A Blu-ray Civil War?

Good Luck To The Winner, Hope This War Ends Soon.

Hmmm... So... is this going to be... PS3 Vs. SA? FW 1.2 Vs. FW 2.0? Sony Vs. LG Vs. Samsung vs. whoever else makes BR-DVD players?

:: Puts finger on nose ::

I'm excited... are you excited? I'm excited.

I wrote the following yesterday on another thread, but it also belongs here....

The 'hits' against the Samsung Blu-ray players are mostly undeserved. The players are made to specs. Then, some of the studios (like Fox and Disney) start changing the disc-content file encodes for the added BD+ security, and/or BD-Java interactive content - which means now the Samsung players (and others) will require a firmware update for playback compatibility.

The BDA members (studios, hardware makers etc) need to address this issue post haste and provide REAL SOLUTIONS, and get the 'issue' behind them, or else Blu-ray will not grow into the mainstream. You can bet that Sony is behind-the-scenes working to solve the problem, as they have the biggest investment in Blu-ray, and the most to lose if it fails to be widely adopted... as well as the most royalties to be made if and when it does become a success.

I really doubt that by Christmas 2008, these 'fimware update' issues will be nagging the format, unless the studio execs continue to experiment or change the file encodes... so, it's in their hands now whether to get the problem solved soon, or let it grow to even bigger proportions as many in the HD-DVD camp cross-over into Blu-ray over the next year, and bad word-of-mouth results from disappointed new BD owners.

-LH (The Loverboy)
~ HI-DEF DUAL FORMAT SUPPORTER ~

The 'hits' against the Samsung Blu-ray players are mostly undeserved. The players are made to specs. Then, some of the studios (like Fox and Disney) start changing the disc-content file encodes for the added BD+ security, and/or BD-Java interactive content - which means now the Samsung players (and others) will require a firmware update for playback compatibility.

I get that LH. But "some of the studios" "samsung" or my uncle. the playback retardation sucks. And I still believe is noticeably worst on the samsung players regardless.

LH... I was just making a joking commentary. Nothing was meant to be serious. Hell I wasn't even certain whether Samsung produced Blu-Ray players.

OMG I just read this article and can't believe this news!

This is basically saying that with the format war drawing to a close, the Blu-ray CE manufacturers will be in fierce competition for market share with each other based on feature sets and price points?

With the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if the next article to appear here had the headline: "Rumor Confirmed. America is not a communist country". That would really freak me out.

Quote:
"Rumor Confirmed. America is not a communist country".

Wait... no no no... we are. Trust me.

Mike37... my post above was not in direct reference to your post (above mine). I had posted what you see above on another thread (player discussion), and when noticing the subject of -this- thread (and related linkd story), I thought my comment would be better suited here. Usually when I'm directly responding to another msgbd member, I'll mention their name, and/or also quote something from their comment, to either refute and correct, or praise.

-LH (The Loverboy)

Now that I have that off my chest... How long have forum goers said that BDA has been BETA testing the Blu-Ray format? They even admitted releasing it prematurely. I don't feel like digging through the old posts to quote most of the BR supporters, but I can safely say "We told you so". Most of you that own the PS3 are lucky. I owned a deck, and it turns out, every single symptom I have was due to profile change. But no, My laser had to be out of alignment... Wasn't that you Skyhawk? Oh well, water under the bridge... I like at the end... Blame HD DVD for being complete when it hit the Market? LOL Now that was funny... It's too bad 90% of consumers will never see that article... Wait, I'm going to print off a handful and hand them around to sales guys, next time I go shopping... If a 2.0 player doesn't hit the shelves right away, OH BOY, Some heads are going to ROLL

[Post edited by ReaggieP on Feb 15, 2008]

I'll agree that BD not being completely standardized was awful (compared to HD-DVD). However, the consumer had more choices with BD players than HD-DVD players. Someone will argue that Toshiba had players for all price points but in terms of customer service and timely firmware updates, you had no choice but Toshiba (Onkyo had a late player which seems to have fizzled out of existence).

I too would recommend the PS3 for the best upgrade path but if you are a true home theater aficianado, wait for the Profile 2.0 players coming out Summer/Fall (Panny BD-50 is good example). The PS3 is Bluetooth and there's no direct way to integrate with universal remotes w/o exotic solutions. My "perfect BD player" has all the following:

1) Profile 2.0 (ie. ethernet mandatory, 1GB storage, etc.)
2) IR control (for universal remotes)
3) Internal decoding of all HBR audio, including DTS-HD MA
4) Multichannel analog out for further audio flexibility

With the exception of internal DTS-HD MA decoding and 1GB storage, the Toshiba XA2 was close to the ideal.