My Blu Ray Review!

[BostonMark]

Well, I couldn't resist. I went to Best Buy and bought a Blu Ray player with the intent of trying it out, because I can return it for a full refund within 30 days. That lets me try the new technology without actually buying it yet!

Here is my review

Blu Ray Player

I will let you know right up front, I reviewed it with a WEstinghouse HDTV that only supports 720p, so I was unable to get the full 1080P, but I used the analog multichannel audio inputs so I did get the full benefit there. I think one day down the road, I will get a Blu Ray player. Let me know your thoughts and comments!

 

[tomd51]

Nice review, Mark!

I'm sure it's difficult being objective with this type of review, but you seemed to do it well. Sad to hear the first gen players like the Samsung (BD) and Toshiba (HD-DVD) are so hit-or-miss, considering their price tag, but I'm sure in the next year or so the manufacturers will work out the kinks and hopefully offer some better players (at cheaper prices )... -TD

 

[mytzen]

Very good review, you really put some time and effort into it.

 

[goodman]

Went to BB today to check out what they had for a BD display. They had a Samsung player connected to a 40" Samsung display that outputted 1080p. The player had a demo disc in it, some of which was of a watchmaker shot in 1080p. This part of the demo was astounding. It seemed clearer than reality. The difference between 1080p and 1080i seemed as great as the difference between 1080i and your old VCR. The rest of the demo, which included scenes from films, including HoFD and Kung Fu Nights, showed excellent video quality. I did not get a chance to evaluate the sound, which I am given to understand is uncompressed multichannel. While I realize that not all BD will be this good, I came away really impressed with the potential for this format. There was also a salesperson at BB, Bill, who was well versed in the new high definition disc formats.

 

[df4801]

Nice review. Thanks.
Its great to start seeing the reviews come in.

Although it is interesting that most of the so-called "expert" reviews so far have given it bad marks, and are generally very underwhelmed.
Also, why did you think it was superior to HD-DVD. Most reviews so far have stated that the hd dvd's look better than the blue ray because of increased storage on the hd's (although blue ray is supposed to increase past hd) and the codec's they use.

 

[Sonicus]

I have the A1 HD DVD player and also bought the Samsung Bluray player.

As a player the Samsung's OK, but the BD movie titles were of horrendous quality. Really, truly disappointing. Two of the titles were passable, akin to what I have seen on D* satellite, but the rest were far lower quality.

Boggles the mind as to how they were able to achieve a lower quality PQ with what should have been a higher bitrate, but they did.

It is also difficult to understand how a small number of people report that they can see no difference between the HD DVD releases and the Bluray releases - it's so obvious it's like being slapped in the face when you end up looking at the Bluray movies again.

The HD DVD titles, I have found, are clean and absolutely artifact-free, with simply massive color. The BD movies where just nowhere close.

I hope no one takes this post as an attack - I'm just reporting what I've seen.

I'm taking the Samsung back tomorrow - I will NOT be buying any bluray player at all, and will not reconsider that position until there has been a RADICAL overhaul in the encoding of the bluray releases.

 

[FierceTIMbo17]

IMO blu-ray picture quality on the samsung is not the great. Much like you said 480p fifth element looked better. I watched Hofd on a 1080p samsung lcd and it looked bad. Keep in mind they film martial arts movies to look kinda old dont know why but they put in fifth element and i was still not impressed. Personally i think hd-dvd blows bluray out of the water, its just sad that major retailers are pushing blu-ray over hd-dvd becuase they dont make a cent or profit on the players.

One correction on your review, Blu-ray does not hold more data, a blu0ray disc at this point can only hold 25 gb while hd is sitting at 30. Blu-ray has the ability to hold up to 50 on a dual layer but sony cannot get them to work. However hd-dvd has a tripple layer that is not out yet either coming in at 45 gb i believe.

 

[BostonMark]

In my review

I said that only House of Flying Daggers looked better than my original DVD. The colors were sharper and brighter, and I could see more detail. I compared the Blu Ray to regular DVDs in 480p.

I noted that my superbit Fifth Element was BETTER than the Blu Ray

Underworld Evolution regular DVD was brighter and had more color than the dark image of the Blu Ray and that

Terminator 2 Judgment Day looked about the same.

I wasn't able to compare Blu Ray directly to HD DVD. I had tried a HD DVD but only had one movie to compare the Last Samurai. It did look better.

I actually returned both players, I don't think either one is ready for prime time yet, but I really loved the raw uncompressed audio formats of both, it gives DVD audio a run for the money!

I think its the discs that make blu ray not look so hot though, because my experience with HOFD showed that blu ray has potential, but not all the movie releases seem to take advantage of it. When I reviewed it thuogh, I literally put the same movie in each player, set the settings the same, and switched back and forth, back and forth noting every subtle (and not so subtle difference)

 

[tomd51]

This may seem like a dumb question, but has anyone played the Fifth Element Superbit version in a BD player to directly compare this version against the HD version? This might help lend more credence to the fact that it was the bad HD transfer/source and not the player itself, but I haven't seen/read anywhere that someone's tried this... -TD

 

[BostonMark]

I hadn't thought of that!

This may seem like a dumb question, but has anyone played the Fifth Element Superbit version in a BD player to directly compare this version against the HD version? This might help lend more credence to the fact that it was the bad HD transfer/source and not the player itself, but I haven't seen/read anywhere that someone's tried this... -TD

I wish I had thought to do that while I still had the blu ray player. I did end up returning it to Best Buy, I just wasn't blown away by it. By the time I upgrade my monitor or projector to take full advantage of 1080p, the price should come down.

I did play a Diana Krall DVD in the Blu Ray player that I have watched dozens of times, and it looked about the same as it always does on my Pioneer Elite. Again though, why would the player make HOFD look better and Fifth ELement look worse? I did AB comparisons putting one movie in the Pioneer Elite, and the blu ray in the blu ray machine, then clicking input A and input B repeatedly with the same scene playing. When I tried it blind, they both looked the same, I couldn't see a thing.