The Samsung BD-P1400/XEU Blu-ray High Definition Player

Now that HD-DVD has finally bitten the dust its being reported by UK merchants Play.com and Dixons that consumer interest in Blu-Ray players has spiked significantly. Not sure how much of this interest has converted into actual sales of the hardware, although a quick browse around Dixons website reveals that they don’t actually have many of them in stock. Although Play do have a couple available for reasonably good prices too. The Samsung BD-P1400/XEU Blu-ray High Definition Player is currently in stock for a mere £199, and while its not without its reported flaws, this is currently the best price around for those wishing to dip their toes into an emerging market. It critics complain about slow loading speeds and the fact that out of the box it ony supports Blu-ray Profile 1.0 - although there a downloadable update on Samsung’s website to remedy this. Counter that with what you get when you actually get to watch a Blu Ray movie in all its glory and some faults coud be worth living with for the time being. But if you’re patient and can wait a month or two then I’m sure it wont be long before Budget players start to flood the shelves, just as DVD players did 4 or 5 years ago.

Buy the Samsung BD-P1400/XEU Blu Ray Player from Play.com today.

Blu Ray Movies - Buy 2 Get 1 Free at Amazon

As you know a HDTV is nothing without a decent HD source, and HD sources dont come any better than those on a Blu-Ray Disc. With the price of Blu-Ray hardware tumbling all the time, it follows that Bu-Ray movies will also start to enter consumer thoughts as the price of discs takes a dip in the war between HD formats, where Blu-Ray and HD-DVD struggle for supremacy. In the run up to the Christmas period Amazon are bolstering the cause of Blu-Ray with an exciting 3 Blu-Ray DVDs for the price of 2 offer. Titles incude:

• Casino Royale [Blu-Ray]
• Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (30th Anniversary Ulitmate Edition) [Blu-ray]
• Spider-Man 3 [Blu-ray]
• Hostel Part II [Blu-ray]
• Open Season [Blu-ray]

As well as many others.
Check out Amazons Buy 2 Blu-Ray Discs get 1 Free offer today

Pioneer BDP-LX70 Bluray player

Now the thing about bluray players is this: they are so damned expensive, even the launch of Sony’s troubled PS3 has done little to alleviate this situation. The PS3 weighs in at around £400 and as such is the cheapest way at the time of writing to dip your toes into the blu-ray market, but even that is more than twice as much as the cheapest HD-DVD player out there. So the £1000 price tag on this new player from Pioneer is eye-watering, but not entirely surprising. Out of the box, the machine looks sleek and exhibits a solid build quality as you’d expect from a premium player. Connectivity is good, and includes HDMI 1.2 output, component video, S-video and Composite video output, as well as 5.1 channel audio out for delivering TrueHD audio to appropriate external kit. In addition Pioneer have included a LAN connection, which is supposed to make it easier to stream audio and video from a networked PC. Siginificantly the HDMI output is only version 1.2, unlike the PS3 and a number of HD-DVD players which include HDMI1.3 output. However this deck does make up for this initial disappointment by allowing video to be carried in the much vaunted 1080p/24fps format that is native to the majority of movies when transfered to disc. Obviously Pioneer have done this to complement their recent range of TVs designed to to allow uncompromised playback of 24fps sources.

However, there is more disappointment to come. It emerges that the LX70 is not compatible with the recent BD 1.1 profile, which will be mandatory on all Blu-ray players from October 2007. Which means you may find it wont play some of the Java driven ‘Extra’ features set to be included on future discs. If this sort of thing doesn’t bother you however and all you’re interested in the the movie experience then happily the LX70 delivers big time. Picture quality is reported as crisp, clean and smooth and colors are strong and vivid, while still being natural and beautifully edged.

Buy the Pioneer BDP-LX70 from Comet Today

Blockbuster to back Bluray

Blockbuster have caused a bit a stir in the the war between the rival High Definition formats, HD DVD and Bluray by announcing that they will exclusively stock Bluray titles, leaving HD DVD out in the cold. Blockbuster claim this is a commercial decision, stating that consumers have consistently chosen Bluray over HD DVD in the 250 stores where both have been available. The limited choice of titles on HD DVD is also thought to be a factor. The HD DVD camp have come out fighting claiming that the move is short sighted on the part of Blockbuster, reasoning that the popularity of Blu-ray in 2007 has been down to the release of such titles as Casino Royale and, um Spider-man, exclusively on Blu-ray. Time will tell whether this is the first nail in the coffin of HD DVD or whether Bill Gates will just open his own chain of HD DVD stores.