How important is having a blu-ray drive?

I am struggling to decide whether to get the Z with the blu-ray or not. The price difference is well over NZ$1000 = US$500.

What are your thoughts?

I guess I won't be furiously watching blu-ray DVDs on the notebook but would like to have the latest and greatest. Is the price difference justifiable?

 

For $500, it is not worth it. Maybe $100, but not $500.

I for one have considered many times purchasing BR hardware, but never did. I haven't missed it.

 

Yeah, the difference in price is close to 30%. Would blu-ray be the standard by the end of this year? I don't want to buy something only to see it go out-of-date straight away. Sure, technology does run at a fast pace but I want to ensure this sytem is still decent for resale in 3-4 years time.

 

I highly doubt blu-ray will go out of date anytime soon, in fact quite the opposite seeing as it is fairly new laptop technology especially for such an ultra portable like the Z. If you are the kind of person, who lives for high def movies, always on the go and always watching movies+ connect your Vaio Z to and hdmi capable tv, then I say go for it. But otherwise, I suggest you pass on this as $500 is a significant price increase, even for the latest. but thats just my opinion

 

I wasn't saying blu-ray would be out of date anytime soon. What I meant was that if I went for the standard DVD drive it may become redundant in a couple of years when all notebooks have blu-ray as standard.

Well, I am that type of person who wants the best but not necessarily use all of the functions, haha. Portability yes. Blu-ray? Not really due to the cost of of a movie on blu-ray is too costly. Yet, I am still wanting blu-ray. Yep, I am confused

 

Why not pass for now, and then upgrade (if possible) if the price of drives come down, and popularity increases?

(I'm not familiar if this model has an easy to R&R drive caddy)

 

You just answered your question. Save the $500.

 

Thanks guys for your feedback.

Do you think most, if not all, notebook PCs by the end of this year will have blu-ray optical drives?

 

I think the drive is over $1000 right now from Sony if you want to upgrade it yourself. Keep in mind this is a burner also. For me, I have no regrets. Infact, if I didn't have it, I would be thinking, "I ALMOST have the perfect computer". Then again, I plan to watch alot of movies on this thing so my situation is proly a little unique.

 

no, still going to be too expensive, the higher quality laptops will all probably have the option though

dont get it, you don't need it, after a year you'll think you were an idiot for getting it.. ask yourself, do you really watch blu-ray? do you really go out and rent them? for me, i wouldnt even miss my dvd drive

 

Bob, your thoughts are exactly like mine. I want to know that I have the best computer there is out there - now that doesn't necessarily mean I will use every single functionality.

Darn it, having too much or too little money can both be troublesome eh!

 

Brawn - on the other hand, you are right. I hardly even use my DVD drive right now on my desktop. I watch a lot of things via YouTube and streaming these days.

 

What Brawn says does make alot of sense. I wouldn't get it just to say I got it. You shoud ask yourself those questions. For me, the answer was a resounding yes. Even then, it took me a long time to justify it to myself.

 

to me, blu-ray doesn't matter..
the disc are limited in quantity, and cost a cool $70 for a movie @ where i live, in contrast a dvd movie of the same type would just cost about $15

and beside that, i find the ability to burn dvd-DL to be more important than getting a state-of-the-art blu-ray which can't burn dvd-DL

 

hey, i am obsessive compulsive and cringe at the thought of anything less than perfect, especially in a laptop.. this is how i think of it.. the ssd and bluray drive are both external components that are just extensions of the actual laptop.. just like ram. so, you DO have the best computer, you're just missing some extentions. you can always use an external blu-ray player and connect it to your laptop.. or you can also pop in a blu-ray drive later when the price goes down.. but by that time, you'll notice you don't care about it and you'll also be replacing your laptop by then

bob probably does use the blu-ray so it's useful to him, but i think your usage is more like mine.. if i ever watch blu-ray, i would do it on my 58inch plasma (and i still dont watch any)

 

Exactly!

Reference my post #6, above.

 

Thanks guys for your comments and feedback. Looks like I cannot justify having a blu-ray in my Z. I will save myself some money then (relunctantly!!!)

 

I'll have to agree with Brawn.

The question of Blu-Ray will be... is it the future of video media? The way I see it is that the video media is going the way as the disk storage. Just like the HDD will be replaced by the SSD because of "non-moving" parts, I can see the DVD and/or Blu-Ray to eventually be replaced by video downloads in the future.

Since Sony invented the Blu-Ray, I would not be surprised if it ended up not doing well in the coming future.... one good example would be the MiniDisc that Sony invented. Look what has happened to it now...

 

Interesting discussion. You are right in what you say because most software and movies are LEGALLY downloadable these days. You can see that the boxes that come with your PC games and software have become smaller and smaller to save cost. Also, some software even come without media / CD - only a serial number for you to use after downloading the software legally on the net.

 

Hey JJ, what happened w/ your semi-clean install? Send me a PM, I'm curious.