Too Early for Blu-ray?

[rafalweb]

What do you guys think? Is it too early to buy a Blu Ray player, considering these are first or second generation players, or are they good enough now to invest in? Thanks.

 

[BMXTRIX]

What do you guys think? Is it too early to buy a Blu Ray player, considering these are first or second generation players, or are they good enough now to invest in? Thanks.

Only for some manufacturers is Blu-ray first or second generation. Panasonics new players I believe may be fourth or fifth generation and they are known for some quality product at a reasonable price.

 

[mike c]

i'd say they're good enough to invest in now - your only risk would be the price drop as the technology gets even "older" - you might even be a little late to the party for an A/V enthusiast

hopefully, there are some standalone BD players out there that can match the Sony PS3 reliability i'm hearing a lot of good things about the panasonic bd players BMXTRIX mentioned.

 

[Starmax]

I'm very happy with the Panasonic BD-55 I got a couple of weeks ago. It's under $400 and is as current as they come.

 

[Audioholics]

I'm liking the Samsung players with Netflix...

 

[rafalweb]

I guess I am a little behind....thanks for edumacating me......

 

[Starmax]

What's the deal with Netflix? Do you not agree that the forthcoming Oppo BluRay Universal is the golden fleece? Wait, didn't mean fleece in a bad way...

 

[aberkowitz]

What's the deal with Netflix? Do you not agree that the forthcoming Oppo BluRay Universal is the golden fleece? Wait, didn't mean fleece in a bad way...

The oppo player seems like a red herring these days... can anybody even confirm a release date?

 

[Starmax]

No release date yet, but you can go to their site and register to be notified whenever it is released.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I'm liking the Samsung players with Netflix...

It's getting to the point where people are starting to look less and less at the Blu-ray capabilities alone, and more about the added value that goes into some of the players. Netflix, Pandora, ??? - what's next?!?

At the end of the day, we are coming up on what... 3 years? for this technology being on the streets and in homes. It isn't 100% dialed in, but with a reputable manufacturer, you are typically getting enough stability to watch everything without issue, and enough support to keep the player up to date for the future.

 

[Starmax]

I've found that most BluRay movie re-do's aren't worthy of the enhanced format, not to mention the added price. The majority of movies aren't heavily invested in jaw-dropping visuals and sound effects. They're just movies. I know of about a dozen or so films that make the BluRay investment worth it...Master & Commander, Ratatouille, Apocalypto, that sort of production. I'm waiting for the music industry to catch up with the technology. At this point, there's pathetic few concerts available on BR...David Gilmour at Royal Albert Hall comes to mind, but what else?

 

[GZA]

Even though i dont have a good Blu Ray player im glad i bought it when i did. I have had it for a while and have enjoyed getting Goodfellas and The Godfather on Blu Ray. I was nerves buying it though because i knew little about Blu Ray players and feared they would disappear right away.

 

[lsiberian]

I've found that most BluRay movie re-do's aren't worthy of the enhanced format, not to mention the added price. The majority of movies aren't heavily invested in jaw-dropping visuals and sound effects. They're just movies. I know of about a dozen or so films that make the BluRay investment worth it...Master & Commander, Ratatouille, Apocalypto, that sort of production. I'm waiting for the music industry to catch up with the technology. At this point, there's pathetic few concerts available on BR...David Gilmour at Royal Albert Hall comes to mind, but what else?

On a projector I can tell the difference. on a 90inch screen DVDs don't look as good as a Blu-ray and the sound tracks are a bit more dynamic. I can tell the difference with an uncompressed sound track. a bit more dynamic. However that can be a bad thing if you are trying to watch at night lol.

 

[Starmax]

I can tell a difference too on my BluRay set-up. What I'm saying is that right now, most of the BluRay movies available aren't worth the extra coin you have to spend because the visual and audio effects aren't that spectacular to begin with.

 

[lsiberian]

I can tell a difference too on my BluRay set-up. What I'm saying is that right now, most of the BluRay movies available aren't worth the extra coin you have to spend because the visual and audio effects aren't that spectacular to begin with.

That's why I use Netflix it's blu-ray must.

