Find a Blu-Ray Player

Now that the format war is over, we can all get down to buying a Blu-Ray player.

Blu-ray.com has a nice list of players, both currently shipping models and upcoming models.

You can sort the list by release date, manufacturer and there is a very helpful comparison chart showing all the features of all the models.

(Blu-ray.com is in no way associated with or endorsed by the Blu-Ray Disc Association.)

The Format War Is Over, Blu-Ray Wins!

Toshiba announced this morning that:

[I]t will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.

So that’s it, after years of fighting, untold sums of money and strong consumer apathy, the HD format war is over. Toshiba also said they have no plans to support Blu-Ray, but will continue to support the existing HD-DVD players.

The end came swiftly for HD-DVD with the recent defection of several big-name retailers and distributors.

I’m sure there will be plenty of speculation about whether the “best” format won or not. In the end, they were actually pretty similar in quality and functionality and it was only because of the stubbornness and egos of the participants that a compromise couldn’t be reached in the early stages of this battle.

This battle was a major factor in the slow adoption of HD. Consumers were afraid of making the wrong choice, and neither format was mature enough to offer all it promised; so they did nothing. Hopefully this will finally get reluctant consumers off the fence and purchasing Blu-Ray players, which will encourage studios and other content producers to ramp-up their creation and production of all types of HD content.

It would also be great if the Blu-Ray camp now worked hard on getting their players to be fully compatible and support all the features and functions they promoted the format with.

1 Year And Counting

Today marks one year until the February 17, 2009 demise of analog broadcasting.

There seems to be a lot of confusion among some people about what is really happening.

Most people won’t need to do anything.

The only thing that is changing is that analog over-the-air broadcasts are stopping. If you get your television signals from cable, satellite, fiber, Internet or some method other than rabbit ears or a roof antenna, you don’t need to do anything. Also, if you have a set with a digital tuner (one bought in the past year or so) and you use an antenna, you probably still don’t need to do anything.

The people who do need to act are those who get over-the-air broadcasts AND have an analog-only TV. You have a few options. The simplest, but most expensive, option is to buy a new TV with a digital tuner. You can also switch to cable or satellite TV service. You can also purchase a converter box that will take the digital over-the-air signals and convert them to analog so they can be displayed on your analog set. If you choose to buy a new TV or a converter and get digital over-the-air broadcasts, there is a possibility you will need to get a new antenna. Many older analog antennas will not adequately handle the digital broadcast signals.

If you want to get a converter box the government will give you a $40 coupon towards the purchase of one. There are some restrictions and time limits, so be sure you know the box you want is available before getting your coupon.

There is always the possibility the cutover date will be extended, but I wouldn’t count on it. There are a lot of very rich powerful interests involved in this, not the least of which is the multi-billion dollar auction of the airwaves that will be released. None of those parties is interested in waiting one extra day to start making money off their new slice of the spectrum.

Netflix picks Blu-ray

The death knell for HD-DVD continues as Netflix decides to no longer stock HD-DVD and only stock Blu-Ray discs.

How many more defectors will it take before the HD-DVD organization throws in the towel?