Blu-ray: Is It Time To Make The Move?
Jul 15, 2009 by Mike WilkersonBlu-ray players have been around for 3 years now – Is it finally time to buy?
Our desire for new technology continues to be stoked from every direction: The internet, store sales on every shelf, magazines and postal bombardment abound. While “big box” stores are closing their doors left and right, the unmistakable, always-anticipated internal screams of “time to upgrade” continue to echo throughout consumer minds everywhere. It opens eyes, web browsers and imaginations soliciting the question: What’s next?
So I’ve decided to take you on a Screen Rant-based Tech and Opinion Hunt not only to find out the direction of my next home theater acquisition, but to ask what will make YOU decide when the time will come to “go Blu-ray.” Be sure to chime in with your comments below and help round out the perspective on an often fiery and opinionated discussion that we hope will educate many.
DVDs have been pushing the movie landscape for a good long time now, offering up home-based versions of what you saw in movie theaters, including commentary tracks and special features galore. DVDs recently gave way to HD-DVD and Blu-ray – two formats which had their strange, bitter, little technology war (ironically, just as VHS and Betamax did) as the holidays arrived last year. Ultimately Blu-ray survived as the format of “choice.” As I survey the components beneath my plasma television in my Lord of the Rings-inspired home theater (which I like to call “The Shire”), I see an oft-used but beaten HD-DVD player from Toshiba and wonder… When will the time come to go Blu-ray?
My acquisition of the HD-DVD version of Transformers was my “make a move” moment which (looking back now) was poorly conceived. The price point, with my wife working at Walmart, the pounding “need” to experience high def on my plasma, idiot friends letting me spend money on things I didn’t really need – the reasons are many… However buying that HD-DVD, I saw true high definition for the first time on my plasma screen TV – and it was glorious.
Then came the deciding tire-iron-of-a-headblow to the HD-DVD format.
And so it’s time to consider buying again. A favorite website, The Digital Bits has a great article on the beginning flood of sub-$100 Blu-ray players – which instantly makes me think that the buying point is in my very near future.
Or IS it?
Sub-$100 Price Tags
Last year we were still looking at Blu-ray players that cost $300 and up even after the demise of HD-DVD (of course the fact that they were the only HD game in town probably kept prices up for a while). But now we’ve got players knocking on the sub-$100 door.
Something to consider when seeing these “cheap”(er?) players is that while they’ll play many Blu-ray offerings, will they play them all? “Formatting of the discs based on the built-in active java menu systems is something that needs to be truly considered,” mentions Twisted Lincoln’s Tony Lovasco. “Getting one of the cheaper el crappo players might get you into Blu-ray, but if it’s a unit that doesn’t allow for a firmware update, you could be SOL on some of the Blu-rays that you buy that have updated coding.”
Drat, the always-present spectre of “tech to dollar” ratios. Getting into one of the cheaper available Blu-ray players might not be the way to go, because they’re not capable of being “tech ready” enough.
Who’d have thought that? Did you?
Make a Game of It
Ah ha! I know, I’ll purchase a Playstation 3 and get not only the juicy, technological goodness of a Blu-ray player, but also a game system that will take my mastery of MLB 09‘s “The Show” skills to an all new level! And the PS3 has the necessary tech to “upgrade the firmware” because the system was MADE to download stuff. Surely a great benefit. But what about price point?
The price tag of $100 on the “might not work with all formats” player suddenly jumps to $340+ for the PS3. That probably doesn’t include the cables I need to have luscious, high-definition goodness on my plasma after the buy. Add to that the fact that I don’t have – in general – the TIME to play games on something like the Playstation 3, much less the cost of purchasing not only the more expensive Blu-ray discs, but the very expensive growing-variety of games available for the system.
Dammit! What’s a high-def movie buff to do?
The Movie that Will Tip the Scale
All right, so originally I thought it would be Transformers that ushered me into to the hi-def format. And it was. I bought that film on HD-DVD and was given the sweet temptation of high definition video in my home theater. Sadly, I got resoundingly stomped-on by the hi-def civil war. Then came The Dark Knight – the story, the special effects, the resounding performance of a gone-too-soon actor, Heath Ledger, and I thought to myself “Surely that’ll be the one to turns me on to Blu-ray.” But it wasn’t.
