You see, back before we knew the outcome of the HD wars (one year ago), I chose HD DVD over Blu-ray. I got a player and 10 HD DVDs for $174 (well, actually for $124 since Amazon gave me a “we feel sorry for you” $50 gift card once it was clear HD DVD lost). Interestingly enough, now Blu-ray prices are being slashed in the same way HD DVD prices were slashed a year ago.

The last time I checked out Blu-ray pricing on Amazon (my quick and dirty benchmark), the Playstation 3 was still the best deal (with any Blu-ray player cheaper still well into the $300’s but without the bonus of being a gaming system). But now, looking at Amazon’s list of Blu-ray players, the Samsung BD-P1500 player comes in lowest at $204.47.

It doesn’t stop there. Analysts are predicting more price cuts for this holiday season, and a leaked “Black Friday” ad for Wal-Mart shows a Magnavox Blu-ray player for $128. As I mentioned in a post nearly a year ago, the “format wars” matter more post HD DVD death than they did when the term referred to Blu-ray vs. HD DVD. It’s just that now “format wars” refers to Blu-ray vs. traditional DVD vs. streaming/downloadable content.

At under $200 I would consider a Blu-ray player, though my reasoning might seem unconventional. The HD DVD player I bought a year ago is my primary movie player for any disc (i.e., regular DVDs I own or get through Netflix, which is a lot of my media consumption). And its boot time / load time is excruciatingly slow, plus it doesn’t remember where I stopped a movie if I turn it off and back on again.

In other words, it’s a crappy DVD player even if it “upconverts” DVDs and plays HD DVDs. The question is, then, whether or not these under $200 Blu-ray players are dog slow with no memory feature. Hopefully Blu-ray isn’t making the same mistake as HD DVD on this front: releasing a player that feels crappy in every way other than picture quality. I could be wrong, but I think consumers still care about other conveniences too.

Unfortunately, the two conveniences/features I’m most interested in don’t seem to be easily comparable across products. This is where an Amazon deal or a Wal-Mart 4:00 a.m. deal lose out. I may only buy a Blu-ray player after I get to use it in a Best Buy (or wherever), which means I’ll likely be paying a premium.

Bottom line: In my opinion, Blu-ray is only a good buy if the premium over an upconvert DVD player isn’t much ($50ish more, meaning the Blu-ray player is well under $200) at the same time as the Blu-ray player having the same features we’ve come to expect from our movie players (in my case, boots up fast and remembers where I left off).

Does anyone know of a Blu-ray player that fits these criteria? I’ll update this post if I find anything.

*Update* Lots of below $200 deals coming out today, including one player that boasts a quick load time!

See below for the Netflix email:

HD DVDs are going away

Dear Bob,

Effective December 15, 2008, we will no longer carry HD DVDs. At that time, we will automatically replace any HD DVD titles in your Queue with standard DVDs when available. You don’t have to do anything.

Last February, we announced that since most of the major movie studios had decided to release their high-def movies exclusively in Blu-ray, we were going exclusively Blu-ray as well and would be phasing out our HD DVDs.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1-888-638-3549.

- The Netflix Team

…makes a decent point even if a bit hypocritical. I mean, Apple is all about pouring the millions into marketing/advertising. When we do it, of course, it’s because we’re misallocating how our money is spent (according to them). But when they do it, it must be justified. Right. Well, here’s my reallocation advice for Apple: use some of those millions in advertising to make a computer that’s affordable for once. You see? It’s not that hard to second guess how another company spends money.

Interesting that I wrote this before seeing Gizmodo’s take, which is basically the same:

There’s also the minor matter of Apple accusing Microsoft of spending money on advertising that would be better allocated to fixing Vista. The message, of course, is delivered in an expensive advertising campaign, the week after Apple released brand new, prohibitively expensive laptops.

But, of course, Gizmodo doesn’t work for Microsoft. So when they say it, it sounds more credible.

