Critics of Blu-ray often talk about how expensive the discs are, but in recent weeks, a growing number of Blu-ray movies have become more affordable, with several dipping below the $15 price point and some even slipping in at $9.99 on Amazon.
Cheap is popular these days and, not surprisingly, a lot of these bargain-price titles end up on the bestsellers list on Amazon. But when it comes to owning discs, most people have become pretty discerning, and don't just buy anything because it's cheap. With that in mind, we've culled down the list of bargain titles and selected 15 we think are worth owning.
As always, it's important to mention that taste is subjective, and if you don't like our picks, call us out and make your own suggestions in the comments section. If you're persuasive enough, we'll edit the list and swap in new titles. And as new budget Blu-rays come out, we'll also update the list. (Note: The discs on the list all were priced at less than $15 on Amazon at the time of this writing. Naturally, those prices are subject to change.)
For reference, here are the discs we considered but ultimately didn't include this round: "Bullitt," "Unforgiven," "Beetlejuice," "V for Vendetta," "Swordfish," "A Clockwork Orange," "I am Legend," "Fugitive," "The Road Warrior," "The Dirty Dozen," "Enter the Dragon," "Risky Business," "Dirty Dancing," "The New World," "Top Gun," and "Being There."
Click on any image to view the movies we did pick.
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A month after saying it had figured out how to squeeze 400GB of data onto a single optical disc, Pioneer says it can do better than that.
(Credit:
Pioneer)
On Tuesday the company said that it is "feasible" to produce a Blu-ray-compatible disc with 20 layers. At 25GB per layer, that amounts to a 500GB disc. The previous claim of 400GB meant just 16 layers were on a single disc.
Blu-ray Discs are currently available in single layer (25GB) and dual-layer (50GB) discs.
The company said that it was able to squeeze more layers in by stacking alternating layers of two different thicknesses.
The disc is still in the research phase, but Pioneer says its goal is to produce an actual product between 2010 and 2012. Of course, whether it will even be possible to make discs with that many layers compatible with a broad array of Blu-ray player models on the market now is unclear. But by its own gaols, it's got a couple years to figure that out.
(Via Engadget)
Got a big archiving project you've been itching to do? Pioneer's latest development could help you keep all your data in one nice, little circular package.
Pioneer says it can store 25GB of data per layer, on 16 layers on a singled disc.
(Credit: Pioneer)The Japanese electronics maker has been working on an optical disc, which, like Blu-ray, can store 25GB of data in a single layer. But Pioneer says it's one-upped the high-definition format to the sixteenth degree. The company announced today that it has a single disc that contains 16 layers of storage, at 25GB each. That adds up to 400GB of data capable of being stored on a single disc.
Blu-ray comes in single layer (25GB) and dual-layer (50GB) flavors. Pioneer does say that because the lens specification for reading the discs is similar to Blu-ray, "it is possible to maintain compatibility" between its disc and Blu-ray discs. That's not saying it will be compatible, but it would make sense since Pioneer is one of the original Blu-ray Disc Association members.
However, plans for that archiving project will have to be put on pause if you want to use this technology. Pioneer is going to demonstrate it at an industry conference next week, but for now the disc is read-only. Eventually, they'll add write capability as well.
(Credit:
SlashGear)
If you've ever wondered how a media room can run up a $300,000 tab, try this on for starters: a Blu-ray Disc player that goes for $17,000.
Switzerland-based Goldmund has upgraded its "Eidos 20" media player with the victorious video format, claiming that it's the first Blu-ray player from a high-end audio-video equipment maker. As with all such products, one can't help but wonder how the exorbitant price can be justified, though Goldmund claims "the finest AS-Curator power supply circuit and magnetic damping for ultimate sound and video reproduction with least amount of mechanical and electrical distortions," according to SlashGear. Whatever.
Almost as if to add insult to injury, the box is about as nondescript as one can imagine: It looks like a piece of hospital equipment or something. For that kind of dough, you'd think they'd at least stick a couple of Swarovski crystals on it, just to humor us.
Things have gone from bad to worse for HD DVD in the space of one week.
Wal-Mart Stores announced on Friday morning that it, too, has chosen a side in the battle for high-definition video supremacy: by June, it will stock only Blu-ray Disc players.
