Whatever Happened To Blu-ray?

xp3nd4bl3 said:
This thread makes me sad. If the [H] community in general are content with streaming then Blu-Ray doesn't stand a chance. Netflix "Super HD" encodes are unwatchable to me. Not only are they clearly bitrate-starved for the resolution but the amount of scrubbing they do to make the image more "stream-friendly" is egregious. If I were a cinematographer I would request Netflix to encode my 6Mb "Super HD" stream at 720p with an unmolested image. It would look way better than their traditional 1080p "Super HD" encodes.
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I suspect there is a lot of placebo effect going on here, just as we have in the mp3/flac arguments.

On my 60" Panny plasma, I can certainly see the difference between a real bluray and netflix "Super HD"....

....if I stand really close, and compare the still frames side by side.

In normal watching, at normal distances, without pausing to look at still frames I'd be hard pressed to tell you if I were watching a bluray or netflix.

I can't speak to the audio differences, as - since the launch of bluray - I've always watched at relatively low volume on TV speakers. I've never lived anywhere where having neighbors hasn't made anything louder a problem. When I did have a 5.1 setup back in college, I found that dealing with all the extra wires just wasn't worth the hassle for the rare occurrence I actually got to blast it in full glorious surround.

Maybe it is nice to live in the middle of nowhere where housing is cheap enough that you can afford to be anything less than a millionaire and live in a house that is not connected to your neighbors, but I'd choose the urban life 100% of the time :p
 
Zarathustra[H];1040802554 said:
On my 60" Panny plasma, I can certainly see the difference between a real bluray and netflix "Super HD"....

....if I stand really close, and compare the still frames side by side.
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I'm sorry that your eyes are garbage.

I know more people that say they've never been able to see dot crawl or rainbowing (composite video artifacts) than the other way around, even on reasonably large HDTVs. Clearly you are one of these people.
 
Zarathustra[H];1040802529 said:
Exactly. At some point you mature enough and have life responsibilities to th epoint where movie and movie quality simply doesn't matter at all anymore. All this stuff is, is a teenage/twenty-something boytoy discussion. Most people outgrow it.
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Hey, not EVERYONE in that age group is doing dumb stuff like this. I watch movies on laptops that have one speaker...not even two for stereo...built into them and I have some external speakers that I got from Target for like $10 a couple years ago if I really wanna get crystal clear sound while I'm enjoying a movie on a 14 inch screen. :D
 
Just checked my local Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, and a few local gas stations and it looks like Bluray is alive and well. I sometimes want to own a movie. I like shit to look good. Is there really another choice? This thread is an odd one!
 
Stiletto said:
Streaming HD content. Do I really have to explain this?
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Sadly, streaming HD doesn't come close to Blu-Ray's bitrate. There's a demonstrable quality difference.

Blu-Ray wins on quality but loses on price.
 
Zarathustra[H];1040802529 said:
Exactly. At some point you mature enough and have life responsibilities to th epoint where movie and movie quality simply doesn't matter at all anymore. All this stuff is, is a teenage/twenty-something boytoy discussion. Most people outgrow it.
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This is very far from the truth.

Most people at AVSForum for example have excellent home theaters and they are in their 30s-50s and have families and houses and they love working on their home theater as a hobby for their wife and kids and their kid's friends.

They have dens where they have home theater setups to have the guys over for sports regularly and things and friends and people over for movie screenings.

Video and sound quality matter a lot if you want to make the experience like a real theater.

BluRay is far greater quality than Netflix especially when you are viewing it on a 100"+ screen at proper distance.

Most people sit way too far away from their televisions and this is why they can't notice the difference.

For a 60" TV for example your hear should be about 6-7ft away.

http://www.avsforum.com/g/c/7/projector-theaters/

I'm willing to bet 90% of these home theaters are people over the age of 30 with life responsibilities and a families. People under the age of 30 and especially teens certainly don't have the money to have a proper setup like this.

It's called having a hobby though. You are obviously a person who does not enjoy watching movies or home theater stuff as a hobby and that's fine. But realize that there are lots of people who do as a hobby.
 
And I think BluRay is doing just fine. Most people I know have BluRay players at home.

Just wait for the coming 4K generation. Good luck streaming 4K video with your Internet speeds and data caps in anywhere near the fidelity of BluRay.

