I’m not especially interested in HD. I just have a regular SD (but still digital TV) set up, which I’ve had for five years, since before the HD standards were really properly sorted out, and it has served me well. In my particular place of residence, HD/Blu-Ray wouldn’t improve things appreciably, so there’s no real point.
Added to that is though the improvements in Blu-Ray are very obvious, they are superficial, and sometimes only subtle, which isn’t enough to get me excited enough to spend all that money upgrading.
So if I had a home of some epic scale (which many new homes are, these days), and had enough money to justify the spending, then I’d upgrade. But by the time that is likely to roll around, Blu-Ray will either be firmly established or on its way out, and I can then make an informed choice.
Downloads are all very well in theory (I am not averse to indulging in the occasional SD download myself) but in practice there is much yet to be overcome, not least of which the international situation where bandwidth costs a lot more to use outside of America and Japan (and a few other lucky places). Once that’s sorted out, then a new step will advance.
I just bought The Third Man and Eyes Wide Shut on Blu-Ray this afternoon. Unlike the OP, I have seen Blu-Ray on full 1080p and I love the difference. My mother, with severe macular degeneration can see the difference. My father cannot. It is not like the difference between audiophile music and a CD, it is far more noticeable. More noticeable than an iPod to audiophile. I see a long future in this gorgeous format, unless something better comes along. Until then, the visual experience is better than regular theater showing a film on the first day.
To be clear, I never said I couldn’t see the difference. I can’t see (100 x $40 + $900 + $300 + $200) worth of difference. That’d be the cost to upgrade all my existing DVDs, buy a good-sized LCD or plasma screen, a new entertainment center, and a Blu-Ray player. Just not worth the expense.
I have to admit that other than TV shows, I really don’t. I haven’t put in the LOTR trilogy for a few years, and really only watch a handful of them. The rest I would probably watch more often if I put them into a netflix queue. And I sure could use a speaker upgrade…
I’m a very critical viewer, have displays that actually exceed HD quality - and still haven’t bought a Blu-Ray player. The players and discs are just not cheap enough yet. Sorry, but every DVD is mastered in HD then down-converted. So why am I being asked to pay nearly twice as much for the same movie? When I can buy Blu-Ray discs for the same price as DVDs, I’ll buy Blu-Ray players and all my new movies on the format.
The difference between tapes and DVD’s is that DVD’s are easily copied to your hard drive with no loss of resolution. When you have copied the movie to your hard drive then burn it to the new media for playing (assuming you just don’t hook up your computer to your TV to watch it directly).
I just got done watching Casablanca for the zillionth time, this time in Blu-Ray. I have seen this on TV of old, movie theaters, revival theaters and on DVD. (Oh, yes, and in a Ted Turner colorized version, but like Highlander II, we do not speak of that.) There is so much more detail. The acting is so much more enjoyable. Not worth several hundred dollars more? Sorry, its worth an initial investment of a couple thousand more to see this much more of a movie.
I think Blu-Ray and DVD will do the Beta and VHS dance for several years. Blu-Ray won’t really lose to regular DVD the way Beta eventually did, but I think they’ll coexist for a long time. For the same reason that Beta (eventually) lost. Its just not that much better.
I’m a total tech geek videophile, yet when I’m in Best Buy and I watch the giant TV with the DVD/Blu-Ray split screen of Disney’s Cars playing, and the narrator booms, “Now take a look at Blu-Ray!!” my reaction is always the same: A big resounding, meh…
I think there could be a home entertainment crash akin to the video game crash of the early 80s. The market is just getting flooded with too much too fast, and like I said a lot of it is decidedly underwhelming. With a recession looming (Circuit City already went under) gee-whiz crap like this will be the first to go.
So where’s the stress? You’ll always be able to play your existing DVDs, at least for 15-20 years until they start losing bits. Are you worried about being able to buy a player when your old one breaks? Those will be around for a long time, believe me. By the time DVD players get hard to find you’ll be able to store your entire library on a chip of dust embedded in your dental work.
