10 Ways Blu-ray Is Letting Movie Lovers Down

Yeah so we should just cater to your lame movie viewing experience. I wouldn't be surprised if you watch them on a black and white TV. :p

I certainly don'e have $15k invested in my home theater but what I do have makes for a really nice viewing experience and I'd like to have my content in the best quality possible.

It's okay I've already explained this.
 
Exactly this. Bluray was obsolete as soon as it came out and the studios didn't and still don't seem to realize it.

Yeah, because nobody buys them and clearly they are stupid for continuing to make them.

If you're happy with having your consumer rights taken away and with giving up quality for convenience, then good for you. Don't apply your sheepish thoughts to everyone. If nobody wanted Blu-ray, then it wouldn't be made.

And really, it's not like there is a decent alternative, anyway. Netflix is missing an awful lot of movies that I want to watch. Friends come over and we start looking up movies. More times than not, we have to come up with half a dozen different ideas before finding one that Netflix actually has.
 
Exactly this. Bluray was obsolete as soon as it came out and the studios didn't and still don't seem to realize it.
They will not be obsolete as long as TVs remain at 1080p. Or did you not think of that?

Though, I have wondered why we don't have movies on cards already, and least in some capacity. Like the HuCards from TG-16/PC-Engine. Yeah, too expensive in components.
 
I always felt 1080p was a little unadventurous. Would have preferred 1440p for a nice 50% downscale to 720p

720p for broadcast TV and then it upscales neatly and you have your BDs playing 1440p for the ultimate quality.
 
I have a nice Home Theater setup and am enthusiast. Streaming is great for laying in bed, for for a true movie experience, Blu Ray is the only way to go right now. Don't see that changing.

The movies are not expensive either. People are just dumb and don't know where to buy. Physical media is still king for best quality. Go to Blu-Ray.com or AVSforums and tell me blu ray is dead...
 
Its amazing for the following:

1. I find that some people out there are so hell bent on being against digital distribution for movies, but they embrace services like Steam for gaming? Digital Distribution completely eliminates resale values.

2. The article forgot the fine point. Netflix is the bigger killer of resale values not re-releases. Although they do hurt as well.

3. I have really never met anyone that watched movies repeatedly. Sure I have a few classics that I watched more than once, but I have completely thinned out my collection. Given the choice of watching a movie that I have already seen or watching something that I might enjoy on netflix I am going to chose netflix every time.

4. The cost benefit analysis is in Netflix's favor. Why do you think so many people scooped up Netflix? You can create so many HBO Go channels, but what television companies fail to realize is that in this economy even people that can afford it are cutting back. And they first thing they are learning to live without is cable...even more so as we have other devices like the Internet (youtube/facebook etc) and we are working more hours than ever just to get by.

5. Sure you have a small niche market that wants to buy DVDs or Blurays but for how long? As the market dies a little bit each day people will stop distributing discs. Hell most artists are releasing songs on itunes before they hit the store. I have met more people who just said "you know what? fuck it I will take that quality loss to watch something I enjoy versus watching the same thing over and over"

6. Movies are a social experience. People like to think that people care about your home theater system, they don't. If you are having a movie party or watching a movie with your kids then little Jimmy is going to want to watch that new Lion King movie. He doesn't give a shit how good Aladdin sounds the 57 times you watched it already.


I could not disagree more with #3 and #6.

For one, admittedly extreme example, I've seen Reservoir Dogs 53 times. 33 of those were while I was in college. My poor wife has seen the movie over 20 times. Dewey Cox? About 25. Citizen Kane? About 30 times. I have several other favorites that I have seen over 15 times each. Based on feedback from acquaintances on various HT boards, I am not alone, though obviously taste in movies may differ.

As far as #6 goes, movies are definately note a social experience. The socializing occurs before and after the movie, not during. When I am watching a movie, I want to be immersed in the movie and not hear some douche talking, playing with his phone, or putting his feet on the back of my seat. This is why I have a HT. Well, that and the ability to go to a private, exclusive bathroom and have the projectionist pause the movie for me. :D
 
You've never seen a good setup, and most people aren't douchebags about it like you. Why do you care if someone wants a good TV and surround sound? Do you want us to start slamming your hobbies?