So I signed up for Craigslist and posted these items online. Here’s what I found:

• The keyboard went right away even though it was priced at less of a bargain than the bed ($75 vs. $35 for the bed)
• When both items were picked up (at different times), both parties buying almost forgot to pay until the last minute making for a potentially awkward situation (though both seemed very nice)… interesting coincidence
• For whatever reason, for the bed, I received four very interested inquiries who requested my address and setup a time only to “no show” and not respond to any further correspondence. The fifth person finally did come and get it.

My whole experience is admittedly anecdotal and could be quite the exception for all I know. And there are plenty of stranger “exceptions.” But it is all I know of Craigslist at this point. Overall, I’d use it again, sure, but only if the context dictated it as the best choice (i.e., if I move and need a theoretically easy way to get rid of big items). Outside of this kind of scenario, though, I’m not sure. It feels like it’s the world’s largest and most streamlined ongoing garage sale. While that’s all fine and good, I’m finding that model doesn’t work as well for me. But it seems to do wonders for plenty of people.

Anyone else used Craigslist with similiar (or different) results?

My first inclination was to run over to the local Best Buy since the company had just emailed me a 10% off coupon for the holiday weekend. (I tend to fall for the coupon marketing ploy.) But it was out of stock. Figures. So only then did it occur to me (embarrassingly enough) to check out the printer’s price online via Amazon. Amazon’s price: $209.99. Best Buy’s price: $304.99. Amazon 1, Best Buy 0.

In Best Buy’s defense, it had the printer for a cheaper price online: $289.74. And I did have a coupon for 10% off. Then again, though, that’s not much of a defense. It’s still quite the premium over the Amazon price, plus Amazon has free shipping.

I know this is pretty anecdotal, but it’s consistent with my previous experiences. Amazon doesn’t always have the lowest prices, but for me, at least, it delivers when it counts.

If you want more details, check out Mossberg’s review or various coverage from TechCrunch.

So here I am, in the right place. But now, of course, the account specialist needs to talk to me like a concerned mother who can’t believe her child wants new parents. Next comes the onslaught of deals, none of which I’m interested in. Well, there is one deal I could go for, but it happens so rarely: If you can give me 0% interest for 12 months or more with no transfer fee, then I might stick around.

Nowadays, though, everyone (understandably) wants their 3% transfer fee, which eliminates most of the benefit I’d get from shuffling funds to take advantage of a risk-free 5% savings account. If you have good credit, it’s an easy way to make a few hundred bucks while sleeping. But I digress.

The point is more that I’m at a point in my life where I’d rather just have accounts closed that I don’t need or use. But the conversation on the phone is so awkward with these account specialists. How am I supposed to answer the [what feels like] never-ending stream of questions like, “Is there anything we could have done better?”

I even had one guy ask me “which credit card do you use consistently and why?” What the? I didn’t sign up for a focus group, I just wanna cancel my damn credit card! And now, somehow, I’m the bad guy if I want to cut the crap and push for what I want. So why can’t I do this online? Anything else I might have done by mail or phone in a different century (for my credit card) I now do online. But not this.

I know the obvious answer to my question above. Having account specialists force awkward conversations in the hopes of retaining customers is probably a small price to pay for keeping customers. I wonder, though, what the value is (to a company) of customers leaving with respect for the company rather than leaving annoyed.

Sure, sure, we have the usual analysts telling us this will cost Netflix millions of dollars in lost revenue per day. And, of course, bloggers love pointing out the negative responses from customers. But, for me,  Netflix has under-promised and over-delivered dozens of time. I’m not sure how they get me my DVDs so lightening fast, but if it means their system breaking down for a couple days every once in a while… so be it.

Leave a comment below if you’re a Netflix customer that’s been satisfied enough in the past for this current situation not to ruin your day. Or am I only one?

Also, see below if you haven’t seen how Netflix has responded to its customers. Seems like a great response to me:

IMPORTANT: Your DVD Shipments Have Likely Been Delayed

We’re sorry to report that since Tuesday we’ve been experiencing issues with our shipping system, so many of you have not received DVDs in a timely manner and many of you have not received emails letting you know we got a DVD back from you.

