While I still haven’t settled on a multi-region Blu Ray player I did pickup a HD DVD player in the last couple of weeks.
Some people may say I’m insane, but they probably do that already anyway!
To be perfectly honest the only reason I got the HD DVD player was because the price was right. At just over 100 euro it would have been silly to pass it up!
The player I got was a Toshiba HD-E1, which seems to have had reasonably good reviews.
I’m still exploring the possibility of getting an “unlocked” Blu Ray player, but I’m not quite ready to hand over that much cash just yet. Of course I may wake up tomorrow morning and do it anyway, but that’s part of the fun! Spontaneous and totally unplanned purchases may make me feel bad when I get my credit card bill, but they’re great fun until then!
The other thing I need to sort out is a TV stand.
The one that currently graces my sitting room is simply too small. I won’t be able to fit the HD DVD player in it when I take it home (it’s currently sitting beside my desk in the office, as I still haven’t received any HD DVDs from Amazon)
So I’m currently looking for a TV stand that can hold:
- TV (obviously!)
- Sky Box
- Surround sound / DVD player
- HD DVD player
- Space for at least one more device
A wander around a few furniture shops in Carlow revealed that most TV stands on offer were either:
- Really ugly
- Overpriced
- Combination of both
Are there any particular vendors that I should be looking at?
Of course there is a simply huge selection on offer over on eBay.. I just don’t know how to narrow it down!
Why not try Ikea? Their online website give a good idea of the combinations available…
I’ll send a catalogue down with George tomorrow.
Elly
Do Ikea ship below Dublin? Their site gave me the impression that they didn’t, but I could be wrong
Thanks
Michele
Their 3rd party shipping company covers all 26 counties in the republic – see here: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/img/store_images/belfast/home_delivery_information.pdf
But for the £150 stg that they want to deliver, you’d be cheaper to take a run up and get it yourself – and that way you would see the showroom sets and how the things actually look before committing to spending the money.
The reason I suggest them, even if they are far away, is the brilliant modular stuff they do, including charging station and CD/DVD rack inserts that slot into the standard cupboards/shelves. Good range of colours and different door fronts as well.
Hmmmm. I presume they allow 3rd parties to collect? It might be cheaper to get one of the couriers we use to collect for me.
Sure a trip up to Belfast would be fun on some levels, but I’m not sure if I’d want to drive up there by myself
Dunno if they allow purchase & collection online, you’d need to check. I’m sure however that anyone could go in and select what you want (you collect most things flatpack in-store yourself) and bring it back.
Funnily enough, Toshiba just announced today that they’re scrapping HD-DVD, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yea I think this article best explains why you got it so cheap Michele.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/02/hddvd_they_think_its_all_over.html
Ciaran / Robert – Ah well 🙂
Looks like I’ll have to get a Blu Ray player as well so
Elly – Thanks for the catalogue. A trip to Belfast would probably involve me buying loads of other things that I really don’t need, so I’m not sure if I can risk it 🙂
These Toshiba HD-DVD players are great at upconverting standard DVDs- the reason I got one myself, even knowing that the format was dead. Normal DVDs now look much better upconverted through HDMI on a 720p projector.
You should also see HD-DVD movies reduced down significantly now the format was is over, so I wouldn’t regret your purchase!
Blu-ray players will be falling in price once HD now starts to get some traction and volume builds. I’d be planning on getting one when there is better rental support, maybe around Jan next year (although I may well before Christmas if the price goes much lower; €200-250 with rentals available and I’ll be there.)