4250 replies to this topic

[Quint]

I haven't and don't intend to for the foreseeable future. I love gadgets and appreciate good image quality as much as the next bloke, but for me Blu-ray is currently a needless piece of tech with little to recommend it's adoption. Like many, I'm perfectly content with the excellent quality dvd already provides, especially when upscaled cheaply and actually quite effectively; with a capable player and good tv set. As far as I'm concerned (as I suspect are most consumers) the jump in visual quality provided by BR just isn't noticeable enough to warrant the still very expensive price of the new kit which plays it.

Then of course there is the ridiculous price markup of movie discs themselves - often a cheap dvd feature film can be more than triple the price just for the BR counterpart; Titanic for eg is a fiver on dvd, but twenty quid on BR. That is just taking the piss. I remember laughing at what they were asking for Pearl Harbor.

Nah, for the moment I'll gladly stick with the brilliantly upscalable Xbox 360 (via VGA), since it makes little or no sense to purchase a standalone Blue-ray at the moment. I'll probably hang on a couple of years and pick one up at my local Tesco's for 50 quid.

What about you?

[Stefancos]

I'm waiting to see if the format will really and truly replace DVD.

[Mark Olivarez]

My wife has been asking me if we are going to upgrade but I don't plan on it anytime soon.


I'm perfectly content with how my regular DVDs look.

[Lurker]

My roommate has HD-DVD and Blu-ray. He has a very nice system and they do look good, but what about the titles? There hasn't been a killer title yet (though the Godfather films and James Bond are out now). And DVDs still look very good and are cheaper. I'm getting the 3-disc Casino Royale tomorrow on DVD for $15. Blu-ray can't compete.

Neil

[Quint]

If suddenly the entire dvd back-catalogue were available on Blue-ray, would you upgrade?

[Mark Olivarez]

I wouldn't. The only way I'd switch to BR is if they announce that regular DVDs are being phased out.

[Stefancos]

Years and years ago I invested in this format, which was supposed to replace VHS.
The video quality was actually worse then most clips on youtube today.

I also invested in both SA-CD and DVD-A, neither exactly took the world by storm.

[Jessie Lohner]

Can you see normals DVDs on a Blue Ray player?

What are the advantages of Blue Ray? (I'm behind the times!)

[Quint]

Years and years ago I invested in this format

Ah, my mate nearly got a Philips CD-i, until I told him that The Naked Gun 2 1/2 wasn't as good as the original.

Can you see normals DVDs on a Blue Ray player?

Yes I too am unsure of this, though I would imagine BR to be backwards compatible. It would be a horrible oversight if it weren't.

[MissPadmé]

We/I have a PS3 and that far I have 8 Blu-rays. If I buy a movie, I don't buy it on DVD anymore but on BD instead. Once you have seen one movie in Full HD, you don't want to see it in SD again.
But then again it is just beautiful to look at. Speaking of films : I still prefer Schindlers List on VHS to Fantastic Four on HD on a 42" LCD screen.

If you know what I mean.. butz I wuld prefer a Schindlers List BD to the VHS probably.

[Trent Bennett]

Can you see normals DVDs on a Blue Ray player?

What are the advantages of Blue Ray? (I'm behind the times!)

Yes you can play regular DVD's on Blu-Ray players (and the PS3).

The advantage is clearly simple...high definition picture and sound for Blu-Ray. It's superior to regular DVD. Of course it helps to have a high def TV.

For myself I will be adopting it next year. My girlfriend bought me my first Blu-Ray movie for my birthday (Stargate) but I don't have a player to play it on. I'll be buying a PS3 next year and will start switching over after that.

[Quint]

I have 8 Blu-rays [movies].

That's 160 quid in English money. WOW!

My girlfriend bought me my first Blu-Ray movie for my birthday (Stargate) but I don't have a player to play it on.

Your girlfriend sounds like a tease. I like your girlfriend. Either that or she is an evil sadist.

[MissPadmé]

I have 8 Blu-rays [movies].

That's 160 quid in English money. WOW!

hm 160 punods? dunno I probably spent 220€ on them
you know, it is just 30 per disc but when you add it together.. woo

[Trent Bennett]

Your girlfriend sounds like a tease. I like your girlfriend. Either that or she is an evil sadist.

Nah she knew I am eventually switching over. She asked if I would like it if she got it for me and I said ya it would help steer me in the right direction.

BTW regarding prices for the Blu-Ray's they're expected to come down in price by the end of the year a lot all ready have.

[Stefancos]

Here they seem to be getting cheaper already. Free Record Shop has a lot for €19.95. Still double the price of a DVD a month or 2 after it's release though.

[Quint]

Your girlfriend sounds like a tease. I like your girlfriend. Either that or she is an evil sadist.

Nah she knew I am eventually switching over. She asked if I would like it if she got it for me and I said ya it would help steer me in the right direction.

I know Mr Vosk, I know.

[king mark]

when I can buy a Blu Ray player for 100$ and my videostore rents new titles in blu ray at the same price as DVD.

As I said I don't buy movies for collecting anymore

DVD still looks pretty good in upscaled widecreen ,not quire as sharp as true HD but close enough

[Quint]

Yep, that's my plan too.

But I bet most won't follow suit. This won't be like the massive uptake of affordable dvd, from vhs - that visual difference really was a vast one.

Sony needs to appreciate the fact that consumers are already 100% happy with the crystal clear quality of Digital Versatile Disc.

In the end, Steef may be right, but I doubt it. The only way BR can succeed is if they ultimately end production of dvd and that will likely happen, eventually. $$$ will see to it.

[Mark Olivarez]

And don't be fooled by those side by side comparisons you see in stores. I feel like I'm blind, they have the images blurred so bad on regular DVDs.

