Meh. It's the new standard and it's HD. Regular DVDs look mediocre at best when upscaled, and since SDTVs are going to become less and less relevant in the years to come, it makes sense to invest in one at some point. Maybe not now if you're still watching things on a SDTV and don't want to spend the money, but in a few years, it won't make sense
not to have one. That is, unless there's some huge digital media revolution soon, which seems unlikely.
As for the points you posted...none of them really effect me, or the average consumer, so I don't really care.
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How old is your HDTV? If you bought it prior to 2005, and there are over 3 million of you who did, the MPAA thinks you shouldn't be able to watch HD movies in high definition. They are insisting that your TV supports digital encryption via an HDMI port or an HDCP-compliant DVI port, which these earlier TV's lack. If you have to stoop so low as to hook up your shiny new player via, God forbid, analog (component), the industry thinks you're not worthy. There's a fun little surprise they built in to Blu-ray and HD-DVD for people just like you, and it's called the Image Constaint Token. If it's enabled on a movie, and your connection does not support HDCP, then the movie is downsampled to 1/4 its native resolution, which is essentially the same as a standard DVD. While no movies have yet been released with the ICT enabled, know this: It will happen. It's just a matter of time.
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HD stuff looks blah through everything other than HDMI, so that doesn't bother me either. That's more a standard issue of early adoption than a problem with Blu-ray.
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Thinking about buying a new HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive for your computer? If you want to use it to watch movies, think again. You'll need to buy a lot more than just the drive. Remember, analog = BAD, digital encryption = GOOD. You'll need to open up that wallet of yours for a brand new HDCP-compliant video card, AND, an HDCP-compliant monitor. Notice the word compliant. That is very important. There are some products that just claim to be HDCP "compatible", but they will NOT work for viewing high definition movies.
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Why would people without HDCP-compliant cards even bother with a Blu-ray drive?
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AACS means that Blu-ray and HD-DVD will never be compatible with free software, affecting nearly everyone that wants to view these movies on their computer but isn't running Windows or Mac OS X. While this is a minority of computer users, they should not be ignored. Some might say history is doomed to repeat itself.
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This sucks for non-Windows/Mac users, but a ton of hardware and software fail to support other operating systems. Sad truth, really.
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Excited about Mandatory Managed Copy? Don't be. While it theoretically allows things such as making legal backups and streaming content from one part of your house to another, the studios have the option of charging you money to do that. Current HD players don't even support MMC. Your player also has to be connected to the internet. That's not inherently bad, but is certainly open for abuse. What if you don't have an available internet connection close to your home theater? What if you don't have broadband? The MPAA humbly requests that you cry them a river. It's hard to believe they even considered something like MMC, considering this. Choice quote: "Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices". Translation: please purchase another copy of content you have already paid for, thank you. There is a very interesting interview with an HD-DVD rep here about MMC.
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HD-DVD is dead, so this isn't really an issue.
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Ladies and gentlemen, I have proof that the MPAA and RIAA want to eat your children. To them, DRM is more important than human life. Wow.
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DRM sucks, but it's basically in
everything now, so there's no use fussing over it.
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"Hacking" your player, for example to remove the region coding, or playing a bootlegged disc, may lead your player to self destruct. (Applies to Blu-ray only).
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I think the last piece of hardware that could be easily modified without the risk of damaging it was the SNES, which only required you to snip off a couple pieces of plastic inside in order to play games from different regions. It's true that BD+ is extreme, and pretty lame (like all DRM), but not really an issue if you just want to watch movies legally, like most people. Besides, it's already been cracked.
The last group of points is mostly outdated, so I won't touch them.