For those with BlueRay DvD players

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Chunkee

Chunkee

Lifer
Jul 28, 2002
10,391
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i have a sammy 1080p..have nice upcoverting dvd players...blah blah... Do the Blue Rays look that much better? The store displays I see are always screwed up or not working right or seem to be some contrived "mocked" up thing playing.

So does I am Legend BR look better than I am Legend a la regular?

jc
 
Schadenfroh

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
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Depends on the Blu-Ray movie. AC/DC Live at Donington (while it sounded good) looked horrible, while some of those Disney animated movies on Blu-Ray look amazing.
 
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darth maul

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
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How big of a TV and how far are you from it? 37" 16:9 at 12 feet not worth it, except for the audio upgrade, remember audio is half the experience (but you do need the audio equipment to take advantage of Dolby TrueHD, DD+, DTS-HD, DTS-MA, LPCM 5.1/7.1.

100" projection screen at 12 feet, um heck ya, audio and video will blow your socks out of the water.

So it depends, do you have nice speakers and a newer receiver? Do you have a large screen and sit close enough to it to see the difference?
 
Chunkee

Chunkee

Lifer
Jul 28, 2002
10,391
1
81
Thanks guys. Its a 40 inch...I do have nice speakers, all polk audio...RT2000Ps etc...My receiver is an older onkyo and does not provide some of the higher end audio decoding...it just has dolby digital. maybe down the road some. ;)
 
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Rio Rebel

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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(To expand Darth Maul's answer)

When you ask this question, it seems straightforward, and you will get a resounding yes...but you have to make sure your question and answers are from at least similar perspectives.

There is no question in my mind that Blu-Ray smokes an upconverted picture. But my mental picture is of a 100" screen and a 720p projector. If I had a bigger screen and a 1080p projector, I would say "yes" even more emphatically. If I were playing it on my 5 year old ED plasma (42", 480p), then the answer would be "sort of".

As to audio, the new formats matter to me very much. But most people don't really pay attention to them. Unless you already consider yourself an audio enthusiast, you probably will be happy with basic Dolby Digital or DTS, and the new higher res formats won't be an issue for you.

With the price of Blu-Ray where they are, and HD-DVD clearing out, I think I would just wait and be happy with the upconverting dvd. If you move to a bigger screen or projector, then jump on in.
 
Chunkee

Chunkee

Lifer
Jul 28, 2002
10,391
1
81
Originally posted by: Rio Rebel
(To expand Darth Maul's answer)

When you ask this question, it seems straightforward, and you will get a resounding yes...but you have to make sure your question and answers are from at least similar perspectives.

There is no question in my mind that Blu-Ray smokes an upconverted picture. But my mental picture is of a 100" screen and a 720p projector. If I had a bigger screen and a 1080p projector, I would say "yes" even more emphatically. If I were playing it on my 5 year old ED plasma (42", 480p), then the answer would be "sort of".

As to audio, the new formats matter to me very much. But most people don't really pay attention to them. Unless you already consider yourself an audio enthusiast, you probably will be happy with basic Dolby Digital or DTS, and the new higher res formats won't be an issue for you.

With the price of Blu-Ray where they are, and HD-DVD clearing out, I think I would just wait and be happy with the upconverting dvd. If you move to a bigger screen or projector, then jump on in.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. what size screen is considered to be the "change over" size? 50, 60..?

JC
 
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Rio Rebel

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,194
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That's a question nobody can answer for you. In my opinion, you can tell a clear difference on ANY high definition set (720p, 1080i, or 1080p) from 37" up. But how MUCH of a difference, how much it means to YOU, and how much does it cost - those are the questions.

A lot of people waited for the "format war" to be settled before jumping in, and this simply isn't the ideal time to buy. Sony has nothing pushing them to lower prices, and HD-DVD is a short-term investment (since there won't be new players or movies coming out).

