I'm unimpressed. So far, I don't notice a difference to justify it.
But most disappointingly, it has region encoding like dvd's do (though the regions are different). This attitude by the movie studios only encourages piracy.
I got a blu-ray player enabled TV a couple of months back.
The picture quality is good of course.
The downside is that it takes a good few seconds for the disc to be read and ready for playing / recording. Dunno if that's just my model is crappy (it's built into the back of the TV rather than standalone, which is lower in cost but possibly quality too I guess).
As someone who was involved in the making of the format, and who has developed some blu-ray key features, I think it is too early to make a judgement. The discs out there have not used more than 10% of what the format offers, yet.
@davidattokyo, the best choice for a blu-ray player now is the PS3. As other available players would take days to load a disc. This is due to the amount of resources a player should cache before entering the playback mode.
I think the only way that Blu-ray will become more widely accepted is for studios to stop making ordinary DVDs and thus force consumers to buy Blu-ray recorders that don't play current DVDs. We will then be forced to ditch all our movie and TV show collections and replace them with Blu-ray discs.
I went through this in the 1980s when I had to replace my Beta tapes with VHS. Then I had to replace my VHS tapes with DVDs. I'm not doing it again.
Right now both blu-ray players and dvds are both too expensive for the common person and due to the economy in a recession. It's been like over 2 years now and the blu-ray have not picked up. The blu-ray came at a bad time or the timing was off.
Btw, people have to have a 1080p HD TV along with the blu-ray player in order for people to experience the high def of blu-ray movie dvd. People can't afford to buy the 1080p HD TV, blu-ray player, and the blu-ray dvd all at the same time which the blu-ray required. Customers are smarter now by waiting for the prices of the HD TVs, blu-ray players, and blu-ray dvds to go down.
i will probably never get a standalone blue-ray player/recorder. i might possible get it when it come with my next tv or computer. but if i have a choices i don't see a reason why i want it.
i prefer portable hard-drive for backup and carry around. with internet speed that get faster and faster today, i buy/download hi-definition movies online rather than buy/rent a dish.
The discs and hardware are still waaay too expensive. By the time the prices fall to acceptable levels it might be obsolete. I think HD-DVD, although not as high capacity as Blu-Ray, was a better bridging technology because the disc manufacturing factories could be retooled much more cheaply and these savings could be passed onto the consumer. Also, Blu-Ray is horribly uncompetitive price and storage wise against hard disk storage, so it looks like Blu-Ray will just be another proprietary Sony format that doesn't set the world on fire...
Its fantastic.
If you have the hardware (Large 1080p TV/projector,AV AMP, 7.1 channel system etc) there is no going back to DVD.
I buy and rent Blurays exclusivly. DVD is history.
Well, they're...just a moment...is this a tie-in with the picture of the day? A double blu-ray advertisement!
I love new tech, but I dislike it when it basically wipes out something that's relatively 'new.' If blu-ray (which doesn't offer that much more of an improvement) does that to DVDs (which I think are perfectly adequate), I will not be happy. It doesn't seem like people have bought into it, though, even after the blu-ray Vs HD-DVD joust was over. Like some have mentioned above - too expensive for little improvement in a money-poor period.
All irrelevant now, we -should- be downloading the movies that we want by now (in HD) and not still fiddling around with discs. The industry will catch on fairly soon I hope. Broadband finds a REAL use at last. It may take a bit longer than it should as some country's (UK for on) still think that 500kbps is "broadband"! Japan (and especially Korea) is ready!
Sony think they won the format war, but it is all wasted unless they can recoup the develoment costs in the next year or so!
Computers are starting to come out with blu-ray and I will just get one of those and hook it up to the tv. Starting to get cheaper. I cant work out why stand alone HD recorders / blu-ray are still so expensive
It the medium for the future, having said that it is going to take awhile for it to be fully adopted.
With introduction of 3D it may finally get a chance.
3D Porn anyone?
Movies look great, but take forever and a half to load up. We've taken a step back in convenience, but a step forward in quality. BD sucks and ruins playback, please stop using it.
In a few more years most DVDs will be obsolete. -Same thing happened to CDs -people don't have alot of room to waste for this stuff. People that love movies will collect DVDs and maybe the older folks but the young have moved on.
Everything must be portable now = on a laptop or phone/mobile.
I have Toshiba HD-Dvd for the upconverter and my parents have a Sony Blu-Ray. New Blu-Ray players have netflix/wifi which is probably the way to go (download movies).
Vending Machines like Redbox ($1 a day) are neat and there is a cool iPhone App to see what is available at your local RedBox vend.
