Blue-Ray... is it worth it?

[darkshadow0001]

It took sometime for me to venture into DVD when it first came out. I didn't see much of a difference from VHS at the time... but after watching DVDs almost constantly and watching old VHS tapes again, I can see a huge difference in the quality each can produce. So my question is, with Blue-Ray being fairly new now, is it worth upgrading? I realize you probably have to get an HD-TV or something in order to get the best output for these things, so give me your thoughts

 

[Hermiod]

You're wasting your time if you don't have a HDTV, but yes, the films look great.

It's older films where you see it the most, strangely. I have it on HD-DVD and not Blu-Ray, but 2001: A Space Odyssey looks incredible as does Blade Runner.

 

[darkshadow0001]

I've been wanting one for quite sometime, but I have too many bills right now to go out and get one, but I'm hoping maybe within a year I can get one.

 

[Hermiod]

Right now, the biggest problem I have with the format is the price of the discs. New releases cost too much. I am not going to spend £18 on one film.

 

[Aragorn]

Hi def movies aren't useful unless you have a hi def TV. But not all high def movies are created equally, so you should read reviews of the Blu-Ray movies you'd be interested in to see if their video transfers are any good.

 

[TheInsideMan]

As a HD-DVD owner, that's the best thing about Blu-Ray winning the war. The price of HD-DVD discs have fallen to ridiculous levels (Matrix Trilogy on HD-DVD for £18) and are selling well.

I'm happy to wait until both the Profile 2.0 players and the Blu-Ray discs come down in price. Until then I'm happy with the upscaling of my Tosh EP-30 which makes my existing DVD library look great.

 

[Hermiod]

Hi def movies aren't useful unless you have a hi def TV. But not all high def movies are created equally, so you should read reviews of the Blu-Ray movies you'd be interested in to see if their video transfers are any good.

This is good advice. The HD-DVD version of season one of Battlestar Galactica looks terrible, for instance.

I'm happy to wait until both the Profile 2.0 players and the Blu-Ray discs come down in price. Until then I'm happy with the upscaling of my Tosh EP-30 which makes my existing DVD library look great.

This is also good advice. Though a PS3 supports Profile 2.0 now.

 

[gh4chiefs]

As an owner of a new HDTV and Blu-ray player, I can say with certainity they look spectacularily different. But is it worth the price of $30-$35 discs? That's hard to say. I've been able to aquire most of my Blu-ray discs on Amazon and places that has maded my average cost per disc quite a bit less than $30, so I'm real happy with Blu-ray.

 

[Aragorn]

There always seems to be Blu-Ray sales going on, though they tend to be the same titles (Black Hawk Down, A Few Good Men, Species, The Patriot, etc.). J&R and Walmart have sales going on right now. I Am Legend is $13.95 at Amazon (and they also have a bunch of other titles for their Father's Day special). You also have the Deep Discount and DVD Planet 20% off sales going on right now.

 

[the quickening]

A friend of mind, who is knowledgeble in these matters, told me that he bought a 1080 Up-Convertable DVD Player and plays his regular DVDs on it; according to him, viewing them on his HDTV, they look great. Everyone has their definition of what is acceptable and looks good. I will be buying a HDTV soon, (my old 35" TV just went out). I'm going to buy a 1080 Up-Convertable DVD Player with it (cost for the players are reasonable--around $70.00) and check it out. If I am satisfied with the picture quality, I will hold off buying Blue-Ray for a while. What I will probably do, down the road is only buy the classics and epics on Blue-Ray: 2001, Doctor Zhivago, Ben-Hur, etc.

After building a VHS library, then a Laser Disc library, then a DVD library, I am done. Besides, movies are just crap today and I have almost lost my passion for them. Not about to spend more money for another library.

 

[Hitman]

To me it is more then worth it. I've acquired a player sometime ago, and I simply have stopped buying DVDs.

 

[Starbreaker]

Netflix will send you Blu-Ray discs at no extra cost if that is your preference. It's pretty cool.

 

[clint g]

Blu-ray is alright. I wont be re-buying anything though. up converted looks good enough for me

 

[Kira Nerys]

I don't think it is worth it .I will stick to my old DVD player.

 

[Aragorn]

Upconverted is still not HD. In order to show off my hi def setup, I played a scene of a movie on both DVD and Blu-Ray and switched back and forth between the two. Everyone was impressed, but the thing was my DVD player was upconverting the DVD and the difference was still massive.

 

[Brolan]

I don't agree the difference is that big a deal. I have a HD-DVD player and have watched movies both in HD-DVD and DVDs being upscaled.

Sure, Blu-ray is going to be the standard someday but I'm not going to invest until the players get to $200 and the profiles stabilize a bit.

 

[RevDMV]

Somewhere I recall seeing someone doing a screen grab compare of the two formats and the difference was complelling. I'm waiting a bit longer for the device prices to drop and I recall reading that the standards are still in a bit of flux.

 

[jeff lebowski]

It took sometime for me to venture into DVD when it first came out. I didn't see much of a difference from VHS at the time... but after watching DVDs almost constantly and watching old VHS tapes again, I can see a huge difference in the quality each can produce. So my question is, with Blue-Ray being fairly new now, is it worth upgrading? I realize you probably have to get an HD-TV or something in order to get the best output for these things, so give me your thoughts

Depends if you think it's worth it to you or not.

Blu-Ray is more than worth it for a guy like me.

But here is something else to consider...

Not only do you have to get an HDTV, but you also have to take into account the size and the viewing distance of the tv.

If you get a 52inch LCD and are 8ft away, you'll notice a HUGE difference over DVD.

But if you get a 27 inch that's 25 ft away, don't bother. You probably won't see a difference.

 

[clint g]

Another thing I should toss in about cost, another thing you might want to consider is your sound system. I know it isn't required for watching an HD movie and everything, but whats the point of going all out on your HDTV, blu-ray player, and movies, and using the standard sound setup. Might want to consider getting a decent sound system to go with the whole home theater system or else you really wont be getting everything out of your blu-ray movie

 

[mswood]

Yeah there is a considerable difference. But its all up to the viewer.

As for the cost, well first you need the tv, and thats going to get expensive to truly get the most of the quality. Then the player (my personal biggest complaint). I still don't have one (I play it on the PS3).

As to the disc, will they are more expensive then DVD's I only pay a few more dollars for each title (its close to the price of actual DD's when I switched over to them, and so, so much cheaper then 90% of the video tape I ever purchased).

But my suggestion is to go piece mail. Start with the TV. Then eventually get the player and discs (eitehr through rental or purchase). With time more sales will allow the price point (if thats an issue for yourself) to lower and became more affordable.