Bluray won't be going anywhere. It is now pretty much the standard for High def movies. Now that the battle is over there should be a shit ton of movies starting to be released. Also all the bluray players will upconvert your old dvds to make them look nicer. I am lucky to have a more tech savvy friend than me when I bought my TV and he made me buy a 1080p.
here's my problem with all this stuff, and I'm even a movie fanatic: 1. I don't want to have to buy a new style of device player every few years, especially when I question... 2. Is that quality even THAT much better? 3. I don't want to have to buy a super expensive fancy HDTV the kinds of movies I like are very rarely, if ever, going to come out in Blu Ray anyway. I could care less if Transformers looks fantastic when I really don't watch most Hollywood crap that comes out, and the few things I do I think they look just fine. meanwhile, the 60s and 70s drive-in/foreign crap I watch will most likely never be respected enough to make it to Blu Ray, or will hardly look any better if it does. I actually own movies I think look better on VHS than on DVD hahaha.
I'm sure many of these comments were being said during the VHS --> DVD format shift... I'm just glad the superior format won this time. Back in the day, VHS prevailed over Betamax (which was technically superior format to VHS). It's pretty cool that Bluray will be the standard over HD-DVD. I have never understood the allocation for a standard DVD track on HD-DVD's. A waste of 8GB on a lower capacity disk (in comparison to Bluray) seems like a step in the wrong direction.
I feel as though the VHS to DVD shift was much more noticeable in quality though. like, I can tell the difference between a digital and non-digital format, but can you really tell the difference between HD and regular?
This sounds like the time when cd/dvd was coming out...and look where they are now. They have become a standard in the industry. No one is forcing anyone to buy an HDTV or a Bluray player. They are rather new technology so there really is no need to move to HDTV and Bluray. However, this thread was started because a board member was asking if there was a way to crack the region code and not asking if he should move to HDTV and Bluray. Yes, the quality IS much better...but only if you have the right equipment. If anyone has a PS3, the games do not seem to be region coded. I've been playing Gran Turismo 5 Prologue since it came out in Asia .
I FEEL FORCED!!! just kidding I think the main difference to me is that the VHS to DVD was not so dependent on having tons of other compatible stuff. I only make technological moves forward when I have a gut instinct that it's gonna stick. I knew DVD was gonna, and I was the first person I knew who owned a DVD player. however, lets look at other failed formats that were pushed on us, mostly in part by Sony no less: -Mini Disc -standalone Divx players -laserdisc -etc. I still love VHS. lots of good memories. end of rant
I hate progress!!! why are all the nerds busy working on improving stuff that is good enough to begin with, like TVs and Ipods, but then it's 2008 and we don't have any of the following yet: -flying cars -instant teleportation devices aka "warping" -machines where you type in whatever kind of food you want and it produces a pellet that tastes just like it but has all your vitamins in it -etc. ???
i never knew about any dvd release. cool thanks not available in the US though, right? copyright laws are different in other places. not sure why i got an eyeroll though haha. metallica did own the rights to the movie from wikipedia: Presently, World Entertainment owns rights to the film. It has released the film in Europe, but has no intention of releasing it in the United States for the foreseeable future.
+1 ALL around on this statement. I kinda think Blu Ray will fail because most NORMAL people have spent SO MUCH on DVD collections, that to re-buy it all pisses most off and don't wanna do it. People bitched when DVD came around, but at least it offered enough new features/quality to make it worth it. Maybe if Bluray players played DVD's too (do they?) that people would feel OK making the transition. HD DVD failed already. Every time I say this junk to someone they're like "NO WAY, THE DIFFERENCE IS AMAZING!" and than I say "On Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Night of the Living Dead?" than they go on about the NEW TCM and I walk away. The difference, to me, isn't enough. Also I prefer movies where digital didn't exist except for watches.
