On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:24:25 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:



This is posted as a word of warning to potential Blu-Ray disk players who
have become accustom to the operation of a regular DVD player.

They work great, have a great picture in HD, but .....

They are a pain in the rear.

Unlike a conventional DVD player, the Blu-Ray players are basically
controlled by an internal and v-e-r-y slow microprocessor.

Hit the "Open" button and it thinks about it for a while. If it decides to
cooperate, the disk drive opens after a two or three minute delay.

Hit the "Power off" button, and it thinks about it again for a while. Might
shut off, might not.

When it goes to play a movie, it first "loads" a bunch of data into ROM.
You may as well go get a cup of coffee or a beer while waiting for it to
load up.

Sometimes, it simply cuts the video out completely while thinking about
things and your monitor goes to "no signal". When this happens, resist the
urge to hit another command button. All that accomplishes is another thing
for it to think about for a while. Eventually, the picture will come back.

Although they produce a superior picture when they run, I don't think they
are quite ready for prime time.

BTW .... these characteristics are the same on two Blu-Ray players that I
bought ... the Sharp and a Sony that I bought for Mrs.E. today. Of the
two, the Sharp has been the most cooperative.

If you want a BluRay player, I'm curious why someone would buy a
BluRay player other than a PS3 for $399? The PS3 works great as a
BluRay player. It's not slow, doesn't cut out, doesn't have *any* of
the problems you mentioned above and uses a very fast microprocessor.
By far, the very fastest available in any home computer actually.

And as a bonus, besides watching BluRay discs, you can play PS2 or PS3
games and (if you plug in a USB keyboard and mouse) even use it as a
general purpose computer running Linux. It's the best deal going in
home entertainment if you ask me.

Steve