Poll: Would you buy a Blu-ray recorder if you could?

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Feb 21st 2009 at 12:00PM

While Blu-ray recorders have been available in Japan for years, here in the US it's Blu-ray's third year and there's no sight of one. The reasons are obviously not technological and instead limited by DRM and other factors, but we think one of those is that the market might be too small. So we're asking you since we know you're the early adopter type; Would you buy a Blu-ray recorder if you could?

Filed under: Polls, Blu-ray

Tags: BD, Blu-ray, poll, Polls

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

dagamer34 @ Feb 21st 2009 12:10PM

The media is way too expensive anyway, and hard drives are cheap. For $100, you get 4 Blu-ray discs (25GB) or a 1TB reusable hard drive. You do the math!

Highest Ranked

EatingPie @ Feb 21st 2009 4:24PM

Misinformation!

BD-Rs are not even close to THAT pricey. Unless you listened to that Best Buy Salesman who convinced you that $100 HDMI cable was a score sold you these discs.

Google "BD-R price" and you get $4.00 per disc from multiple vendors.

The purpose of a BD recorder is to archive. MANY MANY films won't be on Blu-ray for a long while, but they're still broadcast in HD with very good quality. HDNet Movies is a great example -- I had a 21GB 2001: A Space Odyssey that was so good, I didn't feel the need to replace with the BD (the BD *is* better, but the broadcast was awesome).

Currently, there is NO WAY in the US to archive (as opposed to DVR time shifting) HD content. A BD Recorder will fix that. And at $4.00 a disc, that's a great price for a keeper.

-Pie

Neutral

David Susilo @ Feb 21st 2009 10:45PM

25 Gb BD-R is only $5 at the most. If you buy them in spindles of 25, they are only $4.

Neutral

GhostDoggy @ Feb 22nd 2009 7:00AM

Apparently you missed the whole 'if you could afford' aspect of this question.

Neutral

groggle @ Feb 21st 2009 12:16PM

I'm with dagamer, HD disk space carries less of a premium, and is not nearly as bitchy about being kept clean!

Neutral

Sean T. @ Feb 21st 2009 12:18PM

dagamer34 hit the nail on the head.

Not just 'No', but "Hell No".

Neutral

JEAN @ Feb 24th 2009 4:05PM

BLUE RAY IS SO THAT WE DONT HAVE TO GO TO THE MOVIES ANY MORE

Neutral

dishbreak @ Feb 24th 2009 6:29PM

AND TYPING SOMETHING ABSURD IN ALL CAPS DOESN'T MAKE IT ANY LESS ABSURD.

Highest Ranked

mntwister @ Feb 21st 2009 12:33PM

I would rather take my high def home movies and transfer them to a blank blu-ray disc than I would a hard drive of any kind. ALL hard drives will eventually fail. Blank blu-rays are bound to come down in price. I wouldn't go crazy over buying them right now because of the cost, but in the future it will be a great way to store 50gb of data without the concern of losing the data. For taping off of television, dvr's are fine especially if they let you use external hard drives like Dish Network allows you to. But for valuable sentimental family home movies, a physical disc anyday. And those rumuors years ago about blank dvd's rotting away after time, I had one of the first dvd recorder drives and my dozens of home movies transferred to them are all in excellent shape, none have deteriorated. I have however lost data from 3 hard drives in that amount of time.

Gig for Gig, the hard drive is definitly the way to go right now, but I won't trust them to store my home movies from my high def camcorder. That's why I am in the market now for a blu ray recorder, whether it be a computer drive or a stand-alone.

Highly Ranked

Xyzzy @ Feb 21st 2009 1:55PM

"Gig for Gig, the hard drive is definitly the way to go right now, but I won't trust them to store my home movies from my high def camcorder. That's why I am in the market now for a blu ray recorder, whether it be a computer drive or a stand-alone."

Do you know how a burned DVD or BD disk is made? There's dye on the blank disk and the burner zaps it with a laser to simulate the bumps found on a real disk. That dye degrades over time and you'll lose your data.

A hard drive is definitely the way to go -- buy two, mirror them, and if one dies, just buy another one - no data loss. I actually use Windows Home Server and it mirrors the drives (sorta...) for you automatically - and lets you share media through your entire house.

Neutral

Richard Barnes @ May 5th 2009 1:35PM

I'm with you, Pal. I've been banking all my Edited HD Home Videos to a Video File on my Computer. I can't wait to have a Blu-ray Recorder so I can download all my Edited Videos to BD discs. Since I now shoot everything with my HD Video Camera, I'm forced to make SD versions and record them on a standard DVD so I can watch them back on my 50" Plasma Screen. I don't care if they cost $1000 when they first arrive here, I just want one and that's that!

Neutral

Ric Kaysen @ Feb 21st 2009 12:48PM

I certainly wouldn't by the brand in the photo. I have a Panasonic DVD recorder and it is, without a doubt, the most user unfriendly electronic device I have ever owned and the picture quality is terrible. As soon as I find another unit that will fit the snug confines of my entertainment center, it's going in the trash.

Neutral

ander @ Feb 21st 2009 1:44PM

i got an HD DVR + WD TV. i'm cool on a blu-ray burner.

Neutral

Garst @ Feb 21st 2009 1:33PM

The only reason I'd get a Blu-ray recorder (or player) is if they make re-recordable discs and it would record at the resolution the broadcast has. Otherwise, I have a DVD recorder that I can use DVD-RWs at 480p that's infinitely cheaper.