Agreed, and besides; who cares if someone is impressed with my (or your) HT? I am, and that's all that matters. ;)
 
Two things really piss me off about the price of Blue-Ray movies:

1. Bundles- for some reason they always tack on an extra DVD for people with a Blue-Ray DVD player as if, I said to myself when shopping for a Blue-Ray "well I'd hate to watch a movie in any state of the art format, I prefer to watch it in its shittiest way possible!"

2. The fucking trailers. Why can't I skip them?
 
I agree with about half of the list. I love Blu-Ray quality but the prices are just too high. And unfortunately DVD generally looks like crap to me now on my HDTV, so I'm kinda stuck.
 
I agree with most of their points.. retail prices are too high for Blu-ray discs..

I always wait for sales unless it is a movie I truly want to collect.. and first week prices are usually a bit cheaper than they are after that.. $20 for a Blu-ray + dvd combo pack is not a horrible price, imo.

I love the quality of the video and audio too much to go digital content for everything.

+1

Also, don't forget that a lot of folks don't even have access to high speed internet. I'm very fortunate. I can get blistering speeds up to 1.5Mb. lol
 
legaldvdvspiratedvd.jpg


:rolleyes:
 
I've been voting with my wallet, for a long time now. Wish they would change this BS.
 
Damn straight. I can never understand these folks that have got themselves into such a terrible state 'mentally' that they cannot watch a movie unless its in 1080p on a 60"+ screen with full DTS 7:1 sound etc. etc. We are not really impressed by the fact you have spent $15000 on Home Theatre, trust me. We are just trying not to hurt your feelings by going "Oh wow!" We just want to watch the flick okay!

I find most home surround setups distracting. I really only feel it works in cinemas but its a nice to have. I can watch a movie just fine in mono if I have to. I don't have to 'feel' a movie in my guts to enjoy it. Thanks goodness.

Holy shit!? $15k? Hell yes I'd be impressed! Can I be your friend?! :D
 
There are people out there that don't see a huge difference from chopped steak to sirloin to filet mignon. I may shake my head but I leave them to their ignorance.

My parents have a 55" 120Hz LED but they watch non-HD channels on it when there are HD version of the channels that they watch. It drives me up the wall when I am over there, but hey, they are perfectly fine watching those non-HD channels on there.

I think the same applies here: Netflix quality cannot come close to a Blu-Ray, but some people do not really care. Personally, I do, which is why I do not use Netflix because the quality is never consistant or that great, even on a close to 30Mbit connection.

With you on the parents thing... I have seen this with my own eyes and realize that they care about HDTV as much as I care about Blu-Ray, which is next to nothing. I just don't understand not upgrading your experience by literally pressing a button. It's right there and it's free!

I feel good about all the money I've saved by not buying DVDs or Blu-Rays for about 7 years. I am not always happy about Netflix's quality either, but I'll spend $8 a month purely to be able to watch certain TV series whenever I like. Hey, they weren't HD when they originally aired, so I'm not about to get ticked off about the lack of it now.
 
I've got about $10K in my HT, simply cause I got most at cost.

For me, BD is a necessity. Streaming sucks ass - compressed nightmare, no uncompressed audio - this is a deal killer as it's very obvious. People DO care about quality. The IMAX is pretty much the only place that trumps my own setup - and my setup doesn't even compare to the hi-fi zealots.

As mentioned above, I really wish the 1080p thing was 1440p from the get-go. There'd be less need to go to 4K so soon. My 70" is about as big as I'd want to go at 1080p, but 1440p would allow 80" & 90" screens while maintaining great fidelity. Problem is, like mp3's, the mainstream public couls mostly give a shit about hi-fi. Maybe cause they've never heard/seen it? Maybe cause they don't care? I don't know. It has always been this way and will always be this way. As far as blu-ray letting us down, that's a load of BS. Amazon and Netflix baby.
 