I like it, it's a bit behind, because it's still an optical drive, but it works. I would like to see more titles out, and ability for DVD users to get discounts when they exchange their media to blu-ray.
this reminded me of when i went to bic camera and they had a two screens showing the difference between the two formats. But they hooked up the DVD to the TV's analog port wtf?? As you can guess the DVD version looked pretty grainalicious
I bought my PS3 specifically for the blu-ray player after hearing it was one of the best. I haven't been disappointed, though the disks themselves are more expensive than they need to be.
Great on a large, HDTV and the sound is a bit more detailed, though that's more of a subtle thing, that you realise more in retrospect. I wouldn't say I see the difference I did when going from VHS to DVD, especially when the DVD is upsampled nicely, though it is more obvious on films with lots of special effects. The fact is, I would never buy a DVD if the Blu Ray is avaliable- even on a laptop close up you can see a difference. Why not have the best quality avaliable, even if you don't always notice the difference?
I should admit that sometimes they are almost too sharp, it is a different experience than DVD or even cinema was, a bit more like seeing computer games. I say this because it can be a bit of a distraction from the content- as is this whole discussion and the '3D' phenomena by the way. But that's progress for you.
Without a doubt, it is quite an improvement over DVD - but it could be better still... Then there is still the silly region code. The majority of discs seem not to use it as of today, but I don't want to check such kind of thing before buying any discs. I didn't invest into DVD until high quality region code free players were available and I won't change this attitude for BD. But the biggest problem with BD is the AACS copy protection, which allows to revoke keys of discs or players at a later time. That means you can never be sure that your player or previously bought discs will continue to work whenever you play a new disc. My answer as a consumer: no, thanks. Or make it so dirt cheap that I don't have to care about potential losses.
@nisegaijin - I would like to see more titles out, and ability for DVD users to get discounts when they exchange their media to blu-ray.
That is the only way I would look to replace anything more than select titles in my DVD collection with BD format. That said, my Lord of the Rings trilogy will get replaced with the BD set.
Blu Ray is a Sony way of tring to get into or take over the lucrative DVD market. Grossly overpriced and not worth the money or the effort. I will stick with my DVDs, which will be around for a long time. I see absolutely no reason to change to Blu Ray, and waste my money to make Sony richer. I think it will fail, just like those awful mini CD discs failed. Oh - that must make me "old," according to some posters here. Talk about ageism and arrogance!
The discs themselves are a bit expensive but that will change as they become more popular. I remember a time when dvds were 30 bucks a pop too. Overall I like the format, better picture and more storage is always a plus. The only pain is finding a nice blu ray surround sound system to replace my dvd surround sound system. I want one, but I don't want to spend 400 bucks on one when my dvd system still works, and dvds are still popular. So for now, my PS3 through my dvd surround sound system will have to do.
@realist: Um, blu ray is not a sony thing. It was a joint venture IIRC between sony and pioneer way back in 2000. But the original founders (who helped develp and promote blu ray) of blu ray did include sony, as well as sharp, HP, Samsung, Pioneer, Phillips, Dell, Fox, Hitachi, Panasonic, and a few others IIRC.
you sold all you dvds?!?! I love that? I just download all the 1080p movies on my laptop for free. I like the discs better. they are obviously stronger and more scratch resistant. BUT I want them to get rid of this disk nonsense. we need stuff like little flash drives. I want to be able to carry 10 movies in my pocket! we have the technology, but if we make blu-ray disc, guess what?? you have to buy blu-ray players!!! I have a pc and a big LCD tv for monitor. I dont need a PC, a TV, blue ray player. I just need a CPU and screen. I watch blu-rays on my pc (from the internet) and I cut out the extra monitor and the blu-ray player.
40 Comments
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lovejapan21
I think it might be difficult to comment on this since the majority dont own a blu ray player. But, I can say, still too expensive...
tokorobam
I'm unimpressed. So far, I don't notice a difference to justify it.
But most disappointingly, it has region encoding like dvd's do (though the regions are different). This attitude by the movie studios only encourages piracy.
davidattokyo
I got a blu-ray player enabled TV a couple of months back.
The picture quality is good of course.
The downside is that it takes a good few seconds for the disc to be read and ready for playing / recording. Dunno if that's just my model is crappy (it's built into the back of the TV rather than standalone, which is lower in cost but possibly quality too I guess).
redninja
As someone who was involved in the making of the format, and who has developed some blu-ray key features, I think it is too early to make a judgement. The discs out there have not used more than 10% of what the format offers, yet. @davidattokyo, the best choice for a blu-ray player now is the PS3. As other available players would take days to load a disc. This is due to the amount of resources a player should cache before entering the playback mode.
smartacus
I think the only way that Blu-ray will become more widely accepted is for studios to stop making ordinary DVDs and thus force consumers to buy Blu-ray recorders that don't play current DVDs. We will then be forced to ditch all our movie and TV show collections and replace them with Blu-ray discs.
