culture : daily blog : 02/15/08 : 4:32 PM
Time to get a blu-ray player
Posted by will
Fri. Feb 15, 4:32 PM
Netflix, Best Buy, and Wal-mart hammer the possibly final nails into the coffin of HD-DVD.
This week has been especially bad for Toshiba and HD-DVD. Earlier in the week, Netflix stated that they would be phasing out HD-DVD by the end of the year, and a day later, Best Buy said that they would be emphasizing Blu-ray as their preferred HD medium of choice. Today seems to turn the proverbial snowball into an avalanche, as mega-retailer Wal-Mart has decided to jump onto the Blu-Ray exclusive bandwagon. This seems to be it, and marks the first really big victory Sony has had on a format war.
So now, bonzo must now invest in a Blu-Ray player. Got any suggestions that aren't PS3s?
Got something constructive to say? By all means, rant away. Gonna blab about something unrelated and/or talk shit? Don't expect your comment to stick around.
The Panasonic, the only one they are currently making, is a version 1.1 so it won't be obsolete in a year. I compared it to Samsungs and Sony's as well as read reviews on several others and besides the PS3, this seems to be the way to go. It is probably one of the fastest Blurays on the market as the Pioneer Elites and even the Sony's have problems loading some titles. Via its HDMI 1.3 output or any digital output you can send straight PCM or bitsream to your receiver if it has a decent D/A convertor giving you the option of straight, uncompressed PCM audio but it can also process Dolby TrueHD and DTSHD but your receiver must also be compatible with those formats. I personally don't know why you would want to use those "lossless" formats with the 7.1 straight PCM option. Of course it can also decode Dolby Digital and DTS sources via bitstream.
The picture is truly amazing and the upconversion isn't bad either. I compared a standard DVD on my old Rotel to the Panasonic was suprisingly sharper and all around just better.
I just remember how shitty old DVDs looked on PS2s and even though I am told that the PS3 does a good job on Blurays, it isn't made as a DVD player but if you are into games....