Ok, Blu-ray players have finally hit my price point ($300).
I have about 150 DVDs and am really only interested in a few movies in Blu-ray (Lord of the Rings, Planet Earth series, stuff that deserves high-def)
Also, some media commentators have said that Blu-ray and other portable media electronics will be obsolete in the coming years due to fully digital transfer of movies.
So... should I spend the dough?
Bonus Question: At what point does resolution and sound quality equal the movie-going experience and make any future improvements in image and/or sound a moot pursuit?
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Blu-ray's are still in there infancy and with HD digital downloads becoming more common you should wait a least another year before switching. I have heard/read about some companys selling or will be selling flash memory sticks with preloaded music or HD movies on them.
On a personal note I haven't noticed that big of a differance between a movie played on a hi-end DVD player and one played on Blu-Ray.
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I had a similar thread some time ago on HD vs Blu-Ray, and there was a lot of good commentary that came out of that, so you might be interested.
As to HD or Blu-Ray quality, I've run across a couple movies that frankly look no different from standard DVD (Dracula), but for the most part the difference is spectacular. If you can't see the difference between the image quality of a BR movie and a standard movie, then it's probably your monitor/TV.
If you're like me and use a computer instead of a TV-- I currently watch everything on my 24" iMac, and don't have a TV (my family is in the states and I'm stationed in the Army on a short tour in Korea)--then the only way to watch HD is if your monitor is capable of handling HD. Don't let anyone tell you that there's no sense in watching HD on a 24" screen, 'you'll never notice the difference because your screen isn't big enough.' I roll my eyes every time someone says this. There is a marked difference, even on a small screen. Instead of listening to them, download an HD tv show from iTunes. iTunes HD downloads aren't even full-HD and you can tell the video and audio difference.
I'd say when the BR players are at a price you don't really need to save for to buy, buy one. Otherwise, carry on with digital downloads. The most important thing will be your tv/monitor. If you don't have an HD monitor/tv, there's little point in buying a player.
Just my opinion, though :-)
Director of Brand Strategy
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I have about 150 DVDs and am really only interested in a few movies in Blu-ray (Lord of the Rings, Planet Earth series, stuff that deserves high-def)
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Bonus Question: At what point does resolution and sound quality equal the movie-going experience and make any future improvements in image and/or sound a moot pursuit?
I hear ya on the first point, but only partially. I have over 2000 DVD's, but being the completist I am, I'd need to get them all again in Blu-Ray to be truly satisfied. Guess that's my loss, though, not yours.
I rent high definition cameras to television and movie production companies for a living, so I think I can answer the bonus, too! Seeing a movie in the theater with 35mm projection and SDDS or THX audio is always going to be better than a consumer-grade home theater system. Even when things have expanded exponentially for the home user. As it stands, only a 4k image competes with the highest detail film grain, but these images are too costly or unwieldy to either capture, process, and most importantly to project that it will be many years if ever before movies or tv is captured in 4k native and then able to be screened in theaters, much less your home. Currently, you can get a close to movie theater quality 2k projector for around 15k, but that's because it's professional grade, not consumer. Getting a THX audio setup is easier these days, but getting a large enough space to replicate the resonance of a theater is something most people can't reproduce in their home. I guess what I'm saying here is that if you want a theater experience, go to a theater. But if you want to trick yourself into thinking your living room is a theater, it can be done with a high end plasma and a surround sound system (as long as it's a dark, dark room) for much less. But going HD is the way to go. At this point, I can't watch anything in SD after having seen it in HD. This is why I am hesitant to start converting my DVDs to Blu-Ray.
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Also, some media commentators have said that Blu-ray and other portable media electronics will be obsolete in the coming years due to fully digital transfer of movies.
It will be many years still before Movie companies are willing to leave the security of a disk to the insecurities *They think* of all digitial and the many users hatred of All digital DRM.
That said..this is what I do..
I Mostly watch my HD Movies/Tv Shows in all digitial format.
I own an Apple TV which allows me to rent 720p HD movies and Itunes now sells 720p HD TV shows *Not all are HD yet*. I leave my Blu-Ray 1080p buys to the Big, Special effect intensive movies. You can only rent HD movies through Itunes if you own a Apple TV.
You can also rent and buy HD movies through xboix 360.
The biggest problem with what I do is you have to deal with the fact that it can only be used on Itunes*Or xbox 360 if you go that way*, Though you can always move your data from computer to computer and have it on multi computers at the same time, if you ever lose it it is gone forever.
Buying HD Tv shows trhough Itunes is also cheaper then buying them on blu-ray.
Anothere thing going this route you lose all the extra special features you get from a Disk.
