Should You Buy Blu-ray?

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Blu-ray seems to be getting beat up in the media lately. Did Blu-ray miss its chance? Are movie downloads the future? Or is the format just fine and the naysayers are just full of it?

"But the ugly truth of the matter is that once you've got the 1080 HDTV, once you've bought a DVD player with HDMI cable connections, Blu-ray is superfluous. The features are fancier, but the picture? No improvement. Investing in a player (unless you already have a Blu-ray-ready PlayStation) is a needless expense. Downloads are the future, not discs in a cute blue box."
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I'd say for many of us, Downloads are the future. Most of us have terabyte hdds and media centre PCs. But I don't think the average consumer is ready for that. Most won't want to deal with that mess.

Bottom-line: I don't see downloads becoming the main thing until we have more accessible Fiber.
 
Physical media will be the norm for the next 30-40 years most likely. The broadband in the US just isn't ready for DD yet.
 
I do not see how anyone can argue downloads over a box or physical media, until downloads are ready. We are slowly getting better speeds (in the U.S.), with Uverse & FIOS, but there is a high level of control on downloads and usage. Yes, they can cut down the size of a download, but at what cost? Quality level is lower, audio is compressed, of course a smaller crowd cares about these minor details.
 
article said:
but it's not so good that you should go out and buy a Blu-ray player and replace your DVDs.
Especially if you own an "upconverting" DVD player, which enhances the quality of DVDs so drastically, it's hard to tell it's not Blu-ray.

....

One thing I didn't like is that all of the Blu-ray movies I watched were widescreen, so there were black bars above and below the picture on my HDTV until I stretched it or zoomed in.
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LOL, where do they find these people at? What a joke.
 
Blu ray is noticeably better than dvd on a 1080p TV. Not near as noticeable on a 720p TV. All you have to do watch any current movie side by side and it is obvious. The problem is that dvd is "good enough" for most people. But so is MacDonalds and Chevrolet. So, yeah, blu ray might not make it, but not because it isn't noticeably better- its because it isn't 2-3x better cost wise. If blu ray players come down in price and the movies reach parity with dvd's, it will do well. Other than that, it will have a tough time. That said, I won't buy anything that isn't on blu ray anymore.
 
I will stick with blue ray until they move on to the next media. Considering the life span of DVD I think the next media will be digital download. But I do like having my bookshelves of movies and games to choose from.

If they want digital download to be the future a company needs to jump on a set top box with multiple terrabytes of storage and a media player/server functionality.

As it is Joe Plumber isn't going to be building his own media server. That is reserved for folks like us. If it were as accessible as say a DVD player with a dedicated wifi deployment to back it up so joe doesn't need his own broadband subscription then it would have success in the long run. Problem is up front costs to the company to do it are unfathomable.
 
Until its player and movie prices come down to DVD levels, it's not going to take off.
 
I applaud Mr. Horowitz for managing to cram so much shit into such a short article.
 
Rofl-Mic-Lofl said:
I'd say for many of us, Downloads are the future. Most of us have terabyte hdds and media centre PCs. But I don't think the average consumer is ready for that. Most won't want to deal with that mess.

Bottom-line: I don't see downloads becoming the main thing until we have more accessible Fiber.
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I agree with you on this. Media Center PCs and HTPC are more for tech savvy. But people still have problems playing DVDs. When VHS was out, people had problem with those. People don't even understand the concept of DTV, that's why there's so many people out there going to buy the converter box even though they don't use OTA (over the air).
 
I have a 100 inch screen and 1080 projector, and anything that isn't in high resolution looks like blurry crap! This guy can go F*ck himself.
 
Downloads are fine if you only watch them on an iPod. For anything else the quality is just not there.
 
The only thing I use Blu-ray for is backing-up important data. I haven't really seen enough of a need to switch over from my current DVD player to play movies.
 
mullet said:
+1 Rofl.

I will always want a hard copy of the movies I like.
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BINGO!

I want my own copy that I can move from place to place and sell if need be. I've downloaded games before that I could have purchased on disk. When I found I did not like the game, I couldn't sell it...
 
Rofl-Mic-Lofl said:
I'd say for many of us, Downloads are the future. Most of us have terabyte hdds and media centre PCs. But I don't think the average consumer is ready for that. Most won't want to deal with that mess.

