DVD Upconvert: “Dead” HD-DVD Sales Rise as Blu-Ray Increases Their Price
Blu-Ray prices are on the rise. Without competition from HD-DVD, it appears Sony is trying to profit from their high definition monopoly.
But is it working?
Reports suggest people are now buying HD-DVD players on the cheap as stores continue to liquidate their supply (Amazon has the Toshiba HD-A3 for as low as $70 these days). Compare that to the price of Amazon’s top selling Blu-Ray Player – the Samsung BD-P1400 – at around $316.
What does all this have to do with upconverting DVD’s? Plenty. For one thing, if you have a great television and a large collection of “old” 480i DVD movies, you’re going to want to take advantage of that higher resolution. In order to do that optimally, you’ll going to need a piece of hardware that does quality DVD upconverting.
Now, I make no secrets that my DVD Upconvert player of choice is the Oppo DV-981HD . But, at $70, if I didn’t already own the Oppo, I’d jump on the opportunity to get the Toshiba HD-A3 for $70 to use just as a nice DVD Upconvert player.
And Blu-Ray? Over-price and under-featured. There, I said it.
Outloud.
On an unrelated note, for those that are regular visitors to the site here, you may have noticed I’ve changed the template and layout of the blog. I’ve had several people ask about being able to more easily find direct links to past DVD Upconvert blog entries, so I made the change. There is a block in the upper right hand with a list of the top viewed DVD Upconvert entries; enjoy.
Until next time. . .