So I just bought an HD TV and I am in the market for HD movies =] I was wondering if I should go for a HDDVD player or BluRay? And what player would you guys recommend? Is the PS3 really the best BluRay player out there?

just to push :

what is the cheapest player for both format ?

199$ HD DVD

399$ Playstation 3

I would personally go for Blu-ray (i.e. PS3) because of the greater studio support to the format, and the fact that almost all electronics manufacturers are in on it.

But to be honest, format wars are bad.

If you would absolutely without a doubt purchase a PS3 for its games eventually anyway, you might want to purchase it now. But Nimsim is largely incorrect about studio support. With Paramount and Dreamworks onside, HD DVD can easily hold its own for the foreseeable future (TRANSFORMERS & SHREK 3). But in any case the $199 HD DVD (or better ones for around $250) are a fantastic option as they are cheap and like all players, come with at least five free HD DVD movies.

I'd get the $400 PS3 when it comes out in a week. I'm really happy with the blu ray functionality and the selection is really nice. I'd recommend Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut and Planet Earth as great reference discs. Also check out F4: RotSS and Underworld 2 as the picture and sound on those two are amazing and they're exclusive. Plus Spidey and the Pirates movies as well as Pixar's selection when they debut this month.

Only thing that annoys me is no transformers.

Plus, you get a game console as well with the PS3. Even if your not into games its still a great value.

i'm gonna get a HD player. Since i think they are a better value.


Then later a PS3 when the good games come out.

The ps3 is an excellent player. You really don't know until you've used one. The machine upscales movies to 1080p, loads BD-roms faster than any other Blu-Ray player on the market (both HD DVD and Blu-Ray players load the discs painfully slow at this point), and is continually receiving new features via firmware updates.

The A/V features of the ps3 are still expected to increase 30-40%, actually.

Now, in regards to HD vs BD, there are many aspects of each you have to look at, from price, to content, to CE support, to likelihood of survival. This isn't like the console wars. If you were asking which system you should buy, I'd just say get the one that has the most games you want.

Let me breakdown the format war into various categories for you:

Content/Studio support

BD Exclusive Studios:

Fox
Sony Pictures (including MGM and Columbia Tri-Star)
Disney (including Buena Vista)
Lionsgate

HD exclusive Studios:

Universal Studios
Paramount/Dreamworks (however, P/D just recently went exclusive, and all of their HD releases pre-Blades of Glory can still be found on Blu-Ray)

Neutral Studios:

Warner

Unknowns:

New Line Cinema

Price

Hardware prices:

Cheapest HD DVD player: $198 Toshiba A2 on sale at Wal-mart in November.

Cheapest Blu-Ray player: 40gb ps3 $399 on sale in November.

Software prices:

Software prices for the most part are pretty even between the two formats. However, Fox's releases (Blu-Ray) tend to have abnormally high prices, and many HD DVD discs are released on combo DVD/HD DVD discs, raising the price $5. For example, Warner's 300 costs $28 for the HD DVD version on Amazon, but only $23 for the Blu-Ray version on Amazon.

CE Manufacturer Support

HD DVD:

Toshiba is currently the sole producer of HD DVD players, aside from a very pricey Onkyo unit.

Blu-Ray:

Currently Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, Philips, and Sony all have Blu-Ray players on the market.

Dual-format:

Samsung and LG both have dual-formatplayers on the market.

Likelihood of Survival

North America:

Currently, Blu-Ray enjoys a 2:1 software sales lead over HD DVD for the entire year of 2007 in the US.

Japan:

Blu-Ray has over 90% marketshare in Japan.

EU and others:

HDTV penetration in the EU is almost non-existant at this time, however, in the market that is there, it seems that Blu-Ray is winning 4:1.

All in all, it seems that Blu-Ray is here to stay, especially with the 40gb ps3s coming to market. HD DVD still has a chance to fail, but it could survive, creating a dual format world.

If I had to recommend a format, I'd go with Blu-Ray. Personally, I'd look at what movies you like, what studios they are from, and what format those studios support.

As for New Line, they claim to be dual-format, but they seem to favor Blu-Ray, for unknown reasons. See this thread I made on the subject.

How much is a hybrid player? (HDDVD and Bluray)

The LG Super Multi Blue dual format player is $600 at Amazon.com. I must warn you about this player. LG wasn't able to get the player cleared by the DVD forum, and as such it does not have the HD DVD logo on it, and cannot play any HD DVD iHD interactive features. It can only decode the video itself, and nothing else.

I'm not sure how much the Samsung dual-format player costs. I think they are waiting for BD-Java 1.1 before releasing it.