Do Bluray discs warrant their price tags?

[vi edit]

Resolution is just the size of the pipe while bitrate is actually how much stuff you push through it. Claiming one is/isn't important without addressing the other is foolish. It's not about the resolution. It's about the product as a whole. And there is nothing else commercially available that offers the combination of resolution, color depth, and image quality of BR.

 

[mb]

How is it not better to have everything at your fingertips? What if you want to watch a movie on a whim that you don't own? Go to Best Buy, buy it - come home blah blah blah. I just click click and I'm watching it. That is better.

I'll take waiting a bit for the best available PQ and SQ over streaming.

 

[Ns1]

How is it not better to have everything at your fingertips? What if you want to watch a movie on a whim that you don't own? Go to Best Buy, buy it - come home blah blah blah. I just click click and I'm watching it. That is better.

The worst part about streaming is it hoses your internet connection

"oh shit, I'm watching this on netflix streaming, I can't download this 150mb file"

or...

"i'm downloading this 150mb file and now this netflix stream looks like crap"

or...

3 minutes of viewing, 30 second buffer, 1 minute of viewing, 30 second buffer, 30 seconds of viewing, 30 second buffer.

and I'm on a pretty decent internet connection too. I can't imagine guys on 1.5/down DSL connections streaming shit.

 

[aldamon]

Streaming is at least a decade out, if not longer before it becomes even remotely accepted...

Streaming for movies....only a benefit to people that have no concern in quality or usability.

Isn't that the very definition of the general public? The majority of people can't be bothered to pay for/and or connect an HD source to their HDTVs but you think they care about bit rates and quality and BD? The majority of people also hate returning movies, hate late fees, and also hate waiting for movies to arrive by mail. They want their content NOW and they want it cheap.

Usability is fine for the millions of people streaming Netflix on gaming consoles and is improving with every generation of devices and Internet connected TVs.

Streaming isn't going to take anywhere near 10 years to be "accepted" by the general public. I'd be surprised if it took 5. Just ask Netflix.

Back on topic, BD is overpriced and basically only appeals to OCD physical disc hoarders. I have appreciated the quality with BD but won't pay the premium to view them. After a few minutes into a movie, I don't care how it looks anymore if it's reasonably clear. It's called immersion. Streaming and upconverted DVDs provided plenty of it on our 55" and 32" HDTVs.

 

[KeithTalent]

How is it not better to have everything at your fingertips? What if you want to watch a movie on a whim that you don't own? Go to Best Buy, buy it - come home blah blah blah. I just click click and I'm watching it. That is better.

It's not better overall, it's a trade off. Convenience over quality. I take quality over convenience and don't forget the studios are trying to actually reduce the amount of streaming or at least increase the delays until they are streamed/Redboxed: http://www.slashfilm.com/movie-stud...es-watch-instantly-time-warner-premium-vod-2/

KT

 

[JackBurton]

How is that even relevant with "N" as the standard now any way, and yes - you can.

You guys keep spending ridiculous sums on blu-ray. The thread was, Do Bluray discs warrant their price tags? and the answer is simply NO

The answer for YOU is "No," because you have low standards. Get a better TV and a better sounds system and you'll see the virtues of BD. Now whether you want to pay for the extra quality, that is still up to you. But there is NO denying that Avatar on BD slaps around every other format available now and in the near future. And that's just one BD example.

BD quality streaming is a distant future, so in the meantime, I'll let you deal with crap quality, while I enjoy the best available version of the movie on BD.

 

[mb]

Isn't that the very definition of the general public? The majority of people can't be bothered to pay for/and or connect an HD source to their HDTVs but you think they care about bit rates and quality and BD? The majority of people also hate returning movies, hate late fees, and also hate waiting for movies to arrive by mail. They want their content NOW and they want it cheap. Usability is fine for the millions of people streaming Netflix on gaming consoles and is improving with every generation of devices and Internet connected TVs. Streaming isn't going to take anywhere near 10 years to be "accepted" by the general public. I'd be surprised if it took 5. Just ask Netflix.

Back on topic, BD is overpriced and basically only appeals to OCD physical disc hoarders. I have appreciated the quality but won't pay the premium to view them. After a few minutes into a movie, I don't care how it looks anymore if it's reasonably clear. It's called immersion. Streaming and upconverted DVDs provided plenty of it on our 55" and 32" HDTVs.

The majority of people also don't have a good enough internet connection for streaming.

 

[AMDZen]

50 Mb/s is good enough for anything. And thats comcast. I thought everyone around here had FIOS and shit.

You guys are slackers

 

[vi edit]

How is it not better to have everything at your fingertips? What if you want to watch a movie on a whim that you don't own? Go to Best Buy, buy it - come home blah blah blah. I just click click and I'm watching it. That is better.

That's not better. That's convenient. They aren't the same thing to every one.

I'm a movie purist. I want to watch a movie on the largest screen available, with the best sound & picture quality available. I've been stockpiling movies and intentionally avoiding many until I got my HT setup in my new house. Yeh, I could have watched them online or on a basic setup while my house was being built but I would rather wait and experience the full deal.

If you are happy watching a gimped copy on a 40" TV then fine. I'll take my 100" screen, uncompromised image and video quality and throw it at a dedicated theater system, thank you.

It sickens me to think that convenience(and content control) is threatening to overtake quality by going to the download model for video content.

