Forum > Non-Gaming Discussion > To Bluray or Not to Bluray That, is the question. Twas a warm summer night as Vader stroked his sack
To Bluray or Not to Bluray That, is the question. Twas a warm summer night as Vader stroked his sack
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Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:42:40
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Well, don't know why I'm writing this really. I guess I want to know about your Bluray experiences. 

Many of you may take it for granted as PS3 owners. I have a dvd player that needs replacing. Sometimes you press eject and it doesn't want to comply. Sometimes it sticks when trying to fast forward, sometimes it has problems reading discs. 

Generally though, I get by with it. As long as you don't want to fast forward or rewind, it sorta works all right. 

Now I was thinking that there was no point getting a new DVD player, might as well go Bluray as it plays dvds too. 

I always buy multiregion players and I have dvds from many different regions. I'm finding it hard to get a multiregion Bluray player. Do they even sell them? 

I can see ones which are region free for DVD and yet still region locked for Bluray. 

Bluray regions seem to be different too, Europe and africa are region B?

Then I was looking at Bluray prices, the discs are a minimum of £10 usually for older titles, that is higher than I generally pay for dvds brand new. Also, I have many dvd players and if I buy a Bluray title I can only watch it on one machine on one room. 

So I've come to the conclusion that I actually wouldn't buy Bluray movies to watch on this thing, I'd just be using it as a substitute dvd player. Seems like a waste but it's unavoidable. 

For new discs, Bluray seems twice as expensive as DVD and the Bluray films I really want to buy are ones I already own on DVD, so I can't be bothered. 

I could rent Bluray, but again, this could only be played in one room and this is for a bedroom setup. Seems pretty pointless to me. 

So what is your bluray experience so far? Are you region locked? Do you buy or rent? If you buy do you wait for price drops?

What are the load times/startups like? 

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Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:41:59
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DVD's look the same on a BR.  HDMI is the key. I'm region locked, and only buy.

Load times/startup have not been noticed by me.  Seem to be the same as DVD, it's probably faster, I just haven't noticed.

They look great, I mean, I only watch old films, so it's a bit hit and miss in terms how how the older material has been converted.  I certainly would not re-buy DVD materials on BR, I'm still not sure this format is going to be around in 5 years.

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Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:33:14
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Its a very noticeable difference. I wouldnt say its VHS to DVD difference but easily noticable. The picture quality is so clear that it takes a while for your eyes to adjust to it. The first time I saw a blu-ray movie I could not stand it cause it was so clear it almost lost that movie filter look to it, I felt like I was watching live TV. But I got used to it or something changed but now the movies are perfect. It's pure eye candy, its basically the Wii situation, DVDs aren't HD, so once you go HD it's like a whole new world.

As for regions I think PS3 movies are region locked.

We buy most blu-ray's, at BB on launch week you can find some new releases at $20 or less which is only like $5 more than DVD. There are a TON of cheap blu-rays on sale all the time. I am talking under $10, some at $6. These movies go on clearance quick.
Edited: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:34:54
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Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:34:39
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I just popped in Reservoir Dogs on DVD and then a copy of Reservoir Dogs on BluRay -- and wow -- yeah big difference.  It looks more "filmy".

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Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:54:26
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Dvader said:
Its a very noticeable difference. I wouldnt say its VHS to DVD difference but easily noticable. The picture quality is so clear that it takes a while for your eyes to adjust to it. The first time I saw a blu-ray movie I could not stand it cause it was so clear it almost lost that movie filter look to it, I felt like I was watching live TV. But I got used to it or something changed but now the movies are perfect. It's pure eye candy, its basically the Wii situation, DVDs aren't HD, so once you go HD it's like a whole new world.

As for regions I think PS3 movies are region locked.

We buy most blu-ray's, at BB on launch week you can find some new releases at $20 or less which is only like $5 more than DVD. There are a TON of cheap blu-rays on sale all the time. I am talking under $10, some at $6. These movies go on clearance quick.

 I have a really great DVD upscaler so on the best transfers and most modern movies it's near HD already. About 15% worse perhaps. A family member recently signed up to a HD channel service so I've been watching HD tv programs all week. Definetely a difference there, but a limited selection of channels for a high price. I personally wouldn't pay for it. 

How many bluray players do you own and do you find it annoying when you can only watch discs in the room with the bluray player as opposed to dvd anywhere?

Problem is that I am so used to importing dvds from the far east or canada that being region locked to europe again is going to suck, not only in terms of what is released or not released but in terms of excessive pricing too. 

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Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:45:02
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gamingeek said:

I have a really great DVD upscaler so on the best transfers and most modern movies it's near HD already. About 15% worse perhaps. A family member recently signed up to a HD channel service so I've been watching HD tv programs all week. Definetely a difference there, but a limited selection of channels for a high price. I personally wouldn't pay for it.

How many bluray players do you own and do you find it annoying when you can only watch discs in the room with the bluray player as opposed to dvd anywhere?

Problem is that I am so used to importing dvds from the far east or canada that being region locked to europe again is going to suck, not only in terms of what is released or not released but in terms of excessive pricing too.

