I purchased a HD DVD player, but only have around $50 invested. Today, when I was at Costco, I saw a player for $199 after immediate $50 rebate. That seems to be quite a bit lower than the price I saw at Costco the last time I was there. So when will Blu Ray players and Disks be affordable?

A good price, certainly. But is it a good player? Does it support HDMI 1.3, Dolby TrueHD or other things you may soon value?

I'd spend a little more and get a PS3.

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Which brand? Samsung is sending my "repaired" 1400 series back next week. Watch out for their 90 day labor warranty. The unit was purchased in April '08 as a gift($400) and is going to cost me $110 to have it "fixed". I'll report on the results later next week.

A PS3 is a little overkill. It uses about 160 W and the remote is another $18 to $30.

There are a couple of players about $200. They might be $150 or $170 on Black Friday (which might start happening early this week).

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In tha 360. MRF User Map

No rebate: [www.ecost.com] and under $199.

Several others are even cheaper at ecost.com

~A

July '07 review of that Sony: [www.hometheatermag.com] (the 300 is identical to the 301.) No HDMI 1.3, Dolby TrueHD but for $200 probably an OK player, just outdated now.

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Filliam H. Muffman
A PS3 is a little overkill. It uses about 160 W and the remote is another $18 to $30.

There are a couple of players about $200. They might be $150 or $170 on Black Friday (which might start happening early this week).

You can use the PS3 to help fold for team 39710

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Ways to improve web conference image and sound quality. [forums.macresource.com]

Since you have to insert and remove the disk from the PS3, it's not hard to turn it on and off. Plus, it's easy to update the firmware on it. See [www.crunchgear.com] for an example of the opposite.

Sears is going to have a Sony Blu-ray Disc Player (BDPS350) for $180 on
Black Friday - Early Bird special if you're willing to get there the day before
you might get one.

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Grateful11

I don't find the player price a killer as much as the disc prices. Are they easy to rent at an affordable price?

As one who uses a game console to play HD discs (XBox, with HD player add-on) I can easily recommend to those considering using a game console as a way to play High Definition discs--don't do it. Ot if you do do it, accept it as a substitute, a temporary solution, a workaround, a clunky but acceptable way to have the experience of watching HD movies. A standalone player is of course more desirable. Booting up a "game console" and using it to watch HD movies is about as practical as turning on the dishwasher when you want to make toast. Get a standalone player.

Having said that, the quality of the movies and sound is good. Seeing movies in glorious high-definition is spectacularly satisfying. Since the format had a questionable future, and prices were low (my wife works at MS) it was a solution that made sense, as a short-term placeholder, very affordable. XBox is a great platform. For playing games. As a movie playing platform, it's tolerable. We're still waiting for the Blu Ray market to mature, and looking forward to having a Blu Ray player.

I'd also suggest, if you care about movies, don't get the cheapest bargain basement Blu Ray player you can buy. Six months and 30-50 movies later you won't care that you were a super smart bargain hunter and saved forty or fifty more bucks than the next guy. But you will care that you have a player that's crippled, flimsy, or crappy compared to what you could have gotten if (at the risk of offending the macresource forum's unspoken religious creed) cheapness wasn't your main priority.

Unless, or course, watching HD movies is only a very minor hobby, and you expect you'll only watch one Blu Ray disc a month. In which case, sure, get the worst, cheapest player you can, so you can brag about how little you paid for it. Otherwise, if you love movies, is getting the cheapest possible player really your priority? Wouldn't it be nice to have a good Blu Ray player that you'll enjoy for years to come? High Def rocks!

On the other hand, I have a PS3 that I use exclusively for watching DVDs and streaming AV files. It's easy to use, and as I alluded to, it's incredibly easy to upgrade the firmware (if you hook it up to your LAN, that is). I would not buy a player without making sure it was easy to update.

I use Netflix -- they charge an extra dollar a month for blu-ray access, I believe. Blu-Ray movies we watch on the PS3. Regular DVDs we watch on the PS3, or I rip them to my desktop machine. Then I can stream them via the PS3, or put them on an iPod, or watch them at my desk. So if my son wants to watch a Disney movie, there it is. When we go on vacation, I put several hours of Dirty Jobs and How It's Made on an iPod for him to watch on the plane or in the car. And when I go to the gym, I can put an episode of The Shield on my Touch so I don't get bored on the treadmill.

