Sony wins one.

[Gary Keedwell]

Looks like it is official....Blu- Ray has won.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1643184420080216?sp=true

Kinda makes up for Betamax, huh?
Gary

[Gary Keedwell]

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s225/BobbyG53/HD.jpg I couldn't resist.:)

Gary

[Jim Becker]

Yes, it's quite interesting how fast this seems to have resolved. I think the combination of Walmart, Tar-zeh and Netflix jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon was the final kicker on this.

Oh, and I ordered my Sharp Blu-ray player last night as a matter of fact... :) ...gotta love President's Weekend sales... :D

[Mitchell Andrus]

Yes, it's quite interesting how fast this seems to have resolved. I think the combination of Walmart, Tar-zeh and Netflix jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon was the final kicker on this.

Oh, and I ordered my Sharp Blu-ray player last night as a matter of fact... :) ...gotta love President's Weekend sales... :D

Jim, 'ja get that 52"? You're gonna love the 'Ray.

I guess we'll just be saying "HD" now, kinda like we don't say 'color' TV.

[Tim Morton]

]

Oh, and I ordered my Sharp Blu-ray player last night as a matter of fact... :) ...gotta love President's Weekend sales... :D

I see the Sharp Aquos BDHP20U is $308 at amazon....I guess once I watch all the HD-dvd movies out there it will be time to switch:D Hopefully by then everything will be downloadable:cool:

Waiting for appleTV to mature a bit more:D

[Tom Godley]

Do not underestimate Sony's ability to screw things up. :)

[Greg Peterson]

The mega retailers fell into line once Warner Bros. decided to switch from HD to Blu-ray last month. Shortly after WB announced they were abandoning the HD DVD format the retailers jumped on the band wagon.

With pending termination of analog broadcast signals and the format war over, it looks like this years holiday shopping season will be ripe with HD / Blu-ray offerings.

[Jim Becker]

Jim, 'ja get that 52"? You're gonna love the 'Ray.

Not yet. I'm not ready for it in the addition (they just started painting and the floors still need finished, etc.) but soon. I do have my wall mounts arriving from Lee Valley, oh...probably tomorrow. It's hard to postpone, however, as I know of a deal this week on the 82 series at 6th Ave for $2288. :o But I'll probably still end up with the 64 series at a similar price from Amazon with free white glove shipping when I'm able to take delivery. Can't do that right now for practical reasons.


I see the Sharp Aquos BDHP20U is $308 at amazon....

Yes, that seems to be the going price right now and is what I paid. It has nice comments about it and given I'm going with a Sharp LCD, it was a choice that will make the whole remote control situation easier to manage. I'll have a chance to play with it a little, too.

Of course, the price will probably drop again soon! LOL

[Stuart Johnson]

Okay, I'm confused about the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray thing. What happens to the millions of DVD players and hard drives going forward. In time will we all need to purchase new disks or will the none HD play in the new Blu-Ray machines?

Personally I don't give a flip for the HD experience. It is very rare for us to order any of the newer movies and I doubt the likes of "The African Queen" or the Charlie Chan "The Black Camel" will every be released in HD.

[Greg Peterson]

The Blu-ray and HD machines are backward compatible with existing DVD's. In time even the latest, greatest formats become obsolete.

Blu-ray (and HD) essentially provide greater storage capacity. How that capacity is used will be up to the owner of the content being stored. While older movies may not up-convert to high def, you may see several movies on one disc. So you may eventually see The African Queen, Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon on one disc, provided there is ample storage capacity for these three movies.

[Jim Becker]

In addition to Greg's comments most of the Blu-ray (and HD-DVD) players do improve how older matieral looks through their up-conversion features. (variable quality since this is a mathmatical interpolation process that actually creates more pixels between the material being accessed on the DVD and the display showing the material--whomever writes a better algorythm to do this will create a better result) So African Queen will likely look better when played on a high-def player and routed to a high-def capable display via HDMI connections. (or sometimes component connections, too)

[John Hixon]

Soon there might come a time where one might want to buy an HD-DVD player, just to upgrade the output on standard DVD discs. I suspect the "obsolete" players will get real cheap in the near future.