I went through this in the 1980s when I had to replace my Beta tapes with VHS. Then I had to replace my VHS tapes with DVDs. I'm not doing it again.
redninja
@smartacus, I am afraid you will be forced to, when everything goes HD(TV and PCs will refuse 720*480 streams).
skipbeat
Right now both blu-ray players and dvds are both too expensive for the common person and due to the economy in a recession. It's been like over 2 years now and the blu-ray have not picked up. The blu-ray came at a bad time or the timing was off.
Btw, people have to have a 1080p HD TV along with the blu-ray player in order for people to experience the high def of blu-ray movie dvd. People can't afford to buy the 1080p HD TV, blu-ray player, and the blu-ray dvd all at the same time which the blu-ray required. Customers are smarter now by waiting for the prices of the HD TVs, blu-ray players, and blu-ray dvds to go down.
skipbeat
I don't see much of a difference when I watched Ponyo in blu-ray and in standard dvd format. The same with live action movies.
thedeath
i will probably never get a standalone blue-ray player/recorder. i might possible get it when it come with my next tv or computer. but if i have a choices i don't see a reason why i want it.
i prefer portable hard-drive for backup and carry around. with internet speed that get faster and faster today, i buy/download hi-definition movies online rather than buy/rent a dish.
Doomsayer
The discs and hardware are still waaay too expensive. By the time the prices fall to acceptable levels it might be obsolete. I think HD-DVD, although not as high capacity as Blu-Ray, was a better bridging technology because the disc manufacturing factories could be retooled much more cheaply and these savings could be passed onto the consumer. Also, Blu-Ray is horribly uncompetitive price and storage wise against hard disk storage, so it looks like Blu-Ray will just be another proprietary Sony format that doesn't set the world on fire...
chinpira
Its fantastic. If you have the hardware (Large 1080p TV/projector,AV AMP, 7.1 channel system etc) there is no going back to DVD. I buy and rent Blurays exclusivly. DVD is history.
blvtzpk
Well, they're...just a moment...is this a tie-in with the picture of the day? A double blu-ray advertisement!
I love new tech, but I dislike it when it basically wipes out something that's relatively 'new.' If blu-ray (which doesn't offer that much more of an improvement) does that to DVDs (which I think are perfectly adequate), I will not be happy. It doesn't seem like people have bought into it, though, even after the blu-ray Vs HD-DVD joust was over. Like some have mentioned above - too expensive for little improvement in a money-poor period.
davidattokyo
Just for the record, my Blu-ray disc player enabled TV can play DVDs as well. It's not like you can't use your DVDs anymore.
redninja - thanks for the info!
gyouza
All irrelevant now, we -should- be downloading the movies that we want by now (in HD) and not still fiddling around with discs. The industry will catch on fairly soon I hope. Broadband finds a REAL use at last. It may take a bit longer than it should as some country's (UK for on) still think that 500kbps is "broadband"! Japan (and especially Korea) is ready!
Sony think they won the format war, but it is all wasted unless they can recoup the develoment costs in the next year or so!
geronimo2006
Computers are starting to come out with blu-ray and I will just get one of those and hook it up to the tv. Starting to get cheaper. I cant work out why stand alone HD recorders / blu-ray are still so expensive
thepro
I'll wait for the next high-high-def format
SamuraiBlue
It the medium for the future, having said that it is going to take awhile for it to be fully adopted. With introduction of 3D it may finally get a chance. 3D Porn anyone?
bdiego
Movies look great, but take forever and a half to load up. We've taken a step back in convenience, but a step forward in quality. BD sucks and ruins playback, please stop using it.
Badsey
In a few more years most DVDs will be obsolete. -Same thing happened to CDs -people don't have alot of room to waste for this stuff. People that love movies will collect DVDs and maybe the older folks but the young have moved on.
Everything must be portable now = on a laptop or phone/mobile.
I have Toshiba HD-Dvd for the upconverter and my parents have a Sony Blu-Ray. New Blu-Ray players have netflix/wifi which is probably the way to go (download movies).
Vending Machines like Redbox ($1 a day) are neat and there is a cool iPhone App to see what is available at your local RedBox vend.
nisegaijin
I like it, it's a bit behind, because it's still an optical drive, but it works. I would like to see more titles out, and ability for DVD users to get discounts when they exchange their media to blu-ray.
