Netflix going Blu

RIP HD-DVD

The nail in the coffin, in my opinion, for HD-DVD is the Playstation 3(which is a great blu ray player). Now that Warner has jumped ship it's only a matter of time. Probabaly a year from now.

It doesn't matter to me though. I have both and the top of the line Toshiba does a much better job of upconverting standard def.

On another front Microsoft made a brilliant move by not building the HD-DVD player into there machine. They are circumventing the whole war by allowing XBOX 360 owners the ability to download hi def movies right to their hard drives.

I love my Panasonic BD30 Blu-Ray player.
At only $400 sale price you cannot beat it!
Have been receiving BR discs from Netflix for several months and all have played perfectly.

Best Buy announced it will feature and recommend Blu Ray in its stores, though it will continue to offer HD DVD. For those of you considering Blu Ray, the PS3 is the way to go. I'm not a gamer (the game that came with my PS3 is still in its shrink wrap) but as a standard def DVD upconverter but particularly as a Blu Ray player, the PS3 is tough to beat and is future-proof and easily updated (Sony updates it about every six to eight weeks on its web site.) Except for the 40 gig version, it also plays SACD. In recent updates, it offers double and quadruple oversampling of redbook CDs (if your pre/pro or receiver can handle the input). IMO, this is the most bang for the buck of any CE item I've ever purchased.

I have a cheap little Toshiba HD-D2 that has given me nothing but pleasure. I've really enjoyed playing HD DVDs from Netflix. You can buy an HD-D3 from Sam's Club for $128.

What bums me out is that it will probably be a year or more before Blu-ray players and discs are as reliable and feature-rich as HD DVD, and even then, they won't be $128.

So when Netflix stops renting HD DVDs, I'll probably have to wait a year before Blu-ray machines are cheap and reliable enough for me to buy one.