Should You Buy Blu-ray?

seriously, when people try to tell me there is a difference between bluray and dvd i just don't get it...
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I'm sorry. You can totally tell the difference between Blu Ray movies and DVD's. Watch Forbiden Kingdom vs it's DVD counterpart. Watching Blu Ray movies (at least some of them) is like watching a live play or being on the set.

If you can't tell the difference between blu ray, get your eyes check people!.
 
the article doesn't mention what brand TV, whether it's a plasma or LCD, is it calibrated...

also the TrueHD/DTS MA tracks on a Blu ray movie are too good, there was stuff in the Transformers Blu-ray that i never heard on the DVD version (when the transformers battle it out in the city near the ending).....

he also didn't pick a good movie to do his comparison.
 
Until we can record things to the resolution, clarity, and focus of the human eye... I don't care.

Good ol' DVD format looks good enough for me. Sure it doesn't have crisp lines, but does bluray? Yeah, the lines might look a little nicer but it still isn't 100% clear.

Wish everyone would stop giving a crap about this. With the economy the way it is, is it worth $400 player and $50 for some laughs?

Go buy a $40 bottle of Svedka and get ready for some lemon drops with your buddies, that's the way to have fun.
 
"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."

ROFL.

And in other news, there are widespread reports of corrective eye-care not working.

Saying there's no difference between 480P and 1080P is like saying that gaming on a monitor at 640x480 is the same as gaming on a monitor at 1920x1080. It's getting a bit old to hear, TBH.

I'll state it again. If you want to buy it, BUY IT. If you don't want to buy it, DON'T. Leave it be.
 
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:

Blu-Ray is an easy target. Its still new and public opinion is still going nowhere. Every self-important so-called journalist on the internet wants to get their opinion on it out into the wild while its still fashionable to slam on it, no matter how piss-poor their opinion is.
 
Until we can record things to the resolution, clarity, and focus of the human eye... I don't care.

Good ol' DVD format looks good enough for me. Sure it doesn't have crisp lines, but does bluray? Yeah, the lines might look a little nicer but it still isn't 100% clear.

Wish everyone would stop giving a crap about this. With the economy the way it is, is it worth $400 player and $50 for some laughs?

Go buy a $40 bottle of Svedka and get ready for some lemon drops with your buddies, that's the way to have fun.

$400 player? Where the hell are you shopping? What is the additional $50 for? Its not for a movie thats for sure.

Some people have more advanced ideas of fun than getting drunk off their ass with a bunch of morons.
 
Until we can record things to the resolution, clarity, and focus of the human eye... I don't care.

Good ol' DVD format looks good enough for me. Sure it doesn't have crisp lines, but does bluray? Yeah, the lines might look a little nicer but it still isn't 100% clear.

Wish everyone would stop giving a crap about this. With the economy the way it is, is it worth $400 player and $50 for some laughs?

Go buy a $40 bottle of Svedka and get ready for some lemon drops with your buddies, that's the way to have fun.
Sorry for enjoying something you don't, Mr. Stalin.

Some people enjoy getting the best tech, and the best picture. Also, spending money on BR players and movies actually helps the economy so not sure why you brought up that. ;)
 
The problem that I have with digital downloads is that all the ones that I have seen are rentals only. I would like to own the movie and be able to watch it whenever I want to
 
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...

Good point. Per the PQ Tier thread on AVSforum, it's not exactly reference material.
 
Game downloads work because gamers are tech savvy and understand that if they start the download tonight, it'll be ready in the morning. Try telling that to your girlfriend when she wants to watch a movie "Sure baby, let's pick one out and we can watch it tomorrow". Right.

Plus, if you have even close to actual Blu-Ray quality, you'll max out your download bandwidth pretty quick. Comcast has a 200 gig download limit. on even single layer blu-rays, that's only 8 movies.

But of course, that's not what they do. They compress the crap out of them until they look on par with DVDs, or worse.

And they still take hours to download.

Sure, you can stream HD.... if you don't mind paying $200 a month for your fiber optic internet connection in the few places that offer it.

On a 50" 1080p TV, I bet just about anyone would see a significant difference between Blu-Ray and DVD for a modern movie shot in HD.

Blu-Ray is fine. It's not going anywhere. It'll be slow on the uptake, because DVD is pretty good... but more and more people are getting HD TVs, and they're going to want the blu-ray player when they get it.
 
DVD offers 30 frames per second, Blu-ray only gets 24 frames per second.
Last I checked, I still get judder with DVD's. They are filmed the same as BD's initially. They don't film a DVD version and then do it again for BD's.

