Blu ray - Great for games, not great for movies.

As far as games go, the potential storage of blu ray is amazing. I really hope companies start developing games with the PS3 and blu ray in mind (would love to get GTA 4 with better graphics than other platforms).

But as far as movies go i cant see blu ray or HD-DVD taking off for quite some time. Yes blu ray looks nice, my casino royale blu ray looks pretty nice, but there is no wow factor. If someone walked in when it was playing, they would not know that it was a next gen disc. Compare that to the jump from VHS to DVD - it was huge and pretty much everyone can tell if they're watching a choppy VHS or a DVD. The jump in technologies simply isn't there or isn't enough.

Finally, it's a price thing. Why am i going to pay £25 for a blu ray when i can get it at least £10 cheaper. For example, i recently picked up layer cake from Play.com for £4 - the blu ray is £20-£25! It's just not worth it........yet.

As far as games go, the potential storage of blu ray is amazing. I really hope companies start developing games with the PS3 and blu ray in mind (would love to get GTA 4 with better graphics than other platforms).

But as far as movies go i cant see blu ray or HD-DVD taking off for quite some time. Yes blu ray looks nice, my casino royale blu ray looks pretty nice, but there is no wow factor. If someone walked in when it was playing, they would not know that it was a next gen disc. Compare that to the jump from VHS to DVD - it was huge and pretty much everyone can tell if they're watching a choppy VHS or a DVD. The jump in technologies simply isn't there or isn't enough.

Finally, it's a price thing. Why am i going to pay £25 for a blu ray when i can get it at least £10 cheaper. For example, i recently picked up layer cake from Play.com for £4 - the blu ray is £20-£25! It's just not worth it........yet.

Do you currently own a hdtv?

If you dont you wont see any difference. 

As far as the pricing on the Blu-ray/HD-DVD goes I agree with you. They are a bit to pricey and I only but a selected few movies on this platform. But, as far as visuals go, I see a huge jump when watching a Blu-ray or an HD-DVD on my HDTV. It's like the difference  between watching regular television or watching some thing shot in High Def. Well, on my HDTV at least.

Not every film in HD will be wow, but you atleast know you are seeing it the best it can be. After all, not all films can be Discovery HD like video with digital cameras.

But I know if I played a DVD on my 60inch 1080p tv and saw compression artifacts, muddy dark scenes, so so color, overall soft, I know I'm watchging last gen. But atleast when I put in new gen, the picture won't give you any complaints. And if someone sees the HD version not knowing it was new, maybe they don't realize how bad a dvd can look at 60inches, while it looks near prefect on a SD tv, on a larger HD tv, even at 32inch, the flaws suddenly come out, so thus they don't know how to appreciate what they are seeing from the next gen format, because even when there is no wow from the picture sometimes, atleast there won't be anything to complain about.

Blu-Ray is great for both, i dont have a HDTV but i go to my aunts house alot and she has a HDTV. when i play a Blu-Ray disc the picture is so crisp and pops out to me i can see if you dont have a HDTV it looks the same but with an HDTV you see a VERY big diff

Please, of cours i've got a high def tv - the only way to play a PS3.

Some good comments from everyone. The media likes to hype up the format war ('it's another vhs vs betamax') but seriously, this thing is going to run for years and years.... 

Please, of cours i've got a high def tv - the only way to play a PS3.

Some good comments from everyone. The media likes to hype up the format war ('it's another vhs vs betamax') but seriously, this thing is going to run for years and years....

FlipJoberg

I hope it doesn't run for years and years. I hope it will end in two years or less. This "war" will cause alot of frustrations. I don't want to have to deal with two formats. I want my high definition movies on one format, none of that exclusive crap where I am required to buy another player to play the other format...

Yes blu ray looks nice, my casino royale blu ray looks pretty nice, but there is no wow factor. If someone walked in when it was playing, they would not know that it was a next gen disc. Compare that to the jump from VHS to DVD - it was huge and pretty much everyone can tell if they're watching a choppy VHS or a DVD. The jump in technologies simply isn't there or isn't enough.

FlipJoberg

Are you watching Casino Royal on a HD-TV? IMO it looks amazing. I had my in-laws over to watch it and they couldn't get over the PQ.

I've got about 20 Blu-Ray movies and they look fantastic on my HD-TV. I can't wait to pick up the Pirates movies next week & I'm really looking forward to getting The Matrix on BR:D

As for the prices, I usually get BR movies from Amazon. They seem to have the best deals and most of my BR movies I've only paid $19.99.

i think when star wars comes to hd dvd or blu ray, its going to sway everyone over to the formats. ofcourse when 300 goes HD, thats going to be awesome.feel_freetwo

With George Lucas running the show it could be 2015 before we see the Star wars movies on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.:D

Also 300 is coming out in July on BluRay & HD-DVD:

"Warner Brothers Home Entertainment has revealed that they will release the blockbuster action film '300' on July 31st."

As far as games go, the potential storage of blu ray is amazing. I really hope companies start developing games with the PS3 and blu ray in mind (would love to get GTA 4 with better graphics than other platforms).

But as far as movies go i cant see blu ray or HD-DVD taking off for quite some time. Yes blu ray looks nice, my casino royale blu ray looks pretty nice, but there is no wow factor. If someone walked in when it was playing, they would not know that it was a next gen disc. Compare that to the jump from VHS to DVD - it was huge and pretty much everyone can tell if they're watching a choppy VHS or a DVD. The jump in technologies simply isn't there or isn't enough.

Finally, it's a price thing. Why am i going to pay £25 for a blu ray when i can get it at least £10 cheaper. For example, i recently picked up layer cake from Play.com for £4 - the blu ray is £20-£25! It's just not worth it........yet.

FlipJoberg

no wow factor? What kind of HDTV do you have? Either get a better TV or get your eyes checked.

It's a huge difference to the discerning eye

Yeah, Blurays are pricey but, if you rent movies online through blockbuster, you can rent them. I think that the PS3 will have the same effect on Blu ray comming into promonance as the PS2 did on DvD.Naseru

I agree. PS2 was my, and many others first DVD player and it helped sales of DVD's in a big way. PS3 is my first Blu-Ray player and so far I've got around 20 movies.

It's probably your TV, because Blu-Ray looks fantastic on my TV, a lot better then regular DVD anyways, the price'll come down after a couple more months, but truly Blu-Ray IS living up to the hype.

I bought the PS3 with the free Talledega Nights blue ray disk, and I played it on my HDTV.  To be totally honest, I really didn't see a huge difference, at least not to justify the differences in prices between regular DVD's and Blue Ray.. Once the Blue Ray Discs drop in price a little, I'll problably buy more of them

To be honest I don't really want to replace my dvd collection for a new format. had to do that with VHS. Don't really want to spend hundreds to do that again.duane27

Beauty is you don't have to............dvd's work on both formats unlike the vhs.........

[QUOTE="Naseru"]Yeah, Blurays are pricey but, if you rent movies online through blockbuster, you can rent them. I think that the PS3 will have the same effect on Blu ray comming into promonance as the PS2 did on DvD.razzy1

I agree. PS2 was my, and many others first DVD player and it helped sales of DVD's in a big way. PS3 is my first Blu-Ray player and so far I've got around 20 movies.

I bought the PS3 with the free Talledega Nights blue ray disk, and I played it on my HDTV. To be totally honest, I really didn't see a huge difference, at least not to justify the differences in prices between regular DVD's and Blue Ray.. Once the Blue Ray Discs drop in price a little, I'll problably buy more of them

bruno424

Talledega Nights is not known to be the best HiDef transfer out there.  I only have 4 discs currently but I plan to buy more.  Every single one of these movies look way better than thier DVD counterpart.  I have a split screen mode on my TV where you can put the Bluray and DVD side by side and there is no comparison.  Goodfellas for instance which is an old film looks way better in blu-ray.  The DVD in comparison looks like a muddy waterpainted mess, the indoor scenes are so dark you can't even tell whats going on.  On blu-ray you can see every pock mark in Ray Liota's face and there is a proper sense of depth to the picture that wasn't there before. 

What Blue Ray disk would you recommend to best experience on what the blue ray can actually do??

I'll argue that digital downloading of titles will take off and become the norm for high-def movies long before Blu-Ray or HD-DVD has any shot?

Blu-Ray is great for games, but I don't see it ever being the dominant format for movies.

-=Mike 

...and the difference between VHS and DVD was significantly wider than DVD to Blu-Ray/HD-DVD 

What Blue Ray disk would you recommend to best experience on what the blue ray can actually do??

 

bruno424

http://www.highdefdigest.com/

There are reviews of Blu-ray/HDDVD movies on here. They rate things like PQ and SQ. You would have to find something that fits your own movie tastes.

I'll argue that digital downloading of titles will take off and become the norm for high-def movies long before Blu-Ray or HD-DVD has any shot?

Blu-Ray is great for games, but I don't see it ever being the dominant format for movies.

