Do you own a Blu-ray player?

[SQUACKEE]

You can get on now for about $150.00 so im gonna jump in. A friend sent me a box set of Neil Young music that is on blue ray disks, only one problem, i dont have a player . There's a sony for $199 that also plays my regular dvd's and upgrades them to "near hd" quality.

Blue Ray is 1080 but my tv is "only" 720 but since its only 42" and im about 8 feet away i have been assured i wont be able to tell the differance. My 720 will accept 1080 but it wont play at 1080, it will downgrade it to 720.

Anybody got any input on this whole shebang?

[2 cents]

Re: Do you own a blue ray player?

shebang

You remind me of William Hung....no, that's not a porn star....

[gh]

I don't own one, but a Silicon Valley engineer I hang with says if you're going to buy a Blue-Ray, get a PlayStation instead. There are some technical aspects that make it much more desirable as a DVD player, and then you get the game capacity or not, even if you don't think you'll be using it.

[SQUACKEE]

I don't own one, but a Silicon Valley engineer I hang with says if you're going to buy a Blue-Ray, get a PlayStation instead. There are some technical aspects that make it much more desirable as a DVD player, and then you get the game capacity or not, even if you don't think you'll be using it.

I'll check it out, im not into games, im gonna see if it up grades regular DVD's to 720 and report back.

[SQUACKEE]

Play Station 3

FOSTER CITY, Calif., May 23, 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced that the next regular system software update for the PLAYSTATION�3 (PS3�) computer entertainment system (version 1.80) will be available on Thursday, May 24, and will add upscaling of PlayStation�/PlayStation�2 games and DVD movies up to 1080p resolution. Now, in addition to displaying native high-definition (HD) content in the highest possible quality (1080p), PS3 system can turn standard definition content into a vibrant HD-quality experience

[bad hammy]

I'm in a spot right now where I have to replace our regular DVD player. Our six-year-old plasma will not do 1080p (720p/1080i) and our AV receiver does not have HDMI capability, so we cannot currently get optimized Blu Ray. Seeing as the plasma and the receiver cost us many thousands of $$$, I am not in the mood to replace them to get full Blu Ray capability. Currently leaning towards just buying another standard DVD player for under $100

[jazzcyclist]

I don't own one, but a Silicon Valley engineer I hang with says if you're going to buy a Blue-Ray, get a PlayStation instead. There are some technical aspects that make it much more desirable as a DVD player, and then you get the game capacity or not, even if you don't think you'll be using it.

But a Playstation costs $300, so I wonder what these technical issues are that your friend is talking about. If your computer is close to you TV, a good way to go is to add a Blue-Ray reader/DVD burner to your system. They will play everything including Blue-Ray and burn everything except Blue-Ray. You can even use these to burn AVCHD onto regular 4.7GB DVD's, albeit only 40 minutes worth, that will play on any Playstation or Blue-Ray player. You can also use it to make 40-minute HD DVD's that will play on X-Box 360's. Internal drives are going for $100, with external drives a little more. The advantage hear is that you can always update your player as better software becomes available. I've made a few track and field DVD's from the Olympics that look incredible on 52-inch plasma TV's.

[Cooter Brown]

I recommend the LG BD 390.

It's not only a blu ray player but it can wirelessly network to your PC and play media files. I've converted over 200 DVDs to digital and now I can watch them on my HD TV. Plus, it can connect to youtube, Vudu HD movies on demand, Netflix on demand, etc. so you can watch those videos on your TV instead of your computer. You can also play your MP3s through your home theater speakers and view digital photos on the TV.

I've had it for 2 weeks and have yet to watch a BR disc. Honestly, I bought it for the media streaming but the choices in that market are so diverse I couldn't make a decision on what product to buy. I figured by buying this device, if the media streaming sucked I'd still have a Blu Ray player. So far the streaming works extremely well.

[jazzcyclist]

I'm in a spot right now where I have to replace our regular DVD player. Our six-year-old plasma will not do 1080p (720p/1080i) and our AV receiver does not have HDMI capability, so we cannot currently get optimized Blu Ray. Seeing as the plasma and the receiver cost us many thousands of $$$, I am not in the mood to replace them to get full Blu Ray capability. Currently leaning towards just buying another standard DVD player for under $100

Do the TV or receiver have DVI connections? If so, you can buy a HDMI to DVI cable or adapter.

[jazzcyclist]

I've converted over 200 DVDs to digital and now I can watch them on my HD TV.

Do you mean VHS tapes? DVD's are already digital.

By the way, does anyone here have any first hand experience with Windows 7?

[bad hammy]

I'm in a spot right now where I have to replace our regular DVD player. Our six-year-old plasma will not do 1080p (720p/1080i) and our AV receiver does not have HDMI capability, so we cannot currently get optimized Blu Ray. Seeing as the plasma and the receiver cost us many thousands of $$$, I am not in the mood to replace them to get full Blu Ray capability. Currently leaning towards just buying another standard DVD player for under $100

Do the TV or receiver have DVI connections? If so, you can buy a HDMI to DVI cable or adapter.

Thanks for the tip. In my case I believe we are still Blu Ray screwed. We do have a DVI connection on the plasma, but since the specs on the plasma top out at 720p/1080i, I am not sure this buys us anything. We currently get programming at 720p/1080i via component connections. And our receiver does not have DVI, and it is doing video switching duties between the DVD player and the DirecTV stuff.

[jazzcyclist]

[quote=bad hammy]

I'm in a spot right now where I have to replace our regular DVD player. Our six-year-old plasma will not do 1080p (720p/1080i) and our AV receiver does not have HDMI capability, so we cannot currently get optimized Blu Ray. Seeing as the plasma and the receiver cost us many thousands of $$$, I am not in the mood to replace them to get full Blu Ray capability. Currently leaning towards just buying another standard DVD player for under $100

Do the TV or receiver have DVI connections? If so, you can buy a HDMI to DVI cable or adapter.

Thanks for the tip. In my case I believe we are still Blu Ray screwed. We do have a DVI connection on the plasma, but since the specs on the plasma top out at 720p/1080i, I am not sure this buys us anything. We currently get programming at 720p/1080i via component connections. And our receiver does not have DVI, and it is doing video switching duties between the DVD player and the DirecTV stuff.[/quote:13y0pdto]
Assuming you only have one DVI input, one option would be to plug the Blue-Ray player into the DVI input of the TV and leave the Direct TV receiver plugged into the AV receiver. Or you can reverse this and plug the Blue-Ray player into the AV receiver.

[bad hammy]

But forgetting Internet streaming options, what benefit do I get besides being able to watch Blu Ray content in sub-optimal 720p/1080i format?

[jazzcyclist]

But forgetting Internet streaming options, what benefit do I get besides being able to watch Blu Ray content in sub-optimal 720p/1080i format?

I guess nothing, but isn't 720p better than 480?

[Cooter Brown]

Do you mean VHS tapes? DVD's are already digital?

I converted my DVD's to AVI media files so I could store them on my server. With the new LG player, I can browse my collection of movies on the TV with the remote. Literally all my movies, music, and photos are now accessible without leaving the couch. It is the ultimate in lazy.