Blue ray or Hd

millwalll

Hi all I am after some advice, What should I go for out of blue ray and HD Basically I have seen hd dvd player for £79.00 or wait and get a PS3. What is like £200 - £500 what ones is better quality?

Sput2001

Basically I have seen hd dvd player for £79.00

For that price it won't be a "true" HD-DVD player, more likely an upscaling player. i.e. it will play standard DVD's and scale the picture up to simulate HD resolution. There'll be some picture improvement over standard DVD, but a full-on HD-DVD Player (or indeed Blu-Ray) would be better - but will cost you several hundred quid more.

I'd personally wait and see which format prevails, or get a hybrid player that can handle both formats. Either way you're looking at spending megabucks for the next couple of years...

millwalll

the dvd is on play website i will try post link but there website playing up at moment

Omertron

As NickMidgley said, at £79 it is an upscaling player and *WILL NOT* play HD-DVDs.

Unless you are desperate to see HD movies, and have a large screen TV (42" or larger), I personally would hold of buying either BlueRay or HD-DVD until the format war settles down and there is either a winner or all players can play both formats (like DVD-R and DVD+R).

A true HD-DVD player is £500-£600

superscaper

Omertron wrote:

A true HD-DVD player is £500-£600

Even then that price is heavily subsidised by the manufacturer and they'll be making a loss. The realistic cost if they weren't to subsidise it would be nearer £1000 to £1200. So I would have to agree that 79.99 is not going to be a HD-DVD player.

superscaper

Would this be the item? http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/GENEC/261/341/-/930008/Samsung_DVD_HD860_Hypervision_Up_Scaler_HDMI_DVD_Player/Product.html?searchtype=genre

In which case it is just a DVD player with extra processing. It won't play HD-DVDs.

millwalll

ok thanks alot

superscaper

millwalll wrote:

ok thanks alot

As for choosing between HD-DVD and Blu-ray, if you're seriously considering going for the PS3 then I think it makes better sense to do that, as for about the equivalent cost in choosing either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD you're essentially getting a (supposedly) good games machine to boot as well. Unless you want to wait even longer until more hybrid players come out. As a recommendation in terms of which will be the format winner, that's anyone's guess and we'll all just have to wait and see how the market plays out, especially in how the PS3 alters the market.

letsbehonest

LG have got a unit out which will play both formats but it ain't cheap

superscaper

I didn't think the LG BH100 was out in the UK yet. But it's true it's definitely not going to be cheap, you could actually get both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players for the same price. Still early days for these formats really.