What Do You Do With Defeated Technology In Your Hand?

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers
#21

[QUOTE=Jesterrace;2015479]TCAS as we have said time and time again the up-conversion technology in your player is worth at least $60-$70. Also take a look at all the sales. Amazon has Universal catalog titles for $9.95 and between Deep Discount for Paramount catalog titles at $9.98 and others deals going on right now it’s hard to pass up. Especially considering the fact that any HD-DVD title that gets released on Blu-Ray is going to be at least twice the price. If you don’t believe me take a look at the catalog Blu-Ray releases for Paramount which run at least $21 a piece. Do what you do best. Hold on to the technology that you have enjoy a great up-conversion player and then purchase as many high-def titles for dirt cheap in HD-DVD and kick back and see what happens with Blu-Ray.[/QUOTE]

My HD DVD library has been EXPANDING. Thanks to some fantastic deals at Amazon (I just picked up “Black Rain” new, for $5.50, private seller). I’ve also been picking up some great Superbit titles (Desperado, The Patriot, Black Hawk Down for $5 a piece, as new). The Superbit titles look great on my XA2, btw, near HD quality. I have no desire to even touch a Bluray player until they straighten out spec 2.0 and price is less than $200. Upconversion on my XA2 is so damn good I’m not missing anything yet on Bluray. That could change if the Indy Jones movies (4) go HD… :cool:

#22

[QUOTE=TCAS;2015043]Now that Blu-ray is victorious of HD format war, what we the owners do with defeated technology, discontinued from production and out of luck Toshiba HD players?. Should we go back to the defeated and loser of hundreds of Mi $ Toshiba and demand return and refund?. What is the best course of action we consumers have with this abandoned technology?[/QUOTE]

Bluray will never over take DVD in sales. With the emergence of “Super-Upconversion” players, J6P will adopt the “leaner” upgrade strategy.

Bluray will die a slow death in 2-5 years.

JMHO… :flower:

#23

Yup, I can definitely see that happening, especially if they can’t get at least double the number of HDTVs in people’s homes. DVD can live with both HDTV or without, Blu-Ray cannot.

#24

[QUOTE=Highwayman101;2016896]Bluray will never over take DVD in sales. With the emergence of “Super-Upconversion” players, J6P will adopt the “leaner” upgrade strategy.

Bluray will die a slow death in 2-5 years.

JMHO… :flower:[/QUOTE]

I agree, @ price tag BD has for player and Movie format disc I won’t be surprised that BR Technology ever raises to manufacturers expectation of becoming house hold used. So only time will tell the survive ability of Blue-Ray even though with the death of HD format BD has the whole field by itself.

#25

With the current HD DVD pricing, personally I think HD DVD can become a bridge for people who wants to experience hidef for the first time, until Blu-ray price become affordable.

So to answer the original question, I think it’s not a bad idea to keep your HD DVD player and get cheap movies that worth keeping. Until you can afford a Blu-ray player you can still watch DVDs on the HD DVD player.

On the other hand, since there is practically no new HD DVD movies anymore, I would suggest that you carefully manage your investment in this format (and Blu-ray as well).

#26

It would be good to know what it is the share Blu-Ray format in total DVD movie in the market at the present and very near future.

#27

Total movies?

At present, DVD = 90.000 titles, Blu-ray = 500-ish.

I don’t have the numbers for near future but I’m hoping some day blu-ray will release new movies the same date and day DVD’s release.

#28

So considering the time that Blu-Ray first came to the market up to now have only 500ish, I thought if this figure would justify the mass consumption by public of Blu-Ray products (Recorder, Player and Movie disc) to point to bring the cost of production down or be very competitive with DVD products. But I gain this all just guessing scenario and who know what future will hold.

#29

Keep in mind that it all goes hand in hand with HDTV adoption as that is crucial for Blu-Ray to succeed if they intend to try and replace DVD (good luck). As it sits right now about 33% of homes have HD sets. They are going to need to at least double that before they can think about replacing DVD. Sad thing is that at this point HD-DVD actually has more titles available due to import titles and no region coding.

