Tag Archives: blu-ray

ZD’s Robin Harris proclaims death of BD already?

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Blu-ray is dead – heckuva job, Sony! | Storage Bits | ZDNet.com

Robin, what gives?  Ok, it’s been 8 months since the format war ended, but jeez did you really expect the price to match those of DVDs already?  Seriously?  Eight months ago, BD players were $500.  Now you can get them for $270/$300 on average, cheaper if you look around.  Yes, BDs cost more now, but so did DVDs when they came out.  I bought my first DVD player, a Toshiba when prices hit the $250 mark.  That was close to 10 years ago.  (wow, has it really been that long?)  DVDs weren’t exactly cheap back then either.  It will take time, but the prices will eventually come down.  And about it not being worth it, puh-leeze!  Even if you’re not an AV snob, the picture is amazing.  Something a DVD (upconverted or not) certainly isn’t.  Don’t get me wrong.  DVDs are still great, but they’re from a different era.  480i is still going to look dull and blurry no matter what you do to it when compared with even 720p.  Robin makes some good points about the high price of production, but get real; this isn’t going to last forever.  A year from now, BDs will be a lot more mainstream.  DVDs are already on their way to the bargain bin and once the switch to DTV happens next year I think you’ll see a lot more people looking seriously at HD sets and media players.  I just have to add one last thing, HD content streaming in the U.S. is going nowhere.  As long as providers keep holding people back with their bandwidth caps and limited connectivity options, internet-based HD streaming won’t become a true alternative to disc.

Going HD with the Samsung BD-P1500

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I’ve been dying to get an HD media player for the home theater for a long time now, but the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and high prices have kept me away until now.  I noticed a few weeks back that Blu-Ray players had been coming down in price.  With a number of units dropping just below the $300 mark and a few even coming close to $200, I started looking around.  After looking at all the models available I set my sights on the Samsung BD-P1500.  The 1500 is a midrange BD player that isn’t too expensive (generally about $269 at the time I wrote this) and has most of the features of the higher end players.  It also doesn’t hurt that I found it at the local Best Buy in an open box for only $199.  Factoring in my reward zone discount and credits, I was able to walk out the door with the player and a copy of Iron Man for less than $200.  Setup was a snap.  I’ve had a progressive scan JVC 7-disc DVD changer for a while now.  I sacrificed the component (and therefore the progressive scan) connections for the Samsung player, added an optical connection to my reciever and had it all working in about 10 minutes.  After watching Iron Man last night, my only complaint about the system so far is the heat the BD-P1500 produces.  (and it produces quite a bit)  I’m going to try propping the unit up on some rubber feet for better airflow (the unit is passively cooled) and see if that works.  If not, an Antec USB-powered laptop cooler may be the way to go.  Since all of my components are housed in an enclosure, the heat is a huge concern.  I know the DVD player doesn’t take well to heat, so hopefully this is a problem that can be solved easily.  Having already experienced HD picture quality, I wasn’t too surprised with that aspect of it.  The sound was what blew me away initially.  Being something of an AV snob, I’ve been accustomed to turning up my nose at anything less than DTS.  Dolby Digital never could match the performance of DTS on DVD.  While that may still be the case, I was quite surprised by the level of detail in the Dolby Digital True HD track on Iron Man.  Hopefully this will prove to be true of DTS on BD as well.