Blu Ray (in Off-topic)

Ok, so is it that good. I still haven't seen one blu ray movie yet. And if you buy a blu ray dvd player, do you have to have HDMI to use it? Or can DVI or another input work with it. I read on some ads it only runs with HDMI?

You can use DVI or any other input to work with it HDMI will only get the full screen DVD resolution it can display.

It however depends on the blue ray player you get if those kind of connections are present.

I have a Blue Ray player for my theater and to tell the truth, the extra cost on the discs is not worth the extra little picture clarity you get.

Wait till the next gen players come out that should have interactive movies on them.

And a HDMI input is the way to go with any DVD player,

I dunno, I've really enjoyed the contrast I've noticed in our new Blue Ray movies. The blacks are like nothing I've seen before at home and the sharpness is stunning. My first experiences involved me being blown away by the glittering drops of water from a killer whale in "Planet Earth".

Get a PS3.

I want to rant and post a link or two on why I hate the blu-rail monopoly...but I won't.
IMO HD-DVD > Blu-ray before HD-DVD was discontinued.
Pro-blu myths aside, if there's new movies you want to see on your HD TV you'll have to go blu. PS3 is 1080p, upscales DVDs, but you'll need to buy an HDMI cable. Also plays games.

As for the next gen...
We won't see format changes for a while, this is a recession after all, and won't ever see Dark Knight on HD cassette at Blockbuster. Really don't have to wait for the future of HD. We already have better formats/tech which should really be in place for some disc related content. They just lack public availability. Want better quality now, you'll have to spend some green placing special orders. In hopes that someday we'll get jealous and try to catch up forwarding this interest.
Back to reality...

Recent movies have been horrible, you rarely watch the movies you do own, and feels like a mistake to spend so much for more pretty colors your TV service provider can barely handle anyways. When sitting on a bench with a book can be just as awesome after Lasik. ;)

I understood the move from Tape to Disc, and all the repurchase that entailed.

You got a more durable media, and the ability to skip parts of it entirely.

I see no reason to repurchase again, just for a little sharper image or colour.

If I could trade in my existing DvDs, for free, and have someone else package and deliver them, in return for backwards compatible 'Blu-Ray' discs (or the like), that would also work in my current players. Then sure.

Otherwise, no.

I'll wait until we as a society have finally embrace the change to get rid of physical media totally (which we need to, and soon...).

Get rid of physical media completely? I'll go along with that, but only if the pure digital delivery system gives me real access to my content. I don't want to give more control to the content providers by letting them determine rates for storage, subscriptions, ads, or DRM. If I buy something, I want it. Unencumbered. I'll make the choices on how to fairly use it after an exchange of legal tender for said content.

If we switch everything to non-physical formats or pure "in the cloud" solutions (which I agree, will eventually come to pass), we are exchanging physical purchase costs for subscription costs and/or bandwidth costs. And if we are allowed to download the digital content in a usable way, we are exchanging media cost for the cost of hard disks and adequate backup solutions (you _are_ backing up all your digital content, right?) I realize eventually we will be able to pass around DVD-sized files as fast as we can pass around MP3s now, but we aren't there yet. Moving and storing 5 GB+ files (I believe HD movies are even bigger than that, maybe closer to 7 GB?) is still arduous and time-consuming, and requires very high bandwidth and robust storage solutions.

I'm not saying I buy everything on physical media (mainly just movies and games, music is usually all downloaded from eMusic or Amazon), or that it won't get more and more common over time, but I definitely want the ability to have an unencumbered copy "in my hands" so to speak...

Of course! ;)

In time (Sooner rather than later I forsee), we'll reach the state that our hard drives for storage are a thing of the past, and that we have private and free storage supplied for us.

Like Students/Parents being given a small persoanl file storage area on a schools, borough supplied and maintained, e-learning platform.

Or a Local Authority suppling broadband for homes of their borough, for free (*well technically not free, but at no additional charge to all the other LA provided services our Taxes go to support).