FAIL.
 
capacity. Lets say 6 to 7 times of current Blu-ray. For now its Blu-ray but I don't see it until the movies = DVD prices. If you have a CRT still its pointless. Needless to say. Just wait little longer. Besides if I want to watch blu-ray then I can watch it on my computer with my hd/blu reader.
 
I guess those bashing BD have never sat in front in my living room. I am an audiophile and a videophile. I can tell an enormous difference from a normal DVD to BD in terms of video and sound.

Go watch WALL-E on a good 1080p set with a modern 5.1 or 7.1 surround system. It is an experience. It's all about immersion and BD helps to immerse that much further.

If ya can't see the difference, get yer eyes checked or throw away yer 1993 32 CRT TV.
 
I agree with a lot of the posts here that says the article is poorly written.

However, I agree with one of its main points: That for the average person, blu-ray is not going to be noticeably different than an upscaled DVD.

This is because:
a) Most people don't have HDTV's
b) Even when people have HDTV's, the average consumer sits so damn far away from them given the screen size, their eyes don't physically have the resolving power to actually differentiate upscaled 480p vs. even real 720p let alone real 1080i/p
c) Most people don't calibrate their TV's AT ALL, so they generally watch it with out-of-the box settings, which for the price point they usually purchase TV's at it'll probably be quite horrendously out of spec for NTSC and ATSC.
d) Finally the most important point, average people just don't care that much about the nuances of high end picture quality... DVD is good enough for them.

What I disagree with is that digital downloads are the way to go for the *average* consumer...
This is because most people don't have the super deluxe broadband access that us [H] geeks and the author of the newspaper article take for granted and fork out $40+ a month for that's required for decent SD streaming, let alone half decent HD streaming (most of us enthusiasts don't even *have* access to fiber that would actually allow blu-ray level HD streaming, that's if we can even find a source for such streams.)
 
If you can't see the difference between upscaled DVD and even 720p you are blind.
 
I love my ps3 as a bd player, but.... Until movie prices come down significantly I aint spending $20+ per movie. Even if I was making $100k a year I wouldnt spend $20+ for movies.

Thats why I bought a HD DVD player! :) Great library of movies, most under $10. Now I can buy HD content and NOT spend more per movie than my monthly dsl bill :p
 
i wear glasses and can tell the difference. It looks so pretty when i see blu-ray at frys or any other electronic store. Ill be getting a ps3 for that reason alone as soon as i get my plasma first :)
 
This is what's happening and will happen to Blu-Ray in the future.

A: People will never truly adopt Blu-Ray. I say truly because people will eventually get Blu-Ray players, but it just so happens to be a feature that's included with their DVD player. :p

B: What you see happening to music will always eventually happen to movies. People hated buying and storing Discs and therefore the iPod took off. The same thing will happen to movies, but it won't necessarily be a portable video player.

C: What people may like to watch may not be what you see in theaters. Things like flash and YouTube videos might become the norm for entertainment.
 
Downloads are fine if you only watch them on an iPod. For anything else the quality is just not there.

Ever seen a HD title in mkv format? Looks fantastic, better than DVD I'd wager and reasonable file size too. (2 to 8 gig depending on the title)

I'll pickup a BR drive if the price is right for the odd rental movie and a upscaling DVD player.

I'll mention that I do have a media center PC so have no problem with lack of physical media for the most part.
 
I'm sorry. You can totally tell the difference between Blu Ray movies and DVD's. Watch Forbiden Kingdom vs it's DVD counterpart. Watching Blu Ray movies (at least some of them) is like watching a live play or being on the set.

If you can't tell the difference between blu ray, get your eyes check people!.
It's not that people can't tell the difference, it's that people just don't care and really don't care to pay for it.
 
Why is it every week we discuss this? It's like arguing over Israel....one side of the argument will never be the victor.
 
capacity. Lets say 6 to 7 times of current Blu-ray. For now its Blu-ray but I don't see it until the movies = DVD prices. If you have a CRT still its pointless. Needless to say. Just wait little longer. Besides if I want to watch blu-ray then I can watch it on my computer with my hd/blu reader.

There will always be something bigger or better down the road, but how long until then? Also, what will the price be when it launches? Unless something comes out in the next two years at the exact same price of blu-ray players and discs (which will be even lower then), nothing will compete right out of the starting gate with the average consumer.
 
You guys are forgetting one important factor - That ISP's are actively toying with charging us for additional bandwidth.

How can downloads be the wave of the future when it's going to cost you more?
 
Ever seen a HD title in mkv format? Looks fantastic, better than DVD I'd wager and reasonable file size too. (2 to 8 gig depending on the title)

I'll pickup a BR drive if the price is right for the odd rental movie and a upscaling DVD player.

I'll mention that I do have a media center PC so have no problem with lack of physical media for the most part.
Those who dress like pirates know that mkv videos are just as good, just not very legal.
 
