Blu-ray's a bag of hurt...

[swbsam]

I've held out on bothering with blu-ray for a while since HD-Streaming/downloading and directv where filling the need pretty well.

On Saturday I found a sony blu-ray player, open box (bd-s500) on sale for $149 and it was too good of deal to pass up, so I grabbed that and a cheapie blu-ray (T2) to give it all a whirl.

Out of the box the picture quality on a set typical of what most consumers will have, a 720p LCD, was just marginally better than upscaled dvd. Sound was fuller on my 5.1 system, but how many average Joes have surround sound setups?

Anyways, I figured out why the unit was returned - probably multiple times. Out of the box, the disk I picked up suffered from massive lip-sync issues. Also, load time was excessive and the experience not entirely seamless.

A firmware update fixed everything, but overall the experience embarrassing. I really can't see a lot of people caring, beyond the marketing hype.

I understand blu-ray is "better" than dvd, but I don't believe enough so to make for a sustainable format.

UPDATE

God, I hate spreading misinformation. For the sake of karma, I'm updating this thread because I just upgraded to a 1080p 50" plasma and, let me tell you, blu-ray's friggin fantastic on it. It's partly because the size makes SD look rather awful on the set and partly because of the resolution difference between my old set and new.

Sorry for being wrong, I do really like blu-ray now.

 

[QueBert]

I set up a Home Theater for a friend, we put the Matrix BlueRay in and it literily took about 2 minutes for the disc to actually get to the main menu. Is this typical for most BD movies?

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

I got mine for xmas and have yet to have that issue. It works great as an upscaling DVD player as well

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: QueBert
I set up a Home Theater for a friend, we put the Matrix BlueRay in and it literily took about 2 minutes for the disc to actually get to the main menu. Is this typical for most BD movies?

Yes.

It sucks, but works well if you want to go get some food/drinks before it starts

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: QueBert
I set up a Home Theater for a friend, we put the Matrix BlueRay in and it literily took about 2 minutes for the disc to actually get to the main menu. Is this typical for most BD movies?

My experience is the same, my wife thought she was on the wrong input because powering up took about a minute.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: QueBert
I set up a Home Theater for a friend, we put the Matrix BlueRay in and it literily took about 2 minutes for the disc to actually get to the main menu. Is this typical for most BD movies?

No doubt followed by 4 minutes of wasted time with various copyright threats and other non bypassable crap.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: QueBert
I set up a Home Theater for a friend, we put the Matrix BlueRay in and it literily took about 2 minutes for the disc to actually get to the main menu. Is this typical for most BD movies?

Yes.

It sucks, but works well if you want to go get some food/drinks before it starts

Is this still the case even in the most current gen of players?

 

[Kadarin]

I saw Wall-E on blueray the other night, and I swear there were at least 10 minutes of Disney ads.

 

[dwell]

Wounded HD DVD Children incoming.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Chris
Wounded HD DVD Children incoming.

huh? why? what has this got to do with hd-dvd?

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: QueBert
I set up a Home Theater for a friend, we put the Matrix BlueRay in and it literily took about 2 minutes for the disc to actually get to the main menu. Is this typical for most BD movies?

Yes.

It sucks, but works well if you want to go get some food/drinks before it starts

Is this still the case even in the most current gen of players?

I have a Sony BDP-S350 or whatever their model scheme is. Here are some average estimated times:

Power on to main menu of the player (without a disc): about 45 seconds
Disc tray closed until the disc is loaded (still on the players menu though): between 15 and 30 seconds
Selecting that disc until it's on the main menu of the Blu-ray disc: about a minute or so

All said and done from the time I power it up, until I am watching a movie takes between 2-3 minutes. While it's long compared to DVD's, it's not a big deal b/c I just use that time to get drinks/food and goto the bathroom (maybe get a pillow if I am tired).

 

[KeithTalent]

T2 is a pretty crappy transfer. I own it and it's definitely better than the upscaled DVD (wtaching in 1080P), but it still lacks. Watching something like Kill Bill would be much better. If you are unaware, I actually find this list: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=858316 to be pretty damn good. All of the Tier 0 movies I have seen from that list have looked stunning. Be warned though, many of the guys that participate in that thread see things I can't see on my 46" screen.

It is unfortunate when people are introduced to the format with a subpar title like this and hopefully the studios will be more careful with their releases in the future. That does seem to be the case so far, going by a lot of the newer releases, though there are still a few that come out looking sub-standard.

As for the loading time, I've never encountered that problem with my PS3. My movies are usually up and running within around 30 seconds maximum.

KT

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: QueBert
I set up a Home Theater for a friend, we put the Matrix BlueRay in and it literily took about 2 minutes for the disc to actually get to the main menu. Is this typical for most BD movies?

