beansprouts Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 Last year DH and I did some home improvements which included new living room furniture and a plasma screen TV. This is the first nice television we have ever owned in 12 years of marriage. Since then we have discussed upgrading to a high definition DVD player. We watch movies, mostly and don't even have cable. One year ago, there were still two formats for HD players, and I wanted to wait and see which would become "beta" and which "VHS" ;). It appears now that Blu-Ray has shown itself to be the better format, am I right about this? Who owns one, and who wants one and who wouldn't touch it with a 39 1/2 inch pole? Can you give advice for choosing a player? What are the pros and cons of owning one? Thank you :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jann in TX Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 When we purchased it earlier this year it was CHEAPER to buy the newest Playstation (III I think) because it has a Blu-Ray built in. We only have one game...but we did not buy it for the games... The picture quality is pretty impressive. We have an 8ft home theater screen (projector too) and the new player made a HUGE difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beansprouts Posted September 12, 2008 Author Share Posted September 12, 2008 When we purchased it earlier this year it was CHEAPER to buy the newest Playstation (III I think) because it has a Blu-Ray built in. We only have one game...but we did not buy it for the games... The picture quality is pretty impressive. We have an 8ft home theater screen (projector too) and the new player made a HUGE difference. The games discussion comes up at least once a year also. In fact I mentioned it this morning, but I think we have decided that they do not fit into our lives at this time. Of course if price is a factor, we may need to consider that. WOW! To the 8ft home theater screen... and here I am impressed by 42 inches :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 Yeah, Blu-Ray has pretty much won out over HD-DVD. We too play ours through the PS3, and the picture is indeed impressive. When we first set ours up, dh and I sat there watching Casino Royale with our mouths open, occasionally saying things like, "Hey! I can see the buttons on the shirt that guy in the background is wearing!" lol... Most of our movies are still dvd, but Blu-Ray is definitely clearer and sharper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beansprouts Posted September 12, 2008 Author Share Posted September 12, 2008 Blu-ray will still play our regular DVD's right? What about audio CD's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 There are two major movie making studios. They were making current movies in both Blu-Ray and HD, then they kinda split and one went with just Blu-ray and the other went just HD. When the video game system utilized Blu-ray, it created an incentive for people who otherwise would have made a choice between the two, to pick Blu-ray because they could just use the video game player. After this, HD went by the wayside and both studios started filming in just Blu-ray. There wasn't another use for HD so the video players went from $200-300 to under $100 overnight. The reason I say this is that you can get an HD player still as companies run out their stock. They are much cheaper than a Blu-ray, and will play all regular DVDs. An HD player will not play a Blu-ray disk or visa-versa. The HD player will up convert a regular DVD to HD quality. The nice thing about going this route is this: if you buy HD right now you can get one for about $100. It will have a great picture with regular DVDs. If you wait a year or two the Blu-ray players will increase in technology and also hopefully drop in price at the same time. You can then buy a Blu-ray for much less or with new features. The only downside to doing this is that you won't be buying you current movies in Blu-ray. It really is the most beneficial to wait for those who rent more than buy. Any movie you buy, you will want to buy in regular DVD format so that you can play it on both an HD player now and a Blu-ray in the future. There aren't going to be a lot of new movies shot in HD (maybe a few stragglers that were delayed in production for some reason) so you won't even have the option of buying movies in HD soon. If you really like movies, and buy a lot. You may as well go ahead and get a Blu-ray now. Hope this helps a little :0) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beansprouts Posted September 12, 2008 Author Share Posted September 12, 2008 if you buy HD right now you can get one for about $100. It will have a great picture with regular DVDs. If you wait a year or two the Blu-ray players will increase in technology and also hopefully drop in price at the same time. You can then buy a Blu-ray for much less or with new features. Thank you! This post is full of information for me to consider. We are also starting a collection of the older, classic musicals for which HD is not an option at this time anyways. Are you saying that the HD players will do a better job of playing regular DVD's than the Blu-ray players right now? Do you think at some point these "golden oldies" will be converted, or is this not possible? Maybe, like you said, we should continue to wait for improved technology and perhaps choose a better "family gift" for Christmas this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 HD and Blu-ray will both 'upconvert' which is that they will play a DVD clearer than a traditional DVD player. It is possible that the oldie will be reformatted into a clearer format, but it won't be true Blu-ray because they weren't filmed that way to begin with. As far as I understand, when they redo a movie they are just making an imprint of the original. The will use computers to clean up detail, remove distortions, and recolor the film to add contrast. Once all of this is done, they can re shoot the film in any format by basically copying it to the new film. But, it will always have the limitations of the original. The detail gained will be superficial, and in some cases completely computer generated. This is why some people are against old movies being updated. They loose some of the original 'feel' or charm. Others love the changes and feel that is really brings the film to its full potential. If you are considering buying a new player for Christmas, there will inevitably be a lot of sales. This year has been very hard on technology sales and there will be a lot on clearance. If you are not thinking of buying for right now, you may want to spend some time researching brands of Blu-ray and HD, and see what you can get on clearance. A Blu-ray on clearance would be in the $200+ range the HD would be $50+. Because of the technology shift you may be able to get an HD cheaper than a traditional DVD. The HD will do everything a DVD will do and also play HD movies. The only downside to an HD is that they take a few seconds longer to turn on, open the tray and start to play. This is because they are more like a computer, than a traditional DVD. Good luck, I hope you find a good deal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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