This was originally printed in the Orlando paper on November 16, 2008. It was dumb then and hasn't changed.
 
You guys are forgetting one important factor - That ISP's are actively toying with charging us for additional bandwidth.

How can downloads be the wave of the future when it's going to cost you more?

Very first reply to this thread I mentioned "Bottom line: Downloads will not be the new main thing until Fiber is more accessible." :p
 
That's just the thing. It won't. At least not for another 5-10 years if even then. I just don't see that happening, especially considering the infrastructure in the States here. We're ruled by the lowest common denominator.

I'll refer to DigitalBits' list again...

"Top ten reasons that prove Hollywood is only playing in the downloads world while focusing its real efforts on Blu-ray.

10 - Movie commercials say "now available on Blu-ray and DVD" never mentions downloads.
9 - You can't rent TV shows from any download service, but you can buy them on disc.
8 - 24 hour rental window.
7 - 30 day rental limit.
6 - Extras only available on discs
5 - Can't rent HD movies on the PC (only on boxes like the 360, Vudu etc).
4 - Pulls previously available movies from the selection.
3 - About a 30 day window between when a title is released on disc and on download services.
2 - Digital copies are now included with many discs.
1 - Can't buy HD movies from any service."
 
You guys are forgetting one important factor - That ISP's are actively toying with charging us for additional bandwidth.

How can downloads be the wave of the future when it's going to cost you more?
Why I'm glad you asked there little k1DBLITZ.

#1 Just cause some ISP's do it doesn't mean you have too. If you don't like what some ISP's are selling then don't buy it. There are plenty more ISP's that don't limit how much you can download.

#2 Compression is a wonderful thing. There are already plenty of methods to get HD quality movies with 5.1 sound down to the size a of 700 MB CD. Just ask the people at PirateBay.

#3 There have been joint agreements buy Australian corporations to allow an unlimited use of bandwidth for certain online services. For example online games and even movie downloads.
 
Why is it every week we discuss this? It's like arguing over Israel....one side of the argument will never be the victor.

Yea it can, You don't hear much about HD-DVD anymore. Thus victor sets the rule.

Plus, we discuss because we have nothing else better to do.... don't you know that by now? HEHE
 
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.

Just a question about your requirements there, I recently bought a Samsung 46` 1080p 120Hz Lcd, and pairs it with a 5.1 Samsung dvd/receiver. The dvd player is an upconverting one and its decent. I will probably add a Blue ray player after i pickup a good receiver. Why do all the same 5.1 A/V receivers on only have 2 HDMI inputs! Have to pick up a 7.1 receiver for 3 inputs.

Back to my main question is there a huge difference between 7.1 vs 5.1. Aren't most movies only done with 5.1 and a small amount with 7.1?

O and that guy that wrote the article is a tool :confused:
 
I agree with a lot of the posts here that says the article is poorly written.

However, I agree with one of its main points: That for the average person, blu-ray is not going to be noticeably different than an upscaled DVD.

This is because:
a) Most people don't have HDTV's
b) Even when people have HDTV's, the average consumer sits so damn far away from them given the screen size, their eyes don't physically have the resolving power to actually differentiate upscaled 480p vs. even real 720p let alone real 1080i/p
c) Most people don't calibrate their TV's AT ALL, so they generally watch it with out-of-the box settings, which for the price point they usually purchase TV's at it'll probably be quite horrendously out of spec for NTSC and ATSC.
d) Finally the most important point, average people just don't care that much about the nuances of high end picture quality... DVD is good enough for them.

What I disagree with is that digital downloads are the way to go for the *average* consumer...
This is because most people don't have the super deluxe broadband access that us [H] geeks and the author of the newspaper article take for granted and fork out $40+ a month for that's required for decent SD streaming, let alone half decent HD streaming (most of us enthusiasts don't even *have* access to fiber that would actually allow blu-ray level HD streaming, that's if we can even find a source for such streams.)

What he said.

Also, the bluray movie prices need to drop by about 35% before it will really take off and have a chance for winning over the average consumers who simply do not see much difference.

He shouldn't have reached a conclusion by simply watching 1 movie. Old movies (60's) on bluray can look great when they are remastered and transferred properly. The sound will likely be unimpressive tho. Watching a varied selection might have allowed him to write a better informed article.

The funny (to me) and ironic part of the article, the fact that the guy is a bit of an uninformed idiot, is something that could be said about some bluray fans back during the war with HD-DVD. Karma or something. Or it could just be that stupidity abounds :)

see http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=406 for more details =)
 
anyone who lauds an upconverted film dvd as equal to its blu-ray brother is flat-out lying.
 
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