I saw blu-ray today

[Dominick22]

I went into the Magnolia center in a Best Buy to check it out and they had a 50 inch pioneer elite plasma fed by a signal coming from a pioneer elite blu-ray player.
It was amazing! I noticed the picture first and even commented to wife that I had never seen such a clear picture. Then I started looking for what was feeding it and BAM-it hit me!

My point is that for my initial view, I was impressed very much by blu-ray even though it was simply a demo disc!
Has anyone else seen the blu-ray?

Dominick

 

[Pcar928fan]

The first blu-ray players had some problems but now they seem to be on nearly the 2nd gen already and have them cleaned up so they can actually compete w/ the picture on the HD DVD players. Of course you can't go wrong w/ Pioneer Elite stuff anyway...some of the best pictures out there on those systems!

 

[Thai]

Blu-Ray is everywhere these days...at most high-end audio shops. The Pioneer Elite Blu-Ray is supposed to be the best Blu-Ray DVD player...again, supposedly better than Sony's, Samsung, and Panasonic. It is also the most expensive one (about $1500 MSRP), about $500 more than the other Blu-Ray players.

With so many companies supporting Blu-Ray, i think that Blu-Ray will win the war among the HD formats against Toshiba's HD-DVD.

 

[Thai]

Of course you can't go wrong w/ Pioneer Elite stuff anyway...some of the best pictures out there on those systems!

Well, i was just about to buy Pioneer Elite 46V DVD player yesterday until i did internet search on it. On AVS forum (i think), there is a huge discussion on how this DVD player has got bugs in it (many member awaiting Pioneer to fix it) and it just came out a few months ago. I ended up with Sony DVD player because of it's proven reliability (my brother has one that is trouble-free for over a year). Unfortunately, it's picture quality is slightly below that of my previous player, Denon 1930ci, which has tons of bugs in it (thus, i had to dump it). Denon 1930ci had freezing problems (1st one shut off forever...had to disassemble it to get DVD out; 2nd one froze intermittently) and lip-sync issues.

 

[attyonline]

No evidence that the Pioneer is better than either the Sony or Panasonic. Same company makes both the Sony and Pioneer. Neither can play CD. The Panasonic plays CD and DVD-A. The demo disk referred to looks great but is not representative of typical software available to the public. It is pumped up at maximum bit rate to look as good as possible. Early blu ray discs looked like crap, with soft picture only a step or so above standard DVD. Some newer discs look much better. Suggest you check out the blu ray forum at AVS for more in depth discussion of this

 

[Pcar928fan]

Not sure who sources what from whom, but it seems to me that just because a drive is sourced from the same place that alone does not make a great component. I don't think anyone 10 years ago would have really put a Hitachi TV up against anything else and said it was the best, but it was Hitachi that made the CRT "guns" for the multi award winning and always top of the pack Pioneer Elite RPTV's. That might be the same w/ the Sony and Pioneer stuff. Not that Sony is bad stuff mind you but I have read (just in general terms) more glowing reports on the Elite stuff.

Now this new player that is having problems that is to bad. Frankly I have not been following the Elite line of late and also they do tend to have problems on the first gen stuff (even when you pay Elite prices) which is to bad, but they do tend to put some really good pictures up on the screen...especially if it is an Elite screen w/ an Elite player. Just my experience here...

 

[attyonline]

Again, Elite always gets such reports by people who assume it is better, with no evidence other than the fact they bought one and don't want to look foolish The Elite can do 1080 p/ 24 fpc which the Sony cannot, but no other differences other than $500 more for the Elite. I will wait for the Secrets testing on the video performance of these machines to get an objective opinion on their performance. BTW, I think Sony makes both players at their factory.

 

[Rich]

The Elite can do 1080 p/ 24 fpc which the Sony cannot, but no other differences other than $500 more for the Elite.

I would say that is a pretty big difference, and at this stage of the game worth the price differential to a lot of folks.

Personally, I have never owned Pioneer Elite gear, but have auditioned it many times against other highly respected gear and have always been impressed with it. I do know that it gets a lot of respect from people in the industry that know what they are talking about. Now whether the average joe thinks their quality is worth the extra money, I can't say.

Sony is a little more all over the map in my experience. I think they are trying to be too many things to too many people. They make some really nice gear (particularly their Bravia video displays) but they also make some very mediocre gear.

I think it is kind of silly to hear people complaining about the problems with this or that new HD-DVD player or BD player. If you want to be an early adopter of technology, you are going to pay too much money for buggy gear -- that is simply the nature of the beast. If you want quality gear at a reasonable price, go out and by a nice regular DVD player and wait two to three years for them to get the kinks worked out of the new formats.