It is better in the newer players. Mine takes about 30 seconds.

On a 1080p 50" widescreen the picture looks incredible. Check out Casino Royale or Iron Man. Both of those look fantastic on blu-ray.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Kadarin
I saw Wall-E on blueray the other night, and I swear there were at least 10 minutes of Disney ads.

Disney has been and probably always will be the worst offender with respect to ads. Thank goodness we have the forward button.

KT

 

[Insomniator]

Blu-ray is alright... really doesn't seem that much better than DVD on my 26 inch 19x12 computer lcd.

I mean.. if the movie sucks in dvd.. its gonna suck in blu ray. If its great, then who cares if it its from a VCR. 10 minutes into a movie I don't even realize the quality. Everyone I've talked to about this seems to feel the same way.

 

[sswingle]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Chris
Wounded HD DVD Children incoming.

huh? why? what has this got to do with hd-dvd?

His comment implies he is expecting hd-dvd fanbois to come rushing in saying this is why HD-DVD should have won and Blu-Ray should have lost.

 

[BigToque]

Is Blu-Ray better than DVD? Absolutely.
Do most people see the advantage? Probably not.

I've got a nice 1080p tv and a decent stereo, so I can see a benefit in quality.

Most people though really don't have the kind of hardware where they see any real significant increase in quality (or at least not the quality you might expect from a $200+ investment plus more expensive movies/rentals). When you are sitting 6+ feet from a 26-32" tv, using just the built-in speakers, you certainly don't notice a huge difference over DVD.

 

[DaveSimmons]

With a PS3 load times are a few seconds, it sounds like the processor in that player is much slower than the Cell.

Tip: at least on the PS3 you can fast forward through unskippable junk at 30x speed.

 

[TuxDave]

<--- plays blu-ray movies on his PS3 and doesn't really experience any delay to get to the main menu

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: Chris
Wounded HD DVD Children incoming.

Huh? I never owned HD-DVD and thing taking format wars personal's just pathetic beyond words. I'm married and get laid, I don't care who won....

What I find interesting is that blu-ray still feels like dvd did in 1997 - incomplete..

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: sswingle

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Chris
Wounded HD DVD Children incoming.

huh? why? what has this got to do with hd-dvd?

His comment implies he is expecting hd-dvd fanbois to come rushing in saying this is why HD-DVD should have won and Blu-Ray should have lost.

The other alternative is that he's been lurking a long time and is referring to WMC.

 

[dwell]

Either way, I keep a copy of Iron Man on Blu-ray in my desk at work. Every now and again I take someone to our conference room to show them it running on our 50" Panny plasma and BDP-S300. Sold about five HDTVs and three Blu-ray players so far.

The difference is not marginal, and even if that's the perception, Blu-ray is here to stay. 1080p source >>> upscaled 480p source.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: sswingle

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Chris
Wounded HD DVD Children incoming.

huh? why? what has this got to do with hd-dvd?

His comment implies he is expecting hd-dvd fanbois to come rushing in saying this is why HD-DVD should have won and Blu-Ray should have lost.

My point is HD-DVD would not have performed any better in the same scenario as op described. And I am in the HD-DVD camp.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I've been using a PS3 as a Blu-ray player with a 42" 1080P HDTV for about a year and a half, and I have to say, I find the difference night and day. The biggest problem I have with Blu-ray right now is that the quality of transfers is so wildly inconsistent; some (the Pirates of the Carribean movies, I Robot, Tropic Thunder, the Kill Bill movies, Shoot Em Up, and virtually every animated title) look absolutely stellar. Others (like Terminator 2, unfortunately) are not so hot... some are just fucking awful (I was absolutely furious when I watched Face/Off and found it virtually unwatchable due to excessive DNR). While studios experiment with DNR and EE, the consumer is left with some titles that are simply not worth the price given their faults, necessitating the use of websites that evaluate picture quality and mention the use of DNR and EE (or contrast correction or color timing) to make an informed decision; most consumers are NOT going to do this. When studios learn that film grain is not actually a terrible thing, what a great day that will be. But until there's a standard for how Blu-rays should be mastered, I'm afraid wild inconsistencies in the quality of discs will continue to be an issue.

But then again, there are some movies that still aren't available on anamorphic DVD, so I guess it's always going to be an issue.

 

[MrPickins]

Originally posted by: Chris
Either way, I keep a copy of Iron Man on Blu-ray in my desk at work. Every now and again I take someone to our conference room to show them it running on our 50" Panny plasma and BDP-S300. Sold about five HDTVs and three Blu-ray players so far.

The difference is not marginal, and even if that's the perception, Blu-ray is here to stay. 1080p source >>> upscaled 480p source.

QFT, although the quality of the transfer is just as important as the resolution.