Now, Watchmen is on the way (3X) with the standard “movie only” version; the “Director’s cut” extended version; and of course, the “die-hard-fan-with-all-the-Watchmen-geeky-goodness stuff” edition. Is Watchmen going to be the film that will help me finally pull the trigger on the next purchase for my home theater? Will that allow me to see Nite Owl II truly test the inertial dampening system aboard his flying lovecraft? Is there a similar movie that has YOU considering the hi-def digital upgrade of Blu-ray?
The Longevity of Blu-ray
The quality is high, the availability and price point of the equipment are both within reach, but just how LONG will Blu-ray be around as the medium of choice? Fellow Screen Rant writer Paul Young remembers, “It took years before people switched from VHS to DVD. In 2002, Best Buy made the 80% DVD and 20% VHS switch and then finally in 2004 they went 100% DVD. It took about nine years for the consumer audience to switch to the new format.”
I believe that the changeover to Blu-ray will probably experience a shorter transition time, but the best part of that equation is that you still have a decent presentation even if you only have regular DVD. The conversion from VHS to DVD was – I think – much more significant because even the best edition VHS ALWAYS paled in comparison to the quality and clarity of DVD. I’ve always been of the opinion that Blu-ray isn’t the type of format to make you re-purchase your entire movie collection – it’s simply an opportunity to get a higher quality, feature-ridden, ga-ga film experience that’s one step better than DVD not only in quality, but also bang-for-your-buck satisfaction. Also, with most (all?) Blu-ray players, DVD movies look better than they do when playing on their native machine.
As far as the longevity of Blu-ray: The HARDWARE is where the question marks are come into play. As features, additions, downloads, content size, etc. all increase and blossom as the years go by, some people speculate that digital streaming/downloading will eliminate the need for any kind of media disc player at all. Of course, others believe that the forecasts on digital downloading are overly optimistic and very premature (bandwidth capacity and cost are two big issues), and that a Blu-ray player is going to a worthy investment for years to come.
Regardless of whether or not the rise of digital downloads occurs sooner or later, for now, having a Blu-ray player with the option of firmware upgrading is simply a MUST for anybody hoping to enjoy long-term returns on their tech investment. LG, the Playstation 3 and the $200+ model Blu-ray players currently available all offer up the option of firmware upgrade (only further cementing my desire to buy one).
Revving the Pinto, Hard Core…
Our own Paul Young also addresses the required quality of the overall home theater system when considering a Blu-ray player:
“If you hook a Blu-ray player up to an inferior TV and Sound System, (32” CRT with TV Speakers), it’s like putting 93 octane into a beat up Ford Pinto. Sure, it’s higher quality going in but you’re only going to get so much coming out without the proper equipment to fully utilize it.”
"The Shire": Home to movie viewing awesomeness
Thankfully, I’ve got a great sound system and a high-end 42″ plasma screen in “the shire” – everything I need to take advantage of that 93 octane Paul refers to. He really is giving sound advice: Those of you wanting to make the turn onto Blu-ray boulevard have more than just finding the cash for that sub-$100 player and $30+ for your favorite, most-recently released feature film in Blu-ray format. Getting the most out of your Blu-rays truly IS a bigger investment than most people initially think. A Blu-ray disc playing on a standard-def TV looks no better than a DVD.
So, I’ve dusted off the empty space where the next component will fit in my golden-leafed equipment rack. I’ve begun collecting all of the options that I need to start the consideration process and am wondering what YOU think. What am I missing? Is the concern all for naught and is it really time to buy? Or are the holidays and even lower prices around the corner?
Tell me what YOU think or have done in regard to entering the realm of Blu-ray. Help me make the best move for my digital buck!
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@Daniel F, I don’t agree,,, technology is moving so fast in the home entertainment arena that within 2 to 3 years there will be an upgrade from Bluray… Remember Bluray is just HD with a lame name and was developed to contain more data on the disc space. Competing data companies have already exceeded Bluray’s storage capacity. It won’t be long.
Personally I don’t see the longterm economic value of Bluray discs at this time. (its a trend just like LaserDiscs were IMO) Dvd quality is fine with me. I’m not one of those tech geeks that is in search of the best money has to offer. I’m happy with my system and my dvds…
@Matt
I have a 60″ Sony Bravia – it’s their version of DLP and it’s AWESOME. Picked it up earlier this year for about $1,800.
