterion just got rights to publish it as one of their first bluray titles.

As for your reasoning you are correct. Those films are not as popular, however, which would explain part of it.

[Flumm]

This has come a fair bit sooner than I had anticipated it would.

Among the usual hemming and hawing, somewhere along the line I suppose I reasoned out there would be two key factors for me, in what determines when I upgrade to a Blur-Ray player:

1) When Criterion debuted.
2) When a well reviewed, affordable, multi-region (h4xorable) player was on the market.


Kind of caught in that limbo of having Hi-Def looming over me for a few years, and yet finding as I've gotten older, that this phase I'm going through for Film is probably not all that phasical, and has only bitten it's bitter, techicolour teeth deeper into my veins, means it's been a great period of discovering things to love, but not really beeing in the postion to hold onto them.

Not really feeling comfortable, or feeling satisfied even, with buying DVDs in general, let alone going all out for the holy pixels of the standard Criterion discs.


As much as I'll like to see, say, Iron Man, or any of those kind of films tooled to the spectacle of the medium, this also means I can soon start indulging/acknowling all those films/artist that I really want to also, without having to look over my shoulder for technology to be creeping up on my person and trying to have suprise wallet sechs with me, and well, 'n just generally getting in the way of me and the movies.


This is cool news.

[Tyrone_Shoelaces]

*comes running back in*

Just a second, let me catch my breath.

Whew.

I am now officially shopping for a new TV and a Blu-ray player.

*sits down*

Can someone get me a glass of water?