Highest Ranked

Wayne Dunham @ Feb 21st 2009 1:58PM

This was a very poorly done poll. There needed to be a 4th option. "Yes, IF the price ever comes down to a reasonable level".

The media is WAY too expensive, and the whole Blu-Ray player/recorder hardware family is GROSSLY overpriced!

Ge me a recorder with a digital tuner (QAM) and the ability to record to re-writable media (is there even such an animal in Blu-Ray?) for under $150 and my answer would probably be yes.

Neutral

squiggleslash @ Feb 21st 2009 3:03PM

The prices have to be reasonable of course, but this is pretty much the only set of circumstances I can imagine getting any kind of BD stuff in my home.

Right now though I'd settle for a DVD recorder that can burn stuff in native HD using some open format like 3X DVD or BD9

Neutral

Pingles @ Feb 21st 2009 3:18PM

Actually, the missing optin is "What the heck for?"

I think 3 of the 4 PCs in our house have DVD-burners and maybe I've burned 5 discs in 5 years.

Blu-Ray burner is a pretty tight niche market right now.

I guess if you're pirating HD movies it'd make sense...

Neutral

mntwister @ Feb 22nd 2009 12:15AM

You neglect to consider those that own a high def camcorder like I do. I am looking for a blu-ray burner to burn my home movies. Not everyone who would use this item would be a pirate. Also, if it had a tuner in it, it would be great for recording shows, just like the VCR was, and dvd recorders, only off of high def channels. That has not been considered pirating either.

Neutral

THizzle7XU @ Feb 21st 2009 7:21PM

Give me a Blu-ray recorder with a DVR so I can record to the DVR and then copy it to the disc to take it elsewhere in the house.

Neutral

DVD4ME @ Feb 21st 2009 8:22PM

You can still do all of that with an HD, DVD recorder, no need to spend the extra $ unless close in price, but the cost difference is outrageous

Neutral

EuroGuardian @ Feb 21st 2009 7:50PM

Here in Europe, we have almost no HD television, so, frankly, although I had one of those recorders, it would be useless.

Neutral

h0mi @ Feb 21st 2009 8:41PM

Here's a question. Burned DVDs routinely stop working after a few years and are not reliable after 3-5 years. (This varies based on the quality of media of course). Has blu-ray "solved" this problem for BD-R/RE? If so, I'd be interested in a Tivo with built in blu-ray burner.

Neutral

Galley @ Feb 21st 2009 8:52PM

There are films such as "The Legend of Billie Jean" that have been broadcast in 1080i, but have never been released on DVD.

Neutral

kevinp @ Feb 22nd 2009 7:47AM

The problem I have with blu-ray is being digital you might expect perfect reproduction. However I was surpised to see many reviews of players comparing relative levels of black between players. It turns out the cause of this is the error correction. It takes too long to do the same type of validation as is done when a computer reads from a hard disc (because of the vast amount of data). so much bad data is let through it affects the picture, And this is with commercially recorded discs. The problem is only going to worse with discs recorded on a home player.
Since I am waiting for the price of HD projectors to come down & 3D players to arrive on the market at a sensible price. I am holding off the purchase of blu - ray hoping that an alternative arrives perhaps HD on a memory card of some type. (well I can dream!)

Neutral

NoAndThen @ Feb 22nd 2009 5:15PM

I would MUCH prefer a DVR that is easy to get files off of- not rerecording them over firewire BS.

Neutral

John Brine @ Feb 23rd 2009 9:25PM

Interesting poll-I'd be interested, BUT
1)it'd have to record multichannel sound-current 3rd party dvdr's don't
2) it'd have to play nice with cable boxes-current 3rd party dvdr's don't
3) it'd have to be affordable
4) it'd have to have TVGOS that actually worked in Canada-mine doesn't :(

Neutral

dishbreak @ Feb 24th 2009 6:26PM

Meh. Give me a BD burner for my computer, and I'll be happy.

Neutral

vinman @ Mar 12th 2009 12:44AM

I own both a standalone DVD recorder and a standalone BLU-RAY recorder.
With a $1500 investment I had a friend bring me back from Japan a basic standalone BLU-RAY recorder and 100 blank single layer discs.
I have recorded all the HD movies and freed all the space in my DVR satellite receiver.
If I would have bought 100 BLU-RAY movies ( at $30 each average in my area) from local stores it would have cost close to $3000 . Given the choice I am happy to have taken the chance and saved money as well.
I need the quality of HD BLU-RAY movies recorded from my HD DVR satellite receiver to view on my projection system.
The DVD discs I still record are OK to watch on my 46" plasma but they don't cut it on the projector.
Since I collect movies , and most satellite channels are going to HD
this setup made most sense and fits my needs and ego as well.
I definitely fall in the "niche" market but the more choices the better , everyone is ultimately happy with what they have.
Last week mwave.com was selling RIDATA BDR-252-RD-JC blu-ray write once 25gb 2x for $3.

Neutral

Richard Barnes @ May 5th 2009 1:58PM

One more thing about BD Recorders and Discs,...I would only be interested in buying and using Re-Writeable BD discs. Because Blu-ray discs are so pricy, I prefer to have the "Multi-Session" Option, so I can keep adding Home Videos to the disc as I shoot and edit them. That's why I'm not interested in Blu-ray "Burners." Because I've yet to find a Blu-ray "Burner" that allows for Multi-Session burning, enabling the user to keep adding chapters to a BD disc until it's full. But at the same time, allowing what's already partially on the disc, to be played on a Blu-ray DVD Player. I can't imagine shooting a 5 minute HD Video of a Birthday Party, with it being the only thing on a $15 BD disc.

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