Blu-ray: Dogged by delays, will it still have its day?

Psi*

Psi*

Tech Monkey
This article from EDN got me thinking about my recent purchase of a Sony Blu-ray player for 1 of my TVs ... $130(US). First Blu-ray player for me. This was also what I paid for my 1st DVD player ... long, long, lo-o-ong ago.

Actually this Blu-ray player was purchased by a friend for me. Had *I* made the purchase I would have researched at least some. As it is, I still know almost nothing about the technology trends, market trends, much less the dozens of seemingly inane features on this unit. I wonder what you get with the more expensive players other than they throw in a HDMI cable?

Speaking of which, I dropped into the local "Shack":rolleyes:, aka Radio Shack, to get a HDMI cable & switch box as my TV has just 1 HDMI port & that is plugged into the cable box. EHHHH!! $60 for a cable & $60 for the switch box. I don't think so. The sales guy commented that he had seen them in the grocery store ~$20 (I neglected to ask what grocery store:(). Because I work in the high speed digital cable & connector industry, if I don't see published guaranteed specs (for a cable assembly), then I believe it to just be a cheapy marked up.

He also commented about how much more expensive Blu-ray DVDs are. A cursory check of online pricing doesn't agree, or at least what I consider "more expensive" doesn't seem like so much more. And, I often purchase used DVDs anyway ... Amazon.

Also, I wonder if this EDN article is current? It was published in the most recent issue of EDN, but I wonder if it was just kept in the queue for too many months? I was aware a couple of years ago that there was confusion going on with the standard. But it seems that has really settled down, and the firmware in this player can be updated via the net. My assumption about that is to keep up with tweaks to the standard as well as other formats. So with cheap players out there, I see Blu-ray as the defacto standard and not if. So, I have more studying to do & now something to play with a bit.:)
 
Greg King

Greg King

I just kinda show up...
Staff member
I don't know if upper scale players include a HDMI cable but they damn well should. I go to a place called Meritline.com for all my cables. You can get 3 six foot HDMI cables for around 10 dollars from time to time so keep your eyes open and you can find great deals. For every Meritline, there are a dozen other sites exactly the same so just keep your eyes peeled for deals.

I own a fair amount of Blu Rays but for the most part, I try to purchase JUST HD content. It's still difficult to pass up a nice bin of used DVDs and pick through them. I use my PS3 as a player and it outputs a fantastic picture so I don't really have any complaints about the hardware being used.

I will say that I do agree with the statement that Blu Ray media is more expensive. I understand that you usually get more but a lot of companies will try and keep costs down by removing ALL extras on the disk and only selling the movie. I love this idea but sometimes, if you really like the movie, it sucks not having the extra bits that really complete the experience.

The format war died 2 years ago with Toshiba backing out of the market. HD-DVD died and I was at the press conference to witness it. After that, it's been only Blu Ray. There are other alternatives. Media streaming is becoming more and more popular and I can't imagine it not taking over physical media within the next 5-7 years. That's just a guess but it seems about right to me.

The network ports were actually something that was added to the standard. HD-DVD required a NIC, or access to the internet, on all of their players. This was put into Blu Ray players and the world is all the better for it. Firmware updates and content extras are a few of the benefits of this addition to the players.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Greg King said:
I don't know if upper scale players include a HDMI cable but they damn well should.
Click to expand...

I'd have a feeling that the higher-tier Blu-ray players wouldn't include an HDMI cable, because for the most part, people who purchase high-end home theatre equipment have certain likes and dislikes, and they like to build the entire setup piece by piece. So, they'd probably want to buy the HDMI cable separate, so that they can get just what they need.

For the most part though, I do believe that an HDMI cable is an HDMI cable, and the only reason to go with an expensive one is if you have a fair amount of distance between the player and the television. Most people wouldn't have this issue. Beefier cables would be important once we make the move past 1080p, but that shouldn't be happening for a while.

That all aside, I'm a fan of Blu-ray, and see little reason for people to not jump on board now. Unless of course, they don't yet own an HDTV (that's becoming a bit uncommon). Like Greg said, Blu-ray movies tend to be a little bit more expensive, but there are LOTS of movies out there that are well-priced at around $10. I own about 50 Blu-ray's, and if I had to guess, about 15 - 20 of them were priced between $10 - $15.

The problem is that NEW movies are expensive, like $25 or higher. I take full advantage of older movies that are just being re-released, but in the case of those, it's not wise to purchase them as soon as they come out either. When Fight Club came to Blu-ray, I bought it immediately... for $30. Two months later, the same store was selling it for $15!

Anyway, "budget" Blu-ray players should be fine as well, like those around the $100 mark. The higher-end models will offer more functionality to those who have appropriate setups. If you have a huge expensive TV and multi-thousand dollar sound system, you might be one of those people who requires a higher-end Blu-ray player.

