Blue Ray Ownership Poll

[Lex]

Please participate in this poll, I'd appreciate it! (I do have to note, that if any money is given out, it will be given by an as yet unnamed 3rd party) HTGuide.com in no way is saying we will provide cash rewards of any kind...

In 2008, Blu-ray became the leading standard for high definition DVD
playback when Warner Brothers joined 20th
Century Fox, Sony, and Wal-mart in their support of Blu-ray DVD technology
as the preferred delivery platform for
the world's major studios. We would like to know how this has affected you
personally?

If you do not own a Blu-ray DVD player and do not intend to purchase one in
the near future then please feel free to
use this thread to explain why. Maybe you only download movies, or you have
too large of an investment in a regular
DVD library? Feel free to talk about Blu-Ray and your favorite Blu-Ray
titles in this thread. Go crazy and pour your
heart out because we will give Paypal prizes of $50 to the 500th post in
this thread, $100 to the 1000th post in this
thread, and $200 to the 5,000th post in this thread!

[M.Roberts8]

I currently have 3 BD players in the house. I also have nearly 800 dvds. I stopped purchasing dvd's around late '05, just used NetFlix. Knowing that I would be making the jump to HD. My first jump was a PS3 in Nov. '06 and have been buying only blu-ray's since then. I knew I was going blu first since I am also an avid gamer so the ps3 was a no brainer for me. Never was all that interested in HD-DVD.

Why 3 you might ask well my health insurance had a rewards program of sorts and I scored a second PS3 for free. I purchased a stand alone BD player about a year ago to minimize hours on my main gaming PS3. I also made my first FP purchase the same month as I got my first PS3 and I'm on my 3rd bulb getting ~2,800 hours out of each one. My projector has seen about 6,300 hours as of right now with a healthy portion of it being gaming and BD movie watching.

Allot of people scoff at the cost of blu but when I first bought a JVC dvd player, it cost me 399.99(it was a 3rd gen player BTW). Which I replaced with the sony DVP-S7700 for 1,000.00. So dvd cost more than blu when it originally came out. Having said that most who come over ask why I spend so much on blu when dvd's look great to that I respond by just popping in a blu and watch there jaws drop at the PQ and AQ.
I currently own 174 blu-rays and counting.
Some of my favorite BD's as of right now are, but not limited to :

Watchmen Director's Cut

Star Trek

Monsters, Inc.

The Dark Knight

Quantum of Solace

[Ken49r]

I own two BD players. OPPO / PS3.

I have noticed alot of friends buying HDTV's and BD players lately. HDTV prices have finally come down to affordable prices for many. I was wondering today how many sold in December? Will be interesting to see when they post them. No doubt the Blu-ray section at Blockbuster will be growing this year.

[jschneier]

I don't have one but there is always after xmas sales!

[technodanvan]

Originally I purchased a PS3 in August 2007 thinking that it would be a great all-purpose device for a single guy...I was wrong. I had nothing against the picture quality of either Blu-Ray movies or DVDs, but the noise the fan made was just unbearable for me. This coupled with the fact that I never really used it for gaming prompted my trade of it for a 360 in May this year.

Of course this made the 15 or so BD movies I had useless...so after waiting a few months for no particular reason I decided to buy a dedicated player last Friday. UPS will be dropping off my new Oppo tomorrow.

Definitely looking forward to having not only a Blu-Ray player, but having a competent DVD player will be really nice too.

Edit:

I probably have around 25 movies along with the Firefly series now (ordered some along with the player last week). I've been trying very hard to only purchase movies that I will actually watch, as opposed to DVDs where I would buy it just because I wanted to watch it once. The three I'm most looking forward to watching once the player gets here are Sunshine, Watchmen, and Amercan Psycho.

Not necessarily for the visuals in the last one...mostly just because I find the movie hilarious and I haven't seen it in a long time. I'm twisted, I know.

[Hammie]

I just realized that I have two BD players, although my PS3 has been regulated to just gaming. My Oppo is my BD player of choice.

I currently have over 280 BD's in my collection and around 200 DVD's but that number is diminishing as I continue to double dip.

[Hdale85]

I think I'm up to roughly 320 BD's I don't keep track anymore hah! I haven't owned a DVD in a while...although I do own a couple of DVD's that are the kids.

[Chris D]

I bought a PS3 when it first came out, primarily as a BD player, and it's still my primary and only BD player. Still going strong, what... 3 or 4 years later?