#30

Wacha gonna do with HD DVD in your hand? Enjoy it!

yeah A3/D3 cheap but sucks. A3/D3 is crippled, its meant for low end market. So so upconversion, no hidef audio, no 1080p, no multichannel analog, slow boot and sensitive to scratched disc. XA2 is the best with its Reon chip. but XA2 price = blu-ray price!

If you don’t own the dead format, think of spending 80+ for the player and hundreds$ for hd movies? hmm… think twice. You gonna spend more coz you gonna keep buying more and more OLD movies.

Prediction says mid-range blu players will be $200 this holiday season.

#31

The following is the list of the DVD movies that are available in HD -DVD format with complete information of the movie rating, HD quality, price and so on. The list is quite long.

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/reviews.html

#32

Acutally that’s not even the complete list. There are some additional import titles that aren’t on there:

www.xploitedcinema.com and www.amazon.de (just check for the HD-DVDs and you will see several titles come up that aren’t on that list).

@bourned if you buy more movies (assuming these are movies that you would buy in high-def regardless) you only end up saving more money over Blu-Ray. With titles starting as low as $8.95 shipped you are going to go a lot farther with HD-DVD by spending hundreds of dollars than you would with Blu-Ray. Not saying there aren’t some affordable Blu-Ray titles out there but when you do the average comparison between prices it doesn’t add up. I agree that if there are only about 4-5 movie on HD-DVD that you want and you don’t already own a player then it probably won’t be worth it. However if you can find at least 8-10 movies that you would buy from that list then it is definitely worth it. Also if you think the A3 is junk, then guess again. I have compared my high-end Oppo Digital side by side with my A3 and for up-conversion there is no significant quality difference on standard DVD. My Oppo cost me $240 shipped. My A3 cost me $135.67 and came with 9 free high-def movies. Anyways, so the smart person either waits or buys a cheap HD-DVD player and stocks up on dirt cheap HD-DVD titles and then waits for Blu-Ray prices to come down and then buys the Blu-Ray hardware and additional Blu-Ray titles for significantly less.

#33

In the end, the best posible use will probably be tying 9 or 10 drives together and using them as boat anchors. :iagree:

#34

Not at the prices that the hardware and titles are going for. :wink:

#35

I have been struggling whether to take my Toshiba “A3” back to CC and ask for credit as refund or keeping using it as good source of Up Scalling. I was watching a very old DVD movie (A Summer Place) with it last night with Picture Quality beyond my expectation considering the movie was 1959 one.

#36

Keep it, HD movies are going for nothing now and they are one of the very best up converters out there.
Too bad we didn’t get ours at Best Buy as they are doing $50 gift cards for most folks who bought one from them recently.
I’m keeping my A-2, it does a nice job of playing dvd’s and my capped programs at 1080i from my HDTV card play nicely too after some converting.

#37

Does any1 know what Circuit City is doing in offering any credit either in form of cash, credit or exchange toward Toshiba HD Player that are sold in last 90 days? Best buy is offering $50 gift card credit.

#38

They are offering a credit towards a BD player, WHOOPIE:a So you get a player possibly without the final profile for maybe 300 instead of 400.
Great way to make sure HD-DVD never has any way to come back from the dead, and make sure you now have to replace any hd movies you might have gotten cheap recently with a $30 copy of the same one on BD.

#39

Not me< I would never pay $300 for just a player (in this case BD), I rather to keep my A3 and use it as Up scaling than trade it in and pay additional $300 to just get a player. One must be insane to go for this.

#40

Well I paid 160 for my Demo, and its a first gen profile 1 but it pretty much has played the few BD movies I have ran through it nicely so far.
I doubt their are any good demo deals on older BD players left now but some sears and other places that don’t sale them as much may still have some deals.
I just feel it more of a indirect final nail in the HD coffin and a indirect money maker for the BD camp as they force you to buy their software once you accept that deal. Some of the CC stores are claiming they wont do the deal, some are YMMV. I think the BB deal is better, you keep it and we give you 50 bucks for picking the loser :bigsmile: