RickG

This is like the old vhs or beta when vcr's came out . Unless you really gotta have one it might be best to wait and see how things go . Very possibly one foremat will die off like beta did . For what it's worth though Blockbuster ran a test market offering rentals for both HD DVD and Blu ray in some stores . Choices were over 70% for Blu ray so Blockbuster chose Blu ray and will expand more offerings in more stores . I went to Best Buy to see what was available . They only had 1 HD DVD model but half a dozen Blu ray players .

JHew84

Blu ray is a sony based media, take a look at where sony based medias have gone in the past. They are a fly-by-night company, they have a "flashy" product that never seems to stand the test of time, case in point would be mini-discs. I remember when best buy all but stopped carrying cd players and had a ton of mini-disc players. Then mini-discs went out of style, cd players came back, sony lost another battle.

If I had to put my money on anything it would be hd-dvd. For one it's name is composed of highly known acronyms so more people will be familiar with it, plus they have some pretty big companys backing them, microsoft for one. In the local best buy the HD-DVD selection (movies, not players) is three times the size of the blu-ray section. I have a friend who is pretty into electronics and he's convinced hd-dvd will win over blu-ray, his reasoning was because the **** industry is primarily using hd-dvd .

Timmay2

Blu-ray has been picked up by blockbuster.

Blu-ray will win.

nuff said.

t-15 firefighter

I agree. Blu-Ray will win.

Not only because Blockbuster has picked them up but also because Sony has much support for this media. Sony screwed up with Beta. Beta was a superior media over VHS but Sony wouldn’t release the rights to Beta and therefore it lost out in the end. As far as Mini Disc goes, in my opinion this was a far superior media over CDs since they were re-recordable and you couldn’t scratch them. I had a 2 Mini Disc players and I really wish they had gained more popularity.

Something else to think about with Blu-Ray is that it is already installed on every PS3 sold. As the PS3 comes down in price and sells more units, the market will be flooded with Blu-Ray players. Now had Microsoft chosen to install HD-DVD drives in every 360 sold (instead of a stand alone unit) it might be a different story.

Just my 2 cents

Britt

t-15 firefighter

Sony is hardly a fly by night company. I have mostly Sony equip. in my house and have had very little trouble with any of it. If I have, their support has always been very good. As far as the Mini Disc you speak of, refer to the post above. I'm glad they released it. It shows forward thinking and I wish it had gained more of a following.

As far as the Blu-Ray, HD-DVD debate goes... I won't be buying either one of them any time soon. I have 3 up-convert DVD players and that is "near" HD quality.

Britt

bdewey

LG is all ready selling a DVD player that plays both BLU-Ray and HD products. With the way things are going I think BLU-Ray will out do HD.

haloman

That was going to be my suggesstion but I havent heard any reviews on it yet.

RickG try talking to Mike the manager at the Mall Radioshack in O'boro, he was always up on that stuff when I worked for Radioshack. But maybe not now.

RickG

Thanks . I bought my laptop there . I really don't like Best Buy - too many stories off ripoffs by the Geek Squad and people on the floor have little knowledge of the product line .

haloman

Well I agree about the geek squad but usually best buy has some good specials running if you can just say no to all of their offers and up-sales. Good luck with your purchase.

Hankpac

The Beta still exits, and is found in most high tech pro video tape cameras. Now that digital technolgy both hard drive and solid state is advancing, most recorders will become digital rather than using tape, and Beta will finally die away, like VHS is succuming to DVD's. It has become a case of not which was better, between two tape modes, but what would suplant tape at all.
VHS may have been prominant, but DVD took over, and now digital will suplant all of it. Blu ray and DVD HD will drop out soon as well, as a playback format, since we will be able to directly download entire movies, cheaper than we can buy or rent a disc.
Watch for memory capacity to skyrocket, and possibly a new storage format that is more stable, more rapidly accesable, and more hi def than anything out there now.

JHew84

I didn't mean fly by night in that regard, obviously sony is a common household name, I own sony equipment also. The fact remains sony has a terrible track record with trying to release new forms of media. While the mini-disc was a great idea (I owned a few players myself) it is no longer around. Sony also had a very competitive form of cassette even before the VHS/betamax battles, yet it lost out in the long run as well.

The same thing was said about mini-discs that is now being said of blu ray, that they would replace CD's. They had a good run for a few years, then dissapeared.

While blu-ray may have blockbusters support hd-dvd has plenty of other industry leaders support. HD-DVD also has the household name going for it which will draw in a lot of business from non-tech oriented people, who make up a great portion of the market. Also compare prices, hd-dvd players on average are cheaper than blu ray players, and the hd-dvds themselves on average are cheaper than blu ray dics. This alone will be a large deciding factor for the average joe. Also most places you go have a bigger selection of hd-dvd movies than they do blu ray, this will influence peoples decision.

It is hard to tell what the future will bring, but with sonys track record trying to introduce new forms of media my money is on hd-dvd. Will be interesting to see how it turns out, and i'll tip my hat to sony if they can pull this off for once .

JHew84

I do agree physical media will get phased out, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon. Too many people like having the hard copy in there hands and on their shelf. Also I think there is still to much worry about virus' for people to start making sizable investments that could be completely wiped out in a matter of seconds. One day everything will be completely digital though, you are right on the money.