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[MooMasterCowman]

After a vote by the website moderators, there is a new limit to signature dimensions.

738 MAX PIXEL WIDTH BY 150 MAX PIXEL HEIGHT FOR A SINGLE-IMAGE SIG. QUOTES ALSO COUNT TOWARDS THE LIMIT.

Quotes like

THIS

are roughly 40 PIXELS HIGH for A SINGLE LINE.


Rather than displaying the quote as above, you can make the quote like
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This is a rule, if you don't change it, you WILL get contacted by a site admin to change it, or they'll probably change it themselves, guaranteed.

Don't forget that the avatars have a size restriction as well-
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[MooMasterCowman]

updated.

[the Darkness]

Price expected to remain high for now, and you'll need to upgrade, too

The high-definition DVD format war may be over, but not the battle for eyeballs and dollars when it comes to viewing high-def movies.

With Toshiba’s announcement Tuesday that it’s abandoning the HD DVD format it helped create, leaving Sony’s Blu-ray the winner, consumers may feel they have no choice but to buy a Blu-ray player in order to enjoy movies in HD.

There are good reasons to wait. Among them are the cost of the players, which range between $400 and $500 and are expected to remain at that level in the months ahead, said Rob Enderle, president of The Enderle Group research firm.

Even at $400, that’s about twice the price most consumers are comfortable with — the “I-don’t-have-to-ask-my-wife’s-permission” number of around $200, said Enderle.

“Probably closer to the end of year, the holiday season, we’ll see some pricing come down,” said Steve Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group. “Right now, there’s not a lot of incentive to drive pricing down.”

You'll want to upgrade
But cost isn’t the only factor. If you bought a Blu-ray player last year, chances are you could wind up buying another one next year as well. That’s because most stand-alone Blu-ray players are essentially version 1.0 and not upgradeable.
And you will be wanting to upgrade, “otherwise you’ll have an obsolete product next year,” said Enderle.

“One of the differences between HD DVD and Blu-ray is that the HD platform was complete when it went to market, because you could connect it to the Internet for updates, patches or security fixes,” Enderle said. “Most Blu-ray players have no network connection, except (for those that are) on the PlayStation 3.”

Among the reasons for Blu-ray’s success is that Sony included it on its PS3 consoles, which have sold more than 10 million units since 2006.

That network connection is important because it allows not only for security updates, but added entertainment value, with downloads of special features and offers.

Some stand-alone Blu-ray players with Internet connections are out now, said Baker, but most will not be available until next year.

In order to push the product this year, he sees manufacturers such as Sony, Samsung and Panasonic moving to bundle the sale of their TV sets and Blu-ray players.

“Now that there is a single format, the question is, is that going to spur larger adoption of Blu-ray? It’s incumbent on consumers to make that call,” said Steve Koenig, senior analyst for the Consumer Electronics Association, an industry trade group.

“And one thing most people don’t know is that this is a technology that harnesses 1080p resolution, he said. “Thirty-nine percent of households have TVs with HD, but a fraction of those have high-def sets capable of displaying 1080p resolution, which is the full-output capability of next-generation DVD.

“The number of households that can really take full advantage of next-generation DVD is still somewhat limited.”

The upconverting alternative
Upconverting DVD players, which cost around $100, also offer a good alternative for those who don’t want to make the Blu-ray jump but who want better picture quality. While not offering a true-HD experience, they do come pretty close “to near-high def quality,” said Baker.

And if you don’t want to deal with buying a player at all, downloading movies in HD is another option.

“The disc war is over, but there’s a bigger one coming — downloads,” said Enderle.

Cable and satellite providers continue to offer more HD movies on demand, while other companies are moving swiftly to get in on the action.

Earlier this month, TiVo and Amazon.com announced a service for TiVo subscribers to download TV shows and movies through Amazon.com.

Apple began offering HD movie rental downloads through its iTunes Store in January. Also last month, Netflix said that subscribers with unlimited rental plans can stream movies and TV episodes onto their home computers.

“There are a number of services where you can download and stream in high-def,” said Koenig of CEA.

“We saw a lot of this talked about at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. There are services, even satellite-based, which will deliver high-def content directly to the home. That is ostensibly a very viable solution.

“There’s going to be a lot of competition in this high-def movie content space. Blu-ray is not the only game in town for this type of content.”

Source

[Twinmeister]

The reason that you would need to buy a new player is because 99% of the people haven't networked their Blu-Ray. All it is is a firmware upgrade, and most of the '07 players have an Ethernet jack in the back of them. Set your player up next to your compy, plug it up to the net and upgrade away.

Unless that is you don't have one in which case it would best the most scene to wait for the price drop and get 2.0 at that time.

If you have the ability to move your player to a network connection, there is no reason to spend $xxx to get a new one.

Edit

As far as online rentals, it is safe to say that not everyone in the world will have fast enough internet to buffer HD, and for the people that can download but not buffer its still a pain in the rear.
Online buying/renting can not compete with BD not because BD is necessarily better, but because you can't compare apples to oranges. All of the studios will always release movies on some format of physical matter.

Now in 20 years when the internet is run by one super computer and we all get 20GBs links for dirt cheap, any physical format would be ruled out. But until then we don't need to be concerned about another format 'war'.

[DrunkSnake]

PS3. Cheaper player that will upgrade.

[arghzor]

wow...this war is never going to end

[Fetter Zickleinmorder]

fuck the corporations and their ceaseless greed. What they fail to realize is that some of their biggest customers are middle-class, and they don't always have money to throw around on a $700 DVD player and some "high-def" films. I'm going to keep my PC and continue to do what i do over that, not shell out some cash for Sony to whipe its ass with.

[beef flaps]

As far as online rentals, it is safe to say that not everyone in the world will have fast enough internet to buffer HD,

I think he meant cable company on demand. Which you will have the speed.
Watching movies on a computer is gayness x10.

Online buying/renting can not compete with BD not because BD is necessarily better

Yes it can and yes it is.
BD has 1080p power, on demand doesn't. But the ease and cost of on demand owns any physical format. I mean, who the fuck really collects movies anyway? How many damned times can you watch it? gay.

[CamBo]

I'm waiting for VHS to make a comeback.

[arghzor]

I think he meant cable company on demand. Which you will have the speed.
Watching movies on a computer is gayness x10.


Yes it can and yes it is.
BD has 1080p power, on demand doesn't. But the ease and cost of on demand owns any physical format. I mean, who the fuck really collects movies anyway? How many damned times can you watch it? gay.

i have a rather large dvd collection and the only movies i can watch over and over again are the boondock saints and reservoir dogs