All this is starting, and it won't be long before it becomes standard.

Free access and capability to all the resources the web provides. All with personal security and storage.

I actually don't want that, either, at least not as my only solution. *smile* I want to be able to leverage my knowledge of computers and networking to create a storage and backup solution that is powered, maintained, and secured by me. Otherwise I am at the mercy of a service provider. Can you imagine having to call "the company" whenever a file didn't load or was of the wrong version? I get frustrated enough with the phone company. *smile*

There are a lot more things that can go wrong between a cloud server room, my phone lines, local junction box, wires into the house, and onto my computer than can go wrong between a spinning platter and USB/Firewire cable.

How many times have you had to call your cable supplier for your T.V.? ;) (Assuming you have cable T.V. and not terrestial T.V. like some of the UK still have). Then I see it changing to become as stable as terrestial T.V. or Phone lines, or the like.

And while stuff can always break/go down (like power lines being bought down), it shouldn't be an everyday occurance.

But sure, there'll probably always be an option for the folk that want to do it themselves. I don't see that ever changing. ;)

GL, no cable here... The US went HD over the air, finally, earlier this year, so pictures are as good as ever (and definitely do fine since I don't have an HD TV, and won't until my current TV dies).

I agree, most utilities are fairly reliable, but there is a big difference between missing a few phone calls or TV shows and missing a personal file. Even having to call once for that would be unacceptable. I need to control that, and it needs to be my responsibility. Personal data storage isn't a service in the same sense as other utilities, where you can just do without during an outage. I have files I use daily, containing financial records, personal information, and contacts. That can't be down, and if it ever is, I need to get it back online immediately.

And remember, service issues don't just occur during emergencies. I just moved (as did you, IIRC), and getting utilities shifted is arduous even when all goes well. Had there been any problems, and had those problems been related to critical, personal data, I'd be right hosed.

That doesn't even get into the whole issue of utilities and/or service providers being able to jack up rates (we don't live in a perfect economic world). Plenty of people get locked into things like cable and such, only to have prices jacked up so they need to move everything to a different provider (if they even can!) Would you want to have to move your entire digital life every time you switched providers? All I need to do is plug in a new hard drive, and I pay nothing when I shut everything down to sleep (as opposed to a subscription, where one is ostensibly always paying...) *smile*

http://tinyurl.com/ye4kmfg

All solved by multiple secure data storages, enough so that you'll only ever be at risk if something catastrophic happens, like the whole net goes down, or your in such a remote area you can't get access. ;)

As for service provider highjinks, that should all be accounted for by the services being given for free anyway. You can't jack up your prices if people can get exactly the same for free elsewhere (and similarily there wouldn't be the ability to lock people in so you could pull that sort of shenanigans on a captive audience).

All you'll have to worry about is Ghost Hacking! :P

GL, sure, I understand redundancy, and would _hope_ that is what the service provider does.

Hope doesn't make it so, though. I assure you, service providers make mistakes, sometimes BIG ones. And like I said, we are talking about a zero-tolerance error rate on this particular service. Losing critical financial data is not the same as losing TV for a few hours. You need to use the right tool for the job, and personal data storage is absolutely nothing like electricity, phone, or even water. I can do without water for a few hours, but not being able to use my own data could be crucial down to the sub-minute time factor.

And I'm not sure where you are thinking all of this is going to be free. I mean, yeah, I get you are from the UK where a lot more things are socialised (I even spelled it your way! *smile*), but I never expect my own data to be stored for free. You get what you pay for, and all the things I mention above would be worse by an order of magnitude if run by some lackadaisical, free service.

Who's going to pay for this cotton candy land in the internet cloud you are envisioning? Am I going to have to click through ads when I want to open my own spreadsheet?