What's next is recording and streaming HD content on my mac and streaming it via the PS3. MikeF is doing that, using an EyeTV hybrid and MediaLink software. I haven't gotten around to putting up an antenna yet, but now that Halloween has come and gone it's on my list.

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Mike Johnson
On the other hand, I have a PS3 that I use exclusively for watching DVDs and streaming AV files. It's easy to use, and as I alluded to, it's incredibly easy to upgrade the firmware (if you hook it up to your LAN, that is). I would not buy a player without making sure it was easy to update.

Same here - I love watching Blu-Ray movies on my PS3. Two years after its release, it is still acknowledged to be the best Blu-Ray player available.

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guitarist
As one who uses a game console to play HD discs (XBox, with HD player add-on) I can easily recommend to those considering using a game console as a way to play High Definition discs--don't do it. Ot if you do do it, accept it as a substitute, a temporary solution, a workaround, a clunky but acceptable way to have the experience of watching HD movies. A standalone player is of course more desirable. Booting up a "game console" and using it to watch HD movies is about as practical as turning on the dishwasher when you want to make toast. Get a standalone player.

Perhaps one shouldn't generalize about using game consoles to watch movies when the entirety of one's experience is limited to only a single console - that requires a separate drive to do so, to boot.

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It is what it is.

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Perhaps one shouldn't generalize about using game consoles to watch movies when the entirety of one's experience is limited to only a single console - that requires a separate drive to do so, to boot.

As a minority, geeky hobby way to watch hi-def movies? Absolutely. Go for it. A consumer buying a game console like a PS3 exclusively as a movie-watching device? It's a very small, rare niche. The Blu ray market is so economically immature that the best way to watch a Blu Ray disc is on a game console?

Assuming Blu Ray ever fully makes it into the marketplace--which remains unclear--it won't be a serious contender until standalone players are mainstream, affordable, and the whole marketplaces leaves the quaint game-player-hybrid era behind, though it still might remain a hobbyist way to watch high definition movies.

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guitarist
As a minority, geeky hobby way to watch hi-def movies? Absolutely. Go for it. A consumer buying a game console like a PS3 exclusively as a movie-watching device? It's a very small, rare niche. The Blu ray market is so economically immature that the best way to watch a Blu Ray disc is on a game console?

Well, I paid $330 for my PS3 when a similar Blu-Ray player cost more than that. By "similar" I mean, you plug it in, it handles any updates, and it's fast to load a Blu-Ray disc. That's why it was, and still is, considered one of the best deals out there.

The Samsung 1400 that somebody mentioned was selling for $400 at the time. And it's only Blu-Ray Profile 1.0 compliant, so it won't work with many new movies. And it's slow to load a movie after you pop in the disk.

So what if the PS3 is a Game Console? It's only a game console if you, you know, play games on it. Another way to look at it is, you're getting great player cheap -- Sony subsidizes the hardware because they expect you to pony up for games.

As for geeky? When I was choosing a player, I refused to consider a model that required me to get burn CDs or load up thumb drives on my computer. That's common with standalone players. Some models even <i>require you to use Windows</i> to upgrade the firmware. If you don't have a PC, you have to ask them to ship you a CD. How great would that be? You rent Fantastic Four, but you'll have to wait a week to watch it.

Sure, you can buy a standalone player that matches the ease of use of a PS3. It'll be a little smaller, and will use less electricity. Oh, and it'll cost you a couple hundred dollars more.

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guitarist
As one who uses a game console to play HD discs (XBox, with HD player add-on) I can easily recommend to those considering using a game console as a way to play High Definition discs--don't do it. !

I thought we were talking price and features. Hands down the PS3 beats 'equivlant priced' stand alone players. The PS3 is an excellent way to play blueray and still protect your DVD investment. It allows you to have 'value added' (ie-games, internet, purchased programs) media for a nominal charge. The only way a stand alone player can trump it....is...well....I don't know how it could unless it cost under $100, offered blueray, THX sound, and Multi-region playing.

I actually use my XBOX 360 (with HD-DVD) to play all my movies on my widescreen. It upverts to 1080, it's attached to my sound system, and it takes what...5 seconds to boot to the 'play' pane. I just ditched the 5 disk upconverting Samsung DVD player that came with my TV...I didn't use it.

Steve Jobs, when he talked about a multimedia device for the masses, was describing what the PS3 and XBOX are doing (and bulding on) now.

Jay