I have heard that Blu-Ray makes movies unbelievable, but did not experience it until recently first hand.
Is Blu-Ray Better?
I would have to say that I have liked Blu-Ray for the picture and uncompressed 7.1 surround sound that regular DVD cannot provide due to size limitations. I use a 1080i projector and have a 120″ screen so while the audio has been amazing, at the size I have the image displayed, the picture seems a little grainy. I was in Best Buy a week ago and saw a preview of Blu-Ray. U571 looked unreal. Seriously, I thought I was on the set watching them shoot the action that is how it looked to me. It made the movie look way too clear and was hard to believe they were on a submarine several decades ago.
Don’t get Blu-Ray of Old Movies
Don’t need to say much here. Basically, if you are in the market to replace a DVD of an older movie with a Blu-Ray, it would be worth testing it out first to see if the quality is worth your purchase. Many old movies are stored on old degrading media and while the motion picture companies do what they can to clean it up, you cannot add more definition if is not there to add! Now, if you don’t own the movie, since most Blu-Rays for old movies seem to be in the $10 range, then it many be worth it if the corresponding DVD is about the same cost. I test drove some older Blu-Ray releases from Netflix to see just how clear they were and I was happily surprised, but they were from post 2000 which to me is old being 2011 now 🙂 Not sure Sound of Music or Space Balls would be noticeably better.
Animated Movies….
Despicable Me and Wall-e on the other hand look amazing! Especially the computer animation of today, the source files are all capable of rendering high definition and therefore there is no bottle neck when it comes to going back to the original source and “re mastering.”
Physical Media??
Granted I own more than 600 DVDs and now have begun to get some Blu-Ray movies and get rid of my DVD collection, but I wonder if Blu-Ray or physical media in general will be around much longer? With iTunes and other services allowing you to purchase books, movies, and music in digital form and protect your purchases if something should happen to your computer, is there really any need for the security of physical media?
Advantages of Media..
Historically the ability to “lend” physical media to others was the big reason for purchasing media. If you are an avid reader, I suppose a floor to ceiling library of physical media looks more accomplished and impressive than an external hard drive sitting on a shelf 🙂 Recently, more book readers have the ability to lend certain books to others. This ability is dependent on the publishers permissions which seem to not be book specific, but rather all or nothing for a publisher. I own a Kindle and of the small number of books I purchased only 5% are able to be lent. Movies on the other hand are not lend-able to others. You can of course bring your laptop with the licensed movie over to a friends to show, but this is quite different and certainly more restrictive than bringing over a DVD.
No Cost savings….
You would think if you were to purchase an electronic copy of a movie that you would get a discount. After all, there is no media to make, no media to stock, no media to ship, etc. This is the main reason I have not given up my DVDs. I do subscribe to Netflix a DVD at a time, but don’t currently pay the $2 extra for Blu-Ray. I just buy the Blu-Ray I like and live with quality of Netflix DVDs. Need to be sure I like a movie before I spend the money 🙂
Environmental Impact
A topic of discussions recently. Of course anything that is not produced physically is saving resources and energy used to produce them. At the same time though it does reduce the workers as well which eventually will cause lay offs. What a tangled web. Seems like no matter what you do, you cannot seem to win. Recycling on the other hand does not seem to have such an impact on the workforce so long as they innovate and get on board processing consumer waste as opposed to sourcing virgin materials. The logging industry has a lot to lose by paper recycling for example, but every other industry in the production chain would not be affected much.
Should have a Play Station 3
If only I were a gamer and purchased a PS3. Not only would I have a cutting edge gaming system, but I would also have a 3D Blu-Ray DVD Player and not have spent money on standard Blu-Ray players. I have no intention of going to 3D as long as special glasses and TVs are required, but when I see a title in 3D that I watched in 3D Imax, I wonder just how good it would be 🙂 As far as 3D, I will wait until we have holographic images in 3D that project from a paper thick device (Star Trek, Star Wars,SeaQuest). I think I will be waiting a very long time and my checkbook thanks me for that.
