Blue-ray

[PeteC]

Anyone have any opinions or experience with this new system? My understanding is that you can play DVD's on a Blue-ray system, but not Blue-ray disks on a DVD. It seems many movie studios have adapted this new system and in a few years we may see all movies on Blueray and no more DVD's? Pete

[pharvey]

Not exactly ''new'' Pete - has been around for 10 years or so. Sony have pumped it out through their PS3 players etc. and I would think that's the most popular. You are correct in that DVD's will play on Blu-ray machines, but not visa-versa. The advantage with Blu-ray over their DVD counterparts, is simply higher definition and greater available memory..... it goes without saying that you need an HD tv to go with the player!! Unfortunately in my case it's a fairly moot point as I don't have HD vision!!

''Turning Disc-wise'', VCD's are dead, DVD will no doubt follow but I would think have a fair few years left yet - why would we go for yet another disc in the form of Blu-ray ? IMHO, the next step after DVD is going to be Digital downloads and HD on Flash memory.

[PeteC]

I never heard of it until I read an article in HK last week. I guess I've been in the deep, dark jungles of Thailand too long. Pete

[pharvey]

I never heard of it until I read an article in HK last week. I guess I've been in the deep, dark jungles of Thailand too long. Pete

And not a bad position to be in!!

There's loads of arguments for and against and whether it'll last to be honest. I picked the wrong side on the Betamax (also introduced by Sony) vs VHS battle, but rightly or wrongly, I'm not going to invest in Blu-ray in the belief that history is going to repeat itself..... Sony with a bl**dy good system losing out to lower cost, more widely available alternatives. And quite frankly, the speed at which technology is moving forward, by the time I decided on a system, it would likely be obsolete

[Randy Cornhole]

Or you could go this route...

I have a wd tv live box -

Into which I feed a 1.5tb external hard drive and a sony bravia hd tv via hdmi.

Currently I have about 55 1080p movies on it. All of which I have downloaded off Vuze.

Thus saving me a small fortune...

[bladerunner2120]

yes well...the world is moving to fast for its own good, BluRay was the latest and greatest so if you wanna keep up with the joneses get one, it is amazing, fantastic detail etc, but im sticking to the old format, i raley watch the same movie more than once and some no more than twice a life time, i download all my movies most under 1 gig, Bluray can be anything up to 16 gigs.
3D id here now, buy now the TV and a player oh theres internet equipped tv too...download your shows direct to your tv hard drive and watch later...BluRay is old hat its been around 2 years already 3D is the current rage.....yawn...............

[stgrhe]

There is one blue-ray that is outstanding on the market today and that is OPPO and their new model BDP-83SE. This player plays BD-Video, DVD-Video, AVCHD, DVD-Audio, SACD, CD, HDCD, Kodak Picture CD, CD-R/RW, DVD±R/RW, DVD±R DL, BD-R/RE.

It is a bit pricey but the sound quality is superb and even beets that of many super high end competitors costing many times more than OPPO.

With the OPPO player one can simply ditch all existing players as only one will be needed.

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83SE/

[STEVE G]

I don't have one as I don't really watch TV much, but I did see a demonstration model set up in a shop here showing a Blue-ray version of a later James Bond movie on a large HD flat-screen, Sony I think and the detail in the image is really quite incredible.
I was just passing by and it stopped me in my tracks as the picture is so vivid; on a close-up shot of the ground you could see every single piece of sand.
I wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost but if you're into movies it would be worth having.

[pharvey]

Or you could go this route...

I have a wd tv live box -

Into which I feed a 1.5tb external hard drive and a sony bravia hd tv via hdmi.

Currently I have about 55 1080p movies on it. All of which I have downloaded off Vuze.

Thus saving me a small fortune...

Picked up a WD TV Live unit whilst back in the UK and as suggested have used Vuze to download anything from Movies to Rugby - absolutely superb, so a big debt of thanks Randy!

Couldn't recommend this unit more to anyone in a similar situation.

[bladerunner2120]

Yes i got one too but its a Sony, i store my downloaded movies onto a 1T hard drive moving a dozen or so movies to a flash drive that plugs directly into the Sony, $AU150.00.

[bladerunner2120]

HEY guys get urself an IPHONE or classic ipod 160gigs stores movies as well as music...download from itunes or your own off the net...transcripe through pirate software and play the movie through ur ipod and watch it on your tv...............like i said before...the world is moving to fast

[pitsch]

Buying an IPHONE in Thailand seems rather to be for show only (look, I have it). With no real 3G coming in the next years it will have a very slow internet connection.

[bladerunner2120]

Ahhh!!!! but you can use it to watch movies and listen to music...so its not totaly wasted