Miscellaneous Ramblings.... - Blu-ray

HDMI Woes: Diagnosed & Fixed

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sat, 3 May 2008 22:05:00 -0500

Aah, the joy of new technology. After having continuing strange ( and intermittent ) problems with my Sony Blu-Ray player (picture flaking out, sometimes not showing at all, etc), my first instinct was to blame my HDMI switcher and duly tried switching the input ports around with no luck. Finally got off of my lazy duff and swapped the Blu-Ray player HDMI cable with the DVR box HDMI cable. Wouldn't you know it, the DVR box started having issues - freezing up, etc. Hmmm - time to get a new cable perhaps?
Since I need instant gratification, I duly made the pilgrimage to my Best Buy store to pay an inflated price for a new HDMI cable (for those not in need of instant gratification, this online store comes highly recommended to me by a coworker), and, presto, HDMI happiness all the way around.

Netflix to Raise Blu-Ray Rental Fees

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:58:34 -0500

All those (Blu-Ray fans) who didn't see this coming, please raise your hands. Now that the hi-def format war is essentially over, one of the first effects evidently will be Netflix raising the prices on their Blu-Ray rentals.

Heroes: S2 Released? (On Blu-Ray?)

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:27:00 -0500

The stars must truly be aligning. This past weekend, one of my coworkers whom I have been bugging forever to get on the Blu-Ray train finally succumbed and purchased a Blu-Ray player (of course I missed the post, so now I'll be the one receiving the ribbing ) and now rumor has it that Season 2 of Heroes will be released on DVD in August 2008. And in even more good news, Heroes: Season 1 and Heroes: Season 2 will be among Universal's first releases on Blu-Ray. Yes!
Incidentally, Season 3: Villains starts September 2008.

Matrix Trilogy coming to Blu-Ray?

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 06:38:00 -0500

Rumor has it that all three Matrix films will be released on Blu-Ray this year, most likely in support of the the Wachowski Brothers' Speed Racer film.

High Def DVD format war to end soon?

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Tue, 8 Jan 2008 10:46:48 -0600

Is the (ridiculous) High Definition DVD format war at long last going to come to an end? If rumors are to be believed, it looks like Paramount Studios, one of the last true HD-DVD backers, is set to drop support for HD-DVD (following the footsteps of Warner Bros). If so, that would surely be the death knell for HD-DVD, as Universal would be the sole remaining studio supporting this format.

Update (1/08/08): For those interested in the upcoming different Blu-Ray Profiles, Gizmodo has a good article up regarding the first impressions on the Profile 1.1 version.

Update (1/09/08): Here is Microsoft's Bill Gates weighing in on the current state of the HD-DVD format war.

Blu-Ray Outsells HD-DVD 2:1 in the US

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:12:00 -0500

In Blu-Ray news, it seems that Blu-ray is outselling HD-DVD 2:1 in the US.

Finally Took the Blu-Ray plunge

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 07:56:00 -0500

Well, Christmas seems to be coming a bit early this year, at least for me. Thanks to the combination of my old Sony DVP-S9000ES DVD Player starting to freeze at layer switches and the extremely tempting price cut of the Sony BDP-S1 DVD player (due to the upcoming Sony BDP-2000ES player scheduled to be released at the end of October), I ended up taking the Blu-Ray plunge.
Needless to say, the chance to dangle my feel in the Blu-Ray pool for a low price, was just too hard to pass up. (To boot, there was a five free Blu-Ray DVDs offer from Sony if you purchased a qualifying Blu-Ray player by Sept. 30th).
One of the first things that I did was the firmware upgrade (from 1.06 to 2.50)
I haven't had much time to play throughly with it (outside of upgrading the firmware to the latest level (2.50) ), so a more thorough review will be coming shortly once I get a chance to really play with some Blu-Ray discs and compare a Blu-Ray DVD with a SD DVD that I already own.

(Note: I did switch my Netflix account over to Blu-Ray though, which there is no cost for).

Interesting Article on HD DVD format war

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Thu, 7 Jun 2007 06:05:00 -0500

On at The Digital Bits website, I came across an interesting editorial on the state of the HD DVD format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The Digital Bits opinion is that either: 1.) Blu-Ray format will win or 2.) Neither format will win.
Evidently, there was quite a bit of feedback from the HD DVD format war editorial, because The Digital Bits has posted a followup.
On a related note, Sony has cut the price (by as much as $200.00 in the US) on it's BDP-S300 Blu-Ray DVD player.

Blu-Ray DVD Player for Apple

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 06:01:00 -0500

Over at Slashdot, a new Fastmac Blu-Ray DVD player for Apple notebooks has been announced.

LG BH100: First Reviews...

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 07:34:00 -0500

The early reviews are in for the (long awaited) LG BH100 Dual-Format DVD Player and, unfortunately, they are not too good if one is a fan of the HD-DVD format. The general consensus seems to be that the BH100 does a good job on Blu-Ray, but doesn't support the full capabilities of HD-DVD. The BH100 player only plays the HD-DVD disc - there is no access to the menus or special features (one of the big points of the HD-DVD format).
Below are some of the reviews from various sites:

Also, here is the official LG press release.

One Studio (Trying) To End HD DVD Format War...

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Thu, 4 Jan 2007 22:15:57 -0600

It looks like Warner Bros Studio is trying to end the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format war by releasing an optical disc format capable of being played in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) machines, called Total HD. Speaking from the consumer side of the fence (which, at times it seems is never listened to by the corporate heads ), I would be very happy/relieved to see the format war put to rest.

Also, on a related note, it seems that LG is working on a next-gen DVD player that will play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats.

Sony Blu-Ray DVD Player Delayed....

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Thu, 5 Oct 2006 08:35:00 -0500

I was all ready to take the plunge this past weekend and plop down my hard-earned cash on the Sony Blu-Ray BDP-S1 player, but when I went to purchase it, I found out that this model will be delayed until ~~late October~~ ~~(October 25th, 2006~~). !!

Update (10/31/06): Just checked the SonyStyle site and found out that the new date for Blu-Ray player is now December 4th, 2006. !!!!

Note: On a somewhat related note, Fox has a special website for announcing their Blu-Ray releases.

First Blu-Ray DVDs To Be Released In May

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 06:08:00 -0600

The first Blu-Ray DVDs are scheduled to be released on May 23rd, the same time as the first Blu-Ray DVD player (from Samsung).

Update (4/07/06): Apparently, according to this Video Business article, the date for the first Samsung Blu-Ray DVD player has been pushed back to June 25th.
Samsung is blaming the delay on compatibility testing with Blu-ray discs that it needs to complete before shipping the hardware.