I don't think it will fail because just like VHS was slowly phased out so will DVD. They are already making everyone have digital capable tv by 2009/10. As far as quality goes, you honestly can't even compare DVD and Bluray if you have the right equipment. I thought the same thing and then when I watched my first Blu movie on a 1080p TV it almost reinvented watching movies for me. The picture is perfect. Also most will say I don't have a high def tv or whatnot but if you go into any electronic stores you will only find about 10 regular crt tv's are even available anymore. So basically everyone who's old tv goes out is going to have to buy a new high def television. For example Skylar, I know you liked 30 Days of Night. I watched it the other night on Blu and we had the dvd version as well and flipped back and forth between the two and they don't even compare in quality. The difference is just as obvious if not more than the switch from VHS to DVD. BTW AWESOME MOVIE and your review was spot on. On a side note not all old movie look spectacular on Blu because the way they were originally filmed but 2001: A Space Odyssey, Goodfellas, Full Metal Jacket, all look phenomenal. Same with BLU offering a ton of new features. A lot of them will even be interactive in the new future. The beauty of the player is you don't have to get rid of your old collection DVD collection because the player will upscale them and make them look better. Look at how many people still have VHS collections and VHS barely even seems to exist anymore.
One thing I would point out is that the PS3 upscales to 720p not 1080p. The Oppo player upscales to the full 1080p. There is a noticeable difference at 42" and above.
I hear what you're saying, Skylar; there's so much stuff I like where the low quality of the image is totally integral to its appeal. An enhanced version of Carnival of Souls or The Killing of Satan? I'd never be interested in buying such…tho I will end up watching a lot of those types of films (on DVD and VHS) on this new equipment, and it will be interesting to see how they come across. But then there's a movie like Buckaroo Banzai, for example, which for me walks the line: on one hand, the early-eighties image quality holds high nostalgic appeal for me; on the other, it’s an action/sci-fi movie with lots of great visuals, which really benefits from being played in an enhanced form. As others have said, I’m sure the difference would be a lot less noticeable if you were just watching thru a blu-ray player hooked up to a regular TV; on an HDTV, the upgrade in quality is very apparent. Also, like you, I’ve always been skeptical and cautiously slow when it comes to jumping on any new home AV tech bandwagon. This is our first major upgrade of this sort of equipment in almost ten years. I hope I don’t sound like I’m shilling for any of this stuff….I’m just really freaking happy with our new gear experience, thus far.
This thread is very informative as I am planning on upgrading my stuff within the year. I currently use a $25 Daewoo dvd player that I hacked and it plays everything I have thrown at it (I have discs from Japan, England, China in pal & ntsc formats). The blu-ray sounds like the way to go (especially coupled with a 1080p tv), but will a standard blu-ray player paly discs from different regions or will it need to be hacked? I did a quick google search and most of the info is about region-free discs and not players. Also what are you guys using to record? I still use my vhs but she is getting old and unreliable. Thaanks.
oh yeah, I'm not saying I'll never upgrade. I mean, it's inevitable. I just think sometimes consumers should be more careful than to just jump at the newest technology and assume it's better just because it's new. we have this bad habit of just thinking everything new is always better. I myself, actually think the opposite quite often, where I feel let down by new stuff and think that most old stuff was much better, even when it comes to technology sometimes. there are some movies I would love to see on a really high grade Blu-Ray system, things like LOTR or Pirates of the Caribbean for example I think would be fantastic. but yeah, I actually wish sometimes that DVD companies DIDN'T remaster certain films. like the first time I saw the Texas Chainsaw Massacre on DVD (which I own 2 different versions of) I was kind of like "wait, this isn't right"
Another major factor is simply the quality of the authoring work. I am pretty sure the first two Harry Potter movies on Bluray are just upscaled from the DVD version. They didn't even bother going back and doing it properly. One excellent example of authoring quality is the Star Trek original series remastered. They went back and painstakingly scanned all the original material into high definition. Shame they did it at 26 GB instead of 50GB (since these are on HD-DVD). But anyway, there really is no comparison to watching the DVD version upscaled to 1080p and watching the genuine article at native resolution.
