BluRay DVD players versus digital video players?

[robc]

My wife and I are thinking of buying a BluRay DVD player because we enjoy watching at least one movie per week on our HDTV. However, a friend of mine suggested that BluRay players aren't worth the investment now because the rental industry is trending towards digital distribution of movies. He suggested to to hold off and instead buy a cheaper digital video player ($100.00) from Netflix or Amazon in 6 months or so when HD digital movie distribution by Amazon and Netflix is expanded.

Any opinions from BluRay or digital video player users?

I'm pretty much a cheap bastard and if a $300 - 500 BluRay is past its prime or will be in three years or less I might as well buy a $100 digital video player and use the savings on rentals.

 

[StephenM]

Do you have a fiber optic connection to your home?

A blu ray disk is up to 50 giga byte. Do you know how long it would take for a typical DSL or cable connection to download 25 - 50 giga bytes worth of a movie?

Just to keep the math simple and since I have no idea how fast your internet connection is, try 10,000 to 20,000 minutes. Even if I am pessimistic by 4x on your internet download speed, you are still talking about a long time. Not to mention maxing out your internet connection in the mean time so other things are more or less unusable.

I have no doubt that in another decade most of us will be doing exactly as you describe, but I'd like to watch a few movies between now and then and I hate to wait. LOL!!

Sony blu-rays are available now for a little over $200 and they are hardly know as the cheap brand. Last Christmas season, there were brands selling for $125. Are you really that cheap?

 

[cableguy]

wait till Christmas and then get a blue ray that does digital video playing too there are several on the market my best guess is they will be in the 200 to 250 range this Christmas

 

[TheEagleKeeper]

Yeah but any rental downloaded will have to be viewed in a certain amount of time. Plus you have to wait for it to be downloaded. And when that happens, there's likely to be a certain amount of data that will inhibit your playback. You may get some lost audio or video. At least w/ a BR player you have everything. I'm just concerned about compressed data that will limit playback full potential. I buy only newly released movies on BR that I have not seen & even those have to be worth it imo. Plus the DTS-HD and DolbyHD is great if you have the right equipment.