blue ray vs HD dvd and home theater
 

I'm planning a new home theater in a few months and have been looking
at HTIB systems in the $500 price area. With blue ray and HD DVD
technologies I do not want a HTIB with a dvd player, so I guess I'm
better off getting everything separately. My questions a

Blue Ray or HD DVD...which one? Will one of them go the way of the
Betamax, or are both here to stay? Are there any significant price
differences? Will there be more players that will play either format?

Next question: Are there/will there be any HTIB systems WITH either
blue ray or HD DVD?

Thanks!!

Eddie G

blue ray vs HD dvd and home theater
 

On Sat, 06 Oct 2007 06:16:52 -0700, Eddie G wrote:

I'm planning a new home theater in a few months and have been looking
at HTIB systems in the $500 price area. With blue ray and HD DVD
technologies I do not want a HTIB with a dvd player, so I guess I'm
better off getting everything separately. My questions a

Blue Ray or HD DVD...which one? Will one of them go the way of the
Betamax, or are both here to stay?

Can you predict the future? I cannot.

Next question: Are there/will there be any HTIB systems WITH either
blue ray or HD DVD?

Eventually, as the prices lower.

Kal

blue ray vs HD dvd and home theater
 

On Sat, 06 Oct 2007 06:16:52 -0700, Eddie G wrote:

Blue Ray or HD DVD...which one?

I have both; and picture wise, can't see any difference whatsoever.

I chose to get 2 heavily discounted units, so I wouldn't have to worry
about the format wars.

A_C

blue ray vs HD dvd and home theater
 

On Oct 6, 9:16 am, Eddie G wrote:
I'm planning a new home theater in a few months and have been looking
at HTIB systems in the $500 price area. With blue ray and HD DVD
technologies I do not want a HTIB with a dvd player, so I guess I'm
better off getting everything separately. My questions a

Blue Ray or HD DVD...which one? Will one of them go the way of the
Betamax, or are both here to stay? Are there any significant price
differences? Will there be more players that will play either format?

Next question: Are there/will there be any HTIB systems WITH either
blue ray or HD DVD?

Thanks!!

Eddie G

The receiver for HTIB setups are frequently integrated with the
player, meaning you lose quite a lot of flexibility when you plan on
upgrading in the future i.e. you cannot connect another devide to it.
Also, given that any BR or HD-DVD HTIB would potentially have to
decode DD+/DTS-HD, it is NOT going to be anywhere near a cheap system
to begin with (which is kind of the price point HTIB tend to occupy),
so I doubt you will see one anytime soon - unless by HTIB you mean
ones which specifically only include the speakers/sub and not the
player and/or receiver.

As far as pricing goes, the entry-level Toshiba HD-DVD players have
been regularly selling at the $200 price point recently, so from the
perspective of pricing themselves into the mass-market, they're
certainly ahead of the BR camp in that respect.

blue ray vs HD dvd and home theater
 

On Oct 7, 2:12 pm, Terence wrote:
On Oct 6, 9:16 am, Eddie G wrote:

I'm planning a new home theater in a few months and have been looking
at HTIB systems in the $500 price area. With blue ray and HD DVD
technologies I do not want a HTIB with a dvd player, so I guess I'm
better off getting everything separately. My questions a

Blue Ray or HD DVD...which one? Will one of them go the way of the
Betamax, or are both here to stay? Are there any significant price
differences? Will there be more players that will play either format?

Next question: Are there/will there be any HTIB systems WITH either
blue ray or HD DVD?

Thanks!!

Eddie G

The receiver for HTIB setups are frequently integrated with the
player, meaning you lose quite a lot of flexibility when you plan on
upgrading in the future i.e. you cannot connect another devide to it.
Also, given that any BR or HD-DVD HTIB would potentially have to
decode DD+/DTS-HD, it is NOT going to be anywhere near a cheap system
to begin with (which is kind of the price point HTIB tend to occupy),
so I doubt you will see one anytime soon - unless by HTIB you mean
ones which specifically only include the speakers/sub and not the
player and/or receiver.

As far as pricing goes, the entry-level Toshiba HD-DVD players have
been regularly selling at the $200 price point recently, so from the
perspective of pricing themselves into the mass-market, they're
certainly ahead of the BR camp in that respect.

A customer recently went through the same issues when purchasing a new
home theater setup. They wanted a surround sound system so they bought
one from hhgregg at the same time as the TV. The one they bought was a
Magnavox HTIB system with built-in 5-disc DVD changer, and wireless
rear speakers. Long story short, they took it back when I told them it
wouldn't do surround sound for anything but the DVD's (it only has one
(1) stereo input, no digital inputs).
They ended up with an Onkyo HTIB (I forget the model) that includes a
receiver, 7 speakers, and an active sub (has its own power source and
amp). This unit was on sale at Circuit City at the time for $485. It
is an incredible system and has full component and HDMI video pass-
thru and switching built-in to it. It also has enough digital inputs
for her satellite box, TV, and DVD player (plus extras). I recommend
it, and its certainly within your price range.
Generally, I would not recommend a HTIB that has a DVD player built-
in, but you have already ruled that out anyway.

As far as HD formats go, that really depends on what you like. HD-DVD
seems to have an edge in price right now (cheaper discs, and generally
cheaper players), but support from studios is also important. If you
don't want to be stuck with a dead format, I recommend going HD-DVD
and buy the dual format discs. These have HD-DVD on one side, and
standard DVD on the other, effectively giving you an HD and an SD
version of the movie on one disc. That way if HD goes away, you can
always watch the DVD version on your upscaling blu-ray player. I don't
think either are going to go away though. There are already dual
format players out, so it shouldn't be an issue.