Despite the expanse of my 61" 1080i TV (recent rear projection type), Blu-rays tend to look much clearer than regular DVDs, and the 1080i videogames are sharp enough to cut your eyelids off.
Though their image is much crisper, I don't do well with plasma screens actually. The three times I stopped to look at them in stores I later had a headache and I think it was related. Anyone else have that problem? (Perhaps it was the hefty price tag what dun it)
I wonder if there's a point where clarity will be so clear our heads will explode like in Scanners.
:^)
BOOM!
.._>
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Creative Director
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I've come dangerously close twice over the last two days to buying a blu-ray player (mostly because John Carpenter's "The Thing" finally came out on blu-ray). Both times I chickened out, partially because I'm torn between buying a dedicated player or a PS3.
I've also heard predictions that HD Downloads might be poised to bump blu-ray to the curb, but this is the thing that I keep in mind.
I too have thousands of DVDs (despite the fact that some meth-head burgled a few hundred from my apartment a few years ago... grrr), and I'm unlikely to want to rebuy them all on blu-ray. BUT! If I get the right kind of blu-ray player... it upsamples the DVDs to make them look better anyway, so even if blu-ray dies tomorrow... a blu-ray player makes my current DVDs look better than a DVD player. And that's pretty much reason in and of itself to justify buying a blu-ray player.
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I wonder if there's a point where clarity will be so clear our heads will explode like in Scanners.
It's called 4K. Panasonic has a new 150" (yes, one hundred and fifty!) plasma TV that displays images at 3996 x 2160 resolution, or 4K. Gizmodo has coverage of it, including playing Portal and watching the Iron Man BluRay.
My wife and I have begun buying BluRays lately. Pixar movies just have to be on BluRay. The difference is astounding in terms of what you can see. Live-action does a heck of a lot better, too. You can read the newspaper articles on Will Smith's fridge in I Am Legend, for example.
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I broke into the Blu-Ray thing in the past couple of months. I also bought a 1080 TV. If you go with this combination you will not have to rebuy all of your DVDs. The Blu-Ray play your regular DVDs about 70% beter than a regular DVD player. It is fantastic.
I have replaced some movies like the superhero movies and others that it seems Blu-Ray would be much better. But I do not plan to repurchase everything I have. Like Yoda and James I have a lot of DVDs. I do not know how many.
I am happy for now. If something else comes along I may buy that but right now I am content. I am not so sure I will be interested in downloadable movies - big difference watching on my screen and watching on my 58" Sony.
Peace....
I wonder if there's a point where clarity will be so clear our heads will explode like in Scanners.It's called 4K. Panasonic has a new 150" (yes, one hundred and fifty!) plasma TV that displays images at 3996 x 2160 resolution, or 4K. Gizmodo has coverage of it, including playing Portal and watching the Iron Man BluRay.
My wife and I have begun buying BluRays lately. Pixar movies just have to be on BluRay. The difference is astounding in terms of what you can see. Live-action does a heck of a lot better, too. You can read the newspaper articles on Will Smith's fridge in I Am Legend, for example.
Capital W-O-W. Thanks for the fill-in, Kvantum.
Sorry, should have clarified. In the basement I have a 720p rear-projection LCD TV which I love. I also currently have an upconvert DVD player. In my bedroom I have a 30-something inch 1080i LCD TV.
So far everything I have watched from Verizon FiOS on either the bedroom or basement TVs has impressed me. Including all the HD movies. However, I am not really seeing a huge amount of gratification coming from seeing the movies in HD.
A previous poster mentioned seeing the newspaper print clearer in a scene from I Am Legend. Yes, it is cool, but is this really the point of the Blu-ray experience? How is that necessary to enjoy the film more?
Okay, I'm still unfamiliar with the tech here so I needs some explaining. If I bought a Blu-Ray tomorrow, would I need a newer TV as well for it to work with and play my old DVDs? Or would it still work fine with an older TV(4 years) and DVDs, it just wouldn't give me the picture quality?
It depends on what resolution your TV displays. You will still be able to see the picture, but to get the full benefit of the Blu-ray picture, you need a TV that displays 1080i resolution. However, even if you have a TV that displays in 1080p or 720p, you can still see a great picture.
Almost all Blu-ray players will play DVDs, but at the resolution the DVDs are recorded with, which is usually 480 lines (as opposed to 1080 for Blu-ray).
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Okay, I'm still unfamiliar with the tech here so I needs some explaining. If I bought a Blu-Ray tomorrow, would I need a newer TV as well for it to work with and play my old DVDs? Or would it still work fine with an older TV(4 years) and DVDs, it just wouldn't give me the picture quality?