2012 called. Some of us have nice home theater setups and actually want quality audio/video.

Hi, 2012 here again. They recommend you move to Europe. 100Mb (with the option of 200Mb) downlink, no caps.

Now all we need is a legal alternative to torrents.
 
Well a quick search shows this place http://www.sfvideo.com/ will sell fully packaged mastered blu-rays for $2.29 per disk in quantities of 1000 vs 99 cents for DVD. I am sure the big players like Sony making thousands/millions of disks, the costs are much lower. So why exactly is there a $15 markup at retail?

Limited market penetration and costs of mastering and authoring are first things that come to mind.

Most of my Bluray purchases have been under $10/movie. There are a few that I spent more on, Avatar, James Bond Collections 1, 2 , and 3.
The Harry Potter 8 movie + 3BD extras comes out the cheapest at less than $5/movie.
 
I also have an issue with how many movies are actually worth the full HD treatment.

Sure by nature of the product you get to see any movie in HD at the theatre but do you go to watch the latest Adam Sandler (you poor bastard) or Jennifer Anniston to see the wonderful cinematography and pore definition on their faces? No not really.

So why buy the BD version for £15-£20 when you can buy the bog standard DVD copy for £3. Or better still rent it for £2 or stream it.

The Early James Bond films remastered in HD look so clean, you'd swear it was a movie shot recently to look like a 60's film.
 
Obviously, you can only get good quality on Blu-Ray and Netflix if you use an oxygen-free, magnetically sealed, braided HDMI cable. That's where the problem is!
 
BOZX alone offers better service than all the studios combined.
 
The Early James Bond films remastered in HD look so clean, you'd swear it was a movie shot recently to look like a 60's film.

Yeah, I was amazed at the original Star Wars remasters, too. So clean for such an old series.
 
I only get my Blu-ray from Netflix, so the price point doesn't really apply to me.

As for the other complaints, well I think it's more of the author's pet peeves than actual complaints. I don't care what the box art looks like, I don't care whether the digital copy disk exist, I don't care if ancient movies never make it to Blu-ray, and I don't care if a studio takes too long releasing a Blu-ray version of ancient movies.

There's thousands of other movies to watch, and millions of other things to do with your life than sit around waiting for a movie release. The author seems to feel a little too entitled.

Yeah...was going to say, getting BluRays from Netflix still works great. It's not like I'm running out of things to watch and it costs me 10 bucks a month.
 
I can't believe the article didn't mention the "Get a Blu Ray player" spam that is on Blu Ray discs. Those drive me nuts. I already have a Blu Ray player, I don't want to see an unskippable ad telling me how awesome Blu Ray is :(
 
I dispute even what you say, but at least you're not being a douche about your opinion. daglesj is the only person who not only doesn't care about a good setup, but finds good setups distracting (LOL... what?!) and actually thinks negatively of people for wanting to have a good setup as if his hobbies were better than theirs.

Some of my friends care about quality, and some much less so. All of them like my setup a lot. Some of them would like my setup a lot even if it weren't good enough for me to like. But I can 100% guarantee you that not a single one of them thinks negatively of me for having a good setup.

Heres my point. Tell me if they care or can tell a difference between that 600 dollar home theater in a box system to the 6,000 dollar Martin Logan system. Sure someone might say it is cool, but if they are coming over they probably care little about how good your sound system is and they really just want to watch the movie.
 
don't forget about HD audio. Almost all blu-ray discs have lossless HD audio. You can't get that via downloads.
 
Heres my point. Tell me if they care or can tell a difference between that 600 dollar home theater in a box system to the 6,000 dollar Martin Logan system. Sure someone might say it is cool, but if they are coming over they probably care little about how good your sound system is and they really just want to watch the movie.

For a while I was running all B&W speakers / sub, NAD amps, and a decent H/K receiver. I spent a lot of time dialing it in and making sure I had a bit sweet spot for listening. Everyone that watched a movie at my place was like "OMFG Holy ****" this sounds amazing." Everyone.
 