Bottom-line: I don't see downloads becoming the main thing until we have more accessible Fiber.
Click to expand...

++
except fiber is not required to download movies. a digital connection will be required though, 6mb+ is sufficient.

Downloads will work for us with HTPCs, but not for average Joe. It would have to be a set top box with a Tivo-like interface before the slightly above average Joe will accept it.

where is the edit button?
 
Parja said:
I applaud Mr. Horowitz for managing to cram so much shit into such a short article.
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That takes a lot of talent, I'm impressed.

I'm glad he cites such credible sources:

"The blacks were superb, the colors clear and precise, the striations of the canyon walls in the desert locations of Apes were brilliant," Moore said. "But the ugly truth of the matter is that once you've got the 1080 HDTV, once you've bought a DVD player with HDMI cable connections, Blu-ray is superfluous. The features are fancier, but the picture? No improvement."
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This guy screens a movie filmed in 1968 and expects to be floored by the difference between the DVD transfer and Blu-ray? I wonder if he tried a newer movie like Ratatouille, he'd have the same opinion...
 
SymptomsReagent said:
Physical media will be the norm for the next 30-40 years most likely. The broadband in the US just isn't ready for DD yet.
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That's a ridiculous claim. Even at the US's snale-pace upgrades streaming HD is already well within the bandwidth capacity of standard connections in large cities.
 
Honestly I couldnt tell enough of a difference between blu-ray and upscaled DVD.... until I got a 1080p LCD :) lmao :)

before I was running a 1080i CRT RPTV downstairs and a cheapie 720 LCD upstairs and never realized how much I was missing out on until I said screw it and bought my 1080p.... now I'm a Blu-Ray addict!!!

The moral is if you buy crap you'll see crap
 
err....Maybe i can see better than most so the difference is night and day. I never had an up converting hardware DVD play but I'm pretty sure the PowerDVD would do that and DVDs still don't look nearly as good as native BlueRay content. In fact Blueray makes regular DVDs look crappy!
 
GJSNeptune said:
Until its player and movie prices come down to DVD levels, it's not going to take off.
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Players? Meh, sorta.

Blu-ray movies have come down a lot more often in price over the last few months. My BBC Planet Earth collection came from amazon.co.uk yesterday and it was $25+right around $10 for shipping + exchange rate.

Many movies have been on sale lately as well for around the $10-$15 mark, and most new releases are around $20 on sale.

IMO more people need to have HDTV's and 5.1 or better/DTS systems before Blu-ray takes off. The problem is - that's not a high priority for a lot of people these days in this toilet of an economy.
 
Downloads are the future of movies just as they are for games. The Steam model seems to be pretty damn good for consumers while still preserving IP rights. I think we will see the same thing happen for high def movies. Also, netflix already has a streaming feature for many movies and that seems to be quite popular.
 
One thing I will say....well, aside from my usual complaint/whine about Blu-ray price....is this;

The Blu-ray Association needs to set some standards / guidelines about what can be put on Blu-ray. There are a bunch of horrible movies being slapped on to Blu-ray with no features and barely noticeable image quality difference and sold for $29.99.

Most of the big ticket action flicks are good (Batman, Iron Man, the Hulk etc. etc.) but even some of them (Superman Returns) look ass-like because of added film grain effects and so on.

So, as much as people scoff at the average Joe saying "I can't see the difference" you really have to look at what is being passed off on Blu-ray. What is the benefit of getting a Blu-ray movie like "Battle of the Bulge" circa 1965 when the upconvert DVD copy is just fine?

Anyhow, if there were some standards in place, it would help the format immensely....I think. Blu-ray should be High-Def ONLY and let movies like Step Brothers stay on standard DVD.
 
I prefer a hard copy. However, I am slowly leaning towards wanting a soft copy on a media server. As long as I can burn BDs and DVDs I am sort of ok with a download. My biggest problem is that I like having a factory pressed disc, and high quality box art.
 
One thing to think about Steve is that many providers (at least the top ones in the US) have implemented or are implementing usage caps, HD material over those pipes are going to max out the small caps quickly no matter how you compress it.