Blu-Ray is approaching the limits of quality that’s detectable by normal human eyes. So I wouldn’t look for a whole lot of huge increases in bandwidth until the holographic displays come out in 2019. In mid October, on a Tuesday, about 11:15 AM, raining in Cleveland.
For me, it made sense to switch from analog tape to digital disc (cassette to CD, VHS to DVD). Switching from DVD, even HD, to Blu-Ray? Not so much. The “advantages” of Blu-Ray over DVD aren’t anything I care about.
The next television I buy will certainly be some flavor of flat-screen and probably Hi-def (why not, it’s cheap enough). But, buy into a medium wholly controlled by the Sony Corporation? Nope, not gonna happen.
Americans have shown they will sacrifice quality over convenience provided it isn’t too much of a down grade. Look at MP3 versus CDs or Cell phones versus landlines.
High def has only one advantage it looks better. But so what? Outside of nature shows who cares? Is a comedy any funnier if you can see the actors better. Does the news do a better job reporting if you can see Anderson Coopers pores? Did Eli Manning throw a better pass because it was clearer?
There comes a point of balance where it doesn’t matter. Furthermore when you read surveys in Consumer Reports, people were no better than 50/50 at judging what was high def and what wasn’t? Oh they can tell if they’re side by side, but they can’t tell an upconverted from real high def.
Digital downloads are the way of the future, but HD requires a HUGE amount of bandwidth right now.
But technologies change. Look at our conversion to digital TV, we’re using MPEG2 and France is already using MPEG4. So by 2025 we’ll have to convert digital TV again (it’s thought).
I’m with you on that issue. You can buy DVD-sized flash-drives today for less than 10$. Within three years I can see Blue-Ray sized ones for even less. And they won’t be limited in upper size limit, formats you record on them or dedicated players - anything with USB and enough computing power (and proper display) will do.
Of course, ultimately, why even bother with physical media.
My old DVD player just went tits-up about a month ago, so I figured I’d buy a Blu Ray player. My TV is a few years old and has only one HDMI port, currently hooked up to my Comcast box. (I dread trying to hook up the new player!) Does the Blu Ray have to be hooked up to an HDMI port for optimal visuals?
I’d guess that your Comcast box has component output as well. I’d use that, and dedicate the HDMI to your bluray.
Or there are a few other options. The expensive one is to get a decent AV receiver that will allow you to access the new audio formats available on bluray (which, in my opinion, is the ultimate reason to upgrade to bluray - the upgrade in sound quality is outstanding), as well as switch between sources. You can get a quality used AV receiver with HDMI inputs on craigslist for about $200. I just saw an Onkyo 605 for $225 a few weeks ago.
The other option is to pop for an HDMI switch. Buy.com had a 3-to-1 switch for $15 that could be operated with a remote. Throw in another $50 for an early model Harmony remote, and you can control everything with one remote for $65.
You are in the minority with that opinion. A quarter of US households bought HDTV technology in the past year. High definition is a hell of a lot better.
Much of the time, they aren’t running the best HDMI cables into those TVs. The result is a noticeably better picture when you watch HDTV in someone’s home. When I play a Blu-Ray disc for guests on my television, the reaction is an overwhelming “Wow”. It’s unbelievable to me, and I care much less about video & audio technology than the average male.
That’s the most nonsensical argument against HD I’ve read yet. Peyton throws the same pass in black and white.
CGI, man, CGI. I recently got to see Transformers on Blu-Ray and can I just say, gorgeous. The level of detail simply can’t be matched by DVD, and upconverting can’t replace details that have been lost because of the lower resolution.
Of course, I’m a self-described eye-candy junkie, so YMMV.
(As far as sports go, some games have ridiculous levels of compression artifacts during live SD broadcast. The difference isn’t night and day–it’s pitch black and day.)