Blu-Ray: A Bag Of Hurt
Perhaps, since the cheap-ass Blu-Ray player has a WiFi connection, it read my previous post documenting its lack of use, and decided to teach me a lesson. Today the Blu-Ray player refuses to turn on, getting stuck at a “Power On” display and going no further.
I didn’t even turn on the player to watch a movie, merely to install a recent firmware update. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get that far.
Now begins the fun of taking this about two-month old piece of kit back to the store from whence it came (BestBuy) and see what happens. I still have the receipt but unfortunately, tossed the box. BestBuy return policy is 30 days which I am past, but hopefully the 1-year warranty will apply here, sans box.
And the questions begin: Why do I need a Blu-Ray player anyhow? I only watched two movies on the thing. No answer here. I’m not motivated to spend more money and get a better player, especially if I just lost $100 bucks on this one. I know Steve Jobs wasn’t talking about cheap-ass hardware failure when he said Blu-Ray was “a bag of hurt,” but those words feel pretty applicable right now.
To alleviate the annoyance, I remind myself of the WTH price. Sometimes one gambles on cheap-ass hardware and loses. The low price should be acceptable collateral damage which can be brushed off as no big deal. But the smart thing would be to quit with Blu-Ray now, while the pain isn’t too bad, and stick to digital downloads and streaming, which will only improve in quality from now going forward.
But I can’t say I feel too smart right now, instead, merely feel that I’m left holding the bag — of hurt.
I don’t understand how HD DVD lost out to BluRay. If I recall correctly you could still watch standard dvds on the hd dvd player.
Most BluRay players do let you watch standard DVDs and they have something called “DVD upgrade” on them, which try to force the DVDs to play in higher definition (it does, but only slightly).
Mine, for example, lets you do this. I honestly can’t tell that much difference between the DVD and BluRay discs on it. I use a Philips BluRay player, FWIW.
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