Blue Ray????Ray Blue??? whatever its called

[shiznit]

Guys after builing my film collection back up over the last whatever years it has been since the launch of DVD, have I completely wasted my time and a hell of a lot of money?

I have seen various reports today about the new HD DVD and Blue Ray or whatever its called. I am more than happy with the quality of my DVD's but are the disks and machines going to become a bit obsolete like VCR's are today

[graham1024uk]

DVD's will be around for years, I wouldnt bother with a HD DVD or Blu-Ray yet, and who would pay �999 for the Blu-Ray Player and that will be the basic model.

You need to give it 18mths at least to find out who has the Market Share. But Ill tell you know it will be Blu-Ray becasue its Sony for a start and also when the PS3 comes out that will be Blu-Ray compatible, and the HD DVD Players arnt out for a little while yet.

Hope this helps

[shiznit]

Thanks graham1024uk, that is a big help, I am sold on the Blu Ray when you said it was Sony, I have this thing for Sony equipment, but will take your advice and wait for a while yet.

Thanks once again mate

[graham1024uk]

Hehe I do to, I love sony to, My Fav. is Bang and Olfsen but im not a millionaire and Id be dammed if Id Paid �20k for a LCD hehe

[vehelpfulguy]

Current DVDs use a red laser to write the data, but this limits the amount you can get on a DVD disk.

Blu Ray and HD DVD (which are competing systems) user "blue" laser which is thinner so you can get more data on a disk.

These new disks will be able to get 20 or 30 or 40 GIGABYTES of data on them.

We need this much room because HD TV takes up much more space.

An existing DVD would only be able to get about 10 minutes of HD TV on it.

I think all future Blu Ray or HD DVD players will be able to play current DVD disks.

[vehelpfulguy]

Dont be so sure Blu Ray is going to win. At the moment it could go either way, or we may finish up having both.

Both systems have advantages and disadvantages.

HD DVD is very similar to current DVD, so the people that produce the DVD films can switch to HD DVD much easier.

But Blu Ray disks can hold more data than HD DVD.

As has been said, Sony plan to put Blu Ray on its PS3, but Microsoft plan to make a HD DVD player for its XBox 360.

As has been said, this is emerging technology and I would do NOTHING with either for at least a year (unless you get one included with a PS3 or XBox 360).

By then the players (and recorders) will have come down in price, and the disks themselves will be cheaper.

Also the technology will have stabilised and it may be easier to make a decision on what to buy in a year or so.

[Mattk]

A chip has been invented that will play both hd-dvd and blu-ray so as long as they are allowed to go into production,that would be the ideal player.

Sony are not the market force they once were when it comes to tv so dont be quick to jump on the 'must be sony' bandwagon and im sorry graham but bang and olufsen ? style over content surely ?

If you are going to make any av purchase i strongly recommend reading related mags and also checking out forums such as the excellent www.avforums.com - professional reviews and also people like you and i who live with eqwuipment day in day out which in my opinion is the best source.

[ugly_bob]

er.. didn't Sony develop Betamax?
don't bank on Blu_Ray

Also, a lot of people seem to think neither will take off hugely, as IPTV is on it's way - it's available in Paris, but as usual, we're behind over here.

Backward compatability won't be a problem (as said above). eg DVD players can read CDs because CD data is less tightly packed than DVD, so HDDVD and/or Blu-Ray will be fine reading DVDs