2141 replies to this topic

[dazbug]

alebonau, on Nov 17 2006, 10:53 PM, said:

are there actually any blu-ray owners on this forum. seems kind of strange we have not had one comment from owner though the players have been in the shops for quite a while now ?

has anyone imported one over from the us ?

will be good to get some actually owner reviews ?

Yes I would love to hear from those 2 or 3 BR people.   Obviously their not supporters as they havent even had the courage to buy one.    

On a serious note, I would like to here if there are any BR owners and there opinions of it ?

[RodN]

alebonau, on Nov 17 2006, 10:53 PM, said:

are there actually any blu-ray owners on this forum. seems kind of strange we have not had one comment from owner though the players have been in the shops for quite a while now ?

has anyone imported one over from the us ?

will be good to get some actually owner reviews ?

Yes isn't it bizarre,

Blu-ray is available in aus - yet no comments
HD-DVD is not available in aus - yet many comments!

(to be honest I would not admit I owned one based on the majority of response from the 20/30 hd-dvd ownerson here even though they've not compared it)

[Skid_MacMarx]

I'm also looking forward to a review comparing the panasonic and pioneer players..

[MarkH]

Well Jace has a Panasonic on the way from the US, and from memory SperoD has the Samsung (again an import).

Its a start.....

BTW anybody been noticing the Samsung BR ad/firmware link at the bottom of the pages on here?

[momaw]

dazbug, on Nov 17 2006, 11:00 PM, said:

Yes I would love to hear from those 2 or 3 BR people.   Obviously their not supporters as they havent even had the courage to buy one.    

On a serious note, I would like to here if there are any BR owners and there opinions of it ?

Yes, one review was of the samsung player (imported from the states) is floating around here somewhere.  It was quite a good review too.  Jace is awaiting arrival of either the panasonic or his blu-ray discs (very eager to hear his review of not only the panasonic but since he also has a HD-A1 is the only one here who can give a real informed opinion regard BD or HD-DVD).  There are a couple of other owners, but probably do not wish to say much.  Blu-ray supporters don't get treated to well around here (I know I have made some jibes despite my desire for both).

[Trigg]

MarkH, on Nov 17 2006, 08:04 PM, said:

Well Jace has a Panasonic on the way from the US, and from memory SperoD has the Samsung (again an import).

Its a start.....

How much have they been picking these up for?

[momaw]

Skid_MacMarx, on Nov 17 2006, 11:04 PM, said:

I'm also looking forward to a review comparing the panasonic and pioneer players..

Wouldn't the pioneer need to be finished for that?

[MarkH]

momaw, on Nov 17 2006, 10:05 PM, said:

Wouldn't the pioneer need to be finished for that?

It would!

Maybe Jace will chime in soon... Im being sincere now!

[:)]

MarkH, on Nov 17 2006, 11:04 PM, said:

Well Jace has a Panasonic on the way from the US, and from memory SperoD has the Samsung (again an import).

Its a start.....

BTW anybody been noticing the Samsung BR ad/firmware link at the bottom of the pages on here?

why hasnt spero posted anythign about the sammy ?

[RodN]

I think my post may have been missed, do you REALLY expect blu-ray owners to pipe up considering your treatment and attitude towards the format?

[:)]

nobby, on Nov 17 2006, 11:04 PM, said:

Yes isn't it bizarre,

Blu-ray is available in aus - yet no comments
HD-DVD is not available in aus - yet many comments!

(to be honest I would not admit I owned one based on the majority of response from the 20/30 hd-dvd ownerson here even though they've not compared it)

yes dont understand it. I mean what we have is over 30 people with tosh hd-dvd players on this forum god know how many with xbox 360s all posting about teir enthusiasm with their new tosy. And no one with a ps3 yet. and no one with a blu-ray postign anythign about one.

not suprising at all then that things seem a tad biased towards tosh hd-dvds and ps3's. Hopefully people with blu-rays and ps3's will eventually post.

did no one import a ps3 from japan ? or is that an outlandish idea. jsut ask as remember people importing 360s from overseas prior ot aus release.

anyways in time we should have some more comment from all formats and people wont feel so left out !

[Skid_MacMarx]

alebonau, on Nov 17 2006, 11:07 PM, said:

why hasnt spero posted anythign about the sammy ?

Al, I think the section "Review of products" you started for forum contributor reviews would be a better place.. at the moment, I'd prefer the professional reviews...


back on topic.. interesting from this review that the PS3 had a better picture than the samsung..

[:)]

nobby, on Nov 17 2006, 11:08 PM, said:

I think my post may have been missed, do you REALLY expect blu-ray owners to pipe up considering your treatment and attitude towards the format?

my treatment ? excuse me nobby ?  

[momaw]

Trigg, on Nov 17 2006, 11:05 PM, said:

How much have they been picking these up for?

I almost bit the bullet on a panasonic for $1100US (RRP was 1500 and most etailers have them for $1299) but when the opp for a HD with 7 titles for less than half the price of the BD alone came up I couldn't resist (assuming the order actually goes through).