Heres my point. Tell me if they care or can tell a difference between that 600 dollar home theater in a box system to the 6,000 dollar Martin Logan system. Sure someone might say it is cool, but if they are coming over they probably care little about how good your sound system is and they really just want to watch the movie.

A lot of people cannot, that is true. Diminishing returns, etc. But I didn't spend a ton of money. I DIY my speakers and honestly, I'd put them up against 6000 dollar Martin Logans any day. (Not that I don't like ML! I do.) I could demonstrate why BAD systems (like Bose Acoustimass... or TV speakers) are bad and it would be easy enough, though.

Still, while a lot of my movie watching is with other people that aren't as picky as me, I'm still using my system and I'm still enjoying it. I didn't tell you all to buy $6k speakers, nor do I tell my friends to. I enjoy my setup to its fullest. My friends just plain enjoy my setup to whatever degree they enjoy it. And that's good enough for me! I bought my system for me! The fact that other people come over and we use it is just a bonus (since I like spending time with other people and all).

By the way, I'm against digital distribution more for the consumer rights issues than for the quality. But the quality is a factor, too. Some digital distribution methods have better quality than others (mainly depending on the video codec, settings and bitrate used, as well as what they used as a source for their encode of it).
 
For a while I was running all B&W speakers / sub, NAD amps, and a decent H/K receiver. I spent a lot of time dialing it in and making sure I had a bit sweet spot for listening. Everyone that watched a movie at my place was like "OMFG Holy ****" this sounds amazing." Everyone.

Ok now tell them to come over to my place and listen to my Monitor 7s that I spent 30 minutes tuning with ADP370 surrounds and a matching center. PW2200 for a sub and a ancient RX1300 receiver. They will probably be amazed too!

None of your friends are going to hook up 5 systems next to each other to compare sound so the fact that someone said "your setup sounds awesome" probably meant that it did sound awesome, but would have said the same thing on a 1000 dollar surround sound. Or maybe they were just being a good friend. Who knows

You are assuming all you friends know anything about sound.
 
A lot of people cannot, that is true. Diminishing returns, etc. But I didn't spend a ton of money. I DIY my speakers and honestly, I'd put them up against 6000 dollar Martin Logans any day. (Not that I don't like ML! I do.) I could demonstrate why BAD systems (like Bose Acoustimass... or TV speakers) are bad and it would be easy enough, though.

Still, while a lot of my movie watching is with other people that aren't as picky as me, I'm still using my system and I'm still enjoying it. I didn't tell you all to buy $6k speakers, nor do I tell my friends to. I enjoy my setup to its fullest. My friends just plain enjoy my setup to whatever degree they enjoy it. And that's good enough for me! I bought my system for me! The fact that other people come over and we use it is just a bonus (since I like spending time with other people and all).

By the way, I'm against digital distribution more for the consumer rights issues than for the quality. But the quality is a factor, too. Some digital distribution methods have better quality than others (mainly depending on the video codec, settings and bitrate used, as well as what they used as a source for their encode of it).

I am against it. The reason I like it so much in the realm of CDs/DVDs is because it is usually cheaper or CDs have been made cheaper because of it.

Video games (ignoring the ancient steam sales games) are usually the same cost for digital distribution.
 
Uh, you clearly don't know what you're talking about. First of all, MKV is a container, not a codec, and it does not indicate what the quality will be. Secondly, I am a veteran video encoder (I am NOT in the movie pirating scene) and I can improve almost any video with the right toolchain. Thirdly, as mentioned before, you can have all sorts of bitrates and codecs, and it's even possible to mux in the video from a Blu-ray without reencoding which would give you the exact same quality as the Blu-ray.

Not that I'm advocating piracy or anything (there are legitimate ways to put that knowledge to use), but your statement was incorrect.

I dunno eh?
You being a "veteran coder" eh? Your denying the fact that an mkv file will never match true blu ray?
You can put the highest bit rate ever with a gazzilion other tweaks and the quality will be close but not the same, not to mention the extra hardware power you need for that.
 
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