Vic
@Mack-E
You don’t need a special cable, they have video cards with HDMI outputs for like $30 or even less. It’s better that way so you don’t have to bother with separate sound outputs, the HDMI includes sound. It’s SO easy to build yourself a DVR/blu-ray player, that’s what I’m going to do with my computer once I build my ultimate gaming rig, lol.
All you need is any old case, any decent power supply, doesn’t need to be that much, a video card with HDMI output, pretty cheap now-a-days, a $100 tv-tuner if you want to record tv, some good sized harddrives, a blu-ray drive, and you’re done. Cheaper than getting a DVR and blu-ray player and you an get much more storage than a typical DVR.
BTW gang, you DO NOT NEED $60+ HDMI cables for your set up. Go to Amazon and search and you’ll find cables for $6-10 that work EXACTLY the same. I kid you not.
Cables are the biggest ripoff in the entire home theater industry.
Vic
@Matt
If you’re on a budget, go plasma, LCD is the craze so plasma’s are cheaper, and the picture quality on plasma is excellent. Actually in terms of contrast ratio, plasma is superior most of the time. It’s just supposedly LCD’s last longer than plasma… If you go plasma, can’t go wrong with Panasonic, they more or less pioneered the latest plasma technology and perfected it.
If you go LCD, I recommend Samsung. Most good namebrand tv’s, Sony, Toshiba, or whatever, use Samsung chips and parts anyway, so why bother, get it from the source. Samsungs are cheaper than Sony’s anyhow, and better quality than the others.
DO NOT BUY SANYO! Their LCD tv’s will start to ghost on you in record time, they suck.
Go to a store with a lot of HDTV’s side-by-side. One of the easiest things to look for to see the quality is the contrast ratio. Easiest way? Black, if the black is black, it’s good, if it looks gray compared to another tv’s black, then it’s not good. I’ve noticed this is where most budget brands like Vizio shows weakness, but they are still quite good if you’re on a budget.
@vic
I got a 3-pack of 6′ HDMI cables for $8 and they are gold plated, rated for 1080p, and all of the reviews say they work perfect, lol.
Yah, people charging $50-$60 for one cable is really ripping people off. But if people are willing to pay it, I don’t blame stores for getting what they can, lol. But you guys here at screenrant, Vic is looking out for you guys.
Cables have the highest mark up in price of any item sold. Best Buy pays $5 or $6 dollars for a 6′ USB cable and charge you $20+. Check out http://www.cablesforless.com/ best deals anywhere.
Yah, the 3-pack I bought for $8 didn’t come with any packaging. They were just twist tied and was inside a plastic bag. I think it was from one of the suppliers that supply the cable for these brands that then stamp their brand name on them and sell them for $70, lol. Because they were the “premium gold plated” ones and I got them for less than $3 a piece…
Some quick links fellas: avsforum.com for more geeky bluray goodness & monoprice.com for your cables. I’ve got 2 Ps3s and I love’em to death. One is on a 46″ sony lcd W series and the other is on a samsung 50″ series 5 lcd. The dark knight was the decision maker in my opinion, not to mention the kids movies (check out madagascar 2 and bolt).
Great article/ discussion. I splurged on the PS3 60 gig and a 42″ Sony 1080p LCD a couple years back and have NO regrets whatsoever. Updates are a breeze, The PS3 has wi-fi and Bluetooth, also upconverts my standard DVD’s very well. We have 3 “gaming” kids so it certainly pays off. If games are no concern, go for the $100 model and enjoy! My friends have these with no complaints. Overall, Blu disc prices are my only complaint.
BLURAY OR NOTHING?I HAVE PS3.I AM NOT A BIG LOVER OF GAMES.IS THE CHEAPEST WAY FOR BLURAY MOVIES.DONT FORGET THE HDMI FOR THE PICTURE AND COAXIAL OR OPTICAL CABLE FOR THE SOUND.CABLES NEVER DIE DONT TAKE THE CHEAP ONES
Mike, if you don’t have a blu-ray player by now, what are you waiting for? I have a 46″ Samsung DLP in full 1080P hi-definition. I have attached to that a Sony platstation 3. Contrary to a previous post. The graphics DO NOT suck, and are far superior to what I consider a child’s game(Nintendo Wii). My blu-ray movies look beyond spectacular, and for the money, no other player beats the PS3. It is an all around entertainment system(movies, games, music, photos, etc.). DO get a PS3. DO NOT be lead astray by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. “The Shire” deserves it, and you owe it to “The Shire” to complete it’s awesomeness.
