This is not strong enough for the pit but I just got an HD TV and Blu Ray player early this year and I love it. I also like buying TV series season sets I like on DVD. While my Blu Ray player does up convert, I would prefer actual Blu rays but as best as I can tell most series don’t bother with a Blu Ray release. Of the shows I would buy, only The Office seems to.
I thought for sure Community would, the show is often very visually striking for a sit com but nope. Parks and Rec, from the same people as the Office? No. It is very disappointing and also frustrating because I know the minute i cave and buy the DVD sets, they will announce Blu Rays.
It seems like they are skipping Blu Rays and going right to Video on Demand. I want my disks darn it!
Edited to add: I am mainly talking about Sit coms. Strangely, most dramas I care about are on board with Blu Ray.
I recently bought a new HDTV and it came with a free Blu-Ray player. I also picked up an Apple TV on the same day. That was 6 months ago. I have yet to try out the Blu-Ray player. I don’t even know if it works. This probably doesn’t help you. Sorry.
One thing about Bluray is that there are some source material where the Bluray would be absolutely no step up from the DVD. Such is the case with most television made before this decade, or any films/shows which were shot on video or 480p digital.
Anything filmed in HDTV should be getting a Bluray box set. Heck, even The League, a mostly unheard of (and excellent) show, had a season 1 Bluray release, although it was almost IMPOSSIBLE to find in stores (I finally found it at a Barnes & Noble, of all places). I could have sworn season 1 of Community had a BD release. Some shows, like 24 and Lost, are even re-releasing their back catalog to BD. Parks & Recreation probably just doesn’t have a BD version because the show is terrible.
A lot of older TV shows were shot in 35mm which is better than Blu Ray
There isn’t a huge market for old TV shows even in DVD. This is why there are so many TV series that only have one or two seasons released.
Add to that TV box sets that are released aren’t likely to be upgraded. Why bother? Is Seinfeld any funnier if it’s a bit more clear? Outside of sports and nature shows High Def doesn’t serve for much.
I get a kick out of the news shows always advertising now in high def. Who cares? Like seeing an anchor’s face better makes the news any more informative.
It’s like using high quality stereo equipment to record a speech that’s spoken. Sure it’ll work but it isn’t needed and it’s costly to do.
Not necessarily true. Many (non-live) TV shows were (and are) shot on film, and would make fine Blu-ray source. You’d probably need to re-edit all the source material, add CGI as needed and other things, but there’s plenty of resolution available.
I’ll go with door#2: there’s enough material coming out digitally that Blu-ray is being passed over in some cases.
Special effects can be a significant obstacle for this. Starting around the late 1970s when video effects started becoming cheap, a great many TV shows were shot on 35mm film, but all the effects were assembled on video. You’d have to re-do all the effects shots and reassemble all the episodes to do a hi-def release.
I wouldn’t mind this if digital included even the extra features of DVDs. Why would I buy a show that I already can see for free on TV, if that’s all I get?