BluRay is a fine platform to store and distribute 4K video especially once they update it for additional recording layers and such so they can fit 100GB per disk etc.
 
Zarathustra[H];1040802529 said:
Exactly. At some point you mature enough and have life responsibilities to th epoint where movie and movie quality simply doesn't matter at all anymore. All this stuff is, is a teenage/twenty-something boytoy discussion. Most people outgrow it.
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This is an interesting POV. Does it apply to all hobbies or just the ones you decide aren't for adults?

I am an IT Director who is 36 years old and have a wife and two kids who are 8 and 12. We have track practice, piano, soccer, baseball and softball all through the week. Yet we still find time weekly to enjoy movies as a family. Maybe I need to grow up so I can not be part of this kid thing...?

I would agree maybe on one thing, people might outgrow it because they can no longer afford it, if you have kids and a bunch of expenses with them, that always comes first, but to think that people just all of a sudden outgrow a passion because they are older, well then it really wasn't a passion to begin with.

Here is my childish setup for all the kids to look at... :)

http://s1282.photobucket.com/user/TW1SM/library/Media Room
 
SirMaster said:
Very nice home theater!

I'm assuming that is a VPL50ES i'm seeing, very excellent projector, you must love it!

Really great to see you installed sound panels as well, not enough people do that IMO.
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Good eye sir, it is indeed the Sony 50ES. I love it, it was either that or a JVC but since I do game on the setup I needed something with low input lag.

The sound panels were a must, and really helped out the acoustics of the room.
 
tazeat said:
I like when I actually use a real bluray/dvd at somebodies house and I get punished by dealing with ads and then finding the controller to get around the terrible menus just to start the damn movie
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This is one of the main reasons, besides convenience, that I've pretty much given up on physical media in general. The fact that you just paid a healthy sum of money for a BR disc, and now have to sit through a bunch of non-sense every time you want to watch a movie is absurd. I gave away hundreds of DVD's and BR discs when I moved last because I got sick of them taking up space and collecting dust. I think I kept like 3 movies out of the bunch. The special features are neat... but you've seen one and you've seen them all.

My setup is pretty decent (high end 55" plasma with 5.1 HT system) and I can tell a difference in quality going from blue-ray to streaming, but 'slightly' more fidelity isn't worth the hassle tradeoff IMO.
 
I would (and do) take BD over streaming any day. When Netflix announced they were splitting the disks and streaming package, I cancelled streaming. The quality is too variable. Too many times I sat down to stream only to have macroblocking, stuttering video, fluctuating quality, A/V sync issues. It was crap then and its not much better now.
 
dandragonrage said:
I'm sorry that your eyes are garbage.

I know more people that say they've never been able to see dot crawl or rainbowing (composite video artifacts) than the other way around, even on reasonably large HDTVs. Clearly you are one of these people.
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SirMaster said:
Most people sit way too far away from their televisions and this is why they can't notice the difference.

For a 60" TV for example your hear should be about 6-7ft away.
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That is interesting, and may in art explain it.

I tend to sit about double that distance from my TV, and it feels natural to me.

I feel like at 6-7ft my 60" TV would feel like sitting in the front row of a movie theater, which is a less than desirable way to watch a movie.

I mean, growing up we used to have our couch ~12ft from our 28" CRT, so...
 
Zarathustra[H];1040803107 said:
That is interesting, and may in art explain it.

I tend to sit about double that distance from my TV, and it feels natural to me.

I feel like at 6-7ft my 60" TV would feel like sitting in the front row of a movie theater, which is a less than desirable way to watch a movie.

I mean, growing up we used to have our couch ~12ft from our 28" CRT, so...
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It's calculated based on viewing angles from the THX standard.

Sitting about 6-7ft from a 60" TV should have similar viewing angles to sitting in the middle of most theaters I have been in.

Usually the best is about 30 degrees out from the center of your vision is the edge of the screen so it puts it well within your immediate vision so there is no head turning or much eye panning.

Personally I sit about 14ft from a 136" screen at home. It's the closest of the optimal viewing range for sure, but I have people over all the time and nobody though it was too big or too close.
 