[Gary Keedwell]

Soon there might come a time where one might want to buy an HD-DVD player, just to upgrade the output on standard DVD discs. I suspect the "obsolete" players will get real cheap in the near future.
Yea.....the HD-DVD will be at your local flea market...right next to the Betamax....real cheap.

Gary

[Jim Becker]

Soon there might come a time where one might want to buy an HD-DVD player, just to upgrade the output on standard DVD discs. I suspect the "obsolete" players will get real cheap in the near future.

John, I "think" you meant "HD-DVD" in a generic sense, rather than more specific. Best to leave out the hyphen in that case. "HD-DVD" is a specific type of technology...the one that "lost" the battle as of this week to Blu-ray. But yes, upgrading to an HD format DVD player will provide you with benefits in improving picture quality of your existing SD DVDs, but ONLY if you have an HD television and hook up via HDMI. (or sometimes component cables on some systems) If you have a regular 480 line TV or one that doesn't accept HDMI input, there will be no real benefit to buying a Blu-ray player right now.

The "experts" are actually suggesting folks hold off on buying a Blu-ray player a little longer if there is not an "immediate need". They expect that in the next 6-9 mos that there will be feature additions to the format and also that prices will settle down a little as more producers jump on to the format. Current afterage prices for Blu-ray machines is close to $400, with good deals at just over $300...considerably more than Toshiba was/is dumping the HD-DVD format machines as we speak.

-------
BTW, I just read on MSNBC.com that Universal has now announced they are flipping to Blu-ray. The other two or three studios that have been in the HD-DVD exclusive camp have not yet commented...

[Jason Christenson]

Siiiiiiiiiiigh...this all just makes me more tempted to go out and get a PS3.

Jason

[Jim Becker]

Siiiiiiiiiiigh...this all just makes me more tempted to go out and get a PS3.

I am thinking that you are not alone in that based on some of the articles I've read. PSIII is likely to be hot, both due to the entertainment value and, the, umm...entertainment value...with the associated Blu-ray capability.

[Chad Voller]

Blu-Ray, although the winner, is far from perfect. Their copy protection is too strict for the home videographer, who wants to burn to Blu-Ray, but the burners that once worked, no longer do after the beta ended on the Blu-Ray format. You can burn to a data disc, but not all players support the format. PS3 can play from a data disc, but you have to locate it in the folder to play, there's no autoplay. And if you want to watch Blu-Ray on a Mac, prepare to buy a new Intel Mac, as that is the only Mac that will support the Blu-Ray drive for movie playback. You can buy Blu-Ray drives for the older Macs, but that is for data storage only.

Blu-Ray has an even bigger opponent IMO, downloadable movies/TV. I haven't purchased a movie since XBox Live offered movies for download (rent). Although they are currently only in 720P, their quality far surpasses Comcast OnDemand's HD quality. There's no compression artifacts, and it is by far clearer. And as the time goes by and bandwidth increases, so will the resolution to 1080P. Oh, and you can download a good chunk of everyday TV on Live, via a la carte. I'm debating to ditch Comcast all together, except they don't have some of the Discovery channels available yet on Live. The only reason I keep Comcast.

I don't really purchase movies anymore because of this and I get bored if I watch them more than once anyway. A real waste of money in my opinion. But if you do buy and collect movies, Blu-Ray is what you'll have to get.

[Jim Becker]

Chad, you're absolutely correct that ultimately, downloadable content is the "real" threat for any kind of hardware based media player. That said, the percentage of folks who have or will have availablity of bandwidth high enough to effectively enjoy downloadable media "regularly" is still below the tipping point. And the whole net neutrality thing also comes into play at that point because your ISP may very well "prefer" to be the one supplying you with said content.
------

Oh, Professor Dr. SWMBO just reported to me that "a sexy little BluRay thingie" (her words) arrived today... :)

[Tim Morton]

Chad, you're absolutely correct that ultimately, downloadable content is the "real" threat for any kind of hardware based media player. That said, the percentage of folks who have or will have availablity of bandwidth high enough to effectively enjoy downloadable media "regularly" is still below the tipping point. And the whole net neutrality thing also comes into play at that point because your ISP may very well "prefer" to be the one supplying you with said content.
------

