The virgin suicides part

The virgin suicides part 10

While you could basically get the same demo by strolling into any Best Buy store, the Blu-ray show will be showcasing not-yet-released Blu-ray titles, including Finding Nemo, which should look fantastic in HD. Just in case you missed it, heres a collection of everything we wrote this past week about the death of HD-DVD and the rise of Blu-ray. Okay, okay, Ill elaborate a bit. With HD-DVD exiting the stage this week, many of the formats bitter supporters have tried to rain on Blu-rays victory parade, declaring the conquest a Pyrrhic victory in the face of the imminent triumph of downloadable video. While streaming and downloadable video has a lot to recommend it, the technology is still years, if not decades, away from perfection. unfortunate soul who purchased an HD-DVD player and, worse, dropped a bundle on dozens of HD-DVD movies. While you might still be able to box that player back up and return it to the store for a full refund, youre generally out of luck when it comes to opened movies, games and music. Repurchase all your HD-DVD movies on Blu-ray. Blech. Well, actually, there is an option three: rip your HD-DVD movies to your PCs hard drive, and then burn them to blank Blu-ray discs. But when the instructions admit up front that the process is simple in principle but excruciating in practice, youre probably best off going with options one or two. So youve had the its not you, its me talk with your recently purchased HD-DVD player, consigned the bewildered, bitter little device to that box marked the virgin suicides part 10 sale, and are ready to start dating again. You could ring up your old flame, DVD, and try to patch things up with her, but what you really want to do is get the phone number of that hot Blu-ray technology youve heard so much about. Sure, shes a little more expensive and high maintenance, what with all the firmware updates and profile changes, but youre ready to get a little crazy, and hey, if your old college buddies Amazon and Best Buy are vouching for her, she must be sweet. which Blu-ray player should you take out to dinner? Hands-down, Sonys PlayStation 3 game console and Blu-ray player is your best option. Yeah, shes got a little extra junk in the trunk, but all that extra girth holds a super fast processor and graphics card that makes your movies launch much faster than most standalone players. The visual quality is superb, and, best of all, the PS3 has built in WiFi and Ethernet adapters so you can update to new firmware versions as they become available and unlock new capabilities. Few of the standalone players are so versatile, and many of them still cost more than the PS And there are some complaints that the PS3s isnt able to accommodate all the latest audio formats that the most committed obsessive home theater addicts crave. But trust me, this is the Blu-ray player you can take home to meet your mother, as long as she doesnt get embarrassed by the fact that your new fling likes to play video games. In announcing the decision to fold, Toshibas president said it was still uncertain what will happen with the Hollywood studios that signed to produce HD DVD movies, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation. Uh, Im guessing they start producing Blu-ray movies just about as quickly as possible. Still, there will be some delay, and there will probably still be some HD-DVD exclusives trickling on to shelves in the next few weeks. According to Engadget, Toshiba said it currently has no plans to develop and sell Blu-ray players. I find that hard to believe. While some sulking is inevitable, Toshiba will certainly wise up soon and realize that some revenue is better than none, even if Toshiba does have to pay Sony and the other Blu-ray founders some sort of royalty. I have no doubt well see Toshiba Blu-ray players on store shelves by Christmas. In the long run, this is the right decision and will allow consumers to buy Blu-ray players and movies without fear that their purchases will be rendered useless paperweights in a few months. In the short term, though, if Toshiba does bail tomorrow and HD-DVD players and discs disappear by March, its going to put some consumers in a tough spot. After all, there are still several big HD-DVD exclusives hitting shelves in the next few weeks, including American Gangster which comes out tomorrow and Beowulf which hits next week. So bargain shoppers will probably have some decisions to make. Do you take advantage of what are likely to be huge discounts on obsolete HD-DVD players and movies so you can get your hands on high-def versions of movies youve been eagerly anticipating? Or do you sit on your hands and wait for the studios to slowly reissue all their HD-DVD exclusives as Blu-ray titles? Of course, you could just buy the regular DVD versions of all those movies right now, but who wants to invest in that ancient junk? The company says the transition will happen quickly, and by June, all 4, 000 Wal-Mart and Sams Club stores, as well as both chains Web sites, will be Blu only. The full statement from Wal-Mart is after the break. The movie rental company said Monday that consumers and movie studios have clearly chosen Blu-ray over HD-DVD. Were now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumers preferred means. Netflix also said Blu-ray has been more popular than HD-DVD among its customers. Netflix wont be buying any new HD-DVD titles, but will continue to rent out its the virgin suicides part 10 stock of HD-DVD discs until the discs natural life cycle takes them out of circulation in the coming months. You know how when presidential candidates drop out of the primary and say theyre doing it for the good of the party so the country can rally around one nominee? Its time for Toshiba to pull a Mitt Romney and step aside. If you harbored any hopes that HD-DVD would survive despite the defection of Warner, you might want to avert your gaze now. While sales of standalone Blu-ray players were only slightly ahead of standalone HD-DVD player sales before the Warner announcement, that all changed after the studio dropped its bomb.