With one terabyte external hard drive and the booming online backup service industry we're part way there. Personally hope consumers move to the point of greater HD monitors taking with them more media improvements for computers or(jon forbid)game systems. Or finally a push to make TVs less like a darn TV.
Not the best metaphor here but stick with me. I'm the type of guy that wants a reverse iPod. I don't want everything being saved onto an easy smash keychain tab. I want must haves to be saved from that tab to players, TVs, and computers. Imagine a new form of automated shopping at mega stores....and piracy, crap!
Oh well. LED frame/fiber optic panel VR goggles of some sort that won't project directly at your eyes, and works with my blue tooth, would be cool too. ;)

I still don't have a Blu-Ray for my PS3 yet...

"Who's going to pay for this cotton candy land in the internet cloud you are envisioning?"

We will. Until it's cheap enough to be offered for free.

If it's not rolled into a service your Taxes already pay for (and we're starting to examples of that), then take a look at things like phone call costs.

How call chargs have changed, been reduced, and are now mostly totally removed. We still might have to pay for a service (in some form or another) but we're showing now how we can roll costs into one.

Probably in some small part helped along by the free calls we can now make to each other over the internet.

Ages ago Dad was threatening to get rid of his phone, and only use Skype (or a version os that) to call people.

I think we're going to reach a point where our consumer costs, and service charges are going to have to radically change.

Only time will tell. ;) And to be honest, I can't wait! :P

I agree with Gun, If you do want to get into blu-ray (which may replace DVDs in the near future) just go for a PS3. First of all it can play music,dvd,bluray,etc...it will look much cooler and you can play games on it if you want, or even browser the net.

I would say the price difference is well worth it.
The cheapest half way decent Blu Ray players I have seen were over $100
You can get a base PS3 for $250.

The PS3 can also stream Audio and Videos from other PCs hooked on the same network... Unix is also very easy to install on it so it basically becomes another PC.

I have to confess I am loving the PS3 (seemed overpriced and I felt guilty when I sprang for it a couple years back).

But it's the hub, now. On both Windows and OSX, I can serve up media and just play it via the PS3 (which has the best vid and sound connection to my TV/stereo). I haven't gone Blu-Ray, though, since it wouldn't matter on my non-HD TV anyway.

But I will agree with the folks saying the PS3 is a very nice piece of equipment!

GL, I agree that often a business cycle continues until a product/service becomes free or rolled in other services/taxes. And I would agree that _might_ happen for pure media (read: entertainment-based content).

But personal data will never be fully subsidized away any more than I get my heat and electricity for free. There is no business model I can think of that could tap into a personal data stream to make money (I am not going to watch ads to manipulate data I already paid for and/or created), and something like that is not something that becomes a government institution (at least not in the USA...)

Even pure entertainment content will not become free. Where would it come from if it were all free? All authors, actors, musicians, and painters would work for nothing? I would assume computer software would be next then, so I'd be out of a job? :\

"All authors, actors, musicians, and painters would work for nothing?"

Live shows/conventions. ;)

I think that becuase our entertianment, and educational media will become free, personal media will tag along for the ride.

We're already seing (as I mentioned above) free storage tacked onto eduational resources, and as the drive to push the way we educate to the fore front of technology continues (and enteraintment is forced, kicking and screaming if it must, to follow) our personal media will tag along for the ride. ;)

(This isn't to say there won't be some sort of charge, somewhere. But most likely nothing we'll see. Isn't there already speculations on governement run broadband and the like. I can see this sort of service contracted out, paid for by whichever Government, through our Taxes, and it being an invisible 'charge' to us. As invisible as our water rates or council tax is that is. ;) )

Authors will be done, then. What sort of revenue could they ever hope to obtain from these "conventions" you mention? Authors don't have a cult of personality like huge movie actors or arena-packing singers.

I just don't see a universal tip jar covering the bills. Your vision could very come true, but if it does, you are talking about a simple world indeed. Have you seen "Idiocracy"?

bluray isn't that much of a step up from HD format. and splurging 300+ just on the player just doesn't cut it. id go either pc/mac that has the ability to play the dvd's or a ps3. ill be fine with a dvd player and a hd tv with upscaling capabilities.