Oh, Professor Dr. SWMBO just reported to me that "a sexy little BluRay thingie" (her words) arrived today... :)

You should look into buying (or renting ) "Heroes"...i am completely hooked on it right now...disk 6 should arrive via netflix tomorow....oh...wait....thats only availble on HDDVD;)

[Chad Voller]

I've watched 'Heroes' from the beginning. Very good show, better than any other comic book type show out there. Puts 'Smallville' to shame. I like the first season the best as they learn they have powers. But I still DVR it as soon as it comes out just in case I aint home. You can also watch it on SciFi HD in marathon runs if you missed any of the old ones. NBC.com also plays it. But of course it is fairly compressed there. It's odd I never read a comic book in my life, but I enjoy the interpretation of it in movies/tv. I just hate reading, last book I read was in 6th grade, 'The Outsiders'.

Heroes is produced by Universal Studios, who are not supporting HD-DVD anymore, so everything you find now in HD-DVD from Universal, will be made into Blu-Ray. So next season, you'll either have to watch it when it's on, on the internet, or buy a Blu-Ray player. :)

[Matt Mutus]

The "experts" are actually suggesting folks hold off on buying a Blu-ray player a little longer if there is not an "immediate need". They expect that in the next 6-9 mos that there will be feature additions to the format and also that prices will settle down a little as more producers jump on to the format. Current afterage prices for Blu-ray machines is close to $400, with good deals at just over $300...considerably more than Toshiba was/is dumping the HD-DVD format machines as we speak.

I have my eye on the Panasonic DMP-BD50 (http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=810) for that reason too. Should be available sometime this spring. If you've not taken the plunge yet... it is worth waiting right now.

[Jim Becker]

I did "plunge" Matt, but that machine can always be moved to the MBR later when Sharp brings out an updated machine with the bells and whistles. I needed a new DVD machine anyway and adding a little more for the Sharp BluRay unit made sense rather than buying another regular, but upscaling, machine for the new HT setup in the addition. I want to stay with Sharp for the match between the LCD and the player relative to control logic. Just plain easier at this point...

[Tim Morton]

I've watched 'Heroes' from the beginning. Very good show, better than any other comic book type show out there. Puts 'Smallville' to shame. I like the first season the best as they learn they have powers. But I still DVR it as soon as it comes out just in case I aint home. You can also watch it on SciFi HD in marathon runs if you missed any of the old ones. NBC.com also plays it. But of course it is fairly compressed there. It's odd I never read a comic book in my life, but I enjoy the interpretation of it in movies/tv. I just hate reading, last book I read was in 6th grade, 'The Outsiders'.

Heroes is produced by Universal Studios, who are not supporting HD-DVD anymore, so everything you find now in HD-DVD from Universal, will be made into Blu-Ray. So next season, you'll either have to watch it when it's on, on the internet, or buy a Blu-Ray player. :)

Disk 6 arrived today:D It was a tough 4 days waiting to see what happened to Mohinder, who was kind of in a spot of trouble (no spoiler) when disk 5 ended:eek: GREAT show!!!

[Matt Mutus]

I did "plunge" Matt, but that machine can always be moved to the MBR later when Sharp brings out an updated machine with the bells and whistles.

Then you defintely don't mind waiting...... unlike me! :D

[Gary Keedwell]

Disk 6 arrived today:D It was a tough 4 days waiting to see what happened to Mohinder, who was kind of in a spot of trouble (no spoiler) when disk 5 ended:eek: GREAT show!!!
Tim....How many years does Hero's have under it's belt? What year are you watching?
Gary ( Go Pats);)

[Tim Morton]

Tim....How many years does Hero's have under it's belt? What year are you watching?
Gary ( Go Pats);)

Last season was the first season....Netflix has season 1 available in HDDVD. Its basically 7 discs with 4 episodes per disk no commercials. Although I think disk 7 is only 1 episode ...the season finale. It is very good TV...I would suggest renting disk one and giving it a spin...you will either love it or hate it. Season two is currently scheduled to resume soon, I think they have shown 5 or six episodes before the strike, but most people say that it is not nearly as watch-able as season 1.