We pride ourselves in delighting you, and we’ve let you down. We apologize and are working around the clock to restore normal operations. To all of you whose shipments have been delayed, we’ll be automatically applying a credit to your next billing statement. Or, if you are new to Netflix and your first shipments have been delayed, we recognize that this is not a good way to begin your Netflix membership and we’ll automatically extend your free trial.

Our goal is to ship DVDs as soon as possible and to keep you updated. Again, we are sorry for the inconvenience we’ve caused you and thank you for your patience.

The Netflix Team

*Update* Looks like everything is back to normal after three days of disruption. And Netflix is giving anyone affected a 15% credit for next month.

I don’t know how I’ve lived without this thing until now. It’s not perfect (more on that in a sec) but is so much more convenient than what I have been doing. In fact, I think it’s an even bigger jump in convenience than my first jump years ago (the jump from using an outdated map you keep in your car to printing out turn-by-turn directions).

Truth be told, though, I don’t think I would have been happy with a GPS system had I given it a try before the Dash. The reasoning revolves around a number of features that are, as far as I can tell, exclusive to the Dash Express. The most important one (for me) is Send2Car.

Send2Car is basically a God-send for anyone converting to GPS from map/directions printing. It’s simple. Using an online account at dash.net, you can send addresses to your Dash Express. The next time you power it on, it shows the latest address(es) you’ve sent to it and asks you if you want to map / get directions to that location. It’s just that it’s so much faster and more convenient than dealing with looking up an address and/or typing it in manually while in your car.

And what’s even better is the browser plugin (I use Firefox). This makes it so that any address I find anywhere online I just highlight, right click, and click on “Send2Car” from my regular ol’ right click popup menu. As an example, I like browsing for new restuarants on my computer and reading reviews from various sites. Any time I want to give one a try, right click, Send2Car.

I only wish the feature would go one step further and let me manage my “Send2Car” addresses from within my online dash.net account. As it is, it only sends addresses to your car. If you want to look up or delete a previous address you’ve sent to your device, you have to do that from the device itself. But I brought this up with one of Dash’s tech support guys, and he said that this feature will probably happen eventually.

Other nifty features include real-time traffic and automatic alternate route calculation. All Dash GPS units are part of a network and give feedback on traffic conditions. So if there are enough Dash users in a given area (which there are in my area), you see real-time traffic on the route you’ll be taking. And the device automatically gives you two other routes to choose from and compare traffic with, if necessary.

Also, the device is integrated with Yahoo Local search so that you can browse a pretty comprehensive database of points of interest. You can get movie listings or even compare the current price of gas among gas stations in your area, all directly from the device while driving. It actually has a bunch of other advanced features that I haven’t even dived into (such as GeoRSS and a developer API for add-ons from third party services).

As for the GPS part of the Dash Express, I find it works very well. The voice isn’t annoying and turn-by-turn directions are spoken/displayed in an intuitive fashion. The user interface overall is very simple and clutter-free while also displaying most relevant information when you need it. If you make a wrong turn or skip a direction, I find that it recalculates your route very quickly.

But like I mentioned earlier, it’s not perfect. It takes way too long to get new “Send2Car” addresses showing up on the device. The problem is that once you turn it on, it takes a couple minutes to find an internet connection and resync. In the meantime, unless you pull over and wait, you have to know the first few steps of wherever you’re going before you get access to the address you sent to yourself earlier from your computer.

Part of the problem, for me specifically, is that our car is in a parking garage below our apartment complex. And when we pull out of the parking garage into the open, there’s nowhere to really hang out while waiting for the thing to get connected. So we have to drive around a bit. I’m not sure if this problem can be fixed easily, but even halving the wait time would be a great improvement.

I’ve heard some complaints of size. The standard picture floating around online (see picture above) scared me off initially. But once I received the device, I was pleasantly surprised. Keep in mind that this is my first GPS, so I’m not necessarily used to a tiny device. It seems about the right size and is much smaller than I thought. The picture above seems more like a marketing blunder to me. It makes it look like one of those older, portable cube TVs. It’s actually not a cube and is much smaller and better looking than it appears in that picture.

