Time to buy a blu-ray player?

[daystar]

It's 2011 and blu-ray players have been out for a few years. I don't think prices on them are going to come down much more. It seems like there are a lot more blu-ray movies that you can buy now and the prices of those have come down quite a bit. Do you think it's time to invest in a blu-ray player?

 

[martyb]

I was kind of thinking along those same lines...

 

[Midpack]

I'd say it depends on how much you watch DVD movies to begin with, and presumably you have an HDTV already.

We bought a Blu-ray player when the price got down to just over $200 for a name brand. Bought a few Blu-ray disks and our local Blockbuster was renting Blu-ray disks. Since then all the movie rental places have closed, and the rental machines (Redbox, BeX) only have std res DVD's where we are. And the novelty has worn off, been a while since we've watched a Blu-ray disk.

I expect you'll be able to stream HD soon (for all I know you already can) in which case the Blu-ray player will follow the 8-track into oblivion?
[It's widely reported that music CD's won't be produced after 2012. Movie DVD/Blu-ray disks may follow one day. Internet distribution is much faster and much cheaper obviously. Who knows?]

 

[growing_older]

I have had very bad experiences with lower cost bluray players. They worked fine for a few months then became unable to read disks or accept commands. My suggestion would be to only purchase them from retailers like costco that have very good return policies for defective goods.

 

[DallasGuy]

I get most of my DVDs from the library and so far none of them have been blu-ray so I'm still not in the market for a blu-ray player. I only own a few DVDs and rarely see a movie that I'd want to see multiple times so I don't buy many DVDs. I figure by the time the library starts carrying blu-ray DVD's, the price of players will be down under $50....so I'm not in any hurry to get one yet.

 

[W2R]

I don't like watching DVDs, so I will not be getting a blu-ray player. Oh well! Each to his/her own, I suppose.

(Edited to clarify: I have a regular DVD player but haven't even gotten around to hooking it up to my new TV that I bought last spring.)

 

[Brat]

Costco has a smoking deal on one model as I write.

 

[JPatrick]

If you do buy one, look for features like DVD upscale (upgrades your non blu ray DVDs) and one that is WiFi ready so you can stream to your TV. If you want to go even further, you can add 3D capability. Sony has one that does all this for ~$110.00.

 

[Animorph]

We've had Blu Ray ever since HD-DVD died. With a big screen TV you will notice the difference from DVD. If you notice that HD TV is better than regular TV or DVD, then Blu Ray would be good for you. We wouldn't use anything else for new purchases.

 

[DoingHomework]

I'd say it depends on how much you watch DVD movies to begin with, and presumably you have an HDTV already.

We bought a Blu-ray player when the price got down to just over $200 for a name brand. Bought a few Blu-ray disks and our local Blockbuster was renting Blu-ray disks. Since then all the movie rental places have closed, and the rental machines (Redbox, BeX) only have std res DVD's where we are. And the novelty has worn off, been a while since we've watched a Blu-ray disk.

I expect you'll be able to stream HD soon (for all I know you already can) in which case the Blu-ray player will follow the 8-track into oblivion?
[It's widely reported that music CD's won't be produced after 2012. Movie DVD/Blu-ray disks may follow one day. Internet distribution is much faster and much cheaper obviously. Who knows?]

Very interesting. You essentially listed the reasons why I probably will buy a Blu ray player in the coming days.

I have avoided BR because I have no reason to want to repurchase my tiny DVD collection. But I do think streaming movies and TV from online is the way things will be very soon. I pay $80 a month for Directv. I can duplicate much of what I watch by streaming at half the cost. I'm not ready to cut off Directv yet or start paying for streaming, but I do think it is time to get my feet wet and pay closer attention to what is going on.

The wifi Sony BR players seem to do all of that plus they will still play DVDs. So while I think your predictions are 100% right, I also think that the right BR player is one of the more cost effective and convenient ways to follow the path that is being paved for all of us.

I haven't bought anything yet and I'd love to hear if I am mistaken about this but that's what my initial research has shown me.

 

[Wheel]

DoingHomework: if it helps, you can watch regular dvd's on a Blu-Ray player.

Probably the best feature we found was the Netflix streaming thru the player, so we can also watch that on the HDTV. Plus listen to Pandora. Most seem to have these features included nowdays.

Hope this helps.

 

[Midpack]

Our BR player will play BD/BDR, DVD/DVD RAM/DVDR/DVDRW, CD/CDR/CDRW, MP3, SD/SDHC/mini SD/micro SD for video, audio, still pictures - I think they all play everything possible these days...except the "old" HD DVD competitor.

I too have DishTV (just under $50), and I haven't streamed anything yet, I'm just too cheap for any additional PPV of any kind. But I am sure I will cave eventually when there's no physical disks of any kind if not before.

 

[HFWR]

Our BR player will play BD/BDR, DVD/DVD RAM/DVDR/DVDRW, CD/CDR/CDRW, MP3, SD/SDHC/mini SD/micro SD for video, audio, still pictures...

And still slice a tomato paper thin!

I'm in the higher the def the better camp, though the best my ol' Samsung will do is 1080i.

 

[yakers]

Got a Sony BR player on Black Friday, very good deal. The BR player does 3 things; 1) plays BR disks (haven't done it yet) 2) upscales 'old'DVDs, no kidding, somehow it interpolates visual data into a better picture and 3) streams internet video. We could already stream Netflix thru out Wii but this is a better image quality. We can now watch al the youtube we want on our TV. We don't have high def from Dish yet but the picture is pretty good already and we will be renting BR disks from Netflix when DW decides to change over to disks from streaming.

 

[pimpmyretirement]

I bought a playstation 3 about a year ago for bluray rentals via Netflix. The extra detail over dvds is "better" but it really does not add to the overall movie experience. In some cases the extra detail breaks the illusion and detracts from the experience. My tv is a 42" LCD running at 1080p. I sit about 5 feet from it.

I've since cancelled the netflix blurays due to expense. I typically stream via Netflix instead, often at HD quality. IMO, streaming HD video will prevent blurays from ever becoming truly mainstream.

I own a grand total of 3 blu rays, all bought as gifts for my wife. We've bought more DVDs over the past year, as they are much cheaper and easier to find used. Whenever others share movies with us, they are always on DVD as well.

In short, unless you are buying the player for internet video streaming or gaming as well, I wouldn't bother.

Even then - my playstation 3 sits gathering dust, as I use the PC also connected to the TV for streaming instead. The netflix website just works. The playstation constantly wants firmware updates or other maintenance junk. It's a pain. Maybe the stand alone blu ray players are better about this. I don't know.

I've also found the playstation does not do well with network websites that have introduced video streaming, like CBS and NBC. Meanwhile my PC connected to the TV handles it all just fine.

So what I am really saying is skip the blu ray, connect a PC to the HDTV, and stream your video via your web browser.