I never watched a second of it last year....but a friend turned me on to it a couple weeks ago.

OH..I am watching season 1.

[Eric Franklin]

Last season was the first season....Netflix has season 1 available in HDDVD. Its basically 7 discs with 4 episodes per disk no commercials. Although I think disk 7 is only 1 episode ...the season finale. It is very good TV...I would suggest renting disk one and giving it a spin...you will either love it or hate it. Season two is currently scheduled to resume soon, I think they have shown 5 or six episodes before the strike, but most people say that it is not nearly as watch-able as season 1.

I never watched a second of it last year....but a friend turned me on to it a couple weeks ago.

OH..I am watching season 1.

I watched all of season 1 and 2. Season 2 started slow but did better towards the end.

I pretty sure that season 2 is complete. They reworked the last episode of season 2 to make it the season finally.

I'm just bummed that 24 isn't returning till January '09.

[Gary Keedwell]

I'm just curious about something: I heard that the Playstation 3 can play Blu ray movies. I saw a PS3 for $400 the other nite. Does this PS3 play the movies as well as a regular Blu-ray player? If it plays just as well and cost about the same.....wouldn't it be a no-brainer to buy the PS3 instead?:confused:

Gary

[Eric Franklin]

I'm just curious about something: I heard that the Playstation 3 can play Blu ray movies. I saw a PS3 for $400 the other nite. Does this PS3 play the movies as well as a regular Blu-ray player? If it plays just as well and cost about the same.....wouldn't it be a no-brainer to buy the PS3 instead?:confused:

Gary

Yes the PS3 will play both blu-ray and dvd movies. According to this article from Arstechnica (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080118-new-nlu-ray-2-0-spec-makes-ps3-the-most-future-proof-player.html), the PS3 is the only blu-ray player on the market that will be upgradable to the 2.0 spec.

If I was in the market for a blu-ray player right now, it would be a PS3.

[Tim Morton]

I'm just curious about something: I heard that the Playstation 3 can play Blu ray movies. I saw a PS3 for $400 the other nite. Does this PS3 play the movies as well as a regular Blu-ray player? If it plays just as well and cost about the same.....wouldn't it be a no-brainer to buy the PS3 instead?:confused:

Gary

right now...the PS3 is the BEST blu-ray player on the market. Problem is that finding one for $400 in stock is almost impossible. If I found one I might buy it. I have seem them for $499 and $599.

[Gary Keedwell]

Yes the PS3 will play both blu-ray and dvd movies. According to this article from Arstechnica (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080118-new-nlu-ray-2-0-spec-makes-ps3-the-most-future-proof-player.html), the PS3 is the only blu-ray player on the market that will be upgradable to the 2.0 spec.

If I was in the market for a blu-ray player right now, it would be a PS3.
WOW...Thanks for the link, Eric. I now have a better understanding of the whole phenomenon.;)

Gary

[Gary Keedwell]

right now...the PS3 is the BEST blu-ray player on the market. Problem is that finding one for $400 in stock is almost impossible. If I found one I might buy it. I have seem them for $499 and $599.
Gee...I saw one at our local Target the other nite for $400. Maybe we'll head over there and see if it is still there.:eek: LOML and I were tire kicking during Christmas season but was overwhelmed at all the games out there. This could be the one we pull the trigger with.
Gary

[Tim Morton]

Gee...I saw one at our local Target the other nite for $400. Maybe we'll head over there and see if it is still there.:eek: LOML and I were tire kicking during Christmas season but was overwhelmed at all the games out there. This could be the one we pull the trigger with.
Gary

I just checked amazon...and they are now saying they will be "in stock" today....at 399. Check to see if it includes an hdmi cable...and if not don't get sucked into buying a $100 cable. You can find great cables for under $10 online:-)

[Bruce Page]

Yes the PS3 will play both blu-ray and dvd movies. According to this article from Arstechnica (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080118-new-nlu-ray-2-0-spec-makes-ps3-the-most-future-proof-player.html), the PS3 is the only blu-ray player on the market that will be upgradable to the 2.0 spec.