I own about 75 BD movies, and buy ones that are my favorite. I don't buy as many BD's as I did DVD's previously, and the reason is price value. For me, it was worth it several years ago before BD to buy movies that I LIKED on DVD for $9.99 or so. Now, I REALLY have to like a movie, have it be a definite repeat play or a favorite to buy it for $30 on BD. Doing a "blind purchase" on $14.99 DVD of a movie I hadn't seen was a reasonable risk, but I'm not about to double that and do a blind purchase of a $30 Blu-Ray, unless I'm CERTAIN that I'm going to love the movie. So I use Netflix for a lot of BD's now. I'm connected to the A/V industry, and the reason that the Blu-Ray consortium gave originally for the high disc prices was the low sales volume as a small start-up technology. Now that BD is mainstream, I think that BD prices should STEADILY be about $16.99, not including sales.

On that note, I have only re-purchased movies on BD, that I previously owned on DVD, if they were on sale or my very favorite movies. (i.e. Matrix trilogy) Other than that, it's not worth it to me to upgrade for $20 or more, when I get decently good performance upconverting the DVD I already own.

I'm considering buying Sony's latest Blu-Ray megachanger as a player for my all-home audio/video system. I'd keep the PS3 as the main theater player.

[Nick M]

BD via PS3 - aside from my Wii it's my only system source.

I have 150 or so DVDs (scaled down from 350+).
I have about a dozen BDs.
Avid NetFlix subscriber (w/Blu-Ray Service).
I don't burn/rip any of my NetFlix titles.

I use to impulse-buy DVDs at $15.
I do not impulse-buy $25-$35 BDs.

I buy one BD every month or two, when absolute must-haves are released.
These include (but aren't limited to) Pixar films.

There are 25-35 titles I plan to purchase on BD to replace their DVD counterparts in my collection, but this will only happen when prices fall below $20/title.

[Race Car Driver]

BD through PS3 (fans too loud for me) so I bought a Sony 360 model BD player on "black friday" for $130. Still have yet to hook it up though.

I love the PS3, but HATE the fans, they are toooo loud and on all the time. I dont mind it when I am playing PS3 games however.

Right now id say I am at about 70 discs. I havent bought a DVD in well over a year and I dont think I will buy another one. Rarely will I spend over $20 on a BD, never will I spend over $30.

I usually wait for a sale or special, many of them have been bought in the $8-15$ range.

[George Bellefontaine]

I have two Panasonic Blu-ray players. A BD30 and a BD35. The older BD30 is for another room and the 35 is in my theater. This is my second year into Blu-ray.

[littlesaint]

BD via PS3 - aside from my Wii it's my only system source.

I have 150 or so DVDs (scaled down from 350+).
I have about a dozen BDs.
Avid NetFlix subscriber (w/Blu-Ray Service).
I don't burn/rip any of my NetFlix titles.

I use to impulse-buy DVDs at $15.
I do not impulse-buy $25-$35 BDs.

I buy one BD every month or two, when absolute must-haves are released.
These include (but aren't limited to) Pixar films.

There are 25-35 titles I plan to purchase on BD to replace their DVD counterparts in my collection, but this will only happen when prices fall below $20/title.

Pretty much my situation as well, except I have the Oppo BD player instead of the PS3.

[David Meek]

I have one Blu-Ray player, a Pioneer BDP-05F outputting to a Pioneer Elite PRO-1140HD 50" plasma HDTV.

I've reduced our standard-def DVD collection down to about 450 by giving away the ones that we would never watch again, and won't be buying any more. If it's available only on DVD, it'll come by Netflix or not at all.

Blu-Ray discs are up to 40, but I'm buying them much more slowly than DVD due to the higher price range, at which I do not impulse buy. I've replaced a few of my favorite titles, but will not be replacing the full library of DVDs, or even close to it.

[aud19]

Nope, DVD's and downloads for me.

[impala454]

I have two blu-ray players, a Panasonic BD30 and an Oppo BDP83. I've got about 75 blu-ray movies and would say I purchase 2-3 per month depending on what's coming out. I've re-bought probably 20 or so of my DVDs in blu-ray.

[Kevin P]

I voted "I do not own a Blu Ray DVD Player, but I may buy one in the next 3 months.", although it'll probably be more like 6-12 months. The next choice on the poll was "do not intend to purchase" which isn't true either... I do plan on taking the plunge, but probably not until next Christmas, unless something compels me to do it sooner (maybe when Avatar is released!)