I have a BD-Rom on my HTPC, and haven't used it in over a year. Last time I tried, I realized it wouldn't open the drawer and is probably broken... oh well, no biggie, back to Netflix streaming.

I personally just hate the fact that the BR standard wasn't finalized before the media started coming out. Every time you get a new disk you have to update the firmware or player version to make it work right. Unacceptable! I also hate that I had to spend money on the drive hardware, then in another few months had to spend more money to get player software that works with it. The software compatibility is just pathetic.

I'm not about to ever buy another PC BD-Rom - there's just no benefit when the software is such a pain to keep in working order. Next time I'll just get a standalone player, and it better not require firmware updates with every new disk.
 
Nobody lines up at theaters or any movie any more.

We have some of the most advanced theaters here and nobody lines up for anything. not even the hobbit. I only remember lines in the early 90s 80s and maybe early 2000.

Nobody cares because they can watch or get the bluray later anytime they want and home theater system that are decent are common they was not then./
 
Activate: AMD said:
I would (and do) take BD over streaming any day. When Netflix announced they were splitting the disks and streaming package, I cancelled streaming. The quality is too variable. Too many times I sat down to stream only to have macroblocking, stuttering video, fluctuating quality, A/V sync issues. It was crap then and its not much better now.
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I haven't had any of those issues for months and months except for maybe the very rare problem with audio sync.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Hey, not EVERYONE in that age group is doing dumb stuff like this. I watch movies on laptops that have one speaker...not even two for stereo...built into them and I have some external speakers that I got from Target for like $10 a couple years ago if I really wanna get crystal clear sound while I'm enjoying a movie on a 14 inch screen. :D
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Is it because you're mature, or are you just poor?
 
Zarathustra[H];1040802529 said:
Exactly. At some point you mature enough and have life responsibilities to th epoint where movie and movie quality simply doesn't matter at all anymore. All this stuff is, is a teenage/twenty-something boytoy discussion. Most people outgrow it.
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One of the dumbest posts I've read on this forum in quite a while. And I read Fail's posts.
 
Frankie said:
Is it because you're mature, or are you just poor?
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Nooo, not mature. I'm pretty sure I'm mostly a CreepyChildGoogle at heart. I'm not really poor either, but I am a cheapo which is probably something I got from my daddy who was also a cheapo just like his grandparents so that moolah might still be the reason. Though I admit I spare no expenses on treats for my kyooote kitteh or nice outfits Everyone has their vices though.
 
seanmcd said:
Just checked my local Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, and a few local gas stations and it looks like Bluray is alive and well. I sometimes want to own a movie. I like shit to look good. Is there really another choice? This thread is an odd one!
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Agreed I see more Blu-Rays in stores these days then I do Gamecube games. Blu-Ray certainly hadn't gone anywhere. Heck, look at the tv shows on blu-ray site, there are new Blu-Rays being released this very month in fact. Nothing happened to Blu-Rays really, they still make them.
 
Zarathustra[H];1040802529 said:
Exactly. At some point you mature enough and have life responsibilities to th epoint where movie and movie quality simply doesn't matter at all anymore. All this stuff is, is a teenage/twenty-something boytoy discussion. Most people outgrow it.
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Rather silly comment here. It's a hobby for us grown folks. And If someone's really concerned about the cost of a couple of BRDs here and there, they may want to consider a different line of work....

And you sound to be a pretty inefficient person. I'm able to manage a financial research group at work, maintain a single family home inside and out, take care of all my other business, and still have time for a a few movies a week. Granted I don't have kids, but kids aren't a requirement in life....
 
Cube said:
Nobody lines up at theaters or any movie any more.

We have some of the most advanced theaters here and nobody lines up for anything. not even the hobbit. I only remember lines in the early 90s 80s and maybe early 2000.

Nobody cares because they can watch or get the bluray later anytime they want and home theater system that are decent are common they was not then./
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That's because when something like The Hobbit hits a multiplex, they put it in four or five houses to eliminate the lines. The cinema business is doing just fine.
 
Activate: AMD said:
I would (and do) take BD over streaming any day. When Netflix announced they were splitting the disks and streaming package, I cancelled streaming. The quality is too variable. Too many times I sat down to stream only to have macroblocking, stuttering video, fluctuating quality, A/V sync issues. It was crap then and its not much better now.
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sounds like you got isp issues, never had that on netflix.

however lovefilm on the other hand, thats aweful compared to netflix.

