Actually the best deal you can possibly get on a Blu Ray player is the PS3, which clocks in at $399.99. You basically get a fully fledged gaming system with a Blu-Ray player as an added bonus.

I don't own one because, I personally loathe Sony and their rather hostile methods of disseminating their products (throwing so much money at them in order to run roughshot over the competition), but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. I'll either be buying Blu-Ray when it gets to be

DD: Evan, I'm not much of a gamer so I'm just looking for the player. I haven't bought a Sony product in years because I was feeling like I was just paying extra for the name, not necessarily always better quality. I'm interested in Apple TV, too, but really, I won't be buying anything until the prices come down a lot.

The real rip-off (because I expected Sony to raise prices) is that the new more expensive units still don't have as many excellent features that HD-DVD does.

It's hard to adequately describe how PIP commentary and extras extends the value of a good movie. Watching 300 or The Matrix with the green screen source footage showing in a PIP box is so cool and makes watching the movie for the 4th or 5th time a real hoot!

The collusion between Sony and the movie studios have screwed the consumer big time - and the screwing has only just begun!

Seems like common sense to me. If you have competition, you have to have competitive prices. If you're the only kid on the block, you can charge whatever you want. Basic economics.

I would recommend getting a PS3. Even if you don't play video games, the thing is a virtual entertainment hub that offers so much more than a standard blu-ray player: mp3 player, internet browser, image library, video library, messenging, etc. And they can be had for around $400. Plus you can run firmware updates on them so odds are they will not become outdated like early blu-ray player models.

DD: Good points! You guys definitely have me thinking about it. Thanks Curtis!

Then just buy an HD player! You can pick one up for $79, and get High Def movies for $9.00 at Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com, and Deepdiscountdvd.com. I have put together quite a collection for cheap, with 1080p output. When I can't buy anymore HD Disc, I'll just use standard DVDs that are upconverted to near 1080 HD. They look great! And hopefully Blu-Ray players will or might be affordable then!

DD: Javier, forgive me for asking what may be a really dumb question, but does this mean that HD-DVD players and Blu-rays will play regular DVDs? As you can see, I haven't bothered to research them yet since I wasn't planning on buying anything until the prices dropped.

Yes, HD DVD players should also play standard DVDs and in most (or all?) cases will upscale them. They won't look and sound exactly 100% like the hi-def counterparts, but will definitely be better than DVD when not upscaled.

I am pretty sure the same goes for many Blu-ray players, definitely the PS3.

Regarding what Curtis said... if you get a PS3... and the remote control for it... you will basically have the least expensive Blu-ray player. However, it will also play your DVDs and upscale them... it will play music CDs... will optionally rip your music CDs onto the built-in harddrive for playback directly from the harddrive... you can hook up external harddrives or memory cards... it has regular firmware updates to keep it up-to-date regarding any changes to the Blu-ray specs... will soon support downloading of movies and television shows for playback... etc, etc, etc... The fact that it is primary a gaming system shouldn't trick you into thinking it isn't a good quality entertainment system in terms of DVDs, CDs, Blu-rays, etc...

Also, one day, if you have the itch to connect to the online store and buy a $5 or $10 Texas Hold 'em Poker game or something of the sort, you might even start turning to it for games. Or, when PlayStation Home comes out, you might take to playing some of the free mini games within the virtual world with other players... like chess, checkers, bowling, etc...

Not to try to sell this system too much... but I would definitely recommend a PS3 over a stand-alone Blu-ray player until the standalone Blu-ray players end up being cheaper than the PS3. As a Blu-ray player alone, the PS3 is top-of-the-line and virtually future-proof.

DD: Thanks so much for the tips! I'll keep all this in mind.

Yes, HD-DVD and Blu-ray players are "backwards compatible", which means they can also play regular DVDs. Regular DVDs look very good on HD-DVD and Blu-ray players, so they are "upconverted".

DD, yes both players will play regular DVDs. And the posters that recommended a PS3 as the best option, although still $399, are on the money.

Very, VERY important note for those thinking of buying Blu-Ray:

With the exception of the PS3, Blu-Ray players will NOT work when Blu-Ray updates to it's 2.0 standard later this year.

It means that the older players (out now) will NOT play Blu-Ray disks produced with the 2.0 standard.

In other words, just hold on to your money for now. (Besides, the prices are outrageous, aren't they?)