BAH! You people talking about how the PS3 is the best Blu-ray player available are extremely biased. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a VIDEO GAME system that rivals a stand alone player. Don’t listen to them Mike!
These are the same people that have All-in-the-box sound systems and think they sound great. Bah! I say! Bah!
To the guy that says he only uses TV speakers (sorry I’m not scrolling through 42 comments to find your name again
, if you don’t care about the sound then why not turn it off when watching a Blu-ray movie? I mean if the only thing you care about is video…
To the people claiming to have full 1080p at only 46″, it may say that on the box but if you do some research you will find out that you need at LEAST 50″ to experience true HD. There are plenty of websites that back me up, just google it. I’m not saying your screen is crap or you aren’t enjoying your picture, just don’t go making claims that aren’t true.
Paul,
You really need to include a link to some proof with a statement like – that since you’re saying that manufacturers are lying when they claim 1080p for TVs that are smaller than 50″.
Vic
For me the biggest obstacle to going to blu-ray is simply the cost of blu-ray movies at the moment being around $30 CAN which is way too much for me.
Although I am holding off on purchasing some dvds with the intent on buying it in blu-ray in the future (mainly action movies or movies with lots of nice visuals/scenery).
When finally making the transition from a 20-something” CRT with stereo sound and regular progressive dvd player to 40″+ LCD 1080p 60Hz with 5.1 surround sound system and upconverting dvd player. I actually found the surround sound to be the most significant upgrade with movies such as LOTR. Sure the video was a bit better but I honestly could not see much of a difference between an upconverted and a regular dvd image (although perhaps I need to view them side by side).
I figure to see a real difference in video quality I need to watch a blu-ray on a 1080p tv greater than 42″ (which I haven’t).
CABLE RIP-OFF PRICES? Well, maybe, but I got a lesson recently when using a $30 13-foot HDMI cable for hooking up Panasonic’s latest BD player(BD-80) to my 65-inch Panasonic plasma. On loud passages, the audio had an awful oscillating sound. Store clerk at Fry’s suggested it was either the cable or my amp. Tried instead a Monster brand model 1000HD cable, purchased online for about $95, and that solved the problem perfectly. I’m now a firm believer that cable quality makes a HUGE difference. That $30 cable was an absolute waste of money.
cables and other peripheral costs can seem unwarranted, until you encounter issues by buying cheap or find a that certain events or processes actually do benefit from better equipment. It all depends how one balances out tolerance vs. costs.
I get both sides, I’ve suffered both sides.
Upconverting on standard DVDs is much more noticable on newer DVD’s stating “Enhanced for Widescreen TV’s” for example the CSI and LOST TV show DVD’s- The picture quality is near Blu. If you break out a DVD from 10 years ago- in many cases, notsomuch. I also agree with the previous post regarding the use of a digital optical sound cable- major improvement to the surround sound quality!
@Wes, that’s due in part because more tv shows and movies are shot in HD now days.
Also not all dvd players are the same. Some have cheap componants and others don’t based on what they are.
For example my 2005 standard $100 dollar dvd player works fine but if I play the same dvd in my Xbox360 the image looks alot cleaner.
^
@Matt,,, as you can see from alot of the comments here, upgrading to BluRay isn’t just buying a PS3 or BR player. To obtain the optimum BluRay experience one must have top of the line Tv/monitor, cables and stereo system… Some of these high end HD tv’s also need special cables to enable network access. You can spend thousands on “high end” equipment and within 3 years its all obsolite…
I’d rather spend money on regular dvds, then waste money on keeping up with the latest entertainment craze.
But hey if you have the cash, go for it. We all need to spend more so we don’t go fall into bankruptcy. Least that’s what our “leadership” is telling us.
http://www.cnet.com/hdtv-resolution/?tag=hdtv;hdtv_l
Here is a great article explaining what HDTV actually is. The better understanding you have of it going ino a purchase, the better spent your money will be. To be consider true HD he incoming image will be 1920×1080 and will be 24 fps. You may see those numbers referred to as 1080p/24. A TV needs to have a refresh rate that is a multi of 24 to take full advantage of this. Most only do 60HZ which is the hum cycle of AC power. Most LCD 40″ or higher, all DLP monitors and higher level plasmas can do 1920×1080 native resolution.
http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/plasma-TV.html
Here is another article backing up what I am saying about screen size. Let me emphasize again, I’m talking about 1080p/24 being displayed on a screen capable of 1920×1080 native resolution. 480p, 720p and 1080i are all considered to be Hi-Def but are NOT true HD. Hope you read the articles and see what I am saying.