I was thinking of getting one for Christmas this year, but I decided to wait some more. The players and discs will only get cheaper, and I still have a pile of unwatched DVDs.

[mitch57]

I own two Blu-ray players. A Pioneer BDP-51FD was my first player since it was originally released. My recently purchased Oppo BDP-83 is my new primary Blu-ray player.

I own just shy of 500 DVDs including every SuperBit movie ever produced with the exception of about 6 titles. I also own about 115 Blu-ray titles and I purchase mostly new releases that have outstanding reviews on bluray.com or widescreenreview.com. Occasionally I make a blind purchase of cheap $10.00 to $12.00 titles.

I only replace my current DVD titles if it's one of my favorite movies and it got a good review. I don't buy any more DVDs but I rent Blu-ray and DVD movies from Netflix 3 at a time. I prefer the Blu-ray titles but on occasion the movie may only be available through Netflix on DVD.

[littlesaint]

The Oppo does such a good job with DVDs, its difficult to justify replacing DVDs with BDs en masse.

[Blindamood]

I've got two -- the Oppo BDP-83 (in my primary system) and a Sony BDP-S550 (in the bedroom). I first got into blu-ray with a Sony BDP-S1, which was subsequently replaced by the S550.

As mentioned previously, I have purchased a few BRDs (46), but am much more picky about those I buy. I primarily buy when there is a big sale, as seen regularly on amazon. I also have a Netflix subscription, and pay the extra $3 for blu-ray.

BTW, I also have not replaced any of my existing DVDs...I don't see the value in repurchasing for the level of improvement in blu-ray vs. standard DVD, given the quality of upscaling available.

[Johnloudb]

Two years ago we bought our first Blu-ray player, the Sony BDP-S2000ES, and then sometime later we got a Sony PS3 for our living room TV. We weren't happy with the BDP-S2000ES because the sound quality was not all that great, and it didn't have Master HD Audio. So this holiday season we bought an OPPO BDP-83 NuForce Edition, and we are really happy with it. We don't use an external processor so the enhanced sound quality of the NuForce mod was important to us, and we can now enjoy all movie and music formats.

My Dad is an avid movie buyer ... too much so. He now mostly buys Blu-ray discs and has maybe 350 - 450 titles.

[Gianluca]

I like many have a PS3, bought it when HD-DVD and BluRay were in a war glad BD won since the PS3 was primarely for BluRay ( at least thats what I told the Wife and I'm sticking to my story :twisted: ) And now I just got an Oppo BDP-83 for Christmas believe it or not, from my wife :W . This unit has given more years of service to my RSX-1056.

Luca

[audioqueso]

PS3 is my only source for BD at the moment (still waiting for to hear for lots of positive feedback from the Oppo with the region free hack). I mainly bought it because I wanted a BD player and I wanted FF13 (ha ha) when it came out. It does get loud, but I watch movies louder.

I don't really buy DVDs anymore as BDs cost just as much as DVDs use to back then ($20). So.. no difference. I only buy DVDs when there is no BD option available. Only reason I will change to the Oppo is because half of my DVD collection is region 2. My Marantz DV6001 is a nice DVD player, but I rather have one component to play all my DVDs and BDs. I'm not really going to replace my DVDs. No point for me unless it's a favorite movie.

Can I just type bump 28 more times and make post #50? ha ha ha

[Nolan B]

I bought into BD as soon as the PS3 was released and currently own about 200 tittles. I really hope its hear to stay and low bit rate downloads dont ever kill a format like BD which is made for people who prefer quality.

Im buying a second player for the bedroom next month as soon as we move.

[wettou]

I bought into BD as soon as the PS3 was released and currently own about 200 tittles.

200 :T I am slowly building my collection 59 only movies that I like with with highly rated Video and Audio and in 2:40

[Martyn]

We are not big TV-watchers - in fact, we don't subscribe to cable or satellite TV - but we do enjoy a couple of movies a week. We own a hundred or so DVDs - mostly classics of one kind or another (romantic comedies for my wife, TV classics and bond movies for my daughter, and action movies for me). We watch a 50" plasma from about 15' and find it hard to believe that we could possibly want anything better. If I feel that the picture needs improvement, I give the screen a quick dust!