Sidenote: I personally liked HD-DVD better. Other than disk capacity (Gigabytes), HD-DVD seemed to beat Blu-Ray everywhere else. Unfortunately, Sony threw a lot more money at the studios to bribe them to exclude HD-DVD.

Sidenote #2: Don't you love the way that this format war was decided RIGHT after the Holiday shopping season? Why couldn't it be settled before? Way to screw the customers, Sony!

DD: Ron, I know! That's exactly what I was thinking. What convenient timing on Sony and the studios' part!

For all of 2008 you can watch awesome FULL HD movies without going Blu Ray. Netflix will rent their HD-DVD line until 2009, and you can get a used 1080p Toshiba HD-DVD for under $100, which, of course, upconverts regular DVDs. I did it, it is worth it.

Comparing the current average price against the minimum price is disingenuous -- either talk about the average price, or talk about the minimum price, but don't mix the two. It makes this article sound like sour grapes from an HD-DVD fanboy.

Repeatedly, BDA members have stated that sub-$200 pricing should be available by the Christmas shopping season. Sony has recently released a sub-$200 PC reader -- market penetration will ensure that these prices continue to fall.

And contrary to some of the comments about competition, there is far more competition in the Blu-Ray camp (Sony, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, Sharp, LG, and many more) than there ever was with HD-DVD (Toshiba.) This competition, this CHOICE, is part of the reason why Blu-Ray came out of the war as the dominant format.

I am wondering what economic model glue you have been sniffing to think that less competition means lower prices. Where in the real life has that ever happened?

I agree with one of your posters who recommends getting an HD-DVD player for pocket change and picking up a few HD-DVDs from online retailers and Ebay. I did that and what I found is that there is no great WOW factor when you first fire up an HD dvd (or Blu-ray for that matter) It is just not that good that I need to run out and drop several hundred dollars on. It does look better but not $650 better.

And yes, you can play your regular DVD on it and it they will probably look better if you hook your HD player to your TV with HDMI cables.

I am rather upset with the way HD DVD failed. This was not a consumer decision but that of the major players in the industry who wanted a winner in the format wars. Once Warner got out, that tipped the scales and the rest of the major players piled on to force HD DVD out even it is the better, less expensive technology.

DD: Bobt54, I know. Less competition never brings lower prices, but, I was hoping against hope that Sony understands that the masses won't all adopt this technology until it hits the right price point. Ah well. We'll see.

I'm one of those people that bought the HD DVD player after the news about the war being over. I was intentionally looking for a Upconverting DVD player that would do a good job of upconverting without spending good money on a Oppo or the Denon for the best quality or buying the Bluray as it was very expensive. I went through a few players dew to some technical glitches my TV was causing. It's a long story but the point is I went through 3 players before settling for the HD DVD player. I noticed some players did a better job then others at the upconverting. The player before the HD DVD was a Samsung DVD upconverter and it was a really bad compared to my last two so I had to take it back. I was going with the Pioneer when the salesman said that the HD DVD was an amazing DVD upconverter. It was $150 so I went for it. It had 2 movies included plus the mail in for 5 free HD DVD's so I felt that that was more then worth it. The HD DVD quality was amazing and the features that were included were nothing like the features on regular DVD's. I then started to look at the difference between Bluray and HD DVD and I have no Idea how Bluray won the war being that HD DVD was better at a couple of things. It was cheeper, Had Combo HD DVD/DVD Disks the interactive features due to HDI was amazing, it had internet connectivity and downloadable content some even had games on the disk or put together a montage of your favorite clips and bookmarks. They were in all players since day 1 back in 2005. Bluray only started that in 2008 and I hear their interactive feature BD-J is bug filled and not as good as HDI. Bluray just started making bluray 2.0 players and the majority of them selling are not even that or have internet connectivity and they are still expensive. Then I learned that Sony did not win the war based on the consumer making the cloice it was because Sony paid everyone to take thier side and the movie companies went with bluray knowing that HD DVD was better. I am crying fowl on Sony and the movie industry. Especially those companies that took the money including Warner Brothers. I will never buy another Sony product again. They were desperate because if bluray did not win the PS3 would have been in trouble. But Sony has a track record of loosing including Betamax, Mini Disk, and UMD all formats that never took. I actually think that Sony owes all HV DVD owners a free Bluray players as they paid to win the war. I cannot see how bluray would have won giving the amount of people that would have been purchasing a HDTV and then looking for a HD Player and choose Bluray over HD DVD just based on price and better features. All bluray had was bigger disk space and longer download times.

