Looking For Blu Ray player purchase advice

[CliffH]

I read a disturbing post on a message board from CES. They were interviewing someone from the group that establishes the specifications for blu-ray players. He was stating that most of the current players that are spec 1.0 or 1.1 will not be upgradable to the new 2.0 spec that includes ( Bonus Play and other features). When questioned about this the industry Representative had a very cavalier answer, to the effect of ( the people that bought players up until this point are early adopters and know what they are getting themselves into when they buy an early player). It almost makes me not want to buy a player at this time. I don't know about you guys but when you buy a second or third generation player, don't you think the specification should be fairly decided.
What I would like to know is if you think the players are developed enough to this point that I wouldn't be giving up to much if I bought now instead of waiting until October. ( This is when the 2.0 players are supposewd to be on sale).

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by CliffH

I read a disturbing post on a message board from CES. They were interviewing someone from the group that establishes the specifications for blu-ray players. He was stating that most of the current players that are spec 1.0 or 1.1 will not be upgradable to the new 2.0 spec that includes ( Bonus Play and other features).

Well I don't know about the other players but the PlayStation 3 was released as a Profile 1.0 player & it has recently been upgraded to profile 1.1 & we have been told (at CES) that it will also get the upgrade to profile 2.0.

I would assume the other players that have ethernet ports can be upgraded too but I can't confirm that.

If you want to get into Blu-ray do what I did & get a Playststion3 & wait till the standalones have all the features you want before getting one.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

Well I don't know about the other players but the PlayStation 3 was released as a Profile 1.0 player & it has recently been upgraded to profile 1.1 & we have been told (at CES) that it will also get the upgrade to profile 2.0.

I would assume the other players that have ethernet ports can be upgraded too but I can't confirm that.

If you want to get into Blu-ray do what I did & get a Playststion3 & wait till the standalones have all the features you want before getting one.

Moose, not meaning to be mean - but this is exactly what I'm talking about. Sony has the deck stacked - not for Blu-ray - but for the PS3. I look at the boards at blu-ray.com and everyone there beleives that to support blu-ray - you must support the PS3. That's one of the major things that turns me off at times. I'm glad that my htpc blu-ray will be 2.0 compliant via Cyberlink - but Cyberlink dumbs down the audio - intentionally (still satisfied with it). The more I see it - this war is about making the PS3 the end all product - with Blu-ray being just a helpless pawn. Blu-ray is great - if it wasn't I wouldn't own it - but the push for people to buy a gaming console just to play movies - that's devious.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by prerich

Moose, not meaning to be mean - but this is exactly what I'm talking about. Sony has the deck stacked - not for Blu-ray - but for the PS3. I look at the boards at blu-ray.com and everyone there beleives that to support blu-ray - you must support the PS3. That's one of the major things that turns me off at times. I'm glad that my htpc blu-ray will be 2.0 compliant via Cyberlink - but Cyberlink dumbs down the audio - intentionally (still satisfied with it). The more I see it - this war is about making the PS3 the end all product - with Blu-ray being just a helpless pawn. Blu-ray is great - if it wasn't I wouldn't own it - but the push for people to buy a gaming console just to play movies - that's devious.

I'm in Blu-Ray because of the PS3 which is probably Sony's plan not the other way around your suggesting.
I had planned to sit out the war, waiting until there was a winner before jumping in but I also planned to buy a PS3 at launch which I did.
I grabbed a couple of Blu-Ray movies when I bought my PS3 "just to see what all the fuss was about" & the picture & audio was so much better than DVD that I was hooked.
Almost 100 Blu-Ray movies later I think I was hooked more than most!!

But back to my point,
The Playstation 2 had an install base of well over 110 million, Sony had every belief that many PS2 owners would become PS3 owners so the inclusion of a Blu-Ray player was a brilliant marketing move.
Not only would the Blu-Ray games have much more storage space than DVD's giving game developers a larger storage medium but I'm sure I'm not the only PS3 owner who took home a Blu-Ray movie when they bought their PS3.
I think that the fact many non gamers are buying it as a Blu-Ray player was just a bonus for Sony.

Also the PS3 was the least expensive Blu-Ray player at launch & it was upgradable over the ethernet cable & that made it attractive too.
So for Sony it was a win-win PS3 owners became Blu-Ray owners & Blu-Ray owners became PS3 owners.

So while the PS3 doesn't have the video or audio quality as the standalones it is a great starting point.
You can hardly fault Sony for coming up with a great marketing plan, a plan by the way may have won the format war!

[prerich]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

I'm in Blu-Ray because of the PS3 which is probably Sony's plan not the other way around your suggesting.
I had planned to sit out the war, waiting until there was a winner before jumping in but I also planned to buy a PS3 at launch which I did.
I grabbed a couple of Blu-Ray movies when I bought my PS3 "just to see what all the fuss was about" & the picture & audio was so much better than DVD that I was hooked.
Almost 100 Blu-Ray movies later I think I was hooked more than most!!

But back to my point,
The Playstation 2 had an install base of well over 110 million, Sony had every belief that many PS2 owners would become PS3 owners so the inclusion of a Blu-Ray player was a brilliant marketing move.
Not only would the Blu-Ray games have much more storage space than DVD's giving game developers a larger storage medium but I'm sure I'm not the only PS3 owner who took home a Blu-Ray movie when they bought their PS3.
I think that the fact many non gamers are buying it as a Blu-Ray player was just a bonus for Sony.

Also the PS3 was the least expensive Blu-Ray player at launch & it was upgradable over the ethernet cable & that made it attractive too.
So for Sony it was a win-win PS3 owners became Blu-Ray owners & Blu-Ray owners became PS3 owners.

So while the PS3 doesn't have the video or audio quality as the standalones it is a great starting point.
You can hardly fault Sony for coming up with a great marketing plan, a plan by the way may have won the format war!

With Sony - the ends justifies the means, Get PS3's in houses (use blu-ray to do it). To date, the PS3 is the best selling BD player. What does that say for the other CE's - not many sells - because of PS3. You may have been an avid gamer, but , like you said, and like I'm saying -Sony's marketing plan was brilliant - a master stroke! I will add other descriptions such as ruthless, quick, and deadly. Sony didn't have to woo its gamers, but non gamers - thats an issue. regardless of the means - PS3's wound up in houses to play BD when they could have built cheaper standalones to start. This is crazy I tell you - crazy!

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by prerich

With Sony - the ends justifies the means, Get PS3's in houses (use blu-ray to do it). To date, the PS3 is the best selling BD player. What does that say for the other CE's - not many sells - because of PS3. You may have been an avid gamer, but , like you said, and like I'm saying -Sony's marketing plan was brilliant - a master stroke! I will add other descriptions such as ruthless, quick, and deadly. Sony didn't have to woo its gamers, but non gamers - thats an issue. regardless of the means - PS3's wound up in houses to play BD when they could have built cheaper standalones to start. This is crazy I tell you - crazy!

I still don't see the problem, Sony is in business to make money & they came up with a great plan, it's not like they are actively trying to destroy their competition like some companies have (Microsoft).