I saw that same Sony player, it was a tempting deal. Ultimately I did NOT take the plunge today. A nice selection of movies you picked up, especially the Die Hards.

I see what you’re saying about CDs vs BDs, there’s a good chance that could happen.

I’m definitely glad the BD/HDDVD war is over, that was killing both formats.

-Matt

You have the same reservations about Blu-Ray as I did. I went ahead and took the dive today and finally made a purchase. I got the Sony S-350 player for under $200 which features the online connectivity and thus access to updates that I absolutely required with my purchase.

The reason I finally did it? I was at Best Buy today and bought a slew of titles for ~$17 each, some for even less than that. I didn’t even consider Blu-Ray to be an option until I saw these sub-$20 prices for a lot of the movies I enjoy. And I don’t intend to ever purchase a new BD movie at $30. Now it is true that most of the titles I bought are not new releases, but many of them are relatively new (within the past 1 or 2 years) and they’re movies I enjoy. So I decided what the heck. (movies I bought were: 300, Transformers, I Am Legend, The Departed, Cloverfield, Superbad, Oceans 11-13, and Die Hard 1-4)

I do think that Blu-Ray will have the longevity of past formats. It is true that direct downloads pose the greatest threat, but there will always be a physical format in existence. Even today CDs are going somewhat strong and they will surely be the last physical format for music. I think similarly that BD will be the last physical format for movies. And because of this, all movies will be released on BD just as all music (or 99.9% of it anyways) is still released in CD form. Plus, a 1080p-quality movie is a pretty hefty file size. Once we start seeing fiber lines all the way into peoples’ homes I think BD will start to erode from existence. But that is a long time off.

Now that the BD vs. HD-DVD war is settled and all the studios are behind BD, I think we are safe in making the purchase. Everyone simply has to decide individually at what price point to enter for their own desires and monetary situation.

Jay, I’m sure that the PS3 is a great addition to your living room, it would be to any living room. I just want it to have the longevity that VHS/DVD has seen, and I’m not 100% confident that it will, so I’m waiting for a bit.

-Matt

My big problem right now with digital downloads is longevity. I have lost 2 500GB Maxtor SATA drives in the last year. They held my 3000+ song iTunes library, ripped DVDs, etc. What happens when my $15 digital download gets fried along with the drive? Do I back it up to DVD? The convenience of the digital download seems lost to me, if I need to always back it up to disc. I will leave DRM to another discussion…

Anyway, happy to be a Blu-Ray/PS3 owner, and have definitely embraced the media streaming abilities of that system. Great addition to my living room.

Bye.
Jay

It’s actually been sometime since I’ve built my last rig, I’ve been holding off for StarCraft 2 before I build. (Even though I don’t believe that will be a very demanding game.)

I first started building with my Dad back when you could over clock the Intel Celeron 300’s to 450.

-Matt

And yes Matt I have been building my own PC’s for many years. Each person in my family have their own interests, so each computer is custom tailored just for that person. The gamer gets what he needs, the artist/digi-scrapper gets her wishes fulfilled, the College student’s is built for work, not play…Mine, well I get everything! I was amused by your statement that putting a computer together is like logos. That is SO true! My youngest helped and watched me put together one of the last ones I built, and at the ripe old age of 12, I watched him build his all by himself! Several floks were very proud in this house!

Well it’s Tuesday and so I guess you will expect me to rush out for the latest Blu-Ray release, right? Let’s see Tropic Thunder, no way on Blu-Ray…What about Hancock…
Ed

Did I catch that too you’re a compuiter builder? Fun stuff.