BluRay is not ganning ground due to price, not wanting to yet again replace your collections, combo vcr/dvd units aren't dead yet even, and the general perception of not having a need to go the extra distance for it. Not to mention the economy. if the BD format had more of a wow factor to it maybe it would be enough. DVD was a great accomplishment over LDs and VHS/Beta. The picture was instantly noticeably better, the sound was just awesome and featured more than stereo. The fact that you could play you CDs which also blew away your Tapes was an added bonus. In contrast BluRay's better picture (sometimes), better sound and interactivity - papa Johns - doesn't justify the extra price for pizza, I mean BluRay.
 
I cannot state enough that a upconverted dvd picture will never look as good as a blu-ray picture (though DVD still has a great picture). I sell the hardware enough everday to know this. To take full advantage of blu-ray, one must buy a 1080P tv, dolby digital 7.1 surround system and a HDMI connection. If you want the best picture and sound for your 1080P tv, blu-ray is the way to go for now.
 
ecktt said:
In fact Blueray makes regular DVDs look crappy!
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Not necessarily. I guess you haven't seen the blu-ray copy of Punisher? OMFG! There are scenes in there that make VHS tapes look good! I'm taking it back for a refund, because that is bullcrap!
 
People who don't notice a diff from DVD to BD are probably watching a 42" LCD from ten feet. At ten feet, your TV should be 55-65" for 1080p content.
 
ShagnWagn said:
Not necessarily. I guess you haven't seen the blu-ray copy of Punisher? OMFG! There are scenes in there that make VHS tapes look good! I'm taking it back for a refund, because that is bullcrap!
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It was very disappointment picture quality movie, I bought it and regret it. It was a good movie though.
 
Hockster said:
Downloads are fine if you only watch them on an iPod. For anything else the quality is just not there.
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wut.

You do realize you can get different codecs, quality, resolutions, etc.... right?

I have quite a few full 1080p videos on my PC which I downloaded...
 
Chiplg said:
I prefer a hard copy. However, I am slowly leaning towards wanting a soft copy on a media server. As long as I can burn BDs and DVDs I am sort of ok with a download. My biggest problem is that I like having a factory pressed disc, and high quality box art.
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I prefer a hard copy as well, simply because it's the best source of video/audio quality a consumer can get. Perhaps even considered overkill to some. DVDs are a mere 720x480 resolution but run as high as 9 megabits per second. I think that's what makes DVDs seem "good enough" by most viewers.

Downloading movies at such a high bitrate over the internet (let alone Blu-ray quality stuff) sounds foolish, time consuming, and wasteful. However, I think everyone deserves to get the best quality out of a movie when they buy it on a professionally-mastered medium. Until I can download the actual high-bitrate BD image with ultra fast internets, I'm not going to settle with the compromised quality.

Same goes for music really. I'd prefer the uncompressed audio from the CD than a butchered mp3 online. I wanna handle the things I buy my own way.
 
Yoshiyuki Blade said:
I prefer a hard copy as well, simply because it's the best source of video/audio quality a consumer can get. Perhaps even considered overkill to some. DVDs are a mere 720x480 resolution but run as high as 9 megabits per second. I think that's what makes DVDs seem "good enough" by most viewers.

Downloading movies at such a high bitrate over the internet (let alone Blu-ray quality stuff) sounds foolish, time consuming, and wasteful. However, I think everyone deserves to get the best quality out of a movie when they buy it on a professionally-mastered medium. Until I can download the actual high-bitrate BD image with ultra fast internets, I'm not going to settle with the compromised quality.

Same goes for music really. I'd prefer the uncompressed audio from the CD than a butchered mp3 online. I wanna handle the things I buy my own way.
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What he said.
 
I love my blu-ray. I honestly can't see how far internet downloads are going to take us when everyone is starting to freak out with bandwidth.

Imagine how much bandwidth every tom dick and harry would be using up if DD took off.

(or is this not an issue anymore? forgives me for being out of the high speed internet loop)
 
Steve said:
Blu-ray seems to be getting beat up in the media lately.
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It sure is. So many stories like this one are being published that I'm beginning to think someone is pushing / running a stealth campaign against Blu-ray. The questions are who and why? :confused:
 
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