Warner and Blu ray?

The Panasonic BD30 is getting good user reviews over at AVS. It goes for about $400 on Amazon. The cheapest Denon player currently planned will have a suggested retail price over $1k.

01-05-08: Onkyodude
Why buy a format that ONLY does 1080i?
Think of it that way.
1080p is ALOT better!
Right now, I don`t have either of them.
I`M waiting for
BLU-RAY RECORDERS!!!!!

01-05-08: Cruz123
Onkyodude, as a fyi, there are HD-DVD players that do 1080p.

OnkyoDude, where have you been? The only 1080i-only HD DVD players were the 1st-gen models released in April '06, and the entry-level HD-A2 and HD-A3 models.

And besides, why do you think 1080p is so noticeably superior? LCD, plasma, and DLP-based displays de-interlace 1080i signals and display them as 1080p anyway. The only thing that's noticeably better than 1080i is 1080p/24 fed to a display that refreshes at 120Hz. Toshiba HD DVD players other than the HD-A3 support 1080p/24 as well.

Funny that your alias is "Onkyodude", which bucked the Blu-ray trend and recently released an upscale HD DVD player.

01-05-08: Mitch4t
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I really don't care either way, as long as they keep making standard def dvd's. I prefer the 4:3 aspect ratio of the standard def discs for my movie screen.

Enlighten me. I've never understood how a movie-enthusiast could prefer to watch films in 4:3 pan'n'scan vs. the original aspect ratio as shot and edited. On particularly wide screen films, sometimes offscreen noses are speaking to the empty space in between, which is all there is to watch.

Secondly, I have always played std. def DVDs in widescreen mode.

No joke Johnnyb53. I thought Mitch was kidding at first but he seems serious. I would NEVER watch a movie in 4:3...period. That would be the exact opposite of immersive to me because all I would be thinking about while watching it is that I'm missing 1/3 of the movie. With a 12 x 16 screen I don't understand why black bars are an issue.

Warner going Blu Ray moves exclusivity for Blu ay from 49% to about 70% and really barring change spells the end for HD-DVD in the long run ( say...when Paramounts 18 month deal is over).

It in no way ensures market adoption of Hi Def DVDs however. The quickest way for the market to adopt hi def DVDs would have been for all studios to produce in both formats.