When Blu-ray and HD DVD first made their appearance I told everyone who would listen to hold off on purchasing either. Now, a year and a half later, I’m still preaching this gospel but because of recent developments with regard to the possible demise of HD DVD, you might be thinking now is the time to pull the trigger on a Blu-ray player.
If you really, really need a Blu-ray player, wait until the spring or summer. By then standalone players will start coming down in price and the selection of Blu-ray movies will start to hit a tipping point at your local video rental store (Currently there are only 450 Blu-ray titles available).
There is an exception to this rule and it’s the Play Station 3.
You can buy a PS3 tomorrow and it will be one of the best additions to your home theatre instantly. For about $400 you can add a solid video gaming platform and a network media player all in one. But more than that you can add a Blu-ray player that won’t be obsolete in a month.
Obsolete, you ask? Yes, my friend, the Blu-ray player you’ve already bought or are eyeing in that big box store right now will be old news in a few months. Currently all Blu-ray players are based on Profile 1.0 while a few players are based on Profile 1.1. A few 1.0 players will be able to upgrade to 1.1 via their ethernet port but many won’t be able to.
The PS3 is currently the only Blu-ray player that will be able to upgrade to the soon-to-be-released Profile 2.0. Profile 2.0 will allow users to watch picture in picture commentaries along with accessing online content and other features that Profile 1.0 and 1.1 will never be able to touch.
Lastly, the PS3 does an absolutely fabulous job of up-converting your DVD movies to hi-def resolutions bringing new life to those DVDs that have been sitting on your shelf unwatched.
Now is a great time to buy a PS3, too. There’s no indication there will be a significant price drop in the PS3 department anytime soon having just introduced new models and price drops in August 2007. But large screen televisions have nowhere to go in price but down. I’m a big fan of Sharp LCD televisions and right now at some big box stores, my personal fav, the LC52D64U is on sale for just $2,499! Great price for a 52″ television … but I suspect it’ll be better come May.
