Indeed…tell me how things turned out….we are 2 months after the end of the format war and there seems to be a conclusion already about what this outcome meant for us as consumers? First of all it is discussion about whether there has been a price increase at all(http://www.dailytech.com/Bluray+Player+Prices+NOT+Rising/article11087.htm).
Second: If it can be confirmed that there has been an increase do you think there would not have been a similar increase in HD-DVDs extremely aggresive pricing?
Third: thinking back in history about other introductions of other formats….what in history tells us that BluRay equipment will continue to rise in price in the months and years to come?

To me most of the critics seems to be “victims” of the “sour grapes” analogy…. It’s much to early to conclude about BluRay.

Maybe some confusion about the different formats belongs to the past, BUT SEE HOW THINGS TURNED OUT.

Monopoly is NOT Good (and I am not talking about the game)

After BluRay won the format war, PS3 will increase their sales because more people will see the benefit of both a gaming console and a BR-player. More PS3s means even more volume and support for BR. Increased volumes will mean cheaper production which ultimately will affect the prices to consumer in a positive way.

Whether I give my money to Sony or someone else is frankly something I couldn’t care less about as long as I get the product I expect.

I also agree with several folks here that HD-DVD losing doesn’t necessarily equate to a win for Blu-Ray. Personally I’ve been indifferent to the format war. All that matters to me is getting all my content in HD rather than SD. I’m not a big fan of optical media for a number of reasons (frailty, drive noise, etc), but would like to see at least one good HD format prevail soon, and last for longer than DVD and VHS did. At this point I don’t really see much need to improve HD any further. Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD before it died) and any other 1080p technologies are more than good enough to meet the standard of high quality content for a great many years to come. More resolution would just be wasted. Same for audio, which is already at 7.1 and lossless.

I’ve been reading since 2000 that digital downloads were going to take over, but I have yet to see that come 100% true. I’m not sure I like the idea of DRM crippled rentals, which is what it would all end up being if we end up going that way. While I’ve never been crazy about optical media, I would still rather own a disc that I can watch at any time I want, as many times as I want, with whomever I want, anywhere I want, all for a one time (hopefully reasonable) fee.

Paid downloads and VOD, being the DRM laden rentals they will inevitably be, just won’t be able to guarantee the same things. On top of that, I do not relish the idea of having to sign up at lots of different sites, paying varying fees at each of those sites, and/or having to hunt high and low for the movies and shows that interest me. When I think of a digital download future, I see chaos. Hopefully I will be wrong should it finally come to pass.

I’ve been saving up for a dual format HD-DVD / Blu-Ray player for a year now. I had the Samsung BD-UP5000 for a short while, but it was junk IMHO. Future support was looking increasingly flaky, and there were rumors of a replacement already in the works the same month the 5000 had been released. Now that HD-DVD is dead, dual format players are likely out of the question.

I currently own the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, even though I knew deep down that Blu-Ray would likely win. Blockbuster had chosen to rent out HD-DVD’s back in early 2007, and the add-on seemed like a cheap no-brainer solution to getting HD content on my HDTV. I’m now waiting for a good Blu-Ray solution to come out. I want one that can bitstream all the current audio formats via HDMI and support profile 2.0 for future-proofness, but also be able to decode all those formats internally and send them out via 7.1 analog. That way I won’t need to buy a new amp seeing as mine already has 7.1 analog inputs. Sadly, all the Blu-Ray players made up until now have problems doing either (or both) of those things properly, especially when it comes to the new lossless codecs from DTS and Dolby. Properly constructed players likely won’t be available until fall of this year, which sucks, but thankfully I can download 720p x264 material in the interim thanks to RLSLOG and bittorrent.

Anyway, Sony is pushing prices up to make people buy more PS3s, which will lead them to game and buying expensive console games, and when they’re addicted they’ll buy Sony’s next gen console when it comes out, and…

Conglomeration ALWAYS loses. Sheeple need to think for yourselves and BOYCOTT!

http://www.dailytech.com/Bluray+Player+Prices+NOT+Rising/article11087.htm

I am not saying we are there yet, but on our way, with providers creating in dense populated areas services for telephone, internet and tv over high speed lines from 50mbit upwards, including settop standalone boxes for exact that purpose. after all, the companies will need a reason to sell new products to customers.