 

[jostenmeat]

I've found that most BluRay movie re-do's aren't worthy of the enhanced format, not to mention the added price. The majority of movies aren't heavily invested in jaw-dropping visuals and sound effects. They're just movies. I know of about a dozen or so films that make the BluRay investment worth it...Master & Commander, Ratatouille, Apocalypto, that sort of production. I'm waiting for the music industry to catch up with the technology. At this point, there's pathetic few concerts available on BR...David Gilmour at Royal Albert Hall comes to mind, but what else?

I couldn't disagree more. There are MANY superior transfers. MANY.

As for music, just typed in "classical music bluray" at Amazon, and there are 46 hits. I have two of them, the Brandenburg Concertos with Abbado and the Pyongyang Concert. The video is not demo material, compared to bluray, but of course it's still way better than what DVD could possibly offer. I highly recommend both. The Dave Matthews concert is visually better than the aforementioned titles. I would suppose that the opera format would be a big beneficiary of the format, as that is inherently both a visual and aural experience, but unfortunately I rarely get excited about opera.

I mean... I dunno... bluray represents a greater % increase in vertical lines of rez over DVD, than DVD does over VHS.

disclaimer: 159" screen, 42 deg viewing angle

 

[lsiberian]

I couldn't disagree more. There are MANY superior transfers. MANY.

As for music, just typed in "classical music bluray" at Amazon, and there are 46 hits. I have two of them, the Brandenburg Concertos with Abbado and the Pyongyang Concert. The video is not demo material, compared to bluray, but of course it's still way better than what DVD could possibly offer. I highly recommend both. The Dave Matthews concert is visually better than the aforementioned titles. I would suppose that the opera format would be a big beneficiary of the format, as that is inherently both a visual and aural experience, but unfortunately I rarely get excited about opera.

I mean... I dunno... bluray represents a greater % increase in vertical lines of rez over DVD, than DVD does over VHS.

disclaimer: 159" screen, 42 deg viewing angle

I can tell on my PJ and it's not even in the same league as a native 720p.

I think someone needs an upgraded display Oh and I could tell on my old 27" tv. But not nearly as much.

 

[Starmax]

sticking to my guns

Let me try to explain this a little better. I have a very nice system: 55" 1080p Hitachi LCD monitor, seven Def Tech 7002 speakers and three Hsu VTF-3 Mk 2 subs in a 7.3 room configuration, a flagship Denon AVR-5805 receiver with ten assignable 170 watt amps, an excellent Denon 3910 Universal player with a Burr-Brown 12-bit/216 MHz video D/A converter, and a recently purchased Panasonic BD-55 BluRay player. Room treated with bass traps, heavy drapes, carpet, bookshelf diffusers...all that crap. Shabby equipment is not my problem here. I realize that BluRay is better than DVDs, but I'm saying that most of the titles available on BluRay right now are not significantly better on my set-up than the same movie on DVD. For example, we compared the BluRay and DVD versions of Pineapple Express (my 15 year old son's idea). Yeah, the BluRay was better, but not enough to warrant the extra cost ($12.99 DVD / $24.99 BluRay). The movie simply didn't have the visual and sonic chops to make that much of a difference. Movies like Iron Man or Jurassic Park are created for optimum visceral impact and should be viewed on BluRay where it actually makes a difference over DVDs. I did the same comparison on Valentine's Day watching chick flicks (Night at Rodanthe) with my girlfriend. Those kind of movies don't have fireball explosions and car chases...as a rule they're evenly paced, character-driven movies geared to push your emotional buttons. It struck me when I was in the Borders music section shopping for movies that I don't need to pay the extra $10 or so for a BluRay version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, because the slightly enhanced resolution wasn't worth the money to me. That's all I'm saying here...some movies deserve BluRay, some don't.

 

[PENG]

some movies deserve BluRay, some don't.

They all deserve BR but I think I know what you are saying. Some transfers look sharper than others.

 

[Starmax]

Yeah, but more than that I'm talking economics...some films aren't worth $10 or more for. When BluRay costs the same as DVDs, then it's a no-brainer to pick BluRay.