(Credit:
Crave UK)
A buyer in Wal-Mart's video division wrote this morning on her Wal-Mart Checkout blog that the retail giant had made the decision following Netflix and Best Buy's high-profile announcements that they will exclusively stock Blu-ray products.
Wrote Susan Chronister of Wal-Mart: "By June, Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines and, of course, standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players."
"So," she continues, not mincing words, "if you bought the HD (DVD) player like me, I'd retire it to the bedroom, kid's playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard-def movies, and make space for a (Blu-Ray Disc) player."
That might be the best option at this point, as the dominoes keep falling in Blu-ray's favor. While Netflix and Best Buy were pretty damning evidence that the end was near, now it's glaringly obvious: it's over for HD DVD.
Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that consumers will automatically start buying Blu-ray players. As mentioned many times before here, prices will have to continue to fall on both Blu-ray players and packaged media for there to be any sort of mainstream adoption of the format.
There are rumors that Toshiba might soon be declaring defeat: The Hollywood Reporter has sources telling it that Toshiba, the main backer of HD DVD, might drop its allegiance with the format in the next few weeks.
Toshiba denies it, but stay tuned. There's likely much more to come in this drama.
Toshiba may have taken a huge hit recently, but the HD DVD supporter is striking back.
Barely a week after Warner Bros. announced it would no longer put out movies on the HD DVD format, of which Toshiba is a primary supporter, the company announced it is lowering the prices on all three models of next-generation DVD players.
Toshiba will now sell its entry-level HD DVD player for $149.99.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The entry-level model, the HD-A3, now goes for $149.99, the HD-A30 for $199.99, and the HD-A35 for $299.99. That's about $150 to $200 worth of discounts on all models.
The new pricing from Toshiba is well-timed, according to Paul Erickson, director of DVD and HD market research for The NPD Group. Holiday promotional pricing is essentially over for all the major manufacturers of rival disc format Blu-ray, as well as other HD DVD makers.
"For them to drop MSRPs now couldn't come at a better time," he said. "It was a gap Blu-ray was able to close down upon during holiday sales."
In the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray, HD DVD's primary advantage from the very beginning had been cheaper prices on players. But Blu-ray has responded, lowering its prices and offering popular promotions, like Wal-Mart's giveaway of 10 Blu-ray titles with the purchase of a Sony PlayStation 3 this past holiday. But preferences over one format or the other aside, price is and probably always will be the determining factor in sales.
"The larger challenge for both camps is twofold: getting the hardware into people's homes. Toshiba did very well selling $99 and $199 players (during the holidays), but that didn't necessarily translate into a big jump in movie (sales)," said Erickson. "Unless there are serious promotions going on...people aren't going out and buying in explosive numbers on the Blu-ray side either."
"Even if we promote a single format...people are still not going to pay three to four times as much for a player, they're not going to pay double the price for movies," Erickson said, "just because they're accustomed to much cheaper pricing on standard-def DVD."
Now that the era of the Blu-ray Disc is here, the era of Blu-ray Disc copying and swapping is upon us as well. The next-generation optical discs have five times more storage capacity than DVDs (single-layer BD-Rs hold up to 25 gigabytes, dual-layer BD-Rs up to 50 gigs), so if you're itching to share, say, moment-by-moment footage of your son's entire winning soccer season with your 50 closest friends, you're gonna want an easy way to do some assembly line duplicating.
ReflexBlu2 by Disc Makers
(Credit: Disc Makers)Disc Makers, a manufacturer of CD and DVD duplicators, just launched its first Blu-ray compatible tower duplicators, the ReflexBlu2 and ReflexBlu4. The products let users create, edit and reproduce a whole lot of customized Blu-ray Discs DVD-Rs, and CD-Rs, all in one piece of equipment.
The ReflexBlu2, priced at $2,999, can duplicate 2 full BD-Rs per hour, 4 full DVD-Rs per hour and 7 full CD-Rs per hour. The higher-priced ReflexBlu4, which goes for $4,999, can copy 4 full BD-Rs per hour, 8 full DVD-Rs per hour and 14 full CD-Rs per hour. Each unit also includes a complete disc creation software suite, USB connectivity allowing access to one drive for mastering and playback, and a 250GB hard drive that can store up to 9 full BD images.
The competitive but ample price tags make the towers a more likely purchase for offices, but hard-core home media types who just can't churn out enough copies of their favorite albums and films could get their money's worth, as well.
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