While the panasonic seems an awesome piece of kit (well reviewed) with 7.1 analogue out, I had some niggles.  Mainly if I spend that much it has to be "THE" blu-ray player for import titles.  There would be no upgrading later at that price.  Since it is not hdmi 1.3 it would not ever give the colour benefits of players coming to the market later or the full audio capabilities over hdmi.  The panasonic also at this stage cannot do DTS or DDtruHD (coming at some undisclosed date through a firmware upgrade).  But again, if the HD player falls through.......

Funnily enough the range of blu-ray being released in Aus put me off the import too.  We are getting many of the better titles here, but with a player locked to region A, I would not be able to use the region B discs from here.  If only we had no good releases coming I would have felt better about being locked into imports.

[RodN]

alebonau, on Nov 17 2006, 11:13 PM, said:

my treatment ? excuse me nobby ?  

Now you are getting paranoid

[Skid_MacMarx]

momaw, on Nov 17 2006, 11:13 PM, said:

I almost bit the bullet on a panasonic for $1100US (RRP was 1500 and most etailers have them for $1299) but when the opp for a HD with 7 titles for less than half the price of the BD alone came up I couldn't resist (assuming the order actually goes through).

While the panasonic seems an awesome piece of kit (well reviewed) with 7.1 analogue out, I had some niggles.  Mainly if I spend that much it has to be "THE" blu-ray player for import titles.  There would be no upgrading later at that price.  Since it is not hdmi 1.3 it would not ever give the colour benefits of players coming to the market later of the full audio capabilities over hdmi.  The panasonic also at this stage cannot do DTS or DDtruHD (coming at some undisclosed date through a firmware upgrade).  But again, if the HD player falls through.......

Funnily enough the range of blu-ray being released in Aus put me off the import too.  We are getting many of the better titles here, but with a player locked to region A, I would not be able to use the region B discs from here.  If only we had no good releases coming I would have felt better about being locked into imports.

momaw mate, I'd prefer this thread does not become a comparison thread.. there are plenty of others .. thanks

[:)]

nobby, on Nov 17 2006, 11:15 PM, said:

Now you are getting paranoid

well you did follow up my post with that response what else do you expect me to wonder ?

really nobby !

[RodN]

alebonau, on Nov 17 2006, 11:19 PM, said:

well you did follow up my post with that response what else do you expect me to wonder ?

really nobby !

If you would notice my post was in development as yours was posted (1 minute between). It was in response to the 5 or so posts before yours eventuated.

[momaw]

Skid_MacMarx, on Nov 17 2006, 11:16 PM, said:

momaw mate, I'd prefer this thread does not become a comparison thread.. there are plenty of others .. thanks

no comparisons made (except a reference to price).  Just answering another members question on panasonic pricing since I had some experience in actually looking to buy.  Also gave some info that I think is important to anyone considering the pana unit.  It is important to that if you buy an import of this unit that you know you are locked to region A.  If you want to buy titles here (and as I said we have a good line-up announced) then importing may not be a good thing.  It is also important to know that the highdef audio codecs are not yet available on the machine but will be via a firmware upgrade.

Do you not agree?

Meanwhile while I am posting on-topic info Nobby and Al are having a blu (no pun, hmm maybe that is on topic).  Where is the reprimand there?

[Drizt]

This forum in general in negative towards blu-ray...  which is annoying..  well to me anyways.

It will be funny if blu-ray does win out.... a few on this forum will be wearing egg on their face.  If it doesn't i don't care.  I will be buying what ever format wins out, but I hope it is blu-ray.

[Highjinx]

Drizt, on Nov 18 2006, 02:15 AM, said:

This forum in general in negative towards blu-ray...  which is annoying..  well to me anyways.

It will be funny if blu-ray does win out.... a few on this forum will be wearing egg on their face.  If it doesn't i don't care.  I will be buying what ever format wins out, but I hope it is blu-ray.

I hear what you say, there seems to be an irrational anti Sony vibe here among a vocal bunch of posters and along with that an anti BluRay sentiment, the rational reason for this eludes me, as I sure it does to the thinking majority here, many who do not want to get into a confrontational situation. Now that the PS3 is out, the price factor has evaporated, but price differential still gets thrown around.

There has been enough information posted here for the thinkers to do their own research and draw their own conclutions. The majority it seems have prudently taken the wait and see approach.

Here is some PS3 goodness:

http://www.cdrinfo.c...px?NewsId=19051

[:)]

Drizt, on Nov 18 2006, 02:15 AM, said:

This forum in general in negative towards blu-ray...  which is annoying..  well to me anyways.

