mm wrote:
On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:11:11 +1200, "geoff"

Because some people don't have as much money as they wish they had.
A few tens of dollars is real money for many of them.


Then they shouldn't be considering buying extravagent lectronic entertainmnt
products.


In this case, my friend already has a DVD player, but given that it is
a cheap one, it is already giving her problems. Buying cheap is not
always the thrifty thing to do.

But it is all many people can afford to do, or a calculated strategy for
those who choose that approach.


In addition, VCR's will be largely obsolete next February.

**** - my VCR is going to stop working in February ?

She needs
a recorder, not just a player, and preferably one that will play
blu-ray. It doesn't have to record them.

She will not find a cheap one of those for some time.

I've suggested to her that for quite some time to come, rental DVDs
will be made available in standard format not just Blu-ray, even for
the newly released movies, but I don't really know that, so I'm asking
here.

They certainly will be in both formats for many years to come.

I've suggested to her that her best buy for the money is a DVD
recorder with a digital tuner and a hard drive, which sells for 300
dollars, that's thirty tens, but if it turns out that new releases are
going to be in blu-ray only within the next 2 or 4 years, then my
suggestion is incorrect.

Depends what she wants to do over the interevening few yars. If you keep
waiting for the next great thing to become affordable, then you will be
waiting forever. Because there will always be something else 'just around
the corner'.

In the meantime, you pays yer money and makes yer choice...

geoff