Paul, well I’ve seen TVs out there that are under 50″ that have 1080p as the spec.
Vic
LMAO, this is childish but i dont care
anyone else remember that family guy where peter accidentally donates the vcr christmas gift to the hillbilly family. Flashes to the two hillbilly brothers fighting over it with thier pants down and one says.. its my turn to use the sex box, other says na it isnt, and her name is lucile!
HAHA
Vic what was the native resolution? You can have 1080p without 1920×1080. Again, I’m not saying the picture won’t still look good, I’m just saying there is a whole lot more that goes into setting up a proper HD experience beside just getting a player and a tv. I encourage anyone that is consider the leap to do a lot of proper research before you go shopping. I would also recommend you visit a high end A/V store and not Best Buy or Walmart. Sure you will get a better price but if you are just trying to save a couple of hundred of dollars, a high shop will get you a better product, plus the people working there will much more knowledgable. Retail stores hire part-time workers and if you are lucky you might get a kid that is “into” the stuff he is selling but the chains only care about service plans so you’re fighting an uphill battle with them.
Now, that’s not to say you can’t go the the high end store to CHOOSE your model and then shop around for the best price. That’s what I did.
Ok Mr. Paul Young
Can you find me the cheapest Samsung tv that would be considered “true HD” for me? I currently have a 32′ 720p in my bedroom(obviously not the best lol)
@Osacar – got a budget or size restriction? How far are you sitting from your tv to watch it? Belive it not it makes a difference when choosing. Check out the articles I mentioned above to help you figure it out. You can also check these guys out http://www.soundideasstereo.com/ I have done several things through them and they are happy to help you over the phone. You can ask for Paul in sales and tell him you know me or Doug. Paul is a nice guy and owns the store. Very knowledgable and won’t steer you wrong. He can pretty much ship anywhere you want.
Technically,the number 1080p, 720p, etc. is just the number of pixels on the vertical axis. My TV is actually a TV/monitor and is not 16:9 but 16:10, which is slightly more expensive than a 16:9 tv of the same diagonal size since it has more LCD surface… Anyway, the native resolution is actually 1920×1200, so technically, it’s more of a 1200p, lol, just kidding. It has 1:1 pixel mapping, so no weird ghosting or anything, just an two black bars on top and below a movie playing at 1920×1080.
But anyway, there are monitors MUCH smaller than 50″ that has a native resolution of 1080 or more on the vertical axis, so not sure where you’re reading that anything under 50″ isn’t really 1080p… I assume the same can be said of dedicated tv’s instead of tv/monitors like mine.
Heck I have a 19″ computer monitor with a native resolution of 1440×900, 180 pixels away from being 1080… You can get 22-23″ monitors that run 1920×1080 native. But sorry I keep referring to monitors, I’m a computer guy and run my HD movies through the computer so I don’t actually have a dedicated HDTV. My Samsung is basically a big high resolution monitor with a tvtuner built in, lol.
Even though I bought those HDMI cables, I’m going to use an optical cable for the audio and stick with DVI for the video. Think DVI is actually technically better quality than HDMI right? Last time I checked it was at least… Maybe it’s changed now with HDMI being the new gold standard for HDTVs…
@KenJ – See what I mean about there being more to it than just “Buy a Blu-ray and hook it up, and all day you’re have good luck!”
I think LCD TVs are just big monitors, which is why they are more exspensive and can do higher resolutions. I need to re-look into cables, but I think you are correct. DVI is better quality than HDMI. Quick Google search……..yup HDMI is usueful for audio AND video together other than that quality is about the same.
As far as TV size and HD goes, I may be thinking only of plasmas because I know LCDs and DLPs can do 1920×1080 at just abuot any size.
If you plug your new 50 inch plasma and it asks you what network protocol your using,,, you could have a Tv/monitor,,,
@790 – You’re a goof. what are you talking about? lol