New to BluRay - so far I can't see what ...

[lupi]

my old panny projection tv had fairly decent tv speakers...of course it had the space to put decent sized ones in.

 

[WT]

Not sure why I didn't think of this earlier, but the BD of U-571 comes with a DVD of the movie as well as an Ultraviolet 'copy' (assuming many of the retail BDs are like that these days), so I might as well pop in the DVD and compare it that way.

I did make note of the clarity of the ocean on the menu screen and thought, huh, that seems to look really stunning, but I did not play the DVD version yet to see if it even compared remotely to the BD. I will try it tonight and post back.

 

[CycloWizard]

I am willing to provide an unbiased written letter using science to back up both your need for a larger TV and a new pickup, if that will help persuade your wife.

And I will completely coincidentally place a six pack of your choice on your doorstep the following day.

 

[vi edit]

And I will completely coincidentally place a six pack of your choice on your doorstep the following day.

In that case I'll write a letter too. I'll even have it notorized for authenticity.

😀

 

[WT]

OK, popped in the DVD and watched the menu screen and credits, then did the same with the BluRay. Unfortunately, its not a like comparison as the DVD opens to a different menu than the BD does - should have expected that but it caught me by surprise.

End result of my 5 minute detail analysis - BD is much clearer in resolution, with no 'jaggies' or dithering seen, whereas I can see it on the DVD here and there.

Now on to the million dollar question - do I consider it enough of a difference to pay $150 to gain the BD advantage ?? Hmmmm, much tougher to answer that - I seem to have a tin eye to go with my tin ear, and it really doesn't seem a worthwhile investment. I'm not going to return my BD burner at this point, but I now face the pricey task of buying both AnyDVD HD and Totalmedia Theater 5 to get where I want to be.

 

[nsafreak]

Well you could do what I did and it's working fine for me. I paid for MakeMKV (although the beta will work as well) and ripped my BDs to MKVs and then loaded DivX plus along with the Shark codec pack onto my HTPC. I can use pretty much any front end I want to (XBMC, Windows Media Center, etc.) and I get full 1080p playback along with lossless audio. You'll be missing out on the lossless audio since your receiver isn't capable of decoding it but if you can't hear the difference yourself I guess it's no big deal.

 

[WT]

Well you could do what I did and rip my BDs to MKVs and then load DivX plus along with the Shark codec pack onto my HTPC

That had crossed my mind to rip to MKVs and store them on my WHS to stream across the network. I recently filled my WHS with more HDs and it now offers up 5TB of storage. My HTPC has 6TBs so I'm debating how best to both protect all of those movie libraries yet make them accessible everywhere, but also not fill up those drives while doing it. I'm trying to avoid codec packs at all costs, as everything works as expected right now.

They were right to say you will never have enough storage to fill your needs.

 

[mmntech]

Lies. Nothing sounds great on tv speakers ()🙂

Remember the old rear projection CRT TVs. Those things actually did have great speakers, given the cabinet had more than enough room for them. :awe:

 

[FrankSchwab]

Grab one of the Lord of the Rings movies on DVD, and on BluRay. If the non-CGI outdoor scenes on BluRay don't simply kick the DVD's ass, then something is completely hosed up on your system - something may be downsampling to 720p or even 480p.

Went to my mother's over Thanksgiving - their old 60" projection TV had finally given out, and they'd purchased an equivalent HDTV that was now hanging on the wall. I noticed that the image quality just wasn't up to par and poked around. Seems that when the installers came out and plugged in the new TV, they didn't have any HDMI cables, so they left the Cable box set for 480i output. My mother bought some cables later, but it didn't make a big difference. I changed the cable box to 1080i output, and what a difference!

 

[WT]

Grab one of the Lord of the Rings movies on DVD, and on BluRay. If the non-CGI outdoor scenes on BluRay don't simply kick the DVD's ass, then something is completely hosed up on your system - something may be downsampling to 720p or even 480p.

I own the trilogy on DVD, so obviously BD trilogy was next on my list. I even saw some Xmas deals on the set, I think it was $40 at that time ?? What's holding me back is the constant threat of a cleaned up or updated BD trilogy set that will invariably come out 2-3 months after I buy the 'old' version.

Is this current deal at Target worthwhile ?? -> http://slickdeals.net/f/5778480-Lord-of-the-Rings-Blu-Ray-Extended-Edition-Target-Exclusive-9-In-store-only?

 

[smitbret]

I have Blood Diamond on both DVD and BR. I keep a BR rip compressed to 6GB on my NAS and stream it to my WDTV Live Hub on my 50" plasma. Inspired by this thread, I ripped the DVD to an .iso file and played then back one after the other. I didn't need to double check a second time. From 10 feet away, even the subtitles were nasty to look at on the DVD rip. If you can't easily tell the difference between the two (to the point it's annoying to watch the DVD), then you're blind, your TV is broken or you're just WAAAAAY too far away.

 

[hawtdawg]

@Durvelle27 - TotalMedia Theater 5 - running a trial of the latest version for now. Yea, its the Cinavia crippled version, but its WMC integration has me leaning towards using it.

@ Nutbucket - I'm at about 7-8' from the TV. Its set in a large window alcove. I can note a difference in SD compared to HD on the TV, but BluRay ... I just don't see enough to justify it. A 55'+ screen wouldn't fit in the alcove.

I'm definitely doing this on the cheap, as the legacy receiver and older Yamaha speakers are hand me downs that work OK, but aren't ideal for showcasing a movie collection. No argument at all that BD isn't better, but I have to rent a few more BDs to compare.

Distance is your problem, 8 feet is barely in the range where you could even tell a difference between 720p and SD content on a TV that size.

Most people don't even sit close enough to their TV to benefit from 1080p over 720p either. I sit about 8 feet from my 65 inch set, which is just inside the range that most can see the full benefit of 1080p on a set this size. Also, if it's a movie that was released before Blu Ray came out, it's going to have a much softer look to it, making it even harder to tell the difference.