Is Blu-ray All That?

Yes it is. i was surprised at the difference in the picture. And Blue-Ray machines are now pretty darn cheap. I would keep the DVD player as the only issue is cost and availablility of movies on Blue Ray. There are a lot (most new movies) but not 100% coverage. And cost ofdiscs are still too high--but that will drop too.

 

yes

 

yes

 

I will say yes as well, but remember, Blu Ray only looks good on action and good looking scenes (EX. Transformers, Dark Knight), don't expect great quality for something like Snow White or something similar.

And, for the Blu Ray player, check out a PS3, the only reason I recommend it is because when I was looking at other Blu Ray players I was told that the firmware isn't upgradeable on the standard blu ray players and the PS3 can offer the upgrades.

 

I can't tell a difference from my blue ray and my Xbox 360 on the HD setting. Not that the blue ray looks bad but the movies and rentals are more and playing the cheeper version on my Xbox 360 looks as good to me on my plasma.

I run it through the HDMI input but don't seem to get the same look as i see on display at Blockbuster when i rent from there.

 

Yes.

 

Surely a store can allow you to compare them side by side.

 

Yes and the new bluray players are way better than the first ones that came out, especially the ones from Sony.

 

Bluray has huuuuuge potential, which means, the better your TV is, the better the image will be. I was a little impressed with Bluray on my first HD-ready flatscreen in 2007, but then I saw a couple of movies on a friends 6000 $ projector, and it blew me away. I could see the hair on female cheeks. The outdoor scenes were like if I was watching out of the window, but only much more high def than reality, lol... First thing I did was retiring my old TV and getting a full HD one with good reviews.
If you get it right, it's amazing. The sound is also uncomprimised and will get better and better depending on the level of your speaker system.
It also depends on the quality of the film; If you're watching a release which is essentially an old movie wrapped in new package, the experience will be average. But the new action movies are just otherwordly fun.

Ps. I buy all actionpacked movies on Bluray and comedy/drama/thrillers on DVD.

 

I'm 100% positive that you will get much better picture quality and be happy with the purchase of a player.

 

Yes, compare the Disney classics and you'll definitely see a difference, same goes for some other movies.

 

If you're into audio that's the best part, lossless codecs. The low bass, explosions, all smoother and cleaner. Its quite noticeable is newer movies like cloverfield.

 

I agree. After I finished my home theater I had a guy come and "tune" my set up. The picture quality was FRICKIN amazing after he did the tune. I don't know what he did but he was here for 8 hours. The difference was night and day. ~1500 bucks but worth ever dime. Guaranteed for life too.
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Yes, most movies were shot in high quality so buying older movies on blu ray will make a difference. I just bought Heat on Bluray and the movie was 100 times better.

 

the biggest difference with blu-ray is the sound. transformers 2 shakes the whole house.

 

Predictions are Blu ray will not last more than 3 to 5 years as we move almost totally to downloads.

 

This may happen, its just not going to happen that quickly.


The US doesn't have the infrastructure in place to handle that many DVD downloads... much less HD movies.

Thats not even counting the LARGE number of people that when they buy something they want to actually be holding it in their hands.

If you want some evidence, take a look at the CD. How long have people been crowing about the end of CDs? And they are still around...

 

I agree 100% with the downloads part. Haven't bought a CD in years. Movies are happening now.

Disagree with another poster about the bandwidth problem. I remember when ppl said 640k was more than we would ever need. It will come, and faster than you think. Maybe not if you live in the middle of nowhere, but govt is changing even that.

I remember when netflix was the hot ****. But have you seen Amazon downloads on Panasonic blue-ray players? Its on-demand, and what netflix should have been all along. Browse movies, see trailers and read reviews right on your HDTV. Choose it and its downloaded to your DVR, ready to watch withing 10 or 15 minutes and then you can pause, rewind all you want. No streaming, just uses your DVR as a giant buffer. Purchase is charged directly to Amazon account so whatever credit card you set up. Basically what hotels have had for some time, but instead of their 24 movies to chose from you have every movie every produced. Same price as renting at Blockbuster or less. Amazon downloads via veracast (or something like it) is where we are going.

Its not 1080p currently but its coming. Eventually there won't be Blue-Ray discs per se, but 1080p lossless codecs Blue-Ray technology will exist in some format. Just wont be physical discs, mostly downloads. Blockbuster is history in 5 years unless they do it now.

 

Too add to your post, Netflix has streaming as well on some TVs and both the PS3 and Xbox 360 and it's also online streaming on the computer, but their selection is growing everyday, just not the newest greatest movies, but it's getting there.

 

Netflix on xbox360 has a ways to go. You have to use your PC to find/select the movie and then go to your console to begin downloading it. its clunky. The technology is moving fast, and the UI is critical. Amazon got it right, and if I were netflix I'd be working around the clock with free diet code and pizza for all my programmers. Hopefully they're doing that.

 

Many of us still prefer a hard copy of music and movies. Especially with music, where all downloads are lossy. Nothing like full spectrum audio!