Well, that's a pretty silly post.
Blu-ray has had issues, but it is far better to have open competition by many manufacturers and an aligned standard across the industry than to have a single company running the show. In the history of AV there has never been a single manufacturer with a single product which has followed their own standard with no significant outside support which has survived in the market.
Worse, rooting against a format which delivers both the best video and the best audio we have seen on the market - ever - is an insult to all of us who actually enjoy great audio and video at the highest quality.
Now, maybe you are upset because you bought a HD DVD player and realize what a waste of money that was. But, for almost every Blu-ray owner on the market, they are extremely happy with their purchase.
Openly criticizing the problems with a format doesn't mean the format shouldn't exist. It just means that manufacturers - whether they are studios, or CEs, need to recognize the flaws with their product and take corrective action. Likewise, the discussion allows people to find end-around solutions to get the most out of what they already own.
I wish you luck with whatever format you decide to buy into, but I will continue to enjoy my Blu-ray as I have done for the past two years and will live with the issues that do exist and hope that they continue to push the format forward and resolve those issues as they are discovered so that things continue to get better and better - exactly as we have seen since the formats inception.
A silly post because you disagree and have bought into Blu-Ray?
No, sorry to disappoint but I didn't buy into HD-DVD and so can give a detached view, unlike yourself who has nailed himself to the Blu-Ray flag, and in doing so you're now trying to distinguish yourself as being more discerning than anyone who hasn't yet bought a Blu-Ray player and who doesn't support the manufacturers of such machines.
I'm not rooting against the format, I'm simply saying that it was launched way too early because of HD-DVD, wasn't ready for market and has been playing catch up ever since with decent players only now starting to appear even though a games consol showed there was no excuse for the gliches and lack of functionality early adopters were expected to put up with.
For the record I will support any format which offers superior quality to the very best upscaling DVD players, but certainly NOT when such a format is not finalised, is not the full spec, the backwards compatibility with DVD is dire and the actual discs cost twice as much as DVDs.
In fact, show me a professional review of a Blu-Ray player where there weren't any compatibility or operational issues, at least before the current Panasonic BD55 and BD35 although I note that the latest review of the BD35 in homecinemachoice demonstrates that the BD-Live function didn't work.
Saying "Blu-Ray has had issues" is the biggest understatement since "Houston, we have a problem" in my humble opinion, and until these issues are fully resolved I certainly won't be investing in a player just yet.
I was interested in the Pioneer LX71 to match my KURO screen as I need the 7.1 analogue outputs, but now it transpires that there is no provision to set speaker delays which is frankly ridiculous - it wouldn't be accepted in a high-end DVD player but Pioneer must think early adopters are so keen to snap up the latest in Blu-Ray technology that they'll put up with it, and amazingly they do!
I really could take issue with almost everything you've written, but will just bring up the paragraph where you say "Openly criticizing the problems with a format doesn't mean the format shouldn't exist. It just means that manufacturers - whether they are studios, or CEs, need to recognize the flaws with their product and take corrective action."
I'd disagree with this statement because in all other manufacturing industries, corrective action is taken to deal with flaws BEFORE the product is marketed.
Saying "this is profile 1.0, then there will be profile 1.3, then profile 2.0" etc is a joke - they should call a spade a spade and say "the product isn't ready yet but for now here's one that's half finished, then there's one that's a bit more finished and finally here's one that's nearly finished....but it's a bit slow".
No doubt in the next few months I will own a Blu-Ray player and I am excited about higher-rez audio/video, but please give me a player which doesn't insult my intelligence and which does what Blu-Ray promised it would many moons ago; Denon or Marantz are looking favourites so far, shame about the lack of delay adjustment on the Pioneer.
