Well, don't know why I'm writing this really. I guess I want to know about your Bluray experiences. 

Many of you may take it for granted as PS3 owners. I have a dvd player that needs replacing. Sometimes you press eject and it doesn't want to comply. Sometimes it sticks when trying to fast forward, sometimes it has problems reading discs. 

Generally though, I get by with it. As long as you don't want to fast forward or rewind, it sorta works all right. 

Now I was thinking that there was no point getting a new DVD player, might as well go Bluray as it plays dvds too. 

I always buy multiregion players and I have dvds from many different regions. I'm finding it hard to get a multiregion Bluray player. Do they even sell them? 

I can see ones which are region free for DVD and yet still region locked for Bluray. 

Bluray regions seem to be different too, Europe and africa are region B?

Then I was looking at Bluray prices, the discs are a minimum of £10 usually for older titles, that is higher than I generally pay for dvds brand new. Also, I have many dvd players and if I buy a Bluray title I can only watch it on one machine on one room. 

So I've come to the conclusion that I actually wouldn't buy Bluray movies to watch on this thing, I'd just be using it as a substitute dvd player. Seems like a waste but it's unavoidable. 

For new discs, Bluray seems twice as expensive as DVD and the Bluray films I really want to buy are ones I already own on DVD, so I can't be bothered. 

I could rent Bluray, but again, this could only be played in one room and this is for a bedroom setup. Seems pretty pointless to me. 

So what is your bluray experience so far? Are you region locked? Do you buy or rent? If you buy do you wait for price drops?

What are the load times/startups like? 

Dvader said:

Its a very noticeable difference. I wouldnt say its VHS to DVD difference but easily noticable. The picture quality is so clear that it takes a while for your eyes to adjust to it. The first time I saw a blu-ray movie I could not stand it cause it was so clear it almost lost that movie filter look to it, I felt like I was watching live TV. But I got used to it or something changed but now the movies are perfect. It's pure eye candy, its basically the Wii situation, DVDs aren't HD, so once you go HD it's like a whole new world.

As for regions I think PS3 movies are region locked.

We buy most blu-ray's, at BB on launch week you can find some new releases at $20 or less which is only like $5 more than DVD. There are a TON of cheap blu-rays on sale all the time. I am talking under $10, some at $6. These movies go on clearance quick.

 I have a really great DVD upscaler so on the best transfers and most modern movies it's near HD already. About 15% worse perhaps. A family member recently signed up to a HD channel service so I've been watching HD tv programs all week. Definetely a difference there, but a limited selection of channels for a high price. I personally wouldn't pay for it. 

How many bluray players do you own and do you find it annoying when you can only watch discs in the room with the bluray player as opposed to dvd anywhere?

Problem is that I am so used to importing dvds from the far east or canada that being region locked to europe again is going to suck, not only in terms of what is released or not released but in terms of excessive pricing too. 

Ah I see.

What Aspro said, scares me a little. You know how SDTVs have been phased out? The same thing doesn't appear to be happening with dvd. Sony has a bad history when it comes to failed media storage, like minidiscs. If I start buying Blu-rays instead of dvds, what happens if Blu ray doesn't catch on and I'm left with Blu rays I can't watch 10 years down the line.

gamingeek said:

Ah I see.

What Aspro said, scares me a little. You know how SDTVs have been phased out? The same thing doesn't appear to be happening with dvd. Sony has a bad history when it comes to failed media storage, like minidiscs. If I start buying Blu-rays instead of dvds, what happens if Blu ray doesn't catch on and I'm left with Blu rays I can't watch 10 years down the line.

Blu-ray aint going anywhere, it will live peacefully with DVDs for many years to come.

gamingeek said:

Ah I see.

What Aspro said, scares me a little. You know how SDTVs have been phased out? The same thing doesn't appear to be happening with dvd. Sony has a bad history when it comes to failed media storage, like minidiscs. If I start buying Blu-rays instead of dvds, what happens if Blu ray doesn't catch on and I'm left with Blu rays I can't watch 10 years down the line.

You could rip them digitally at that point.  I did that when CD's died - converted about 1,200 CD's to MP3 and shipped them off to secondspin.com for some spending money.

I'm thinking Pan's Labyrinth or Watchmen?

But I did see the freaking Goonies on Blu ray

aspro said:

I'm not the one to ask about movies.  But I do have a question.  What was the calculation on getting a stand-aside BR versus a PS3?

PS3 Slim is £250 here.

I got a standalone player for £119, multiregion dvd, region B for Bluray. I had to replace a dvd player anyway.

You can get Blu ray players for £80 though. I chose an award winner though. It actually all sorts of other functionality if I get a wireless dongle for it. It can connect to the internet and you can stream video to it. Or just plug in a USB device to watch movies off.