Should I pick up Blu-Ray in the near future ?

[The Sports Guy]

I have a HDTV but no DVD player other than the standard Xbox 360 one. I was mildly thinking about buying the cheap a** HDDVD player for asthetic reasons, but I thought buying chinese food for dinner that night would be better lol.

Shouldnt Microsoft release one for 360? I would snatch one up most likely.

[Black_Tiger]

The one downside of bluray movies right now is that most people don't have three players in their house and a portable one for traveling. So you can't play your movies anywhere you want the way you can dvds at the moment.

It's nice to be able to play a bluray movie in my bedroom instead of having to stay up late in the living room where my PS3 is. When I bought a laptop recently, I picked one with a bluray drive so it functions as a second player for my bedroom and I can use it on upcoming road trips.

I wouldn't mind watching things on dvds in these situations, but every new movie/show I now buy on bluray I don't have a version of it on dvd.


But yeah, if you care about movies/shows and have decent vision/hearing, you should switch to bluray, the sooner the better. If you really like watching movies at home, it's worth upgrading to 1080p if you don't have it.

[Joe Redifer]

Regarding VHS vs DVD compared to DVD vs Blu-Ray:

The jump from VHS to DVD was much more apparent? Surely you are not talking about picture quality. Yes, it was definitely better, but was less than twice the resolution of VHS. What most people liked and thought were better were the fact that they didn't have to rewind, chapter searching, surround sound and special features. All of the things they ignored on LaserDiscs which did the same thing eons before DVD. So even then DVD wasn't really new. It just offered the same ol' stuff on a more convenient, smaller disc with unskippable and annoyingly animated menus. Blu-ray offers MORE than 5 times greater resolution than DVD. Maybe it won't blow you away the second you see the first frame on a Blu-Ray movie, but you do get used to it and after a while watching a DVD will make you feel like a registered sex offender.

[Black_Tiger]

I was amazed even by the jump in quality of bluray movies from my 720p TV to my new 1080p TV.

And the upscaling of all your old dvds is a huge additional benefit. It's very noticeable over un-upscaled dvds on the same TV, but bluray is still so much better.

So even if you don't want to re-buy a film, it's worth it just to watch your old dvds on and continue to buy new release on bluray.

[GameUser-16-32-128]

Then why do you have an HDTV? its only a "slightly better enhancement" over an old SD set.
I suppose you're happy with the stock earbuds that came with your iPod, and think that 128kbps mp3s are good enough too?

Your problem is that you are projecting your lack of interest/appreciation in better quality onto others (and it doesnt require any technical knowhow to notice and appreciate what blu-ray offers on a nice HDTV with a nice sound system).

PS: there is no point in converting a vhs tape to blu-ray, as you still have the (lack of) quality of the original source.

Okay when I said standard tv, I meant analog standard tv. I got an HDTV because it was dirt cheap a year and a half ago (back then they were expensive weren't they!?) plus I got a free microwave oven and was moving out on my own. What was I going to do? Take the family TV with me? So the difference in 128 kbps is not the same as 190 kbps!? Frankly I can't tell the difference between 16-Bit Stereo and 1 million bit stereo. I would have to get giant speakers to notice those audible differences now would I? Now if you compare that to say mono, then we're getting somewhere! Too bad I don't have indespensible income to buy ipods, a new computer and a blue ray player. I'm quite happy with my 8 year old Mac that still performs within optimal standards as long as I don't throw 100 things at it at the same time and also still have a kick ass time playing with my genesis, saturn and dreamcast. No watered-down gameplay versions of the same games on the next-gen consoles for me. Inconceivable!

The only problem I have is I can't afford to buy technology that isn't "all that" if I can't see great out of print classics such as



For sega fan: If you got the dough, then go ahead and blow it on the new format! If you're strapped on cash then I'd suggest waiting till it's more popular and dirt cheap.

[Melf]

Blu-Ray players are as cheap as $150 now, so you won't have to wait long. The more HDTVs are adopted, the more people are going to switch to BR.

[Flygon]

Think of it this way, in 4 years time if you want to get new movies you have to have a blu-ray player.

[Megadragon15]

Everyone should buy Blu-ray. Sony needs the money after all...

[Joe Redifer]

I'm sold.