When it’s all said and done, this is a nearly flawless GPS device that does much more than what I was able to find via other devices. The only other downside might be the price, $299, though plenty of other GPS devices that do less are priced similiarly. But there is a monthly fee of $10 to $13 (depending on how much you prepay) to use the Send2Car and live traffic services. (It has a nice, long trial period; the first three months are free.) Although, personally, I’m fine paying a small incremental fee for value-added services I use that aren’t available from the competition.

*Update* Amazon now has the Dash Express selling for $254.49.

It could have something to do with the fact that I’m an Amazon Prime member (I pay $79 per year to get free two-day shipping or next day shipping for $4). But the other thing I’ve realized is that I now trust Amazon more than practically any other retailer (especially when just looking at alternative online retailers). I’m sure there are times when Amazon isn’t the best deal, but in a way, it still is (for me, anyway).

Bargain shopping has the drawbacks of added time, added risk, and more hassle. And even with a 9% tax, Amazon still feels worth it. I mean, I still have to pay that 9% tax anywhere I shop locally. And the few times I’ve needed to return an item, I’ve noticed that the Amazon process is flawless and favors me, the consumer. Plus, Amazon’s MP3 store offers less expensive, higher quality, and restriction free music.

I realize this sounds like little more than a plug for Amazon, but I like talking about businesses that have done a good job and earned my trust. And Amazon seems pretty high on my short list.

Comfortable Couch

Though my office chair is comfy enough, it’s not the same as our ultra-comfy couches. While I’ve traditionally favored the precision of a mouse and keyboard, they kind of force you more into a lean-forward position. You can play console games practically laying down (if you feel like it), something not very doable with PC games.

Game Demos

I had no idea this existed, but you can download/install/play a demo of practically any game available for the Xbox 360. It’s such an effortless process that it makes doing the same thing on a computer look like rocket science. I’ve always been a fan of game demos but hate the clunky process on the PC.

First, you have to find the right file to download, then you have to find a site that lets you download it without waiting in line first. Next comes the install which often asks you to install/update drivers. Then, if you’re lucky, it might just work without you having to tweak some settings or repeat some of the process above. With the Xbox 360, there is no install process, and the system works flawlessly every time (browse titles using an excellent user interface, download quickly with one button push, and play within a matter of minutes).

Streamlined Online Experience

Here is yet another area where the Xbox 360 shines and the PC has issues. If I want to play a game online with a friend, it’s often a nightmare on the PC. You have to adjust/tweak/disable hardware and software firewalls on both ends. Unless you want your computer to be openly available on the Internet, this process it different for every game. What else is different for every game on the PC? Voice chat.

But on the Xbox 360, there’s a platform built-in and easy to use (and the same) for every game. Playing games and chatting with friends is a couple button pushes away, every time! Pardon the excitement, it’s just that it’s such a new concept for a PC gamer. Also, I’m a fan of the gamertag and “achievement” points. Basically, every Xbox 360 gamer has a profile that shows which games he/she has played and what points he/she has achieved throughout all these games. In short, I love the features that come from the whole gaming experience being housed in a controlled environment.

Big Screen, Big Sound

We have a 46″ HD TV with speakers much nicer sounding than the set on our PC… enough said.

Media Extender

Previously, looking at our pictures (or other media) on the big screen consisted of plugging in a laptop. It’s easy enough but annoying enough that I don’t do it that often. But who knew it was so easy to link up your Xbox 360 with your PC? And then there’s the nifty ability to listen to any of our music (streamed from our PC) in the background while playing whatever game.

Fighting Games

I’m a huge fan of Dead or Alive 4 and the recently released Soul Calibur IV even if, in the past, I resorted to playing these types of games only when hanging out at someone’s place where they were available. But it’s fun to indulge in a genre that is practically non-existent on the PC (yeah, yeah, it’s there, and so is RTS on the console… but we know which platform was meant for each of these genres).

Conclusion

And there you have it: a gaming experience unlike any other. I’m not saying that overall it’s better necessarily, just different (well, it is better in some ways but the reverse is true too). And different in this case is also great.

As for PC gaming… I still stand by my previous posts “PC Gaming Is For Fools, But I Still Love It” and “PC Gaming Is Expensive and a Hassle, But I’m Lovin’ It.”