Although I have some passing interest in Blu-Ray, I am not so crazy about it. For starter, I HATE the regional protection scheme. If I paid for a movie, why should I be limited to allow to play it anywhere in the world?
Second, it seems the same greedy studios want to keep the Blu-Ray movie prices high to make extra profit. While I can see the Blu-Ray disc may cost a little more than regular DVD, it should not cost us the consumer 50%, 2X or even 3X more than DVD for the Blu-Ray. Yes, the Blu-Ray pictures may be shaper than DVD with better color too. But, with a decent upscale DVD player that cost as low as $70, average people will be hard pressed to spend more than $1 or $2 per movie for the difference.
Then there is the audio thing. While Blu-Ray supporters will point out that with Blu-Ray not only has better pictures but also has better sound track. While this claim may be true, for most of us it also means we need to spend more in order to “enjoy” this “improvement”. Why? Because most if not all the entrant to mid level Blu-Ray player does not have multi channel analog audio output and they will downgrade the quality before they send out to the optical or coaxial digital audio output. They will only output the “new and improved” sound track over HDMI output, which means unless you have a recent AV receiver at home, you are out of luck. Prepare to spend either for a $300+ player that has multi channel analog output or spend more to get a new receiver. To me, the HDMI or the HDCP DRM behind it is the most evil consumer electronics pushed to the public in recent years. It is designed to squeeze more money out of consumers.
Good thing is prices for both Blu-Ray, player and movies started to drop more significantly lately. Just last week Fry’s was selling Sony S360 Blu-Ray for $199 plus two free movies for the July 4th one day sale. I gave it a little thought but decided to pass as even at $199, the price is still too high, not to mention it does not have multi channel analog output and my receiver does not have HDMI input.
As recent as 7/7/2009, the cheapest Blu-Ray player my local Walmart was selling is a Magnavox Blu-Ray player for $168. This is a lousy price to say the least for a very basic player. But to my surprise, two days later the price for the same player is dropped to $98! Even the sales associate at the Walmart was surprised. Well, at this price point I finally broke down and thought I will give it a try. Although this is one more victory for the evil Blu-Ray alliance, the same Walmart associates commented he is waiting for the price to be $50. Take that.