If I was in the market for a blu-ray player right now, it would be a PS3.
Eric, thanks for the link, I found it very informative. Looking at several different makes of Blu-ray players it is interesting how many of them don’t even list which firmware profile the player is e.g. 1.0, 1.1, or 2.0. There are probably thousands of older Blu-ray players sitting on warehouse shelves….buyer beware.

[Gary Keedwell]

I just checked amazon...and they are now saying they will be "in stock" today....at 399. Check to see if it includes an hdmi cable...and if not don't get sucked into buying a $100 cable. You can find great cables for under $10 online:-)
Tim...been researching a little and found that not all PS3's are created equal. I'm seeing some that are 40 gb 60 gb and 80 gb????

GK

[Chad Voller]

You are seeing two different versions of the PS3. $399 has the 40 GB hard drive, and is missing a few features. The one for $499 is possibly the 80 GB hard drive version, with bluetooth, more USB ports, flash card reader... This one is harder to find. You can also find some 60 GB versions refurbished, which were the first release that they don't make any more because of some problems. (a Sony fan will deny this) You can also still find some 60GB versions sitting on shelves or on the internet.

The 60 GB version has hardware emulator for playing older PS2, PS1 games, and the 80 GB uses software emulation to do the job, and the 40 GB version can't play them from what I understand. So if you have PS2 games you want to play, you'll need the 80 or 60 GB version.

I have seen problems with the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player, but from what I understand, it's a problem with Sony's wireless controllers. You'll be watching a movie, then all of a sudden, it jumps to the next scene. You have to plug in the VERY short USB recharging cable to make sure it doesn't do this. This problem might have been fixed on newer versions of the PS3. You can get a remote for it, but will only work on the 60-80 GB versions, and it has to be a bluetooth remote.

Also make sure, that if you go ahead and buy the PS3, that you get the cables for a HD tv. They might include them now, but it was a huge complaint by consumers that spent $600-700 on a system, and no $15 video cables were included.

Everyone keeps saying that 2008 is the year for PS3, but so far I have only seen delays in games due to the memory limitations they put on game developers and Sony making update after update copying XBox's features. I'd wait a little longer until Sony finally figures out their rumble controllers and Playstation Home, and when developers finally figure out the PS3 hardware to a point where they can develop a game on time. Hopefully all of this by mid 2008.

[Gary Keedwell]

You are seeing two different versions of the PS3. $399 has the 40 GB hard drive, and is missing a few features. The one for $499 is possibly the 80 GB hard drive version, with bluetooth, more USB ports, flash card reader... This one is harder to find. You can also find some 60 GB versions refurbished, which were the first release that they don't make any more because of some problems. (a Sony fan will deny this) You can also still find some 60GB versions sitting on shelves or on the internet.

The 60 GB version has hardware emulator for playing older PS2, PS1 games, and the 80 GB uses software emulation to do the job, and the 40 GB version can't play them from what I understand. So if you have PS2 games you want to play, you'll need the 80 or 60 GB version.

I have seen problems with the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player, but from what I understand, it's a problem with Sony's wireless controllers. You'll be watching a movie, then all of a sudden, it jumps to the next scene. You have to plug in the VERY short USB recharging cable to make sure it doesn't do this. This problem might have been fixed on newer versions of the PS3. You can get a remote for it, but will only work on the 60-80 GB versions, and it has to be a bluetooth remote.

Also make sure, that if you go ahead and buy the PS3, that you get the cables for a HD tv. They might include them now, but it was a huge complaint by consumers that spent $600-700 on a system, and no $15 video cables were included.

Everyone keeps saying that 2008 is the year for PS3, but so far I have only seen delays in games due to the memory limitations they put on game developers and Sony making update after update copying XBox's features. I'd wait a little longer until Sony finally figures out their rumble controllers and Playstation Home, and when developers finally figure out the PS3 hardware to a point where they can develop a game on time. Hopefully all of this by mid 2008.
Thanks Chad..very informative post... I was very naive..I thought there was only one PS3.:o Well...gotta tell LOML that this could "take awhile":) Gary

[Tim Morton]

You are seeing two different versions of the PS3. $399 has the 40 GB hard drive, and is missing a few features. The one for $499 is possibly the 80 GB hard drive version, with bluetooth, more USB ports, flash card reader... This one is harder to find. You can also find some 60 GB versions refurbished, which were the first release that they don't make any more because of some problems. (a Sony fan will deny this) You can also still find some 60GB versions sitting on shelves or on the internet.

