negative1 said:blu ray is a mess:
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-3 different profiles of players..
This is almost no different than the early days of DVD. I remember having trouble with The Matrix in my Apex 600A and then the T2 ultimate set. Both were pretty easily fixed with firmware updates. The T2 set caused the most trouble since it made very heavy use of seamless branching, which was practically unheard of at the time.
As far as the different profiles go, you're only missing out on extra features. I'm pretty sure 2.0 only adds Internet connectivity. The movie will still play fine though. I'm not saying I like it, but that's the reality. Also, most players on the market are upgradeable through firmware.
-some players don't support DVD's,
If the lack of "DVD" on some of those is your reasoning, then it's wrong. I checked the Panasonic DMP-BD10 as a random example. It's listed on Amazon as being able to read DVDs. I honestly don't think I've seen a single Blu-ray player that couldn't read DVDs.
-region coding...
This is a problem with DVD as well, so it's nothing new.
- and of course the crazy DRM schemes (which have been broken), but
Well, it's been broken, so the DRM is almost irrelevant, just like it is on DVDs these days. The software that's available today makes it pretty easy too.
i might give in and by a dual blu-ray/HD DVD drive just to be able to
play the inevitable movies that will be blu-ray ONLY..... just like i
need a laserdisc for movies ONLY in that format, or a DVD player
for DVD only movies..... it's just one more unnecessary piece of
hardware being pushed out there..
I think it's going to be a while before we see a Blu-ray only movie. Of course, by that time, I suspect lots of 2.0 profile players will be under $200.
granted going digital only has its drawbacks also, especially concerning
disk space, but with 1T drives dropping, the problem is having a fast
connection to 'get' the files, or 'backup' your physical discs.. of course
hard disk failure is always going to be an issue too..
I'm setting up a media center with a 1 TB hard drive. I simply put my DVDs into the ROM drive when I get them, rip them to the drive, and I'm done. I can watch any movie in my collection with a few clicks of my remote. No more swapping discs.
unfortunately unless YET ANOTHER FUTURE FORMAT comes out, with people
looking ahead to address these problems with HD content, we're just going
to go through this cycle yet again with something else (hopefully NOT BLU-RAY 2,3 etc)
Yep. Since the media companies are stupid, you can bet that when the next best thing comes along, they'll argue about what to put in the standard. They'll either come to an agreement or we'll have yet another format war. That isn't likely to happen for another 10-20 years though, so it's a ways off.