Blu Ray or Oppo?

Six months has passed since Sony won the "format wars," and yet very little has changed on the Blu-ray scene. Which is to say, the only obsolescence-resistant Blu-ray player available is STILL the Playstation 3.

If Sony or some of its Blu-ray licensed partners don't start putting out better featured, more reliable, less expensive players soon, we'll all be stuck upconverting standard DVDs and getting our HD programming via downloads.

What Mezmo said! That's exactly what I'm talking about. Hasn't anybody noticed that once Toshiba pulled HD DVD off the market, the buzz about hi-def video optical disc has DIED! UltimateAVmag.com has not reviewed a high-rez video disc player since December 2007, and that was a review of the top end Toshiba HD DVD player!

As long as the format war was going on, it kept the buzz alive in the public market. Best Buy and Circuit City had stacks of both types of players and hi-def displays of each format's movies, and they were price-cutting to stir up the competition.

But once Toshiba pulled out, the buzz died and rather than rushing to buy Blu-ray players, people turned to cable programming and downloads to get their hi-def content.

This month's Home Theater magazine had an article about this very phenomenon. Since Toshiba pulled out of the race, the sales of Blu-ray players (not counting Playstation 3's) has gone DOWN!

The triumph of Blu-ray is not a sure thing.

As for the 'not a sure thing', who do think will put $10 billion into an alterative at this point? Only Microsoft has that kind of money and they a betting on an on line approach.

You're assuming somebody will put $10B into it and I'm saying they won't. Sony is playing with themselves again and the buying public's mind is wandering.

There was never a burning interest (except with us cinephiles) for a really high-rez video disc format. Much of the buying public thinks DVD *is* HD, and a lot of the so-called HD programming on cable is really upconverted 480p.

1080p Blu-ray fed into a 1080p display IS stunning, and noticeably better than typical resolution in a movie theater, let alone standard def DVD, upconverted or not. The public needs to be shown that there's a difference and that the difference matters. That window of opportunity is disappearing fast, and people will settle for cable HD and upconverted std-def DVDs.

Once I saw movies on my HD-D2, I decided I'd never buy another std def DVD again. After watching several HD cable movies followed by another HD DVD from Netflix (KIng of California), I'm going to get a PS3 and start ordering Blu-ray rentals from Netflix. I only have a native 720p 55" RP display, but the difference is too obvious. Optical disc hi-rez REWLZ!

08-05-08: Bobcel
Wait and be patient. Oppo is woking on a Blue Ray player.

Sounds like a good idea. After reading from someone who's owned both, now I'm a little more inclined to go with a standalone player than a PS3. And I realized, I don't want to go buy yet a third surround pre/pro in 3 years. I like my Boston Acoustics AVP7 just fine. Of course it doesn't do HDMI switching or decoding, but it DOES have 7.1 ch. analog inputs, and I really like its overall sound quality, usability, and build quality.

FINALLY some Blu-ray players are coming out with internal sound decoding (most recently, I think, the Panasonic DMP-50 at $700). So could a yet more affordable Oppo Blu-ray be too far behind? When the right Blu-ray comes out that provides analog output of True HD and DTS Master Theater at a reasonable price--then I'll buy.

After all, until I can get a player with internal decoding of lossless surround codecs, I would not be getting the full potential sound quality without getting something that can digitally decode HDMI 1.3.

The Oppo is so low profile and the PS3 so compact, I found that I have room on my rack to stack one on top of the other. I use the Oppo for all music; I have it internally upconvert everything to 7.1 channel and use the 7.1 analog outputs to the 7.1 analog inputs on my Boston AVP7 pre/pro. I have the PS3 connected via HDMI to the HDTV and a digital optic link into the pre/pro for sound. Granted, this won't give me full uncompressed surround of the new codecs, but I'm not ready to spend the money on a fully HDMI 1.3b-capable pre-pro, and it *still* sounds better than std. def DVD simply because the transfer rate is significantly faster.

But I use the Oppo DV-980H for redbook CD, CD-R, HDCD-encoded CD, DVD-A, and SACD. In my case, the two boxes take up less space than one big-ass universal player, I can play more formats than any "universal" I know of, and the total cost for the two boxes was $569.

26-08: Iplaynaked
The disc is a dying format. Welcome to the "hard drive disc" era! - downloading digital media, computer/entertainment media convergence, internet based home automated systems.

Yeah, but there will always be a thriving niche market for those who prefer quality and the ability to build a library over instant convenience. Downloads are limited by the bandwidth of the delivery system. In cable that means the video is lossy-compressed (I *always* get pixelation on fast action from cable-sourced HD) and the audio currently can't rise above dull-as-dishwater Dolby Digital 5.1. Maybe someday, but not now.

Even with my 720p native mode 55" LC RP HDTV, cable-sourced HDTV can't TOUCH the clean, sharp resolution I get from HD DVD on my entry-level Toshiba and Blu-ray on my stepson's PS3. And I can't even access the lossless surround codecs, but with the faster digital audio transfer rates of HD DVD and Blu-ray, the sound is still worlds better as a downconversion from TrueHD to DTS coming over Toslink than what I get from std. def. DVD and cable-sourced HD programming.

And if you have a front-projection or large-screen 1080p with 120Hz refresh and 24 fps source from Blu-ray, feeding the uncompressed audio to a compatible pre/pro, the viewing quality over cable or dish HDTV is ridiculous.