Author Topic: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?  (Read 16941 times)

Offline name

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #15 on: August 4, 2009, 02:29 PM »
some in store demo's I've seem make excellent looking movies look horrible. But that was probably the TV it was playing on, not the BluRay.

I've noticed that too....some scenes on demo discs of Pirates of the Carribean, everything is flat and too crisp.  Doesn't look cinematic...looks like an A&E made for cable movie.

It's got to be that they punch up sharpness on the TV and the demo disc both. 

No, it's probably the 120 MHz refresh rate.  It's something that the manufacturers have been pushing.  Probably in an effort to make broadcast signals look "more Hi-Def".  And it probably looks great for sports.  But it also winds up making movies which are shot at 24 fps look strange, as if they were shot on video.  And the cinematic quality of the image suffers.


EEEEEEnnnnnteresting.  So if you have a 120hz set, can you set it to slow the framerate for movies?
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #16 on: August 4, 2009, 03:53 PM »
Check your owners manual for details like that.
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Offline Greg

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #17 on: August 4, 2009, 04:32 PM »
On a 26" TV you won't see much difference.  And as for prices, $30 is an exaggeration.  Check out Amazon's Bestsellers in Blu-ray.  Lots to be had under $20, and the only $30 regular movies I see are Taken (includes 2 discs) and Transformers 2.

Well, I don't believe $30 to be an exaggeration. I was at Target, and I noticed The Dark Knight and Serenity at $30. I didn't check Amazon, but that's probably because I don't hunt for BluRays.

Another reason I don't want to make the switch is I don't want to buy another TV. The one I have costs me lots of money I didn't have back in 2003.  :)

The movies are expensive, but if you're good with keeping up with sales then you can get the new ones for the same price as the collector edition DVDs ($20-$25) that you normally buy, or older movies for $10-$15.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #18 on: August 4, 2009, 05:07 PM »
I'm sticking with DVD's because I'm slow like that on technology jumps.  My harddrive on my PC is still only 20 gig, and not even half full.  Technology, schmechnology.
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Offline Diddly

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #19 on: August 4, 2009, 10:38 PM »
I just recently bought an HDTV but only because it was a hell of a deal I couldn't refuse. I won't be jumping into Blu-Ray for quite some time. For one, the price is way too expensive. Either $200 for a standalone player or $500 for a PS3, plus the $30-35 for movies. Another thing keeping me from switching to Blu-Ray is that it would look great for movies like Star Wars and The Dark Knight but is it really necessary for stuff like comedies and movies with no special effects? So I'd only be buying a handful of movies anyway, which isn't worth the investment at this point IMO.
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Offline BillCable

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #20 on: August 4, 2009, 10:54 PM »
You can get a Playstation 3 bundled with two fantastic games for $399.   ;)

I haven't bought any comedies I can think of... just stuff I'd watch a bunch of times over.
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Offline Rob

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #21 on: August 9, 2009, 02:58 AM »
I switched last January and I love it.  Of the 1000 or so movies I've racked up, 300 are blu-ray.

Offline Carpeteria3000

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #22 on: August 9, 2009, 01:43 PM »
I got a Sony player last August. Quality is great, love the presentation. I'm pretty happy with it. The player itself is realllllly slow, however - just turning it on can take 2+ minutes before I can even get the disc tray to open out (if not longer). Loading the BDs takes some patience as well - being used to DVDs starting right up, it can be a little annoying. It's not unlike going from N64 to PS1 - you hated waiting for the load times, but once they did load, (often) the overall experience was better. That's the nerdiest analogy I could think of.

Anyway, that could be just my player, but it's not the most charming attribute. I also had to recently upgrade the software (another thing I never had to to with DVD) since some discs weren't loading up (Ghostbusters, for instance, which uses the newer Java based menus, etc.). Since I use a Mac, I had to special order an upgrade disc directly from Sony, as their website only had support for PCs. Not a big deal, but again, something that DVD never had an issue with.

Still, overall, it's great. I've only purchased about 15-20 BDs so far, as there haven't been a ton of releases that excited me, but the ones I have gotten really are fantastic, and it does seem to show an improvement in presentation of the DVDs I already had.

Offline R5Don4

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #23 on: August 9, 2009, 07:24 PM »
What a difference a year makes.  I'm glad I waited until recently to pick up a BR player.  2 minutes from turn on?  Software upgrade?  I picked my LG Blu Ray player up for just over 200 Canadian and it works basically the same as a DVD player. 

The picture quality is night and day from DVD, it is an HD format and it shows.

Ever since I had to dump my most of my extensive VHS collection I have been reluctant to actually buy movies in mass quantities.  Being a renter I find the selection to be quite limited.  Even if I were to buy movies the selection is still quite limited. 

Offline iFett

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #24 on: August 29, 2009, 06:02 PM »
I got a PS3 the other day and I haven't hooked it up yet, but I'm going to rent a BR movie to compare to a standard DVD I already own of the same title just to see the difference as I've never really seen a side by side comparison.

BluRay discs are pretty expensive IMO.  Been looking at them more closely at retail since I made my purchase so I dunno how far I want to dive into this new format.
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Offline Phrubruh

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Offline Rob

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #26 on: September 2, 2009, 02:09 PM »
BluRay discs are pretty expensive IMO.  Been looking at them more closely at retail since I made my purchase so I dunno how far I want to dive into this new format.

That all depends on how careful you are.  There's a "hot deals" forum at blu-ray.com that is phenomenal.  I recently bought 9 movies at WBShop for $10.25 each.  This was a week after buying 9 movies at Amazon for about $9 each. 

I don't average anywhere NEAR $25+ per movie in my shopping.  I'd say I probably average around $15 per disc, which is about the same that I was paying for DVD's.  It's all about waiting until a week or three or five after the release and watching the sales.

Offline iFett

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #27 on: September 2, 2009, 03:21 PM »
I haven't really paid attention to any of the deals out there for BluRay because I never had a player.  I've been extremely frugal on my standard DVD's and I think I've only paid full price for some of the Disney flicks I own.

What would be a good movie to "experiment" with the quality between a standard disc and BR?  Heck - I'd just like to see what a DVD looks like upconverted.  Still haven't hooked up my PS3 yet...
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Offline CaptainYoda

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Re: Have You "Made the Switch" to BluRay?
« Reply #28 on: September 3, 2009, 12:54 PM »
I haven't really paid attention to any of the deals out there for BluRay because I never had a player.  I've been extremely frugal on my standard DVD's and I think I've only paid full price for some of the Disney flicks I own.

What would be a good movie to "experiment" with the quality between a standard disc and BR?  Heck - I'd just like to see what a DVD looks like upconverted.  Still haven't hooked up my PS3 yet...

I would try Transformers. One of the best PQ around.

But the difference is really night and day. Its like watching a regular channel vs a High-def channel.

Offline BillCable

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