Bit the Bullet: Blu-Ray Player Acquired

[LarryFlowers]

I swore I wasn't going to do this, but I bought a Blu-Ray player.

My primary interest is movies and I am pretty spoiled by extensive 1080P testing. I have been a subscriber to Premium Channels so I was getting HD there as well. I personally believe that streaming and/or downloadable HD is the future for movies but we aren't quite there yet.

I had recently had the experience of Netflix streaming over the XBox 360 in HD which is very good, but the library is limited just now. This is understandable, if you put a movie like say, Ironman, on the system you could end up with nothing but people screaming while you work out the bugs. They are taking a slow approach as I am sure they are watching the bandwidth and server issues.

So I made a decision to drop the premium channels on DirecTV. The real reason I had them was more out of habit and the desire to see the movies I watched already on DVD in HD.

I did my homework and purchased the Samsung BD-P2500 (which also has the Netflix built in) from a company that I hadn't done business with before and I got a little nervous at one point, but they came thru and delivered the goods.

When I unpacked it I hooked an HDMI Cable to it and a network cable running to my HR23-700's network sharing port and plugged it in. By the time I got to my chair and got the TV up the Samsung had already found the network, detected new software and asked to download it. This process took a while which makes me think they probably replaced the entire firmware set, but it finished and was ready to go. I purchased a copy of 'Cloverfield" in Blu-Ray so I would have something to test with when the unit arrived and the picture was superb. Very pleased with the Samsung. I also watched a standard DVD which it did an excellent job of upconverting. I watched a Netflix HD episode of "Heroes" which appeared a little better than it did on the XBox 360.. purely an initial observation.

Recently there has been a lot of Interent chatter about unhappiness with Netflix with regard to Blu-Ray, with users reporting long waits for new releases. I have seen screen captures posted of user queues with "long wait" all over the place. This concerned me. Netflix only charged $1 extra per month for access to the Blu-Ray library, which is nice but I don't see it as enormously productive in covering the cost of acquiring Blu-Ray titles.

I went to my Netflix que and did the conversion to Blu-Ray, then went thru the entire Netflix Blu-Ray library and selected a bunch of titles that I would like to rewatch as Blu-Ray titles.

There were three new releases in my Que for this week and I got 2 of them, which is better than I expected based on what I had read, but I am concerned as to what happens when people open their brand new Blu-Ray players under the tree Christmas morning and begin to tax the Netflix library. I can only hope that they are already building it up to compensate.

At this point I am pleased with the decision I have made. I like the hardware and the movies look superb. The Netflix streaming is working very well. I have no reason as yet, to be concerned with Netflix, but we will see.

[dave29]

im glad to here that you are happy with the 2500. i recently moved my sony 300 from the living room to the bedroom and replaced it with a sony 350(very nice machine). i have been kicking around the idea of getting a sammy 2500 to put in the living room(due to netflix hd streaming) and moving the 350 somewhere else. when samsung released the first software for netflix it sounded like there were some problems, but it seems like you had a very good experience. i think you just helped me make my decision on the 2500:)

[Nick]

Thanks for the write-up, Larry. Valuable information for those of us who are about ready to yank the chain and move on up to the Eastside..

[smiddy]

Whoa Larry, thanks for the writeup. I may have to do as Dave did, move mine around for a NetFlix box...

[hdtvfan0001]

Congrats Larry....welcome to the 21st century. :D

I've got two of them, and enjoy a ton of Blu Ray movie viewing. :)

[Hansen]

Blu ray is awesome. We have 3 players. The Net Flix stuff sounds inviting. I tried the Blockbuster movie service about a year ago. During the free trial period it was great. I had short to non-existant waits and even when the que said it was a long wait they still showed up pretty quickly. Then the trial ran out and I purchased a subscription. After that my positive experience went downhill and my waits became long and I never got movies. I cancelled. I don't know for sure but it sure did seem like they played a bait and switch - great service during trial period (probably have you coded to receive preferential treatment) and then when your sold and actually pay for the service, they change something in how quick you get movies. That's probably not the reality but it's what my customer experience felt like. Maybe I will try net flix with the streaming.

[BattleZone]

I don't know for sure but it sure did seem like they played a bait and switch - great service during trial period (probably have you coded to receive preferential treatment) and then when your sold and actually pay for the service, they change something in how quick you get movies. That's probably not the reality but it's what my customer experience felt like. Maybe I will try net flix with the streaming.

Both NetFlix and Blockbuster are known for exactly what you describe: priority for new customers (ala a "honeymoon period"), and then the service slows.

Having said that, I expect to see the overall rate of conversion to Blu-Ray to accelerate. This is really going to be the year that Blu-Ray takes off.

[xIsamuTM]

I wand a bluray drive for the sake of storing data.

[hdtvfan0001]

Both NetFlix and Blockbuster are known for exactly what you describe: priority for new customers (ala a "honeymoon period"), and then the service slows.

Having said that, I expect to see the overall rate of conversion to Blu-Ray to accelerate. This is really going to be the year that Blu-Ray takes off.
Agree.

That said....Blockbuster has a much better record of having more (than Netflix) Blu Ray disks in stock, and not sending out damaged one like Netflix does with regularity.

I know folks who rent from each and one who rents from both...and all of them confirm Blockbuster has more and sends out less bad ones.

Sales of BD disks themselves are rapidly growing as well, now that a larger base of players are out there, and you can get deals on new releases.

There are now about 1100 titles out there (compared to 17,000 standard DVDs), with another 300 expected out 1Q 2009. By the end of 2009, the forecasts I've seen indicate there will be about 3000-3400 Blu ray titles out then.