 

[Ns1]

50 Mb/s is good enough for anything. And thats comcast. I thought everyone around here had FIOS and shit.

You guys are slackers

man I don't know a single person with an internet connection that big, and I'm in a densely populated area.

 

[DougK62]

A lot of people in this thread are really out of touch with the "common" consumer. You know, the HUGE percentage of the population that does't have gigantic televisions and screaming fast internet.

 

[mb]

50 Mb/s is good enough for anything. And thats comcast. I thought everyone around here had FIOS and shit.

You guys are slackers

I do have fios (25/25) but aren't most people in the US are still under 2Mbps?
50Mb Comcast is ridiculously overpriced.

 

[TheVrolok]

I only buy BRDs on sale for 10-15 bucks, and only ones that I've read reviews about on AVS, so yeah, they absolutely are.

 

[vi edit]

Usability is fine for the millions of people streaming Netflix on gaming consoles and is improving with every generation of devices and Internet connected TVs.

LOL. Right. Buffer. Wait. Buffer. Wait. Chapter skip...oh right can't do that either. Want a new release? LOL right. Try thowing that shit on a big screen. Pixelated, blotchy mess.

Good enough? For some sure. Sorry your standards are so low.

 

[JackBurton]

50 Mb/s is good enough for anything. And thats comcast. I thought everyone around here had FIOS and shit.

You guys are slackers

lol, 100Mbps isn't enough. Try fast forwarding a DVD using a 100Mbps connection. It spike HARD to over 50Mbps. In order to stream BD quality using a 50Mbps connection, you'll need to buffer a movie for a good while and hope you don't want to skip to a section past the buffer area.

 

[aldamon]

A lot of people in this thread are really out of touch with the "common" consumer. You know, the HUGE percentage of the population that does't have gigantic televisions and screaming fast internet.

You don't need screaming fast Internet to stream to a small TV. I have read plenty of anecdotes from people cutting the cord so to speak and streaming Netflix on budget DSL or low-end cable connections.

Also, if you want to nitpick, the majoriy of people don't give a shit about any of this and don't watch movies movies at home or care about the Internet at all. I think we can eliminate them from the discussion. They're not really the target audience.

 

[soulcougher73]

I just happened to be in a Blockbuster the other day and found a used District 9 blu-ray. They wanted almost $17 for it. I got it new on Amazon for $14 with free 2 day shipping thanks to Prime. Buying movies at any retail store is retarded. No way im paying more for a used copy of something.

 

[aldamon]

LOL. Right. Buffer. Wait. Buffer. Wait. Chapter skip...oh right can't do that either. Want a new release? LOL right. Try thowing that shit on a big screen. Pixelated, blotchy mess.

Good enough? For some sure. Sorry your standards are so low.

I'm so sorry you're so OCD about quality and release dates that you can't enjoy what millions of people are already enjoying. Now don't you have discs to dust off? They're getting unsightly.

 

[Aikouka]

The prices really depend. New releases are typically around $25 and their associated DVDs are usually about $16-18, so the premium is certainly larger than the difference in $/disc. Digital Copies are such a sham too. Most that I've seen expire after a year, so if you buy an older release, you can't even expect your code to work.

I'm not sure if resolution differences truly matter in the actual production costs though (ignoring the difference in price between pressing DVDs and BRs) since both require you to take the original source, which is definitely greater in resolution than 1080p, and resize/re-encode it.

I wonder if the lossless audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD help give the discs a premium in regard to licensing costs or processing time.

I prefer Blu-Rays, but sometimes the premium is just too high to warrant a purchase, so I just add it to my Netflix queue instead. The next movie I buy will be Inception next month (already pre-ordered on Amazon).

 

[Ns1]

I'm so sorry you're so OCD about quality and release dates that you can't enjoy what millions of people are already enjoying. Now don't you have discs to dust off? They're getting unsightly.

technically vi gets to enjoy them 30 days earlier.

 

[aldamon]

technically vi gets to enjoy them 30 days earlier.

Hehehehe. Indeed. Touche.

 

[vi edit]

I'm so sorry you're so OCD about quality and release dates that you can't enjoy what millions of people are already enjoying. Now don't you have discs to dust off? They're getting unsightly.

It's got nothing to do with release dates. It's more about overall selection. The streaming selection from Netflix is not exactly a treasure chest of quality, high demand movies.

I've got a 4 out at a time Blockbuster plan that I keep regularly stocked up. I only watch a movie or two a week so out of those four there's usually something I'll be interested in watching.

There's only a handful of movies I'd buy anyway, regardless of medium. So the rental plans keep me satisfied with about 95% of my movie/TV series viewing needs.

 

[AMDZen]

LOL. Right. Buffer. Wait. Buffer. Wait. Chapter skip...oh right can't do that either. Want a new release? LOL right. Try thowing that shit on a big screen. Pixelated, blotchy mess.

Good enough? For some sure. Sorry your standards are so low.

I'll take your word for it. I have no problems, even streaming on my iPhone - zero issues

 

[Ns1]

I'll take your word for it. I have no problems, even streaming on my iPhone - zero issues

you are definitely an outlier if you've never ran into buffering issues with netflix.

 

[waggy]

N is the standard now? damn i was happy that i just upgraded from a old crappy B to a G..sigh behind the times i guess.