[king mark]

yeah ,I saw that in a store .For the DVD side they used a fullscreen version stretched to widescreen in 480i .I called them out on it and they said they didn't have the DVD version in widescreen

they pull similar crap for HDMI vs component cable

[Trent Bennett]

And don't be fooled by those side by side comparisons you see in stores. I feel like I'm blind, they have the images blurred so bad on regular DVDs.

I noticed that too.

[Quint]

Heh heh, the great consumer con is alive and well.

Bunch of dumb arses!

[king mark]

I guess it works with Joe SixPack

[Richard Penna]

My brother got a Blu-ray drive a few weeks back, and we got a couple of cheap HDDVDs (it's a combo drive).

But as has been said, the jump in image quality just isn't as amazing as VHS to DVD was, and many films really don't have even that jump. I have Blu-ray rips which in terms of window size on the PC are bigger than a DVD and have a respective amount of extra quality, but nothing really beyond that.

Some discs do excel, but then I've seen DVDs which look breathtaking from a distance. Plus, I bought my first DVD about 7 years ago. It's a young format.

[Trent Bennett]

I'm sure in due time many people will switch over to Blu-Ray but I'm sure most the older generation probably won't switch. I know my parents won't switch they think it's a waste of time and money. For me though since I'm still relatively young I can switch and not have to worry about it. I actually have quit buying regular DVD's, I actually haven't boughten a regular DVD since Transformers was released.

Edit: Next year too I'm gonna pay my parents so they can get me an HD receiver for my room (we've got Direct TV). After seeing high def broadcasting at my friend Joe's it's hard not to want to switch to HD. I told my parents I'll even pay for my portion of the tv bill every month.

[Stefancos]

You must have a good job

[Trent Bennett]

You must have a good job

No job...on S.S. disability cause of my heart. Though I'm working through Vocational Rehab to try and get a small part time job, another reason why I'm doing my GED.

[ashinyobject]

I've been converted to Blu-ray via my PS3
I think the video is better
But the sound is a lot better
Most movies that are on Blu-ray have uncompressed audio

But some Blu-rays are better than others
Blu-ray.com is a great place to see if a blu-ray is worth buying
They pretty much review every release for
Video quality
Audio quality
Special features
And then they have the overall
Plus it has release dates for when older movies are being released on Blu-ray

I also like the Pop-up menu

[Red Rabbit]

I'm content with standard DVD's right now, and it doesn't hurt that I have a high-definition TV. I know eventually Blu-Ray will become the number one format, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

[ChuckM]

As soon as Blu-Ray/CD/DVD drives drop to $50, I will buy one for my desktop. I can wait until then.

[Joey]

something else will come out that will be better than blu ray, its to expensive and since its sony Im not rushing out to get one. sony products have always been short lifed, poor quality, and over priced.
yeah its a nice picture but not nice enough for 300 bucks and the price of the dvd's.

I'll buy the new dvd's I want, and I can get used DVDs for about 5 bucks apiece

[Koray Savas]

We/I have a PS3 and that far I have 8 Blu-rays. If I buy a movie, I don't buy it on DVD anymore but on BD instead. Once you have seen one movie in Full HD, you don't want to see it in SD again.
But then again it is just beautiful to look at. Speaking of films : I still prefer Schindlers List on VHS to Fantastic Four on HD on a 42" LCD screen.

If you know what I mean.. butz I wuld prefer a Schindlers List BD to the VHS probably.

A girl that loves films scores and has a PS3 and loves blu-ray! I think I'm in love!


As for Blu, I adopted the format the second it came out, well about 2 weeks in when I was able to find a PS3 to buy. Superior picture and sound quality. At first you don't notice the difference, I didn't. Then after awhile I only watched blus. Then one day I watched a DVD, and couldn't believe how bad it looked. The future is blu. And those complaining about the price, I don't know how many times I have to say this, a lot of blu-rays are cheaper than DVD's on Amazon. Terminator 2 is like $11 on blu. I got my CE3K on blu-ray for $20, while the DVD was like $30.

[indy4]

I agree completely with Quint.

The extra money is not worth it. Maybe if I actually watched my DVDs more often, but there are really very few films that I watch more than once a year.

[ChuckM]

And those complaining about the price, I don't know how many times I have to say this, a lot of blu-rays are cheaper than DVD's on Amazon. Terminator 2 is like $11 on blu. I got my CE3K on blu-ray for $20, while the DVD was like $30.

It's not the price of the discs that is the problem. The cheapest blu-ray player you can get is about $100. (And, from the reviews I've read, "cheap" applies to the quality too.)

On the other hand, you can get a great DVD player for around $15.

[Koray Savas]

DVD players weren't $15 when they first went on the market. In 10 years blu-ray players will be $15, or the equivalent depending on inflation. If you can afford a nice HD TV, you can afford a blu-ray player to go nicely with it.

[ChuckM]

That's my point exactly!

I'm waiting until Blu-ray players do reach an affordable price. (Although I'm betting on much less than 10 years. Maybe as little as one year to drop to around $50.)

[Koray Savas]

But did you wait to buy a DVD player until it was an affordable price? I think not.

[ChuckM]

Um, yeah actually, I did.

My first DVD player was $30.

[Koray Savas]

Never mind then

[indy4]

And those complaining about the price, I don't know how many times I have to say this, a lot of blu-rays are cheaper than DVD's on Amazon. Terminator 2 is like $11 on blu. I got my CE3K on blu-ray for $20, while the DVD was like $30.

It's not the price of the discs that is the problem. The cheapest blu-ray player you can get is about $100. (And, from the reviews I've read, "cheap" applies to the quality too.)

Also, rebuying an entire collection of DVDs on Blu Ray would cost a lot.