Also, way to expensive in Japan, as usual.
cactusJack
I am gonna wait for the Holographic Versatile Disc. Holds over 1 Terabyte and transfers data 40 times faster than DVD.
jbro888
this reminded me of when i went to bic camera and they had a two screens showing the difference between the two formats. But they hooked up the DVD to the TV's analog port wtf?? As you can guess the DVD version looked pretty grainalicious
DerekJ
I bought my PS3 specifically for the blu-ray player after hearing it was one of the best. I haven't been disappointed, though the disks themselves are more expensive than they need to be.
Mittsu
Can't tell the difference.
Teachmeteachyou
Great on a large, HDTV and the sound is a bit more detailed, though that's more of a subtle thing, that you realise more in retrospect. I wouldn't say I see the difference I did when going from VHS to DVD, especially when the DVD is upsampled nicely, though it is more obvious on films with lots of special effects. The fact is, I would never buy a DVD if the Blu Ray is avaliable- even on a laptop close up you can see a difference. Why not have the best quality avaliable, even if you don't always notice the difference?
I should admit that sometimes they are almost too sharp, it is a different experience than DVD or even cinema was, a bit more like seeing computer games. I say this because it can be a bit of a distraction from the content- as is this whole discussion and the '3D' phenomena by the way. But that's progress for you.
gonemad
Without a doubt, it is quite an improvement over DVD - but it could be better still... Then there is still the silly region code. The majority of discs seem not to use it as of today, but I don't want to check such kind of thing before buying any discs. I didn't invest into DVD until high quality region code free players were available and I won't change this attitude for BD. But the biggest problem with BD is the AACS copy protection, which allows to revoke keys of discs or players at a later time. That means you can never be sure that your player or previously bought discs will continue to work whenever you play a new disc. My answer as a consumer: no, thanks. Or make it so dirt cheap that I don't have to care about potential losses.
nemoflow
redninja; how were you involved in Blu-Ray development?
everyone; who the hell buys discs anymore! N00bz
DerekJ
That is the only way I would look to replace anything more than select titles in my DVD collection with BD format. That said, my Lord of the Rings trilogy will get replaced with the BD set.
okasurferdude
I'm sticking with my tried and true VHS cassette system. Upgraded from Betamax only last year...
ReformedBasher
Technological advances are great but do you need to rush out buy something to impress?
Save your money and dignity.
vulcan
they keep changing things... making me have to spend money..
realist
Blu Ray is a Sony way of tring to get into or take over the lucrative DVD market. Grossly overpriced and not worth the money or the effort. I will stick with my DVDs, which will be around for a long time. I see absolutely no reason to change to Blu Ray, and waste my money to make Sony richer. I think it will fail, just like those awful mini CD discs failed. Oh - that must make me "old," according to some posters here. Talk about ageism and arrogance!
realist
Badsey CDs are obsolete? Not as far as I can see...
nemoflow
okasurferdude; Betamax was a better format than VHS, so you will have actually downgraded.
Stephen Jez
The discs themselves are a bit expensive but that will change as they become more popular. I remember a time when dvds were 30 bucks a pop too. Overall I like the format, better picture and more storage is always a plus. The only pain is finding a nice blu ray surround sound system to replace my dvd surround sound system. I want one, but I don't want to spend 400 bucks on one when my dvd system still works, and dvds are still popular. So for now, my PS3 through my dvd surround sound system will have to do.
Stephen Jez
@realist: Um, blu ray is not a sony thing. It was a joint venture IIRC between sony and pioneer way back in 2000. But the original founders (who helped develp and promote blu ray) of blu ray did include sony, as well as sharp, HP, Samsung, Pioneer, Phillips, Dell, Fox, Hitachi, Panasonic, and a few others IIRC.
hotachichi
No comparison. I sold all my DVDs. But the upconvert to 480i to 1080P was OK.. depending on the content.
kujiranikusuki
you sold all you dvds?!?! I love that? I just download all the 1080p movies on my laptop for free. I like the discs better. they are obviously stronger and more scratch resistant. BUT I want them to get rid of this disk nonsense. we need stuff like little flash drives. I want to be able to carry 10 movies in my pocket! we have the technology, but if we make blu-ray disc, guess what?? you have to buy blu-ray players!!! I have a pc and a big LCD tv for monitor. I dont need a PC, a TV, blue ray player. I just need a CPU and screen. I watch blu-rays on my pc (from the internet) and I cut out the extra monitor and the blu-ray player.
nemoflow
Yeah, I totally agree. The disc as a storage medium is dead. Anyone buying discs is way out of the loop.
You can get a 1TB HD in Sofmap for less than 10,000yen now. Think how many movies that will hold!
Even a 32gb USB stick can hold more than enough movies for a couple of nights in.
I guess most people are stuck in their ways though, and don't ever question what they are hand fed.