My issue with Blu-Ray

[Ayan]

Ok so I have an issue with blue ray. I mean can someone please elaborate on why this is a big deal... and approximately how much longer do I have to throw away my dvd player like I did my vcr?

[Obiwan176]

DVD is not going anywhere. If you don't have an HDTV then there is no reason to even look at Blu-ray. If you do and really like movies then it is a fantastic upgrade. But if you really don't care about top notch picture then again stay with DVD. But once you see true HD then it is hard to turn your head. Upconvert is not HD. Not even close.

Blu-ray players are reaching the $200 mark and they do play all existing DVDs, so there is no further invesment other than the player itself.

[Binkleywalker]

That's probably the wisest thing those guys did - to have it so you could still play DVDs. The expenses of replacing something in an old format to the new one would have been huge. Now I can rest comfortable knowing that when I finally get a player, I'll mainly only have to concern myself with new releases. And of course the proper television.

[Stubblecat]

Your basic television and cable services will soon all be going HD and Blu-Ray is just getting the jump on them. I was a doubter for a looooong time, but now that I can compare standard definition and HD channels side-by-side at home, the difference is night and day.

Once you watch a movie on Blu-Ray, you'll wonder how anyone ever thought that regular DVD was the best you could ever see.

But as stated above, plain old DVD will be around for a very long time.

[AKmaro1]

Right, normal DVD is not going anywhere anytime soon, it's too much of a standard right now. Plus keep in mind that your Blu-ray player will upconvert all your standard DVD's to near HD, now it will still look worse than Blu-ray, but it'll be markedly better than regular DVD.

Also it helps because you can only worry about buying your favorites on Blu-ray to see the better quality, but still watch your regular version of a lesser favorite like say Caddyshack (which I love), or some other title that isn't really a worthwhile upgrade to Blu-ray like say LOTR would be.

[munchi]

So when does all of this happen? I still keep getting mixed answers from places. And are rental places going to allow rentals of this too?

[Ayan]

Originally Posted by munchi

So when does all of this happen? I still keep getting mixed answers from places. And are rental places going to allow rentals of this too?

Well Blockbuster has a section of blu ray already mostly new releases but I'm not sure how much they charge to rent them. Well good I'm glad dvd's aren't going anywhere cause I'm beginning to fall behind on all this new technology!

[Ricky]

So if they don't plan on doing away with DVD any time soon, what was the point of Blu Ray? Was that just for the purpose of HDTV users?

My TV is currently pink and has a big stripe across the middle so I'm not loving the whole BD experience....

[Obiwan176]

Blu-ray was specifically designed for HDTVs. It can be watched on any TV but the video is all encoded in 1080P. It would look like DVD on an SD tv but it is the best quality that HDTV can produce.

[Stubblecat]

Originally Posted by Ricky

So if they don't plan on doing away with DVD any time soon, what was the point of Blu Ray? Was that just for the purpose of HDTV users?

Standard DVDs, while looking very nice, have never been able to present 100% of the original video and audio in an umcompressed format. This means that no matter how good some films have looked on DVD, they're still not as good as the original source material.

BD discs have the storage space to reproduce these elements in a completely lossless presentation which can only be properly experienced with a hi-def 1080p television.