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I'm pretty tech savvy. I write code. I have a half-decent living room setup, with an HDTV and surround sound. I have an Xbox 360. I get the latest gear when it

I'm pretty tech savvy. I write code. I have a half-decent living room setup, with an HDTV and surround sound. I have an Xbox 360. I get the latest gear when it tickles my fancy. New technology does not scare me. And I have absolutely zero urge to buy a Blu-Ray player. None at all. And I don't expect that to change any time soon. DVDs are good enough on the rare I occasion I need them. Netflix Watch Instantly is awesome. I'm at the point where if I want to watch something I can't stream from Netflix I say fuck it and watch something else. Marco's right to be skeptical of the next generation of physical media distribution. That game is going to be over inside of five years.

billpaetzke 16y ago
>if I want to watch something I can't stream from Netflix I say fuck it and watch something else Right on. Except I'll still buy the DVD for a foreign film. Netflix Instant doesn't seem to have enough of the ones I want (i.e. Y Tu Mama, Tambien). Renting movies on discs is so old school. Who today wants to deal with something that's all scratched to hell?
- gcheong 16y ago
  I also go for the DVD when you can only get the dubbed versions of foreign films (mainly things like anime) on instant.
- bjhess 16y ago
  BluRay has scratch resistance built into the spec. Get one from Netflix and you'll notice a surprising lack of scratches.
seanalltogether 16y ago
I'm all the above and I love my Blu-Ray player. Netflix Watch instantly is full of mediocre B-rated movies. Good for background noise on a saturday afternoon, yet too boring for night time viewing. DVDs are decent but all my movie purchases or netflix rentals these days are Blu rays. I refuse to purchase drm time bombs from itunes or amazon.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- sev 16y ago
  Netflix Watch Instantly is full of mediocre B-rated movies. Even the foreign film selection isn't as good as I had expected it to be, considering how horrible it's A-rated movie selection is. And about BluRays vs. DVDs. There is no comparison if you care about picture quality & movie experience, while trying to own the movie. Try watching the first 20 minutes of Dark Knight on BluRay on a decent quality screen at 120HZ, then watch it on DVD. You will buy a BluRay player.
  - gm 16y ago
    Amen. Like "Once you had black, you never go back" (lol), once you've seen a movie in full HD, normal resolution just sucks...
- PaulHoule 16y ago
  DVDs are OK, but Blu-Ray players and discs are finally getting affordable, and they are a real improvement. I'm particularly interested in Blu-Ray disks for data because I do projects today that involve burning 10-30 DVDs and my life would be easier with fewer disks. Someday I'm going to replace my old PPC Mac Mini, and once choice I'd consider is a new Mac Mini -- it's in a wonderful form factor that fits right under my HDTV. Although I live in an average sized house, I'm very sensitive to the volume that my possessions take up, so it would be sweet to have a Blu-Ray player inside a Mac Mini, rather than having to find a spot to stash a bulky Blu-Ray player next to the game system and other paraphernalia that's around the TV.
- acdha 16y ago
  I'm trying not to sound like a troll here but: why are you comfortable buying DRM time-bombs in fragile plastic form? I think Apple or Amazon's DRM servers are equally likely to be viable 10 years from now.
  - Maakuth 16y ago
sliverstorm 16y ago
Blu-Ray was good for one thing, and one thing only. Watching Planet Earth on my roommate's 42" (with 8-speaker surround)
- fullmoon 16y ago
  No, you are utterly wrong, and here’s why: There is also BBC Life.
  - heyitsnick 16y ago
    You might want to keep your eyes out for the Human Planet blueray release. Wikipedia says region 1 comes out on April 26th[1]. I've just finished watching all 8 parts; it was mindblowing throughout for it's stories and exquisitely shot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Planet#DVD_and_Blu-ray_release http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Planet#DVD_and_Blu-ray_re...
16s 16y ago
I've noticed that some large retailers put out new releases on blue-ray and hold DVDs for later release (two or three weeks later). A local Walmart close to me does that. So If I don't own a blue-ray player and I want to buy a new release, I have to wait longer to get the DVD or purchase a blue-ray player.
epc 16y ago
I have two Blu–Ray players, both of which are gathering dust. I stopped buying Blu-ray discs after one of the players warned that it needed to be upgraded to play the disc, and the other player simply wouldn't play the disc. I don't care what the underlying reasons are, I'm just not interested in playing the upgrade game with a consumer device. We've gone back to buying DVDs which we can rip to watch on the device of our choice, or we watch video on demand from Amazon/Netflix/etc.
- anigbrowl 16y ago
  Let me get this straight - you would rather treat the machine as obsolete and not use it any more than extend its features by upgrading it? I don't know what sort of Blu-Ray player you have, but both the ps3 and the netflix-capable thing my BiL has include a network connection port around the back. This strikes me as far superior to the old approach where you had to take a buggy or outdated device back to a dealer for a replacement, or sell/donate your existing model to someone if you wanted the improved model. Upgradeable firmware extends the life of the product you bought, generally at zero $ cost and requiring only a few minutes of your time. As a kid I started hacking before I knew the name of the activity, because I liked finding out how things worked and was surprised to discover that many cheap consumer devices had the same components and functionality as higher priced ones, just disabled by a jumper or solder bridge on a circuit board. Later I discovered that many digital devices came with replaceable EPROMs and that carrying out the replacement required only a miniature screwdriver and a little patience. A good chunk of my career has revolved around selling or developing or consulting on making products more modular and user-configurable and arguing against the inherently wasteful approach of planned obsolescence. The increasing popularity of network connections on video players, DVRs, and consoles has been a big factor in getting streaming services like Netflix from concept into reality, since most people don't want to build video servers of their own. I can see why you're pissed off with the blu-ray player that just won't play the disc; it's bad standard setting/QA not to have any kind of fallback handling. But your other player is upgradeable precisely so as to avoid this kind of problem. I bet that was even one of the selling points in the product description. I'm baffled that you consider this so much hassle you would prefer to use an inferior technology.

