Welcome to Sad Salvation. Day by day by day by day ... this is my attempt to make sense of the world.

Current | Archives

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Replacing my DVD player

My TiVo DVD recorder died. I was not using it to burn DVDs or to watch and record TV. I was only using it as a DVD player. This means I need a DVD player.

There are a lot of directions I can go to replace my DVD player. Do I go Blu-Ray? Do I go with a Home Media Center? Do I forget physical media all together and just go with a VOD service? There are lots of things to look at here.

Here is where I am coming from.

I have a DVD collection of about 250 DVDs. I do not watch them all that often, but it would be nice to watch them more often. I rarely buy new DVDs. It has mostly been DVDs at Comic Con or movies that are really special.

We have a VUDU Box. We use this for new releases and documentaries. The last three things we watched where Semi-Pro, Jimmy Carter Man from Plans, and The Onion Movie

We subscribe to Netflix. We have used it to this point for TV shows that we missed before. Shows like Rome and Weeds. We also use it for Movies that are not on VUDU yet.

I use an iPod to watch listen to music in the living room.


1. Home’s multimedia center PC with Blu-Ray

To me this would be the ultimate answer. I could view every kind of Media I want this way. It would make the best use of my internet connection and by HDTV.

Pros

Can watch Content from anywhere. There is a lot of free content from places like, You Tube, Podcast, Website, Hulu, Joost, and ABC.COM.

Good answer for both physical and none physical content.

Not limited by in the ways other products are.

Would have to worry about Microsoft DRM

Con,

Price. PCs with Blu-Ray DVD players start at $750 and go up from there. When I customized on at dell.com it cost $1100 That is a lot of money to throw at something like this. I could get several other of the items on the list for this cost.


2. Media PC with DVD

This answers all my needs except for HD DVDs. I could view every kind of Media I want this way. It would make the best use of my internet connection and by HDTV.

Pros

Can watch Content from anywhere. There is a lot of free content from places like, You Tube, Podcast, Website, Hulu, Joost, and ABC.COM.

Good answer for most physical and none physical content.

Not limited by in the ways other products are.

Easy to upgrade to Blu-ray if I get the right video card.

Con,

Price. PCs start at $450 and go up from there. For this price I can get something else off the list that can do more.

Would not play Blu-ray Disks

Would have to worry about Microsoft DRM

3. Mac Mini

Using a Mac Mini would be like using a media center PC, but with a couple of drawbacks. Many of the services that use Microsoft DRM, like Netflix and Amazon Unbox will not work on Apple.


Over Ideas
4. Blu-ray player
5. PS3
6. X-Box 360
7. Upscaled DVD Player
8. Roku Player
9. All Region DVD player
10. apple tv

Labels: Blu-Ray, DVD, HDTV, tag overload

- Rich, 3:39 PM |

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Customers Not Buying Bluray players

Bluray might have won the format war, but it looks like customers are not buying bluray players. This is not really that surprising to me. People are still not sold on Bluray Players. I think people are not sold that they need that level of HD content. The picture might be better than Cable HD or VUDU HD, but most people cannot tell the difference.

I think that Blurays will need to come down to about $200 a box and $25 a disk before they take off. Right now most people are still good with their old DVDs. It will take a while to change that.

Labels: Blu-Ray, content, DVD, format, HDTV

- Rich, 8:42 PM |

Friday, February 23, 2007

It looks like Steve Jobs was right

It looks like HD DVD and Blu-Ray has been cracked. That did not take very long at all. I am not sure how long the industry predicted it would take. My guess is that they did not think it would happen before the formats got popular.

This is a great example of how a DRM system does not work correctly. A DRM system has to either have a public key like DVDs. The problem with public keys is that people have all the time in the world to break them. Very smart people try to break the keys just for the challenge. The other choice is to have a system where the keys are always being updated. The problem with this included having to have the device get updates and not being able to play all content on all devices.

In the end DRM is not going to work. There are too many holes. It is not the matter of building a better mouse trap. It is a matter to not treating your customers like rats. I do not think the content industry will learn this lesson anytime soon.

Labels: Blu-Ray, Cracked, DRM, HD DVD, Steve Jobs

- Rich, 6:00 PM |

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Reliving the betamax days

The Hi-Def DVD format fight is going on right now, but few people out side of the consumer electronic industry have really noticed so far. I have not heard a huge cry from consumers for this to be solved. I read that DVD sales are starting to lag, but it is hard to say if there is any connection to the state of HD DVDs.

I have to think that Sony might be making a bad choice with No Adult Content on Blu-Ray. This is one of the reasons that Betamax failed. Porn has always been known for moving Technology forward. If Sony does not want adult content on Blu-Ray that opens the door for HD DVD. You think all those guys who spend all their time playing

The problem is that DVDs and future DVDs might already be dead. Everyone is working on the download solution for movies. Will people want DVDs at all. The problem with HD content is that Americans have slow broadband connections and HD content is so big. On top of that, it is cheaper to put it on disk and ship it rather than to let someone download it. Maybe none of this important.

The Format war might not be solved. LG is offering a player that will play both HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Warner Brothers is going to sell movies on a disk that will be both HD DVD and Blu-Ray. I have an HDTV, but I do not plan on buying an HD DVD player any time soon. This Christmas was called the Christmas where HDTV broke though. Lets see if it true and how it impacts DVDs.

Labels: Blu-Ray, DVD, HD DVD, LG, Warner Brothers

- Rich, 4:33 PM |

Sunday, September 24, 2006

The DVD Problem

I was walking around Best Buy the other day. Walking through the DVD section showed me how much buying an HDTV has changed my approach to home theater. I looked at the HD-DVD and BluRay DVD players. They are too much money to buy and I am worried about the outcome of the format battle. If I pick one now, I know it will lose.

I realize that means that I should not buy another DVD until the whole HD-DVD/HD Movie Download Service gets figured out. To be honest, I am not sure how this will be worked out.

People might wonder why would I care about this. There is a very good chance that any new DVD format would be backwards compatible. The problem is that everything Standard Defination even DVDs look pretty crappy on my TV. I really want to watch as much as I can in 1080i or 720p.

I would suggest that anyone who buys an HDTV just stick with Netflix. I do not think buying an HD-DVD player is worth it for anyone right now. I have a pile of unwatched DVDs as it is. I should watch those DVDs before I buy any new DVDs anyway.

I do realize that in another few years DVDs may be dead. We might be doing everything via download. I think there are still a lot of kinks that need to be worked out there.

Labels: Blu-Ray, DVD, HD DVD, HDTV, Netflix

- Rich, 6:01 PM |

Current | Archives

Contact me