This past week, BD sales made up 14% of all DVD sales, whereas it was about 7% just 90 days ago.

[deltafowler]

I'm looking at them, but leaning towards Panasonic, Philips, and Denon for their support of DivX.
I am disappointed to see that they are moving away from keeping DivX playback on a USB port though.

[LarryFlowers]

Blu-Ray wont be able to live on just "new releases" and will have to build back catalog to thrive. Moviephiles are going to want their catalog titles in Blu-Ray.

As I went through the list of available titles from Netflix, I very quickly picked up on some titles that I wanted to see again in Blu-Ray. As an example, the movie "How the West Was Won is available on Blu Ray. I saw that movie as a kid in the old Cinerama format, and a little later on a 70mm screen. Every time I have seen it since has been a poor substitute.

There looks to be about 16 "new releases" is Blu Ray format in January, so back catalog would be a great filler.


Agree.

That said....Blockbuster has a much better record of having more (than Netflix) Blu Ray disks in stock, and not sending out damaged one like Netflix does with regularity.

I know folks who rent from each and one who rents from both...and all of them confirm Blockbuster has more and sends out less bad ones.

Sales of BD disks themselves are rapidly growing as well, now that a larger base of players are out there, and you can get deals on new releases.

There are now about 1100 titles out there (compared to 17,000 standard DVDs), with another 300 expected out 1Q 2009. By the end of 2009, the forecasts I've seen indicate there will be about 3000-3400 Blu ray titles out then.

This past week, BD sales made up 14% of all DVD sales, whereas it was about 7% just 90 days ago.

[rudeney]

Blu-Ray wont be able to live on just "new releases" and will have to build back catalog to thrive. Moviephiles are going to want their catalog titles in Blu-Ray.

And I believe prices need to drop. Not everyone likes to rent - some of us like to "own" our collection and avoid the hassles of renting. With DVD new releases in the $16 range (and bins of $5-$10 movies), I was quick to buy anything that I even remotely though I might want to watch. With Blu-Ray new releases being about 50% pricier, I now think before I buy and than means I buy fewer titles.

[Stuart Sweet]

If you happen to peruse Amazon.com, you'll find quite a few titles under $20. Yes, they are still pricier than their DVD counterparts. You are right about that.

However, I'm seeing a lot of parallels between this and DVD adoption. If anything, I'm perceiving the price drops to be faster on Blu-Ray disks than they were on DVDs. I remember when Titanic finally came out on DVD (6-8 months after VHS) it was still much pricier than I'd have liked. Now, Target in particular has some new releases for only $2-3 more on BD than DVD. The big price differential is in catalog titles, where DVD has gotten down to $5.

[BattleZone]

Folks forget that DVD new releases were often MORE expensive, even before adjusting for inflation. I remember very well new blockbuster DVDs being priced at $35-40 in the early years of DVD.

I agree with Stuart that, in fact, the price of Blu-Rays has fallen faster than DVDs did 8 years ago, both new releases and catalog titles, which were also pricey in the early years of DVD.

DVDs are cheap because DVDs are on their way out as a mainstream format. People forget how utterly entrenched VHS was, and still how quickly it was abandoned once folks switched to DVD. The switch to Blu-Ray will be much more painless, since Blu-Ray players will still play DVDs.

I doubt you'll see DVD-only players available AT ALL for Christmas 2010, except possibly for some cheap no-name portables. There hasn't been any money in them for a couple of years already, and manufacturers can't wait to drop them in favor of something they can make more of a profit on.

[spartanstew]

Also, if you're patient and shop around, cheaper BD discs can be found. I only have about 30 Blu Ray's, but I'm averaging just over $15 per disc (mostly mainstream, new releases). Of course, it's still more expensive than SD, where my average cost for over 800 DVD's is just over $7 (thanks CH).

[Stuart Sweet]

I doubt you'll see DVD-only players available AT ALL for Christmas 2010, except possibly for some cheap no-name portables. There hasn't been any money in them for a couple of years already, and manufacturers can't wait to drop them in favor of something they can make more of a profit on.

IIP, we're already almost there. It's hard to find the DVD-only players at my local Best Buy or Target, and at both the no-name (or 2nd tier) brands are more prominent than the mainstream ones.

[bobukcat]

Agree.

That said....Blockbuster has a much better record of having more (than Netflix) Blu Ray disks in stock, and not sending out damaged one like Netflix does with regularity.

I know folks who rent from each and one who rents from both...and all of them confirm Blockbuster has more and sends out less bad ones.

Sales of BD disks themselves are rapidly growing as well, now that a larger base of players are out there, and you can get deals on new releases.

There are now about 1100 titles out there (compared to 17,000 standard DVDs), with another 300 expected out 1Q 2009. By the end of 2009, the forecasts I've seen indicate there will be about 3000-3400 Blu ray titles out then.

This past week, BD sales made up 14% of all DVD sales, whereas it was about 7% just 90 days ago.

I've been a Netflix customer since I bought my first DVD player (I was a little late to that game, but still probably 8 + years now) and have always had nothing but stellar service from them, in fact transit times have decreased during that time as they built a DC much closer to me. I went BLU 2 Christmases ago and continue to experience great service from them in that regard. I think I've received maybe 3 non-playable DVDs the entire time and have yet to receive a damaged BD from them. Occasionally I'll have to wait a short period for the movie I want but it's not as bad as it was for new release DVDs 6 or 7 years ago and I usually get new releases the same week they are issued.

I've not tried BB because they've ticked me off too many times over the years in their stores.

[hdtvfan0001]

Curious how Larry is now doing with his new Blu Ray player and also his rental BD disks....since some time has passed.