I haven't seen the true full 1080p that blu-ray can deliver. But, I can see the difference between SD and the 720p that I can get on my TV. It's noticeable. I won't rush out to buy blu-ray DVDs or a player, but can see easily making the switch when the DVDs come down in price. Mr Awe
For me, if it's worth buying, it's worth buying on Blu-ray. Thing is, with Netflix there's not a lot that I consider worth buying anymore.
I don't have a blu-ray player and likely wont for a couple of years. However when I buy the kids their Disney movies lately I buy the BD version because it's only $10 more and comes with a regular DVD as well.
Yeah the discs are still prohibitively expensive. I'm about as much of a movie buff as a 25 year-old can be but I only own about 20 films. Netflix is awesome. One of the main reasons I was sorry about HD-DVD losing the war was cheaper manufacturing costs. Those discs could be produced in regular DVD factories where-as BD requires all new fabrication machinery.
True that. As a videographer, HD-DVD would've definitely made my life easier than Blu-ray. Somehow though, I think the disc cost to us consumers would be exactly the same if HD-DVD had won out.
Hey Tombfyre, the discussion here seems to be going well, but I'm going to shuffle this over to the General TV & Media Forum because the subject matter fits in better there.
My parents have a 42" HDTV (720p). I scrimped and saved for months so that for their anniversary this year, I could purchase them a BluRay player (they were watching movies on an old DVD/VCR combo). I gave it to them, installed it, and loaded up one of the two BDs I purchased (Twister and Serenity). The difference was night and day. They loved it. Well, mom loved it. Dad couldn't tell the difference. Before giving it to them I hooked it up to my 22" HDTV (720p) to see how it would behave, since I've never used the technology before. While it looked fantastic on my TV, I didn't notice too much of a difference, which I chalked up to the size of the TV. I'd imagine the larger the TV the greater the difference in clarity from the BluRay player. J.
I guess that for me it just comes down to to a couple of complaints.... one being that extra detail they are trying to sell me on, just doesn't add to my enjoyment of the film. And second, its very disillusioning to go and buy say.... TOS on DVD only to find out they only gave me the 4:3 version and 6 months later release the widescreen versions THE HAD (based on the HDDVD version on season 1). Or how about many re-releases of films like say... Terminator 2.. which has mearly a fraction of the extra content the original dvd special edition had. Its such a rip off to see all of these company's just slap their HD version of the film on a BD and put a $29-$40 price tag on it. These BD versions are higher res.. sure.. but they are the packaged and sold in the same manner as the cheap copy you find of a film that you find for 10.00 in the bargin bin. How about this example... Boondock Saints. If anyone recalls the dvd release. The package was great. High quality and it felt like you really bought a great product. Money well spent (if you enjoyed the film). The blu-ray version.. is a disk in a case. No effort spent. More expensive. /end rant. hope it makes sense. its late
I know how you feel. I bought Twister today as one of their movies (they love that movie). The DVD is $5 in the Walmart bargain bin. The BluRay is behind locked case and is $19. The quality on the BluRay is definitely better, but to justify a $14 price difference? No way. Most of the BluRay DVDs I see are never lower than $20, and we're talking movies that have been on the shelf for years. Serenity on BluRay is $20. I can buy the DVD for $7.50 at Target. I will say this: Their DVDs look spectacular (by comparison to standard DVD) in a BluRay player. You can easily tell they're DVDs, but they look markedly better in color and clarity. Of course, with BluRay all you're doing is buying for HDTV what DVD did for SDTV. You get sharp color and crystal clarity, exactly the same thing DVD did for regular televisions. I remember one of the DVDs we bought for our 36" RCA (standard TV), it was Ellen Degeneres "Here and Now". We were amazed at the beautiful picture, the sound and clarity, and the beautiful crispness it produced. When HDTVs came out, DVDs became fuzzy, pixelated and lacking in color and clarity. The sharpness was replaced by a general haze, and while they could be watched, the experience was less than satisfying in many cases. Now here comes BluRay, which gives you what you had with DVD and standard TVs, and the price is through the roof. Honestly, as much as I want to get my mom the Star Trek movies on BluRay, I cannot justify $75 (that's on Amazon) for the same thing she already has for just a bit more clarity. For a while, they started selling BluRay with the movie's DVD version as well. I haven't seen them do that in a while. I loved it, since it meant once I bought a BluRay player I could get the DVD for the other rooms in the house with standard DVD players, but no. So there's no way a 4 year old movie justifies $30, even if it is sharper and clearer. J.