It will be funny if blu-ray does win out.... a few on this forum will be wearing egg on their face.  If it doesn't i don't care.  I will be buying what ever format wins out, but I hope it is blu-ray.

as I mentironed back here  

http://www.dtvforum....&...st&p=532231

think its because theres 30+ hd-dvd owners and not sure how many 360 owners on this site yet no-one it seems as yet that owns a ps3 and think only one identified blu-ray owner. Not seen one local user comment on this site re blu-ray or ps3. its no wonder things can look a bit one sided that way. I think it can go either way too. bigest prob hd-dvd has is dont see anyone bar tosh putting a player out, yet seems a few other brands bar sony seem to have a player out or in the wings.

but I ask the question again why no posts from local blu-ray or ps3 owners ?. I'd like to read some of their comments ?

and ps Highjinx I dont think you can whinge about irrational anti-sony vibe with your irrantional sony rantings !  

[Jace]

Trigg, on Nov 17 2006, 11:05 PM, said:

How much have they been picking these up for?

The Panasonic is about $1600 and I'm expecting it early next week.  I know, it's more than double the price of the HD-A1, but it does output 1080p (even if it is only 1080p/60 not 1080p/24, but I've never noticed judder) and will have firmware upgrades early next year for DTS-HD and Dolby Tru-HD.  It's also the only HD player on the market with 7.1 outputs and from reports I've read the lossless PCM 5.1 tracks found on Disney and Sony titles are even better than the True HD tracks on HD DVD.  The combined cost of the Panasonic and the Toshiba were less than the cost of my first DVD player, the DVL 909 LD/DVD combo bought for $2500 in 1998 and aren't that much more than the $1900 I paid for the Pioneer 969 in 2004.  My view is that if I'm going to get into HD, I'm going to make sure all titles are available to me (which is also why I bought the US players, particularly the Panasonic which is region coded).  I'm not going to sit around and whinge when I can't get Toy Story on HD DVD or Back to the Future on Blu-Ray.  Life is too short.  A lot of the antipathy towards Blu-Ray, I believe, stems from the fact that Sony and Fox are trenchant in their support of the format and people with HD DVD players unwilling to invest in Blu-Ray want titles from these studios but know that it's highly unlikely that they'll see them anytime in the forseeable future (I'm guessing mid-2008 at the earliest).  We'll see what happens when Sony announce the Spiderman movies and Fox the Alien movies, almost certainly next year.  There's less hand wringing from Blu-Ray supporters, because only one studio is a hold out, Universal, and they have stated that if Blu-Ray takes off, they'll move across to the format as well.

If one format wins out, then I'll have a nice museum piece.  It's not a big deal to me.  The HD-A1 is already a far superior upscaling player to the Panasonic S97 (which I never much cared for, to be honest) and is on par with the (still $1500) 969/989 that on this point alone, it was worth the purchase (as I have a significant collection of R1 DVDs that aren't going anywhere soon).  I'm hoping the Panasonic is the equal in this regard, for as much as I love the image from the HD-A1 it sure is a pain to use at times.

[Highjinx]

alebonau, on Nov 18 2006, 08:03 AM, said:

as I mentironed back here  

http://www.dtvforum....&...st&p=532231

think its because theres 30+ hd-dvd owners and not sure how many 360 owners on this site yet no-one it seems as yet that owns a ps3 and think only one identified blu-ray owner. Not seen one local user comment on this site re blu-ray or ps3. its no wonder things can look a bit one sided that way. I think it can go either way too. bigest prob hd-dvd has is dont see anyone bar tosh putting a player out, yet seems a few other brands bar sony seem to have a player out or in the wings.

but I ask the question again why no posts from local blu-ray or ps3 owners ?. I'd like to read some of their comments ?

and ps Highjinx I dont think you can whinge about irrational anti-sony vibe with your irrantional sony rantings !  

"but I ask the question again why no posts from local blu-ray or ps3 owners ?. I'd like to read some of their comments ?"

We had one here (alexortega, I think) who imported a Panasonic from the US.....but he stated there appears to be an anti BluRay vibe here and haven't seen him back since.

Al, in six months or so be prepaired to embrace Blu. So start with neutral comments now..........it's to your advantage.   

[Jace]

momaw, on Nov 17 2006, 11:26 PM, said:

no comparisons made (except a reference to price).  Just answering another members question on panasonic pricing since I had some experience in actually looking to buy.  Also gave some info that I think is important to anyone considering the pana unit.  It is important to that if you buy an import of this unit that you know you are locked to region A.  If you want to buy titles here (and as I said we have a good line-up announced) then importing may not be a good thing.  It is also important to know that the highdef audio codecs are not yet available on the machine but will be via a firmware upgrade.

Only new films are region locked (at least from Sony and Disney; Fox will probably region lock everything, as they were the studio who demanded region coding).  I've not seen any titles released here that I would consider buying over those released in the US (Hostel and Exorcism of Emily Rose are both Sony titles in the US, as well, but I wouldn't touch either with a barge poll, regardless of format).  The fact is, if you're going to buy a region locked Blu-Ray player, you'd be far better off buying one from the US than Australia (particularly as the Panasonic player can be had for over $600 cheaper in the US than in Australia, where the cheapest price I have seen is $2300).  Long term, Blu-Ray will likely have far better support in the US than here.