I have a 360 and Wii. I could have a PS3 now, I'm basically waiting for Final Fantasy (adding to Drake's and Ratchet and Clank) to justify the purchase. Everything's working out pretty well now, but I am curious as to just what kind of difference I'll be seeing going to Blu-Ray. But the best I can do is 1080i on my tv, so y'know. I might not see enough of a difference to care. Still, whether it is a huge leap or not, I lust after new tech.

How to convert HDDVD to Blu-Ray

Just in case anyone was wondering. it ain't cheap. yet.

Hmm. Without having done research, I would have to say that Blockbuster is doing just fine. Just because you haven't been in a 'buster doesn't mean nobody has. Besides, they're probably pretty happy taking #2 at NetFlix' game, to boot.

But Hollywood videos in town seem to be dropping like flies. Too bad. I'm personally opposed to Blockbuster because they edit certain films and refuse to carry other ones.

I've never, ever rented from Blockbuster for exactly the reasons you just mentioned as well as their shit-tastic selection and organization. (I've been in them, mind you. Just never rented anything.) But I believe they're the exception, probably because of their online rental operation. I'm noticing the same thing with Hollywood Video (which I always thought was much better), not to mention the solo operators.

Paramount, too.

I hope prices start to come down soon.

Right. Because Sony is such an upstanding company.

Well after all the crappy situations of the last few years Sony can now have a laugh and get some of it's blood back from that old Betamax vs. VHS war they lost. Sure it was a bit of an unfair fight since Sony owned or partly owned some of the companies that would choose the winner here but still good for them I guess. One thing I'm still not sure about is the need for either format. When DVD came out it had some sort of sense to it. At that time you could buy a decent dvd player at the price of a good VHS recorder, sure it wouldn't write your favorite tv show but the quality improvement was felt instantly (and the chance of renting a wrecked dvd was far smaller that the one of a wrecked videotape). Also it was the dawn of the new tv technologies like lcd so if you didn't have one already you could also get a good surround tv at bargain price because it was old tech. Then there was the whole practical side of having a dvd player on your pc, since at that time many programs runned on multiple cds and requiring ridiculous swapping procedures could be fitted in one single disc. With either HD formats I don't see this happening, both players and compattible TVs are ridiculously expensive and let's face it, it's stupid to buy an expensive HD player and expensive HD movies if your TV ain't HD. As for the computers same thing, and HD drive is not yet needed, it's just some fancy expensive tecnology. Personally I think this whole deal came way too early and for no good reason.

I disagree with that wholeheartedly. VHS tapes are tough motherfuckers. I have Star Wars V & VI taped off of HBO from the mid-80s that are still in great working condition. Every VHS tape I get out of the library works perfectly, every third DVD I get is barely watchable. And when a VHS tape starts degrading, it does it over time. One error on a DVD and yr fucked.

All in all, I would've preferred a hardier format, maybe similar to minidisc. Fucking planned obsolescence.

While I won't disagree that DVDs seem noticeably more prone to damage than VHS tapes ever did, at least in the hands of people with some sort of brain disorder (*I've* never managed to scratch or crack a CD or DVD in my life, and I'm pretty clumsy a lot of the time.), I think you must be pretty lucky to not have checked out any dud VHS tapes. Either that or you're using ones bought after the library went DVD and people started abusing those instead. I routinely had all sorts of tracking errors, static, etc with library VHS tapes. Not infrequently with rental VHS also, although on the whole it seems like rental anything tends to be in slightly better shape than the ones at the library.

I agree with the toughness, yet you don't count the stupidity of people or their lack of interest if the product isn't theirs. I often found tapes that had been mangled by malfunctional VCRs and the ones who did the damage would just bother to hide it in order to avoid a fine. Sure if we are talking of personal tapes and you are taking good care of them then it's a whole different story. So if you took good care of your tapes it's the same with DVDs, actually with constant playback those won't get worn like the analog tape. Probably you've been unlucky with dvds, pretty much as I did with tapes since in my experience I remember returning a malfunctional tape more often than I do with a DVD.

Here's MY prediction:

Blu-Ray players will be more expensive in holiday season '08 than they were in holiday season '07.

Discuss.

There are rumors that Toshiba and others were paid off to end the "war." Of primary concern is this particular sale.

Here's a bit on Sony's cash hand-out to studios willing to adopt Blu-Ray.

"Slow broadband" my ass

Okay...want.