I'm pretty sure TOS never was released and never will be released in widescreen, like all shows at the time it was filmed with a 4:3 aspect ratio. If it was released in widescreen they would have to chop the top and bottom off of the picture and that's just as bad as widescreen movies being released in fullscreen. I've I've watched a few HD episodes on my local Fox (1 to 2 AM Saturdays and Sundays ) and they have a 4:3 aspect ratio.
I can't really stomach the cost of the media, but I certainly rent blu-ray whenever available, and as a matter of fact, i no longer buy movies at all anymore. I'm too cheap to buy blu-ray and feel it would be a waste to buy dvd, so i'll wait until blu-ray comes down in price; Besides, I get movies in the mail from bb and if i want to watch one right away, i can just go to the local store and swap one out.
To get the best out of Bluray, you really need to spend the money on the equipment otherwise it's a waste of time. I watched Dr.No the other week on a good 60" screen, it was absolutely amazing. On a 32" TV? who'd really notice?
Oh, it's still noticeable. I noticed the difference on my 22", but it just wasn't an appreciable difference to warrant getting one for myself while still having a TV that size. J.
Bought a BR players just after Christmas for quite a good price and love it. I still have all my DVD's and some of them look just as good as BR discs so I won't be upgrading all my DVD's just the odd ones that where poor quality on DVD to begin with. I won't be buying and DVD's anymore though as I don't see the point, its like buying a VHS cassete today.
Hit and miss with older films in my experience. Bought Days of Thunder and Top Gun, couldn't really tell much difference. By contrast, Zulu looks awesome, better than most news films that are being released onto Blu Ray. Picked up The Goonies a few weeks ago as well, and that was surprisingly good as well. I assumed that it would just be upscaled SD, but it looks better than that.
Re: consumer video formats I have to stop you there from words out of your mouth about brand new technology that will start broadcasting in year of 2015. From what I read there, it's far more superior than HDTV, why bothering needing these super technology anyway? It will hurts our eyes even more than it is already. How can Super Hi-vision (SHV) would be better? We are already in digital technology now, why bothering needing to upgrading more advanced technology that is far superior than HDTV?
That's a fair argument. If it doesn't add value to you then it doesn't add value to you. Some people like hardback books, some are contnt with paperbacks. TOS on Blu-ray is in 4:3. That's the way it was filmed and the only way it has been presented (same for TNG, DS9, and VGR). Not all HD material is widescreen. That's just Blu-ray copying the sales model of DVD. Sell it to 'em again. And again. And again. How many versions of ARMY OF DARKNESS have there been on DVD? And T2 was just re-released on Blu with most if not all of the special features from both previous DVD issues. So are the majority of DVDs these days. Okay, how about my PLANET OF THE APES Blu-ray set? All five of the classic Apes movies, in glorious HD, in a great looking set, amd including a nice hard cover book about the franchise. On Standard Def you get five keepcases in a cheap cardboard box.
It all depends on how much effort the studio is willing to put into it. Blade Runner looks awesome in Blu-ray even if it lacks the "pop" that the newer titles have. On the other end, when Universal was backing HD-DVD, they were putting out random crap left and right that they didn't bother to upgrade, like Mobsters. Of all the titles they could've released, Mobsters?!?!?!?
Blu-ray looks great on my parents' 42" 720p TV. I'm wondering what it looks like on a 1080p, since 1080p TVs are coming down to the same price as 720p TVs (although they're still outrageously high!). J.