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Topic: Anyone consuming HD or Blu-ray?
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 02-07-2008 02:52 PM
I don't know about other Blu-Ray players, but updating the PS3 is very easy. You can either click the "System Update" icon in the PS3 menu. Or you can download the firmware onto a flash card and install it that way.
quote: C-Net Article
Can you see the difference between standard DVD and Blu-ray? Yes--but it may not be as noticeable as you would think. Like all high-definition material, Blu-ray discs look their most-impressive at bigger screen sizes, where DVD can sometimes start to look a bit soft.
Quality differences between 1080p/24 Blu-Ray and standard 480p DVD can be very significant -even when compared to the same movie on DVD upconverted in the same BD player to 1080p. The first three movies I bought on Blu-Ray (Ratatouille, Casino Royale and Bladerunner) all look much sharper and boldly colorful than their DVD counterparts. The regular DVDs look good. But the Blu-Ray versions look a LOT better. BTW, they also sound better too.
Native 1080p video has six times the native pixel count as 480p DVD.
Upconversion of 480p DVD material for 1080p display can look decent, but the end result isn't very sharp. The resulting picture is fairly soft and lacking certain detail. Worse yet, if the DVD has any image problems (such as noticeable edge halos, mosquito noise, etc.) those problems may be exaggerated when upconverted to 1080p display.
Some older movies may not look quite as sharp, especially if their archival elements are not in good shape or are a couple or more generations removed from the original negative. I thought Full Metal Jacket looked a little soft in its 2nd Blu-Ray version. But it's still a hell of a lot better looking than the DVD.
quote: C-Net Article
So there you have it: there's absolutely no compelling reason to dive into Blu-ray, at least for the next few months.
Well, that's the attitude I had last week while getting ready to buy my new TV. I was going to wait until summer or fall before buying a Blu-Ray player.
The problem is I got seduced by the image quality of 1080p/24 and just couldn't resist bringing home a PS3 and some Blu-Ray movies along with that new TV.
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 02-08-2008 10:32 AM
While the article doesn't necessarily say anything that many haven't said before, it underscores the challenge faced by Blu-ray if it is really going to be become successful. The real competitor was not HD DVD, it is DVD, and it's bringing a knife to a gunfight.
The conclusion that the PS3 is the only Blu-ray player worth buying right now is on target with my feelings. If the rest of the crop of players were truly cheap (no, $300 is not cheap, it's just inexpensive in the realm of Blu-ray players), then I would say with some reservation that they would be worth buying.
However, just because studios are not taking advantage of the online connectivity and secondary video decoders, it doesn't mean that they won't in the near future. Each title should raise the bar for the next, and the disc authors will get better at leveraging the features, especially as the tools they use make such things easier to accomplish. Buying a Profile 1.0 player is a bad purchase at any price above $150, IMHO.
The studios do need to step up the release schedules, though. Now that the excuse that there were two formats causing confusion is pretty much over, I want to see some aggressive release schedules. For all their supposed impact on the format war, Warner and its decision last month has yet to make any kind of real impact on the landscape. Which studios have announced more numerous releases than in the past as a result of the shift in the format war? None that I'm aware of.
In regards to people not being able to tell the difference between DVD and HD DVD/Blu-ray, it's all a matter of demonstrating the difference and showing people what a good quality picture can look like. When they don't know any different, they are happy with what they have. It reminds me of the exchange in The American President:
quote:
Lewis Rothschild: They don't have a choice! Bob Rumson is the only one doing the talking! People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.
President Andrew Shepherd: Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.
People are happy with DVD because they don't know the difference. Anyone who says that upconverted DVDs are good enough either aren't discerning enough to care (which is OK), or they are deluding themselves because of some other reason (can't afford the technology, feel intimidated by something new they may not understand, etc.).
Unfortunately, places like Best Buy aren't equipped with the aptitude to educate people about the products they are trying to sell to them. Most of them are just glorified storefronts for mail order businesses because they often have less informed employees than the web pages representing the same products.
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