billpaetzke 16y ago

>if I want to watch something I can't stream from Netflix I say fuck it and watch something else Right on. Except I'll still buy the DVD for a foreign film. Netflix Instant doesn't seem to have enough of the ones I want (i.e. Y Tu Mama, Tambien). Renting movies on discs is so old school. Who today wants to deal with something that's all scratched to hell?

gcheong 16y ago
I also go for the DVD when you can only get the dubbed versions of foreign films (mainly things like anime) on instant.
bjhess 16y ago
BluRay has scratch resistance built into the spec. Get one from Netflix and you'll notice a surprising lack of scratches.

seanalltogether 16y ago

I'm all the above and I love my Blu-Ray player. Netflix Watch instantly is full of mediocre B-rated movies. Good for background noise on a saturday afternoon, yet too boring for night time viewing. DVDs are decent but all my movie purchases or netflix rentals these days are Blu rays. I refuse to purchase drm time bombs from itunes or amazon.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
sev 16y ago
Netflix Watch Instantly is full of mediocre B-rated movies. Even the foreign film selection isn't as good as I had expected it to be, considering how horrible it's A-rated movie selection is. And about BluRays vs. DVDs. There is no comparison if you care about picture quality & movie experience, while trying to own the movie. Try watching the first 20 minutes of Dark Knight on BluRay on a decent quality screen at 120HZ, then watch it on DVD. You will buy a BluRay player.
- gm 16y ago
  Amen. Like "Once you had black, you never go back" (lol), once you've seen a movie in full HD, normal resolution just sucks...
PaulHoule 16y ago
DVDs are OK, but Blu-Ray players and discs are finally getting affordable, and they are a real improvement. I'm particularly interested in Blu-Ray disks for data because I do projects today that involve burning 10-30 DVDs and my life would be easier with fewer disks. Someday I'm going to replace my old PPC Mac Mini, and once choice I'd consider is a new Mac Mini -- it's in a wonderful form factor that fits right under my HDTV. Although I live in an average sized house, I'm very sensitive to the volume that my possessions take up, so it would be sweet to have a Blu-Ray player inside a Mac Mini, rather than having to find a spot to stash a bulky Blu-Ray player next to the game system and other paraphernalia that's around the TV.
acdha 16y ago
I'm trying not to sound like a troll here but: why are you comfortable buying DRM time-bombs in fragile plastic form? I think Apple or Amazon's DRM servers are equally likely to be viable 10 years from now.
- Maakuth 16y ago

sliverstorm 16y ago

Blu-Ray was good for one thing, and one thing only. Watching Planet Earth on my roommate's 42" (with 8-speaker surround)

fullmoon 16y ago
No, you are utterly wrong, and here’s why: There is also BBC Life.
- heyitsnick 16y ago
  You might want to keep your eyes out for the Human Planet blueray release. Wikipedia says region 1 comes out on April 26th[1]. I've just finished watching all 8 parts; it was mindblowing throughout for it's stories and exquisitely shot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Planet#DVD_and_Blu-ray_release http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Planet#DVD_and_Blu-ray_re...

16s 16y ago

I've noticed that some large retailers put out new releases on blue-ray and hold DVDs for later release (two or three weeks later). A local Walmart close to me does that. So If I don't own a blue-ray player and I want to buy a new release, I have to wait longer to get the DVD or purchase a blue-ray player.

epc 16y ago

I have two Blu–Ray players, both of which are gathering dust. I stopped buying Blu-ray discs after one of the players warned that it needed to be upgraded to play the disc, and the other player simply wouldn't play the disc. I don't care what the underlying reasons are, I'm just not interested in playing the upgrade game with a consumer device. We've gone back to buying DVDs which we can rip to watch on the device of our choice, or we watch video on demand from Amazon/Netflix/etc.

anigbrowl 16y ago
Let me get this straight - you would rather treat the machine as obsolete and not use it any more than extend its features by upgrading it? I don't know what sort of Blu-Ray player you have, but both the ps3 and the netflix-capable thing my BiL has include a network connection port around the back. This strikes me as far superior to the old approach where you had to take a buggy or outdated device back to a dealer for a replacement, or sell/donate your existing model to someone if you wanted the improved model. Upgradeable firmware extends the life of the product you bought, generally at zero $ cost and requiring only a few minutes of your time. As a kid I started hacking before I knew the name of the activity, because I liked finding out how things worked and was surprised to discover that many cheap consumer devices had the same components and functionality as higher priced ones, just disabled by a jumper or solder bridge on a circuit board. Later I discovered that many digital devices came with replaceable EPROMs and that carrying out the replacement required only a miniature screwdriver and a little patience. A good chunk of my career has revolved around selling or developing or consulting on making products more modular and user-configurable and arguing against the inherently wasteful approach of planned obsolescence. The increasing popularity of network connections on video players, DVRs, and consoles has been a big factor in getting streaming services like Netflix from concept into reality, since most people don't want to build video servers of their own. I can see why you're pissed off with the blu-ray player that just won't play the disc; it's bad standard setting/QA not to have any kind of fallback handling. But your other player is upgradeable precisely so as to avoid this kind of problem. I bet that was even one of the selling points in the product description. I'm baffled that you consider this so much hassle you would prefer to use an inferior technology.