Just dropping by

[bjs8579]

Hello fellow blu-ray fans,

I'm new to this site, but not really that new to blu-ray. I've been following all of the war debate for some time, and some of it is quite amusing. Anyway, I've got the ol' ps3 with 2 games (more soon hopefully), and about 32 blu-ray movies at this point. When I was deciding on an HDM format to get, I put in a lot of research. Of course price played a factor, as well as support, features, etc. I chose to get the ps3, because from what I was hearing, it actually turned out to be one of the best blu-ray players out there. Sure I could have went with HD DVD, but the money would all have been a wash in the end; I would not be saving a significant amount of money either way. As an early adopter, I realized that chosing either one would money spending some cash on some of the "finer things in life." Ok, so price really isn't a factor anymore between two (sure, spend $100 more on a blu-ray player, but to get an equally comparable hd dvd player, you'll be spending the same amount, sorry, i don't want 1080i). Next up, movies and support - I do all of this research, and really only see hd dvd players from one manufacturer (minus the combo player), and a lot more blu-ray players from more manufacturers. This must be telling me something. I then look at movies. At the time Universal was the only major HD DVD exclusive, while Disney, Fox, etc. were blu-ray exclusive with some neutral studio support. Ok, I'll miss out on a few either way at this point, but blu-ray has more studio support. More players, more studio support, more manufacturer support. I'm starting to really lean blu. After this I really went in depth to check out the specs of the different formats, to see which has more potential in the future (since we still are at a somewhat early stage in the game). More disc capacity for blu-ray, more data bandwidth for blu-ray, avc encoding on some good titles. Not a lot of interactivity at this point, but that's really not a big concern for me, since I never used the special features on any dvd, which I own a lot of. I want to watch good movies in high-definition with high-definition sound; that's really all I ask for. Anyway, as the fog clears, I realized that blu-ray was the only logical choice. It is selling better, has more potential for future growth, has more studio and manufacturer support, has higher all around capacities, etc. For some of those universal titles, I can wait til they come out on blu-ray. So, I decided to get the ps3, and stick with blu-ray only; I don't want to waste my money on a fledgling format. Something else to look forward to - as time goes on, blu-ray will get even better because it has a lot of room for growth. I think Toshiba will hold on to the bitter end (missing out on the future high-def royalties will be a change from all of the dvd royalties they pulled in), and so will some of the more hard-core hd dvd fans. I'm not really a "war" kind of guy, but at the same time, I'm not going to throw away my money on something that's moving out the door, so if I want high-def to have a future, I have to support blu-ray, it's the only choice (and not a bad one either).

Yeah, that's kind of long, as are my other posts on other forums around the net, but I just wanted to let you know the process that I went through when deciding to finally buy into HDM. It probably isn't to dissimilar from many others' experiences.