To Blu-Ray or not

[1911onr]

I'm in the market for a new DVD player. Now that the DVD war is over, what are your thoughts on going for a Blu-ray player? Standalone players are now going for around $300. You don't want to know how much I paid for my first VHS player.

[bobert1]

On the news they were saying even with the war over the Blu-Rays aren't selling. The newest DVD players now upconvert and a dedicated Blu-ray was a waste of money. That's what they said.

[JakeMartens]

I went with the Playstation 3, gives me blu ray and the gaming along with it.

[kimel]

I wouldn't buy a blu-ray player. I'd buy a PlayStation 3 for less money and get the blu-ray built-in and have a PS3 to boot!

[badchad]

I just got my Blu-ray player last week. I have a 73" DHV TV and a lot of regular DVDs look like hell. Blu-ray looks way better on my tv but on a smaller screen the difference might not be as great. I know the price for the players will be a lot less in a year or two but I figured I wasn't getting any younger and picked up my player for $379. I just started getting my discs from netflix and so far it's great, so I don't have to buy any new DVDs, which are pricey.

[Genghis]

Ditto on getting a PS3. Blu-Rays look great, but there is one thing I didn't expect. A Blu-Ray picture will have dark bands at the top and bottom of the picture. This is even true on a widescreen HDTV. Made me mad when I watched my first Blu-Ray - why doesn't the pic fill the whole screen?

[BritinUSA]

Movies are 1:85 to 1 ratio, a 16:9 TV is 1:78 ratio so you get the black bars.

More details here --> Screen ratio

[Paul Santiago]

I have the PS-3 also for blu-ray. Great picture.

I have 2 gripes with the ps-3. First, it is bluetooth so it doesn't work out of the box with my harmony remote.

Second is the PITA to turn off. I say that because you can't just turn it off. You have to go through menu prompts to turn it off and then ask you if you are sure you want to turn it off.

Maybe I'm just a dumb user and there are shortcuts.

[racerba]

newest DVD players now upconvert and a dedicated Blu-ray was a waste of money. That's what they said.

Up convert makes regular DVDs better - not much. Blu-Ray is waaaaay better. Watch them side by side. Blu-Ray DVDs are not much more than regular DVDs. I think it's worth the extra couple of dollars.

[Jman]

My response would stem entirely on your television. A Blu-ray won't improve the image much on a Sony Trina-tron(sp) circa 1992. Now, a new 50" Panny 1080i Plasma!!! now your cookin'. Like any chain it's no better than it's weakest link.

Jim

[raz-0]

Blu-ray is nice. (so was HD-dvd, and a bit more friendly to the shopper and manufacturer too).

Jsut like with DVD you can get a bad transfer.

Best upscaling DVD players I have sene are actually the toshiba HD-DVD players. VERY nice upscaling. All upscaling DVD players are NOT created equal. The upscaler in my TV does a better job than any but my HD-DVD player.

But you NEED an HDTV set with HDMI connectors for blu-ray to be worth it. You also want it to be HDCP compliant as any title can implement HDCP restrictions and only play back at 480p otherwise.

I'll basically grade the possibile choice in terms of video quality.

1080p HD from optical media > 720p HD off of cable or satellite of godo HD content, which is about a tie for upscaled DVD of a GOOD DVD transfer> a bad HD transfer to disk > a bad transfer over cable. upscaled DVD of an ok transfer > A good DVD transfer played back on an SDTV screen > a bad DVD transfer on SDTV, which is all pretty much better than your standard def cable cahnnels these days >a bad DVD transfer scaled to HD > standard def cable TV upscaled which is about equal to a bad upscaling DVD player.

In a general description sort of way, with blu-ray and HD-DVd you will get blacker blacks, better gradients, higher resolution source signal, and no macroblocking or tearing compared to HD over cable at this point and time.

With a good DVD transfer upscaled to HD using a good upscaler, you will get nice sharp edges, and a good clear picture, but you will lack detail. A good example of what i am talkign about is a close up of a face. Upscaled with a godo upsclaer it will be sharp and everything will be well defined at the edge, but inner detail like pores, or the iris will be "smudgy". A good HD version, you will see the person's pores (or makeup) clearly.

With ok speakers and sub, an HDTV, a blu-ray player, and a netflix or blockbuster subscription, there really isn't any reason to go to the movies anymore unless you really want the things on screen to be bigger than you.

Like any chain it's no better than it's weakest link.

A very true statement. Plus, with HDTV in general, there are more links than ever before.

[AikiDale]

Is there a good Blu-Ray burner either external or even better internal for a laptop yet?

I dont' care about playing games, I want to back up gigs of photographs.

[racerba]

Like any chain it's no better than it's weakest link.

That's why I couldn't see any difference between the Blu-Ray and the Beta on my 20 year old console TV.

Is there a good Blu-Ray burner either external or even better internal for a laptop yet?

I dont' care about playing games, I want to back up gigs of photographs.

I find that the 250Gb WD portable HD is excellent for this.

Edited July 9, 2008 by racerba

[AikiDale]

Like any chain it's no better than it's weakest link.

That's why I couldn't see any difference between the Blu-Ray and the Beta on my 20 year old console TV.

Is there a good Blu-Ray burner either external or even better internal for a laptop yet?

I dont' care about playing games, I want to back up gigs of photographs.

I find that the 250Gb WD portable HD is excellent for this.

I have a small portable external drive to back up to when I'm away from home and a Tbyte WD when here. But all HDs die. I'm looking for the Blu-Ray drive which will let me burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray disks depending upon volume of a shoot or just to back up the Terabyte Drive.