Posted by Derek Janssen on 09/19/07 20:25

Lloyd Parsons wrote:

>>
>>>When 300 released on both, the BD camp made a big deal out of the sales
>>>ratio. But that was when the HDDVD version was a combo disk at a higher
>>>price.
>>
>>And before Universal and Warner retired their combo disks, and
>>re-released all previously DVD-combo movies on solo-HD disks.
>>Well, there's our first official casualty of the War--Better get up that
>>new tomb at Arlington. :)
>
> Other than the price difference, I never understood why the combo was a
> bad idea, still don't. Buy a movie now, play it on your current DVD
> player, and later with a HDDVD player. Made good sense.

Not to the customers:
The concept was supposed to stem the old "Fear of replacing your
library" phobia that was buried in the unwashed-consumer DNA since the
days of VCR->DVD.

Until word got out that both players were backwards compatible and you
DIDN'T have to have a "crutch" to still play your DVD's*...
Which brought the issue back down to where it was in the first place,
namely customers doing their homework and choosing sides over a format.
Which they seem to have done.

(*- Oh, watch, now we're going to get "Yeah, but the PS3 doesn't
upconvert!" thing from 2006...
No, really, HD people are *still* using that one a year later!--See what
I mean?)

>>>Of course, pathetic is just the perfect description of the total hi def
>>>dvd market at the moment anyway.
>>
>>...Don't own a screen, huh? ^_^
>
> I guess you either don't read here often or have a short memory span,
> but here's what my toy room has :
>
> Sony BDP-S300 BD player. This is my last Sony purchase. This player
> spec'd out TrueHD on page 48 of the owner's manual, but it doesn't
> decode it and it appears no firmware upgrade to implement it is gonna
> happen. This in spite of the fact the board is the same as in the S1.

Believe me, a few months with Blu-Boy, and a PS3 was the LAST thing on
this good green earth I was interested in getting as a player... >_<

But FWIH, you're not the only one who threw Sony out with the bathwater
over the first/second-gen S300 mistake--
Me, I was keeping an eye on Samsung, but after their hoped-for third-gen
hadn't gotten their Profile yet, I had to face the tech-player advice
that the PS3 really *was* the only good current '07 Sony standalone out
there for firmware upgrade ability.

....Yeah, I know, galls the heck outta me too, but customer reviews don't
lie.

Derek Janssen (and one word...So help me, ONE WORD out of a.g.v.sp3...) >:(
ejanss@comcast.net

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