We have a 5-year-old 42" TV that may or may not have 1080i, definitely has 720p, and definitely does NOT have 1080p. It’s a Panasonic.
I’ve been thinking about getting a Blu-Ray player to replace our upconverting DVD player that is also 5 years old. Would there be much of an improvement to the picture?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say almost every TV that has 720p also has 1080i. There may be a few that don’t, but they are few.
Anyway, I personally don’t see a difference between my BD 1080i/720p and my DVD 480p.
ETA—the bluray player does take longer to load than the DVD player, however (but that is due to the player, not the picture of course).
Going from 480p to 720p is a difference of over 2.5 times the pixels.
Also an image that isn’t being upconverted (displays at the native resolution of your panel will look nice and crisp vs blurry.
So you’ll have an image with a lot more detail being displayed at your panel’s native rez without any up-resing.
You won’t see as much difference as if you had a nice 1080p panel, but the difference from DVD will be noticeable.
An example pic:
http://plastik.hu/media/irobot-4fele.jpg
You’re going from number 1 to number 2 or 3.
That’s wrong. It’s going from 2 to 3 or 4 (from the top).
I think there would not be an improvement in the picture. But if you’re buying movies on DVD, you might want to start buying them on Blu-Ray instead (or to purchase the combo packs that include both) so that when you eventually do have a Blu-Ray capable TV, you’ll be able to watch a better picture. So if you’re buying movies, then yes, buy the Blu-Ray player; they aren’t very expensive. You can find them for under a hundred bucks.
To be fair, those pictures are magnified too much. Even the bottom picture is too blurry for normal viewing distance.
You mean they are small. Yes, they are not 1080p shots. If they were the differences would be more apparent.
Now yes, the distance from your TV to your couch will matter, but if you’re standing so far away you can’t see the difference, the TV is not the right size for the space.
42"? Not 1080p? I really don’t think it’s worth it. If there is any improvement at all it would be minimal and you wouldn’t notice it unless you were sitting less than 6 feet from the screen.
Blu-Rays are kind of a pain-in-the-ass anyways IMHO. Sure I love the awesome picture on my 60" 1080p plasma but those load times are awful. It’s like going back to dial-up.
Load times are going to depend on your player though.
I rip mine to HD, so it’s no an issue for me. But read speed might be something to keep an eye out if you’re picking one up.
Frankly I don’t see how blowing up an image to take up over 2.5 times the number of pixels vs NOT, isn’t something people are going to notice.
Just to add most blu-ray players also add internet enabled content, such as Netflix streaming.
If you receive HD programming, Blu-Ray would compare to that.
My understanding is that most, or all HDTV programming is transmitted at 720p resolution, while Blu-Ray content is at 1080p resolution.
There’s the issue of future availability. If you typically keep a player for five years, you should probably buy a Blu-Ray player. DVD’s are being phased out and I don’t think you’ll be able to get them by 2016.
This is a good point, though I disagree on the exact date. However, the DVDs will last longer than that, and buying replacement BDs for already owned DVDs would be silly as long as players are available (and BD players play both anyway).
Also, if you don’t have Netflix some Blu-Ray players are also Netflix players.
I agree it would be silly to toss out all your existing DVD’s. That’s one advantage of getting a Blu-Ray player - it’s backwards compatible with DVD’s.
As for the timing, Blu-Ray was first commercially available in 2006. So it’s become the default choice in five years (if you go to a place like Best Buy or Blockbuster now the Blu-Rays will be the main display and the DVD’s will be on the secondary aisles). So I figure in five more years it’ll be the only readily available choice and DVD’s will be in the dollar bin with the VHS tapes.
Yes, but the limit of the OPs television is 720p. So I think the statement that getting a BR Player will make his movies look like his HD channels is accurate. If he/she can tell the difference between DVDs and HD channels, then he/she would not be disappointed buying the Blue Ray player.
Yes, you should be able to notice a pleasant increase in the quality of the image on screen. As for 720p vs 1080i or 1080p, keep in mind that the difference in quality between these 3 is going to range from negligible to imperceptible on a 42" screen. The difference isn’t discernible until you hit 50 or 60 inches. I don’t know this from experience, only from reading articles on Consumer Reports and CNET.
IMHO, the resolution issues are very secondary to the connectivity ones. (Plus on that size set, a viewing distance of over 8 feet or so means the human eye cannot really distinguish the difference between 720p and 1080p.)
Does your set have HDMI inputs with HDCP or just analog component inputs? If no HDCP support is present, depending on the bluRay player, it might not output any HD at all. At some point in the future, HD signals over component cables will be reduced in resolution to close the so called ‘Analog hole’. When this happens (it is already in place on some bluRay discs and on PS3 playback), the best you will get over non-HDMI cables is 960x540.
The wiki has some info on this.