-=Mike

...and the difference between VHS and DVD was significantly wider than DVD to Blu-Ray/HD-DVD

MikeinSC2

I have worked for cable companies in the US & A and Canada and your infrastructure is a joke. There are still people using dialup for upstream. The providers place caps on download limits and in areas where you could provide crazy speed they have it throttled. I feel the providers won't allow for everyone to download movies on demand. Not to mention not everyone is tech savvy to allow for it. A lot of people cant even do their banking online nevermind download a movie and burn it or transfer it to some medium that allows for playback at home.

By the time it becomes a major thing, companies like NetFlix will handle online rentals. I don't think people --- and I have sales figures to back this up --- want to pay considerably more for a title only for a better picture.

-=Mike 

this also depends on video compression.  Blu-ray uses the Mpeg-2 and mpeg-4, at first blu-ray movies used the mpeg-2 format, which is still used on DVDs. thats why blu-ray movies looked like trash compared to HD-DVD  VC-1  compression.  since the Big movies such as Casino Royale, which uses the Mpeg-4 video compression, Blu-ray movies look amazing!  The next big blu-ray movies that should be watched by everyone should be Pirates.  you'll notice a huge difference compared to HD-DVD, it surpasses it.  a rumor that I heard was that HD-dvd cant use Mpeg -4 because of the space it needs compared to blu-ray, sorry if I mistaken if anyone has an HD-DVD player to confirm this.lennygundam14

WRONG!  read some reviews at hidef digest, or dvdtalk, and you'll see that mpeg2 can look just as good as mpg4 and vc1.

No wow factor? lol...

He's probably not using HDMI or component cable.

Anyone who doesn't see the "wow factor" from a maximum 720P DVD to a 1080P/I BluRay should have either their eye or their TV set checked.

He's probably not using HDMI or component cable.

 

Anyone who doesn't see the "wow factor" from a maximum 720P DVD to a 1080P/I BluRay should have either their eye or their TV set checked.

lhbchen

DVDs are not 720p, they are 480i-480p, where did you get that, as there is still wow factor with HD at 720p. 

For those asking - i've got a perfectly capable Panasonic 1080i TV,  Also, i didn't say that there was no difference to see, just that for me, personally, it's not enough for me to fork out 25 beans on a new disc.

 And to the guy who said that if the industry wanted us to go blu-ray they'd stop selling dvds - there would be uproar! You can't force change onto the general public. Ultimately, the masses will decide. VHS was the worse quality format, but its accessability helped it establish itself over betamax.

Finally, to truly put the cat amoungst the pigeons - the industry has already established "ultra high definition". Apparently, it goes behond the depth of field created by current hi-def to create a 3D effect that's 10x the res of current HD. For now tho, the cost is thorugh the roof - so we've got a good 10-20 years with this generation of HD equipment. Thank god is all i can say..... 

[QUOTE="bruno424"]

What Blue Ray disk would you recommend to best experience on what the blue ray can actually do??

 

iwo4life

http://www.highdefdigest.com/

There are reviews of Blu-ray/HDDVD movies on here. They rate things like PQ and SQ. You would have to find something that fits your own movie tastes.

I'll argue that digital downloading of titles will take off and become the norm for high-def movies long before Blu-Ray or HD-DVD has any shot?

Blu-Ray is great for games, but I don't see it ever being the dominant format for movies.

-=Mike

...and the difference between VHS and DVD was significantly wider than DVD to Blu-Ray/HD-DVD

MikeinSC2

I have worked for cable companies in the US & A and Canada and your infrastructure is a joke. There are still people using dialup for upstream. The providers place caps on download limits and in areas where you could provide crazy speed they have it throttled. I feel the providers won't allow for everyone to download movies on demand. Not to mention not everyone is tech savvy to allow for it. A lot of people cant even do their banking online nevermind download a movie and burn it or transfer it to some medium that allows for playback at home.

right

digital distribution of moives a quite far off.  I've been "notified" by my cable company that I have excessive up/down load traffic a few times and threatened to suspend service

if people think it will take off anytime soon......i wouldnt exactly call waiting 4-5 hours for a 1080p movie to download "on demand"

By the time it becomes a major thing, companies like NetFlix will handle online rentals. I don't think people --- and I have sales figures to back this up --- want to pay considerably more for a title only for a better picture.

-=Mike

MikeinSC2

the fact is, people want to buy the media.  a great majority of people will not go for the digital distribution because they don't have anything physically in their hands.  Look at the current market.  NetFlix is hugely popular, yet DVD sales are still very high.  it shows that even though people are not required to buy movies, most still do because they want something to put their hands on.  it shows ownership.

my prediction, it will be atleast a decade before digital distribution becomes big enough to be considered an option.  less than 30% of the US has broadband internet....and it's even less in other parts of the world.  it has taken 6 years to get to 30%.  for digital distribution to become a viable option to replace physical media, that number would have to atleast reach 60%.