I have one normal blu ray player and yeah its a bit annoying to only be able to watch those movies there but that is the main movie TV. I have the PS3 but I rarely if ever use it to watch blu-ray movies, plus my TV is too small for movies.

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Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:13:39
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Ah I see.

What Aspro said, scares me a little. You know how SDTVs have been phased out? The same thing doesn't appear to be happening with dvd. Sony has a bad history when it comes to failed media storage, like minidiscs. If I start buying Blu-rays instead of dvds, what happens if Blu ray doesn't catch on and I'm left with Blu rays I can't watch 10 years down the line.

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Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:38:14
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Browsing the Blu-ray charts and dvd bargains. I can't see a thing I want to own, but that sorta goes the same way with DVDs too.

I don't want to be buying cheap Blu ray movies just because I want to see it in high definition. As I said I own all the dvds I want to own and I would feel like a schmuck if I got a Blu ray player and just watched dvds.

I used to import dvds, but dvdboxoffice.com seems to have gone bust and cdwow used to be cool but then made a UK specific site, raised prices and cut selections.

I don't like it when the repackage movies that were filmed in SD, they just upscale them via the $20'000 faroudja chipset and sell them as HD. I want to know that what I'm paying for was shot with HD cameras.

Edited: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:39:59

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Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:07:42
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gamingeek said:

Ah I see.

What Aspro said, scares me a little. You know how SDTVs have been phased out? The same thing doesn't appear to be happening with dvd. Sony has a bad history when it comes to failed media storage, like minidiscs. If I start buying Blu-rays instead of dvds, what happens if Blu ray doesn't catch on and I'm left with Blu rays I can't watch 10 years down the line.

Blu-ray aint going anywhere, it will live peacefully with DVDs for many years to come.

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Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:58:03

Dvader said:

gamingeek said:

Ah I see.

What Aspro said, scares me a little. You know how SDTVs have been phased out? The same thing doesn't appear to be happening with dvd. Sony has a bad history when it comes to failed media storage, like minidiscs. If I start buying Blu-rays instead of dvds, what happens if Blu ray doesn't catch on and I'm left with Blu rays I can't watch 10 years down the line.

Blu-ray aint going anywhere, it will live peacefully with DVDs for many years to come.

Yeah, blu-ray has long passed being in the niche realm of mini discs.

this might be helpful

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Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:19:02

gamingeek said:

Ah I see.

What Aspro said, scares me a little. You know how SDTVs have been phased out? The same thing doesn't appear to be happening with dvd. Sony has a bad history when it comes to failed media storage, like minidiscs. If I start buying Blu-rays instead of dvds, what happens if Blu ray doesn't catch on and I'm left with Blu rays I can't watch 10 years down the line.

You could rip them digitally at that point.  I did that when CD's died - converted about 1,200 CD's to MP3 and shipped them off to secondspin.com for some spending money.

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Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:04:33

Well I got my Blu ray machine. I don't own any Blu rays.

I was going to get Ponyo on Blu ray, but I have it on dvd and TBH I think they deliberetly gimped the special features on the dvd version so they could push the higher priced Blu ray version. That kind of BS doesn't wash with me so I'm doing my best to avoid it.

I tried my three best dvds on it, the upscaling quality is superb. This is what somewhat vexes me about HD. A normal dvd disc with a good quality transfer looks HD when upscaled by a decent player. So what is the point of Blu Ray. They should just make their transfers better quality on dvd. I know Sony used to have these Superbit dvds which had no special features and instead used all the disc space for higher quality sound and video.

Anyhow, debating what my first Blu ray disc should be. Any ideas?

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Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:30:28

I'm thinking Pan's Labyrinth or Watchmen?

But I did see the freaking Goonies on Blu ray Grinning

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Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:40:49
I'm not the one to ask about movies.  But I do have a question.  What was the calculation on getting a stand-aside BR versus a PS3?

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Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:50:43
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aspro said:
I'm not the one to ask about movies.  But I do have a question.  What was the calculation on getting a stand-aside BR versus a PS3?

PS3 Slim is £250 here.

I got a standalone player for £119, multiregion dvd, region B for Bluray. I had to replace a dvd player anyway.

You can get Blu ray players for £80 though. I chose an award winner though. It actually all sorts of other functionality if I get a wireless dongle for it. It can connect to the internet and you can stream video to it. Or just plug in a USB device to watch movies off.

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Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:51:39

I want the X-men trilogy but its a bit expensive. Ponyo deluxe edition is tempting but expensive.

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Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:42:02
Get BluRay porn.
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Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:44:55

SteelAttack said:
Get BluRay porn.

It's too damn expensive. Even the cheaper Blu Rays are as expensive as brand new dvds I would get, whilst the dvd bargains are half that. I'm finding it really hard to justify buying blu ray discs at the moment.

Then they repackage 80s movies in HD. What the crap? HD didn't exist, they weren't filmed in HD. They have scaled it up and repacked it on disc. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Red Heat on Blu ray? You have to be kidding me Hrm

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Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:17:37
Most of the BluRays I own are Disney/Pixar movies from my kids. I have Wall-E, Up, etc etc, also Pirates of the Caribbean triology and other assorted stuff. The only thing I call my own from that stash is my Planet Earth collection. 
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Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:02:45
And what about your secret stash? *moves eyebrows suggestively*

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