The answer to your other question, though, is that the stores absolutely don't look as good as yours would with the appropriate cables and very basic calibration. Most of the big box stores are really doing a disservice by sticking up Blu-Ray displays with the wrong cables, wrong settings, etc., and give the customer the impression that this is as good as it gets. In reality, a few minutes of basic calibration and the right cable connections will look much, much better.
 
Chunkee

Chunkee

Lifer
Jul 28, 2002
10,391
1
81
I will wait a while. I will also look into possibly a new receiver also....although my onkyo is 9 years old as well as my polks..and have not missed a beat... good stuff.... bought all the speakers open box at cc 8 years ago great deal...no problems whatsoever.

thank for the input....maybe when the prices drop late this year or next i will get a larger screen.

thanks again.
jC
 
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chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
9,537
2
0
Like many others said, it really depends on the movie and the quality of the master. For example, an older movie ported over to Blu-Ray/HD-DVD will not look that much better than a *new* movie upscaled from standard DVD. But a new movie on Blu-Ray can look absolutely amazing depending on compression/mastering techniques etc. Most recent example for me, Unforgiven Blu-Ray doesn't look all that much better than say, No Country for Old Men upscaled on standard DVD.

I saw a pretty cool piece on this in the Transformers HD-DVD extras where they start talking about storage/compression sizes and its all quite interesting. As amazing as current titles look, there is room for improvement.
 
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DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
Right now the only blu-ray player I'd recommend is a PS3 at $400-500.

The other players you can buy now are $400+ without offering the gaming and media player features of the PS3, and most (all?) will only ever support "Profile 1.1" not "Profile 2.0".

This will change by the end of the year, with new player models costing $250-300 and offering profile 2.0 support.
 
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Rio Rebel

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,194
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Profile 1.1 and 2.0 mean absolutely nothing to most of us. They have nothing to do with the ability of the player to play the movie and the sound at its intended quality. If you're all about extras and internet links, then by all means wait for the new profile players.
 
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skriefal

Golden Member
Apr 10, 2000
1,424
3
81
In most cases, yes. The Blu-ray (or HD-DVD) discs usually have great detail, minimal compression artifacts, good color accuracy, etc. In comparison, standard DVDs usually seem soft & blurry with poor details.
 
Captante

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,353
10,876
136
I can easily tell the difference between BD (or HD-DVD) & upconverted DVD's & I do most of my viewing @ approx 8ft on the 37-inch 720p Toshiba I have in my den.

Having said that, the movie itself does make a huge difference & the best DVD's upconverted will look as good or better then a bad HD-version.
 
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bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
6,605
3
81
I noticed a big difference between an upconverted DVD and a HD-DVD on my 37" 720P Westinghouse LCD. I would get those movies that were combo format and flip them over and watch various scenes on my 360. The HD-DVD (so the same could be said for BR) looked crisper and clearer. The DVD had a kind of "screen door" effect on it and was a little more blocky.

Unfortunately I haven't got to experience 1080P on my new TV because my new TV has no VGA inputs and my 360 is a launch unit that has no HDMI out, so I'm limited to 1080i on HD-DVD and even worse, 480P on DVD (whereas the 360 would upscale DVD on a VGA connector). My HTPC does upscale standard DVD to 1080P, and even with that, 1080i HD-DVD still looks crisper and clearer.
 
jpeyton

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
142
116
I can easily tell and I have a 720p HDTV.
 
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erwos

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2005
4,778
0
76
I can tell the difference on a 19" 720p LCD. There's not even a comparison between the two formats - Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD) look much, much better than DVD.
 
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Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
I dont have a Blu-Ray player but the movies are most likely encoded the same on HD-DVD.

Anyways it depends on the movie. I got Happy Gilmore in HD and honestly wasnt that impressed. On the other end I watched the DVD of 30 days of night in my A2. And it looked damn near close to what I'd expect out of a HD version.

I think your experience will vary depending on the title and the quality of the authoring.

Another one that is a waste in HD is Blazing Saddles.
 
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