I have occasionally seen shows that are 480p only in netflix, but 480p is good enough because netflix 480p is good encoding, its not like youtube 480p.

to me renting disks is obselete. why wait for disks to come in post and have to send them back etc? streaming is like a 1-2 sec wait for it to start.

my main issue with netflix is not the quality but that they havent got all content, I am still annoyed with the movie industry that they deliberatly segmenting the market, they do not want one single service to have every tv/movie available for one fixed price per month. however at the same time I am also glad netflix have not succumbed to hollywood's whims and raised the price huge amounts as they were asked to do and have avoided offering any pay per view stuff, whatever is on there is inclusive.
 
dandragonrage said:
I couldn't disagree with him more, personally. AnyDVD is no better with their own subscription fee. I'll stick to a physical player for Blu-ray, thanks.

There is not a single software package that I'd purchase for home usage that is subscription-based.

And before you say you don't HAVE to buy a recurring subscription... same thing with PowerDVD. No thanks.
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Lol you think anydvd's subscription is no better? Lol your obviously very unfamiliar with the service. It's a one time, lifetime license. You pay $99 once, not every year. You clearly don't understand how anydvd's business model works.
 
Kind of on/offtopic.. but holy shit does FIOS HD look bad to anyone else? OTA HD looks WAY better than FIOS. Channel 500s, 600s, 700s (Paladia, etc) and 899+ w/ HBO.. they are a quantization compression mess.
 
And yeah, blu ray 3d combo packs FTW. I don't buy movies unless they are 3d w/ a combo bluray or dvd (most recently, ordered Frozen from amazon.uk because Disney has stopped 3d in the US). I rip the 2d disc for the Plex server so the kids can't screw those up and then only use the 3d discs for proper viewing.

I'll be extremely disappointed when my LG 3d dies.. love that thing.

I'm hoping there will be a new push for 3d with 4K. Passive is where it's at for home 3d but you do notice the loss of resolution. Passive 3d at 4K (so you'd be back to a full screen 1080p 3d image) would solve all that.
 
pbassjunk said:
And yeah, blu ray 3d combo packs FTW. I don't buy movies unless they are 3d w/ a combo bluray or dvd (most recently, ordered Frozen from amazon.uk because Disney has stopped 3d in the US). I rip the 2d disc for the Plex server so the kids can't screw those up and then only use the 3d discs for proper viewing.

I'll be extremely disappointed when my LG 3d dies.. love that thing.

I'm hoping there will be a new push for 3d with 4K. Passive is where it's at for home 3d but you do notice the loss of resolution. Passive 3d at 4K (so you'd be back to a full screen 1080p 3d image) would solve all that.
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Well, that sucks. I still think of 3D as a novelty, but since I was forced to buy a new projector, I'm going 3D. I have a few 3D combo packs, and I'd love to use them. It's not an every movie thing, but it is pretty nice to watch occasionally. A good extra bonus. Not that I'd go out of my way to buy all 3D stuff, but if it's there, why not?

4K will be my next ~$4000 projector. When it hits that price point, I'm upgrading. By then, I'll have a 140" screen instead of 110".
 
I bought the movie on VHS
I bought the movie on widescreen VHS
I bought the movie on DVD
I bought the movie on remastered Directors cut DVD

I bought enough of this crap.
 
daglesj said:
I bought the movie on VHS
I bought the movie on widescreen VHS
I bought the movie on DVD
I bought the movie on remastered Directors cut DVD

I bought enough of this crap.
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Well, they got you 4 times. Now, they are looking for the next sucker that just bought their first or second copy. The cycle continues! :)

Annoying, big time.
 
ZodaEX said:
Lol you think anydvd's subscription is no better? Lol your obviously very unfamiliar with the service. It's a one time, lifetime license. You pay $99 once, not every year. You clearly don't understand how anydvd's business model works.
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Ahh girl, you is so crazy! You just messin wit people!

anydvd_sub.gif


I just bought a 25 pack of BD-R's for $10 at Microcenter to backup my pictures and music. I'll make double copies of all the data in case the shelf life isn't great.
 
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