The 60 GB version has hardware emulator for playing older PS2, PS1 games, and the 80 GB uses software emulation to do the job, and the 40 GB version can't play them from what I understand. So if you have PS2 games you want to play, you'll need the 80 or 60 GB version.

I have seen problems with the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player, but from what I understand, it's a problem with Sony's wireless controllers. You'll be watching a movie, then all of a sudden, it jumps to the next scene. You have to plug in the VERY short USB recharging cable to make sure it doesn't do this. This problem might have been fixed on newer versions of the PS3. You can get a remote for it, but will only work on the 60-80 GB versions, and it has to be a bluetooth remote.

Also make sure, that if you go ahead and buy the PS3, that you get the cables for a HD tv. They might include them now, but it was a huge complaint by consumers that spent $600-700 on a system, and no $15 video cables were included.

Everyone keeps saying that 2008 is the year for PS3, but so far I have only seen delays in games due to the memory limitations they put on game developers and Sony making update after update copying XBox's features. I'd wait a little longer until Sony finally figures out their rumble controllers and Playstation Home, and when developers finally figure out the PS3 hardware to a point where they can develop a game on time. Hopefully all of this by mid 2008.

Chad:

That mostly all pertains to the gaming side of the machine correct? How would the 40 gig version that is more readily found compare to the others in terms of BD playback?

Question for gary would be....what hook up does your TV have(hdmi??) and what audio inputs does your receiver accept? I am guessing you do not own an hdmi receiver> But that you do have an hdmi television...

[Gary Keedwell]

Chad:

That mostly all pertains to the gaming side of the machine correct? How would the 40 gig version that is more readily found compare to the others in terms of BD playback?

Question for gary would be....what hook up does your TV have(hdmi??) and what audio inputs does your receiver accept? I am guessing you do not own an hdmi receiver> But that you do have an hdmi television...
I have a hdmi 1080P TV hooked up to a 1080p DVD player. The DVD player has the old red and white connections for my rather oldish receiver. I guess the PS3 doesn't have an outlet for the old receiver connections? We almost bought a new receiver when we purchased our new HD TV last spring. Boy..I'll tell ya...it never gets easy or cheap with this new stuff.
Gary

[Tim Morton]

I have a hdmi 1080P TV hooked up to a 1080p DVD player. The DVD player has the old red and white connections for my rather oldish receiver. I guess the PS3 doesn't have an outlet for the old receiver connections? We almost bought a new receiver when we purchased our new HD TV last spring. Boy..I'll tell ya...it never gets easy or cheap with this new stuff.
Gary

are you sure you have a 1080p dvd player? There are only a couple of them made. (I have one, the toshiba XA2). 1080p wou cld mean you have an HD-dvd player.

[Gary Keedwell]

1080 p up-conversion. Panasonic dvd s-53.

[Jim Becker]

One thing I've found to watch for is that for a receiver that handles HDMI is to be clear on how it works. Some are only pass-through (switching) and require you to use a separate connection for the audio. Others will not only pass through to the TV, but also extract the audio directly. I just had to send back a unit because I missed that distinction. It still would have "worked" but with my BluRay deck, I would have lost the 7.1 surround capability; it drops back to 5.1 using the optical audio output.

[Chad Voller]

Chad:

That mostly all pertains to the gaming side of the machine correct? How would the 40 gig version that is more readily found compare to the others in terms of BD playback?

Question for gary would be....what hook up does your TV have(hdmi??) and what audio inputs does your receiver accept? I am guessing you do not own an hdmi receiver> But that you do have an hdmi television...

There should be no difference on playback between the different versions, unless they decided to put different drives in. The main difference would be how you play the movie. If there's no bluetooth, you can't use a remote on the 40 GB version. I've done a little more research, some of it is conflicting. Some pages say that the 40GB does have bluetooth, allowing you to use the remote. I guess you'd have to check on the box at the store if it currently has bluetooth or doesn't. This might be a regional restriction for some countries.

