2. home-theater
  3. 1224363461

Blu-ray format... Do you like it compared to DVD?

Before I get to my questions.
I would like you to know this is our first ventcher into boob tube home entertainment.

We have just replaced our Sony tv with a new Panasonic 37 inch LCD.
Prior to the purchase we were given a used Sony 6 channel surround with "small cube speakers" and a subwoofer, which B.T.W. passes my wife's approval.
A few days ago I mounted the speakers and had it up and running using our Sony tv.

That evening we watched a movie and the both of us enjoyed the added feature of the surround sound in our home.

The both of us are not complete strangers to home theater, we have watched movies in friends home.

Through out our marriage the both of us have never really been interested in spending hours on end in front of a tv.

I recall once having a bumber sticker many years ago that read..."Shoot Your T.V."

Anyway, here we are now.

Last night we watched two dvds on the new Panasonic tv.
Blue planet documentary and a movie called Layer Cake.
The dvds were recommended and lent to us for the weekend.

We enjoyed both of them ,however we were going to spread the time for watching the dvds for Friday and Saturday night, didn't happen, however I borrowed more.

My question to those of you that own a Blu-ray player, how do you like this format compared to standard dvd?

Which brand of player are you using also would it be worth buying into this format at this time?

The current dvd player we are using now is on short term loan.

Basically I would like to experience what this highly rated Consumer Report Panasonic tv can do.


stiltskin

Showing 4 responses by macdadtexas

macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
OK, BluRay is better, but I don't see a big enough difference to change from DVD's, especially since I see BluRay as the 8-track of this decade. It's a stop gap. Anyone who has an AppleTV and has downloaded HD movies that I have talked to has the same impression that I do. The HD content looks so good off of the downloads, not as good as BluRay yet, that the logical next step in downloading to 1080p seems just on the horizon.

With that said, why would someon buy a very expensive single disc player (as I did)? I don't want to replace my hundreds of DVD's with BluRay discs, the difference in quality, to me, is not as noticable as say the change from VHS to DVD. Not even close.

Also, the current crop of upconverting multidisc players are so good the difference is just not that big.

I put my BluRay player in the bedroom with the LCD in there, it just didn't get used that much. I may just put it on eBay.

It may not be AppleTV but I think it, or some combination of other downloadable movie formats will be standard in the near future. If you want to keep the movie, you will download it to your network storage, which gets cheaper all the time.
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
why store a disc, which has mechanical playback problems, by the very fact that it has to be played back, when you can access the same file on a hard drive?? I completely disagree with the cost of storage. Nothing in the tech world has fallen in price more than network storage, the same arguements were made for CD's a few years ago, now sales of CD's fall precipitously every year.

As for back up, that gets cheaper too. You can right now, go on line and buy a Drobo with 4TB of completely redundant no hassle, automatic storage and back up in a bundle for a little less than $1000. Next year that will be $500, and 2yrs from now that will be $400 for 10TB. Even without the inevitable file compression developments, that will store a lot of movies, and you won't need an expensive player to play it back.
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
Playstation 3 Plays SACD?? Is that right??
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
OK, I'm still going to save this thread and come back to it in 2010 when I think we will all be discussing what our download speeds are, and how good are the DAC's we use to decode our AppleLossless/WAV/FLAC files (and vinyl still of course), and BluRay will be a distant memory. But..... I actually didn't know that Playstation 3 also supports SACD, in fact, it was not easy to find that on the internet. Since it does, I may sell my 1 yr old BluRay player that I never use and buy a PS3. I'm not a gamer, but I have 3 kids who would love it, and I could play DVD's/SACD's/BluRay/Games/CD's that sounds pretty good.

I am assuming since it's a Sony the SACD play back is good? Can I use just the R & L analog outputs for SACD or do I have to go through the HDMI cable?

Thanks!!
More to discover