I think Blu-ray will become more popular as the days pass, because player prices are great right now, and are likely to get even better, and the same goes for the movies. It will be a while before we see Blu-ray movies priced at DVD levels, but to be fair, DVD's have been available for what seems like forever. Blu-ray has only been on the scene for a couple of years.
 
eunoia

eunoia

Partition Master
It's pretty much consensus at my favourite deals forum that you buy HDMI cables from monoprice.com. If you're not in a hurry I'll watch for a sale, they often have some weird colour for real cheap.

From what little I know, yes, an HDMI cable is an HDMI cable, there are different ratings but $60 cables or Monster cables are a belly laugh.
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
eunoia said:
It's pretty much consensus at my favourite deals forum that you buy HDMI cables from monoprice.com. If you're not in a hurry I'll watch for a sale, they often have some weird colour for real cheap.

From what little I know, yes, an HDMI cable is an HDMI cable, there are different ratings but $60 cables or Monster cables are a belly laugh.
Click to expand...

Exactly. http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp is THE place to go for cables, adapters, and related bits and baubles. They aren't just a seller, they're the front-end to one of the major manufacturers, so basically you are buying direct. They quote specs on everything and offering models ranging the entire gamut for quality/certifications depending on what you are looking for.

When researching Monster's HDMI cables (from a local store) and the HDMI cables on Monoprice, I was amused to see even Monoprice's midrange cables had better specifications and newer certification ratings.
 
T

The Krell

Obliviot
Given that Blu-ray and DVD are competing in the same market place a number of points spring to mind:

Blu-ray is a 'superior' product to dvd and thus warrants a price premium, which also helps it sell to the 'if its more expensive it must be better' brigade.

dvd has been out for a lot longer therefore in its product lifecycle its further down the road than blu-ray, recovery of costs and a decent profit happened a long time ago and now we see much better economies of scale.

Totally agree with Rob on back issues and waiting that first few months after a new film is released for it to drop in price. Unsurprisingly this was exactly the same position with dvds before blu-ray appeared.

Blu-ray will become more and more mainstream as people replace their tvs for HD (this is also likely to be accelerated by HD broadcasting).

On the really dodgy topic of cables...I am one of those people that has a high end HDMI lead (5m run), yes it is better and like all things comes down to (a) can I afford it and (b) do I think its perceived value is worth it. Oh and I did get a cable with my £800 player.

On an aside a friend of mine has the exact same hd tv but a player costing less than half and the std cable. We both think that my picture is a lot better. He just doesn't think its worth the price.
 
eunoia

eunoia

Partition Master
eunoia said:
It's pretty much consensus at my favourite deals forum that you buy HDMI cables from monoprice.com. If you're not in a hurry I'll watch for a sale, they often have some weird colour for real cheap.

From what little I know, yes, an HDMI cable is an HDMI cable, there are different ratings but $60 cables or Monster cables are a belly laugh.
Click to expand...

Example: today it's a purple 6 ft. with ferrite cores for $1.93:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10240&cs_id=1024008&p_id=4025&seq=1&format=2
 
eunoia

eunoia

Partition Master
My bad, they're $1.94 each when you buy fewer than 50.

Edit: Oh, I get it, try buying 50 at that price!
 
L

looisboo

Obliviot
Those monster hdmi cable are worth it or not? My uncle told me that they have higher gb which is good for signal...
 
Psi*

Psi*

Tech Monkey
I almost posted this article here yesterday... then got distracted. I don't know if all of these "debunked" myths are accurate, but the ones I do know to be nonsense are accurate. Specifically the expensive cables such as HDMI.

I design and electrically analyze connectors & cables like HDMI. There is nothing to suggest that the expensive cables are better or different than cheap ones, just as mentioned in this article. It makes an excellent point that because the "signal" on HDMI is digital ... the results will either be good or not. This, versus the systems carrying analog signals which would exhibit gradual degradation. Buy cheap!!;)
 
madstork91

madstork91

The One, The Only...
EVERYTHING in SK seems to include the cables for installing and hooking it up. "Serbisu" (service) here is amazing when it comes to that kind of thing. And yet the LG monitor I bought back home didnt come with a VGA or anything.

I think we're getting ripped off... but then again, I usually have cables laying around.

I've always bought the cheap knock off brands when I do have to buy. I find the only thing likely to happen there is fray or something like it if the cable sees too much action. Cheap ones always seem to break sooner... but the expensive ones break too.

Btw... 99 cent headphones at walmart back home (the JVC ones) here cost about $9.50
 
slugbug

slugbug

Coastermaker
Monoprice.com is the best place to get cables etc. The salesmen at electronic stores will tell you that you need to spend $60 for a good HDMI cable in order to get the best possible picture from your HDTV when in reality there is little difference between a $2.00 and $60.00 cable.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
yorshek said:
I use my PS3 as Blu-ray player cause it's best combination of player and game console
Click to expand...

That's for sure. Recently I've preferred to rip my Blu-rays and play them through a media player, but the PS3 was my solution for like three years.
 
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