I finally broke down and bought a player today. What do you guys think of the picture? I think it looks beautiful and every bit as good as Blu-Ray (I am not a format snob and see no point to debate it other than the economics).

The problem now is that the viewing technology had surpassed the special effects technology. I watched King Kong and where I was amazed at the detail, it was also painfullt obvious that everything was digital. It looked like Donkey Kong had her up on that building.

I would cringe to see the new 3 Star Wars movies in 1080P. Maybe this will be a catalyst to get more filmmakers back to practical effects and sets. I for one think that would be nice. Of course there is room for digital and it has made films possible that never would have been, but we are becoming to reliant on it in my opinion.

I can't wait to see a flawless Blade Runner in either format. That was a beautiful film with practical effects that can only benefit from an HD treatment.

Thoughts?

Actually, the only redeeming quality of the Star Wars prequels is that they look bad-ass in HD.
King Kong sucked ass in any format.
The "300" Blu-Ray looks great, but with the Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth," it's the only HD video I've bought.