Preaching patience to audiophiles/videophiles -- I'm sure that's heresy.

 

[fubar1764]

With you there, Rich.

I'm going to be happy with plain jane DVDs (a lot of $ invested in the 200+ DVDs) and our DVDO scaler. I saw an HDDVD set up at the Smurf Village (Best Buy) and wasn't impressed. . .neither was the wife. Didn't look perceptibly better than our home set up. A side by side comparison would probably have shown that, but that also means it's not signficantly better (e.g. SD to ED, not ED to HD).

When they get the bugs out of HD or BlueRay, I'll pick up the set that wins the format wars. At this point, it looks like BlueRay since HD's vendor saturation seems low.

 

[attyonline]

I am inclined to wait too. However, when second gen players come out next summer/fall, it might be hard to resist.

 

[Reverb2009]

I am inclined to wait too. However, when second gen players come out next summer/fall, it might be hard to resist.

2nd Gen. HD DVD players are hitting stores now.

Samsung is excepted to announce there 2nd Gen. Blu-Ray player next month at CES'07.

 

[attyonline]

I am hoping for a Denon blu ray. I have a 2900 dvd player which is about three years old and it has done very well. Yamaha is also a possiblity.

 

[runnerlk]

2nd Gen. HD DVD players are hitting stores now.

Samsung is excepted to announce there 2nd Gen. Blu-Ray player next month at CES'07.

I have the Tosh A2 second gen HDDVD and the Panny Blu-Ray, the software in most cases is exceptional, there is an Eagles concert from Melbourne on HDDVD that is mind blowing the Hulk is also spectacular. On the BR side Pat Metheny just released his Way UP concert which is excellent. there were definitely issues with my first Tosh HDDVD player the A1, but the A2 is much better. Also have a PS3, but doing my best to not open until Christmas.

 

[Reverb2009]

I am hoping for a Denon blu ray. I have a 2900 dvd player which is about three years old and it has done very well. Yamaha is also a possiblity.

Don’t think you will see that any time soon. Denon has said they will wait to release a player till this war is over and a standard has been named. Or they could just release a player for whichever side they choose and most people will declare that the winning side.

 

[Reverb2009]

I have the Tosh A2 second gen HDDVD and the Panny Blu-Ray, the software in most cases is exceptional, there is an Eagles concert from Melbourne on HDDVD that is mind blowing the Hulk is also spectacular. On the BR side Pat Metheny just released his Way UP concert which is excellent. there were definitely issues with my first Tosh HDDVD player the A1, but the A2 is much better. Also have a PS3, but doing my best to not open until Christmas.

Congrats glad you like that A2, I thought about upgrading to the A2 but don’t want to give up my 5.1 analog outs till I get a pre-amp with HDMI. If I upgrade to a 1080p front projector next year I may get a XA2 for 1080p output over HDMI, but if not I will keep my A1 till 3rd generation comes out or a format winner is declared.

 

[runnerlk]

Congrats glad you like that A2, I thought about upgrading to the A2 but don’t want to give up my 5.1 analog outs till I get a pre-amp with HDMI. If I upgrade to a 1080p front projector next year I may get a XA2 for 1080p output over HDMI, but if not I will keep my A1 till 3rd generation comes out or a format winner is declared.

joe,

Does your A1 skip or lock up mine was horrible?

 

[Reverb2009]

joe,

Does your A1 skip or lock up mine was horrible?

Yes,

From time to time my A1 will skip and or lock up, unplugging it and rebooting seams to help. I did notice some disks are more prone to skipping/locking up then others. For example I have watched the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo drift about 5 or 6 time on my A1 and I have only made it one time threw without the HD-A1 locking up or skipping. I tried watching Tokyo drift a week ago and gave up finishing the movie after the forth lockup. Most of my movies I can make it threw without a single hick up.

 

[robertawillisjr]

I'll wait for either a universal or the survivor of the war. I am having too much fun listening to music.:musicnote:

 

[Pcar928fan]

I'll wait for either a universal or the survivor of the war. I am having too much fun listening to music.:musicnote:

I totally agree w/ that! Eventually someone will just make a system that can handle both BR and HD DVD...then someone else will make a REALLY GOOD one and I'll buy that one!

 

[fubar1764]

Pcar, nice ride!
Get an outboard scaler for your DVD player. The scaler will make your DVDs sing! And IMO, gets you about 80% visually to where HD dvds are. Best part, you don't have to part company with your current DVDs. I seriously doubt if we're going to take the plunge into HD dvds for another 10 years since we're so happy with our set-up. Until we can't find movies on DVD, we'll be keeping ours!