Most players don't come with any cabling, and an HDMI connection is the only way to get full 1080p resolution. If you have an older TV with component input, you can buy component cables and get up to 480p. If you have a ten year old TV with standard red-yello-white RCA input, there's no way to connect a blu-ray player.
1080i and 1080p are both High Definition display formats for HDTVs. 1080i and 1080p signals actually contain the same information. Both 1080i and 1080p represent a 1920x1080 pixel resolution (1,920 pixels across the screen by 1,080 pixels down the screen). The difference between 1080i and 1080p is in the way the signal is sent from a source component or displayed on an HDTV screen.
In 1080i each frame of video is sent or displayed in alternative fields. The fields in 1080i are composed of 540 rows of pixels or lines of pixels running from the top to the bottom of the screen, with the odd fields displayed first and the even fields displayed second. Together, both fields create a full frame, made up of all 1,080 pixel rows or lines, every 30th of a second.
In 1080p, each frame of video is sent or displayed progressively. This means that both the odd and even fields (all 1,080 pixel rows or pixel lines) that make up the full frame are displayed together. This results in a smoother looking image, with less motion artifacts and jagged edges.
Thanks Andrew, I forgot. My TV is 1080p. I'm not sure if the p has done me any good veiwing wise as opposed to 1080i, but it sure is purty.
As an aside, anybody else think the cost of the HD cables is outrageous? A friend gifted me with an HD TV (and BluRay player and AppleTV) and the difference between standard resolution and HD is pretty outrageous. Very crisp, very clean, and the upscaling is very good as well. I have not had any complaints, and I don't have any urge to replace my DVDs with BluRay discs. Well except for Planet Earth, because dammit, that NEEDS to be in HD.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I've come dangerously close twice over the last two days to buying a blu-ray player (mostly because John Carpenter's "The Thing" finally came out on blu-ray). Both times I chickened out, partially because I'm torn between buying a dedicated player or a PS3.
Just get the PS3. Mine works great as a Blu-Ray player, it downloads it's own firmware updates, AND you can play PS3 games on it! What's not to love?
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Creative Director
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Most players don't come with any cabling, and an HDMI connection is the only way to get full 1080p resolution. If you have an older TV with component input, you can buy component cables and get up to 480p. If you have a ten year old TV with standard red-yello-white RCA input, there's no way to connect a blu-ray player.
You can get 1080i resolution with component cables though, yeah?
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Creative Director
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You can get 1080i resolution with component cables though, yeah?Yes, but it's an analog signal. The only digital (consumer grade) outputs are DVI and HDMI. HD-SDI exists in professional setups, but I don't think you can get that stuff at Best Buy.
More to the point... I bought my ginormous TV and reciever 6 years ago. Chances of either of them supporting DVI and HDMI are slim. I keep forgetting to check, though...
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Director of Brand Strategy
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More to the point... I bought my ginormous TV and reciever 6 years ago. Chances of either of them supporting DVI and HDMI are slim. I keep forgetting to check, though...
DVI is a maybe, if it was high end at the time, HDMI is not likely at all, as I think HDMI was just coming out around that time and took a few years to become standard.
As an aside, anybody else think the cost of the HD cables is outrageous? A friend gifted me with an HD TV (and BluRay player and AppleTV) and the difference between standard resolution and HD is pretty outrageous. Very crisp, very clean, and the upscaling is very good as well. I have not had any complaints, and I don't have any urge to replace my DVDs with BluRay discs. Well except for Planet Earth, because dammit, that NEEDS to be in HD.
The HDMI cables that some charge $80 bucks for in stores can be found on the net for $10. Shop and save. :)
More to the point... I bought my ginormous TV and reciever 6 years ago. Chances of either of them supporting DVI and HDMI are slim. I keep forgetting to check, though...
Put that older mega-set in the bedroom, just to show off how pimp you are, then get yourself some new hotness for your living room. Get a set so big that burglars don't even want to try.
The HDMI cables that some charge $80 bucks for in stores can be found on the net for $10. Shop and save. :)
Yeah, but I want my HD now now now! I don't have time to wait for shipping! :P
The HDMI cables that some charge $80 bucks for in stores can be found on the net for $10. Shop and save. :)Yeah, but I want my HD now now now! I don't have time to wait for shipping! :P
Just an update. I finally convinced my wife we need a Blu-ray player. So we got the Sony one, goes along well with all our other Sony stuff.
And I have to say I am very impressed. One thing I would like is a quicker response from the remote control, but the image quality is excellent.
The discs for Planet Earth and all the National Geographic stuff has to be seen in Blu-ray!
Now if they will just get off their butts and release "Finding Nemo" and "Lord of the Rings" in Blu-ray, I'll be set!