Gary, if you are using the yellow, red and white cables (composite)because of your receiver, toss your receiver, or wire it up in the garage or basement :). Composite wiring setups don't send HD signals. You'll want your receiver to use at least Component wiring setup, which is being phased out because of lack of copyright protection. There should be wires available for the PS3 in Component, and HDMI, and possibly DVI. If you want to be up to date, HDMI is becoming the standard. I can't recall if the PS3 HDMI cables split the audio channel out or not. But you also have the choice of optical output for audio, which is how we had to hook my friends PS3 up to my home theatre setup. Using just the cables that he had, it would only play one channel of audio on my Hitachi 57". I don't have HDMI on my receiver, so we had to go directly to the TV, and optical cable for the audio to the receiver. I couldn't believe how clear the optical cable made the sound, there's no electrical interference with light :).

Of course, many receivers don't convert signals, say if you had HDMI going into the receiver, you can't output at Component to your TV, they have to be all the same connection types on some receivers. Input HDMI, output HDMI....

Another note, hopefully they changed how upscaling works for people who only have 1080i tv's, it was supposed to be a firmware update. The PS3 upscaling for older DVD's and games (on my buddies older PS3 anyway), only upscales to 1080P and 720P. If your PS3 is setup on the TV as 1080i, you'll be watching your DVD in 480P. Again, they were supposed to fix this via firmware update, but I haven't checked on if they did yet or not.

[Tim Morton]

One thing I've found to watch for is that for a receiver that handles HDMI is to be clear on how it works. Some are only pass-through (switching) and require you to use a separate connection for the audio. Others will not only pass through to the TV, but also extract the audio directly. I just had to send back a unit because I missed that distinction. It still would have "worked" but with my BluRay deck, I would have lost the 7.1 surround capability; it drops back to 5.1 using the optical audio output.

Don't be fooled into thinking you need Hdmi 1.3 yet Jim.....there is nothing even on the horizon to take advantage of that. For that matter there is only a few 7.1 movies out :) I'm not even sure Blu-ray is capable of outputting TrueHD audio yet...I haven't done any research into blu-ray.

A decent HDMI 1.2 receiver will give you many many years of satisfaction. I haven't even found the need yet to upgrade to an HDMI receiver...I send my video signals from the source components direct to my TV via hdmi and send the audio into the receiver via digital coax from my HD cable box and via optical and 7.1 analog from hd-dvd player....optical for sd movies and 7.1 analog for hd movies.

But chad is right...you want to chuck those red/white and yellow cables in the trash...and you do NOT want to run coax cable out of your cable box and into your tv either....you can't pass more than 480p thru cable....use component video or hdmi.

BTW i am currently building a sonosub for my HT....its almost a woodworking project :-)

[Gary Keedwell]

BTW i am currently building a sonosub for my HT....its almost a woodworking project :-)
HT??? sonosub??? Right now I'm only using red-white cable to go from DVD player to Receiver. All the other connections are hdmi . Basically I was only wondering why anybody would buy a Blu Ray player ..when a PS3 will play just as good... plus you have the game option. I'm going to think long and hard before I dish out any $ for another DVD player.
Gary

[Tim Morton]

HT??? sonosub??? Right now I'm only using red-white cable to go from DVD player to Receiver. All the other connections are hdmi . Basically I was only wondering why anybody would buy a Blu Ray player ..when a PS3 will play just as good... plus you have the game option. I'm going to think long and hard before I dish out any $ for another DVD player.
Gary

HT = home theater
BD = blu ray disk
sonosub =large subwoofer built from a 24" wide sonotube

[Gary Keedwell]

HT = home theater
BD = blu ray disk
sonosub =large subwoofer built from a 24" wide sonotube
The sonosub sounds interesting....ya gonna posts some pixs (pictures);)

Gary

[Chad Voller]

Sonosub? I'd like to see your finished results as well, or even in progress pics. I'm in an apartment currently, so I can't even use my Klipsch 10" Sub, and my bass has to be turned down so they neighbors don't complain. But when I eventually get out, I'd like to redo my entire setup. If this sonosub cranks out accurate deep bass, I'd like to look into it. Sounds interesting.