So, I was reading this article in Gizmodo that was talking about how cheap Blu-ray players have become and how so many people bought them for the holidays. I had been thinking that this medium was going to become obsolete because of online streaming....now I am thinking I may have been wrong. What do you think? Would you buy one? Is it better to just get one on a PC and hook it up to your TV?
Are you going Blu-ray?
- Thread starter jschneier
- Start date
DeadlyNinja
Veteran
Nope.
Isn't there something that's going to trump bluray already in the works? I'm not buying something that'll be obsolete in a few years. Of course, I can't predict the future, but better safe than sorry.
Isn't there something that's going to trump bluray already in the works? I'm not buying something that'll be obsolete in a few years. Of course, I can't predict the future, but better safe than sorry.
alot of those bluray players have streaming solutions in them.
Whatever bluray becomes it will be a shell of what dvd was in its hay day.
My disc buying has all but finished. i buy blurays but they are few and far inbetween and mostly disney cartoons so my nephew has videos to watch before they go back into the vault.
Whatever bluray becomes it will be a shell of what dvd was in its hay day.
My disc buying has all but finished. i buy blurays but they are few and far inbetween and mostly disney cartoons so my nephew has videos to watch before they go back into the vault.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
No plans at this time to jump on Blu-Ray. Right now DVD is good enough. While there's improvement from DVD to BR, it's just not the order of magnitude it was from VHS to DVD. And at my typical TV viewing distance, it's not something I'd notice unless I did a side-by-side comparison.
Added to that, BR specs seem to STILL be in flux. So I get the feeling that if I buy a BR player now, they may decide to implement something in the future where my budget player may no longer be able to hand stuff. At least HD-DVD got that bit right, specs were hammered out and stable at the time the format was released. BR could learn a thing or two from that.
So all in all, DVD remains a far better and far more stable solution for me.
Regards,
SB
Added to that, BR specs seem to STILL be in flux. So I get the feeling that if I buy a BR player now, they may decide to implement something in the future where my budget player may no longer be able to hand stuff. At least HD-DVD got that bit right, specs were hammered out and stable at the time the format was released. BR could learn a thing or two from that.
So all in all, DVD remains a far better and far more stable solution for me.
Regards,
SB
BluRay is going 3D with MVC H.264, PS3 support will probably be first. Think Avatar at home in true 3D. Each eye gets independent 1080p stream.
I've got streaming services (Apple TV, Netflix). I find the experience kind of shitty compared to DVD, no extras, no bonus tracks, minimal to no subtitles many times, etc.
I've got streaming services (Apple TV, Netflix). I find the experience kind of shitty compared to DVD, no extras, no bonus tracks, minimal to no subtitles many times, etc.
chavvdarrr
Veteran
Using glasses ?
No thanks, that seriously f*** with eyes.
I am sick of maintaining a physical collection. Add to the notion of requiring a separate player, the whole idea of a BD player seems to be an outdated concept trying to fit in by buffing up on numbers.
Accessible VOD seems much more elegant, if only Apple/Someone Else (too) could give it a kind of "iTunes LP" treatment then it should be good.
Accessible VOD seems much more elegant, if only Apple/Someone Else (too) could give it a kind of "iTunes LP" treatment then it should be good.
I have had a Blu-ray player for my PC since over a year ago which I bought for about 100$ and is of good quality. Though I was slightly disappointed over visual quality as I was expecting better bitrates in movies and wondering why they only use 25GB discs. Sure my PC produces IQ on par with the best hi-end players but you only get sofar with limited bitrates. But interesting aslong as they use 50GB discs or else image quality will take a hit.
I actually like collecting Blu-rays. Given the choice for the same price I'd rather have a physical item.
How many people have a 30mbit connection with unlimited transfer? I don't doubt it will happen in the future, but not now.
That's surprising. I have roughly 120 Blu-ray movies and very few of them are BD25. I always check the highdefdigest.com review before buying to see if it's a good transfer. Note that some movies are pressed on BD50 yet look like crap due to bad transfer, DNR abuse and whatnot. The French Connection is probably the worst offender I've seen so far, although it was an "artistic choice".
The difference between DVD and BluRay is far bigger than from VHS to DVD, just from a visual impact pov. I also doubt I'll get 1080p streaming down my 3Mbit DSL line, and really don't want to have the image compression changing constantly depending on bandwidth available. I'll stick with my BluRay's thanks.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Your eyes must be worse than mine.