I have a Toshiba HD DVD and a PS3. Both can play regular DVDs and will upconvert regular DVDs to 1080i. A regular DVD that is a good quality transfer in widescreen format looks great on either player, even when they are spread out on my 60'' TV.

Its tempting to run out and buy a bunch of HD DVDs that are super cheap now that Toshiba quit the market. The only problem with building an HD DVD library is what do you do when your Toshiba craps out? You can't play HD DVDs on anything but the Toshiba.

Toshiba's "no mas" is such a huge boost for Sonny and its struggling ps3 franchise. My guess is that a lot of folks are going to buy the ps3 because its the cheapest blue ray player out there. This in turn should cause game developers to write more product for the ps3, which currently lags way behind xbox in the number of available titles.

DD, why are you even writing this article if you haven't bothered to do the basic research that a 6th grader would do?!?

One of the major features of the HD-DVD player is that it has Toshiba's vastly superior upconversion of standard DVD's to nearly HD quality. The Blu-Ray does a crap-tacular job of it and many standard DVD's actually look worse on the Blu-Ray drive...

DD: David, That's why I depend on smart readers like you to tell me what I don't know yet. When it's time for me to get a Blu-ray, I'll do the proper research! Thanks.

I went to Wal-Mart last X-mas and pick up one for $288.00.
The same player is $347.00 now.
I have a feeling that now that they dominate the market, the prices will creep up so that SONY can punish those who lacked faith in Blu-ray and then by next X-mas, the prices should be more reasonable.

Let me just say that I am a big gamer and I own X Box 360 and PS3. If you want a bluray player, GET A PS3. They are 400 and honestly they dont even compare in my opinion to xbox for gaming. But for Bluray, it is GREAT. I like it better than my friends Player alone. You will even be able to add upgrades in the future. Dont even think about a player, if u dont like the ps3, easily sold on ebay. But, you will like it.

Yes HD DVD players play and upconvert regular DVDs.

Its the best deal right now.

Blu-Ray did not let consumers decide. Shame on them for massive payola.

Look into HD-VMD as well, coming out this coming year.

While the format war was going on, these units were selling for below the manufacturers' cost. That simply wasn't sustainable.

If you've spent the substantial amounts needed on video and sound to appreciate HiDef discs, does another $50 or even $150 really make that much difference?

DD: Howard, Didn't I tell you I'm cheap?! OK, not cheap, but I'm not an early adopter. If I spend $400 on a player now and the price drops, it'll really tee me off.

I bought one of the Toshiba HD DVD-players lately. They offer great value for the money (actually the price dropped even since then), got 6 HD DVDs via their current prompotion (here in germany) and was able to buy some very good films for around 10 Euros or less.

Upscaling of default DVDs is quite good, and HD DVDs don't currently come with a crippling region code.

Also got the XBox HD-DVD-player for 50 Euros from Amazon.de

As you complain about the price of blue-ray, you should go for HD-DVD and complain to all stores that don't offer HD-DVDs to change that (there just need to be enough HD DVD customers who complain, that is all).

Regards,
Holger

It's called SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

Warner Brothers Studios decision to go Blu-ray only right before CES took everyone by surprise, including manufacturers of Blu-ray hardware.

Everyone who's been sitting on the fence waiting for a winner to arrive, wants a Blu-ray player now. But the extra Blu-ray players needed to fill that sudden increase in demand aren't in supplier's warehouses. So the prices went up.

This is a pretty common scenario in economics.

Give the Blu-ray player manufacturers a little more time. It takes time to ramp up production of a consumer electronics device to these kinds of levels, then to boat ship them from asia, ect. Since Warner's decision caught everyone by surprise, there's more demand for Blu-ray than these folks ever imagined.

Or, you can pick up the PS3. It's outsold all the other players combined, is future-proof, and the price of it hasn't risen at all since the war ended.

I just bought one, and it makes a real nice player. I'm liking some of the other AV and internet features it offers too. I might even pick up some of the games later.

Problem with PS3 player is the fan noise. blah :(

you all say the ps3is the answer, how about for the people who want the audio handled in an appropriate manner, sure the ps plays buray , but it does a poor job with multiple audiosoundtracks, for those who want the full experience, wait till bluray players advance in features and drop in price, the bs3 is a stopgap measure at best

Will a ripped Blu Ray movie 720p
play in a stand-alone hd-dvd player?