More seriously, I'm getting increasingly irritated by the big corps trying to sell me the same stuff over and over, whether it's VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray (with a couple of other formats thrown in along the way), or vinyl to cassette to CD. I see Blu-Ray largely as a very successful strategy for enforcing DRM - the brilliance was in achieving this by driving the consumer into buying new hardware!

[Hdale85]

Well say what you will There is definitely noticeable improvement and their DRM is not all that secure....surprise surprise.

[Isaac]

Blu ray vs. DVD?

I am a big supporter of blu ray, I love looking at a movie in HD. :T

I think the reason that blu ray is not as big as it should be is because most stores do not display Bluray and HD televisions the properly. Noticed the other day a sony Bluray player connected to an HD television playing a cartoon that looked extreamly bad. I checked out how it was connected and what did I see...Composite cable!. :E

No wonder why most people are happy with plain old DVD, they really have not seen bluray on a HD display.

[gross30]

Pioneer Elite bdp-05, PS-3, and the Sony blu-ray upstairs. Currently have around 50 titles on blu-ray. Great format, pic and sound are great.

[Lex]

Sorry guys, I prematurely closed this thread, pleaes continue to participate until Jan 31...

Doug

[jschneier]

BD through PS3 (fans too loud for me) so I bought a Sony 360 model BD player on "black friday" for $130. Still have yet to hook it up though.

I love the PS3, but HATE the fans, they are toooo loud and on all the time. I dont mind it when I am playing PS3 games however.

This is the first time I heard someone mention the fan noise. Thanks for the tip. I was planning on buying a PS3 but my audio engineer husband would have killed me if I bought a player with loud fans.

[Crimson]

An Oppo BDP-83 hooked up to a 60" Elite Kuro, and a first-gen 80GB PS3 connected to a 50" Samsung LED (mostly for gaming). I own about 50 blu-ray discs, and haven't watched a standard-def DVD in about two years.

[Johnloudb]

This is the first time I heard someone mention the fan noise. Thanks for the tip. I was planning on buying a PS3 but my audio engineer husband would have killed me if I bought a player with loud fans.

Hi, my 3rd generation PS3 has a quiet very quiet fan barely audible, and I hate fans! I think maybe the 1st and possibly 2nd generation PS3 players had the noisy fans, but since I've haven't owned them I can't say for sure.

[David Meek]

I think the reason that blu ray is not as big as it should be is because most stores do not display Bluray and HD televisions the properly. . . . No wonder why most people are happy with plain old DVD, they really have not seen bluray on a HD display.

Blu-Ray is growing though. According to CNN IIRC, Amazon by itself sold over 100,000 Blu-Ray players this the Christmas season.

[Chris D]

Now wait... I thought the illustrious prediction made here at HT Guide was that Blu-Ray would be a dead format a year ago!

[aud19]

Now wait... I thought the illustrious prediction made here at HT Guide was that Blu-Ray would be a dead format a year ago!

I don't believe I ever claimed it would be dead, at least not in a year but I still don't feel it's a long term format like DVD was or have the penetration DVD has. The one thing that may save it is the new 3D displays that are popping up at CES. If that get's a big market penetration it may help. Otherwise my guess is the future will be about downloads and some sort of solid (ie flash) media.

[Ovation]

Sorry guys, I prematurely closed this thread, pleaes continue to participate until Jan 31...

Doug

Can't vote (though I can say I have a PS3 as my BD player).

[Lex]

Can someone please try to vote again? Let me know if problems. It should be open...

[Chris D]

Looks like it'll have to be someone that hasn't already voted. Says I already voted.

[Chris D]

I don't believe I ever claimed it would be dead, at least not in a year

Nah... I was referring to a rather interesting post by another person in the original BD/HD-DVD thread. I'll pull that one up to point it out.

[JohnA]

Looks like it'll have to be someone that hasn't already voted. Says I already voted.

Guess that means it's not like a Chicago election. Were the motto is, vote early, and vote often...

[Lex]

haha John.

Now vote, vote, vote, someone? and post here that you voted please...

thanks

[JonMarsh]

Own a Panasonic BD Player (because of video quality in tested review, including de-interlacing and upscaling), and about 50 disks. Considering a Cambridge Audio BD player later this year, for video and audio quality. Have a similar number of HD DVD disks and two top of the line Toshiba players with HQV video chip. :W

[1oldguy]

I just voted.No problems.

[Armbender]

voted...own an oppo-bdp83 and LOVE IT

[mr.hidef]

I have 2 players....Sony BSP-S1/S350