One fun way to compare quality is by the quality of rips, or heck even going back and viewing VHS side by side with DVD and BR. Compare a 700-1000 MB VHS rip to a 700-1500 MB DVD rip to a 4 (720p) - 8 (1080p) GB BR rip at normal TV viewing distances (if you have a HTPC hooked up to a large screen TV). I can point out a VHS rip anytime. If they aren't side by side, I can't always blind pick a DVD rip comapred to a BR rip. And that's the same experience I have when using the actual physical VHS casette vs DVD vs BRD.
VHS was always "soft" with lots of color bleeding (especially with vibrant Reds) even with svideo or the rare player that supported component video output. Even a poor quality DVD player was multiples better than the best VHS player. Assuming of course, your DVD wasn't a poor transfer from a VHS mastertape in the first place.
I still have my High End HQ 700ish USD VHS player (bought near the end of VHS player R&D) that was superb when compared to other VHS players, but is just totally outdone by even a budget 30 USD DVD player.
That 30 USD DVD player still isn't completely overwhelmed by a 700 USD BR player. Again in side to side, yeah I'll notice it's a bit sharper. But that's about it. Not the total IQ domination that is VHS (or even S-VHS) compared to either DVD or BR.
Regards,
SB
Hmm might be both of that. Unless rented Blu-Ray movies are of lower IQ?
One of my movies I like a lot "Rambo" is 22.3GB. Wish they had used BD50 with higher bitrate.
Your eyes must be worse than mine.
One fun way to compare quality is by the quality of rips, or heck even going back and viewing VHS side by side with DVD and BR. Compare a 700-1000 MB VHS rip to a 700-1500 MB DVD rip to a 4 (720p) - 8 (1080p) GB BR rip at normal TV viewing distances (if you have a HTPC hooked up to a large screen TV). I can point out a VHS rip anytime. If they aren't side by side, I can't always blind pick a DVD rip comapred to a BR rip. And that's the same experience I have when using the actual physical VHS casette vs DVD vs BRD.
VHS was always "soft" with lots of color bleeding (especially with vibrant Reds) even with svideo or the rare player that supported component video output. Even a poor quality DVD player was multiples better than the best VHS player. Assuming of course, your DVD wasn't a poor transfer from a VHS mastertape in the first place.
I still have my High End HQ 700ish USD VHS player (bought near the end of VHS player R&D) that was superb when compared to other VHS players, but is just totally outdone by even a budget 30 USD DVD player.
That 30 USD DVD player still isn't completely overwhelmed by a 700 USD BR player. Again in side to side, yeah I'll notice it's a bit sharper. But that's about it. Not the total IQ domination that is VHS (or even S-VHS) compared to either DVD or BR.
Regards,
SB
DVD is ok until you get into action scenes with camera movements, than it just failed. Scenes with lots of small details are also problematic with DVDs. Rips are even more prone to those kind of stuff.
I was comparing several movies on DVDs and BRs on PC to see if the extra premium ($5-$10) was worth it for BR. I thought the decision was easy to go with BR. Using projector in dedicated HT it was even easier. Though I hope BR going 3D don't effect the quality that I am enjoying now, since I am apparently stereo blind.
It's not supposed to harm quality, because there is significant redundancy between the left and right frames, so if you do the encoding right, the extra eye takes only a marginal amount of extra bitrate. BluRay already has more bitrate than needed for H.264 (it was originally designed IIRC for high-bitrate MPEG-2).
Blazkowicz
Legend
on a computer monitor bitrate is more important than resolution, for me DVD is the great bitrate, great sounding kind of digital video already. HD resolution is only noticeable if I want to watch sitting on my chair (which i don't)
no hdtv in the living room, we have a rarely used SDTV (it's a co-rented house). for watching stuff alone I have my computer (with amp and speakers), and when together we'd rather play board/card games or whatever ; if watching stuff it's most often on a laptop, where streaming is good enough already, a DVD is wasted already on such a bad display. (will get a VGA/PAL converter later, or build a HTPC.)
in all of this, bluray technical aspects are lost. for us, and for most people probably, there are better things to get such as audio gear and a HTPC (with HD not being a defining criteria). Those items can improve the experience with all your media, a blu ray player only works with expensive blu ray movies.
no hdtv in the living room, we have a rarely used SDTV (it's a co-rented house). for watching stuff alone I have my computer (with amp and speakers), and when together we'd rather play board/card games or whatever ; if watching stuff it's most often on a laptop, where streaming is good enough already, a DVD is wasted already on such a bad display. (will get a VGA/PAL converter later, or build a HTPC.)
in all of this, bluray technical aspects are lost. for us, and for most people probably, there are better things to get such as audio gear and a HTPC (with HD not being a defining criteria). Those items can improve the experience with all your media, a blu ray player only works with expensive blu ray movies.
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