DJariya

I got a 4K TV during Black Friday week and yesterday picked up a XBox One S, which can play UHDs.

So just out of curiosity, I looked at the prices of UHDs while at Best Buy. They are quite expensive at roughly $30 a pop. Wasn't that the prices of BDs 10 years ago?

I really don't have the money or intention to jump into yet another new format. I mean who has the budget for $30 single movie discs these days?

I know I've read a few comments here (not sure who specifically) from guys who see New release announcements and say No UHD, No sale. I mean are you really spending the money and jumping all out into this right now and blowing off BDs for this new format? Just my personal opinion, I think it's extremely premature to go crazy about UHDs, especially at the current price point. I mean kudos to you if you have the $$$ and feel it's worth it.

fujishig

I bought a ton of DVDs at high prices that I didn't even get around to before they either dropped drastically in price or went to Blu. Repeated that mistake with Blu Rays. I'm no longer so gung ho about "future proofing" especially with catalog titles.

E Unit

I jumped in this past year, and of the 30 or so I have, I think I've paid close to full price for 2. The rest came during sales in which they came in under $20. I think I got about 10 during the holiday sales, all at $17.99. And during that Best Buy BOGO sale that included pre-sale stuff, I ordered the Bourne set which came in at $45 for the 5 movies. That's when I bought one at full price which was $24.99. I can live with that.

PerryD

It's typically an extra $5 up charge for the 4k release although it can vary, and comes with the regular bluray and digital copy, often a Ultra HD digital copy. I can't complain about the price. The 3D / 4K bundles from Sony are a steal, really need the other studios to consider that.

Shannon Nutt

I have (and love) passive 3D. Just like the theater (Real3D, not Imax3D)...in fact, I stocked up on glasses by not recycling my Real3D ones. No kids here, so that's not an issue I deal with. I can see if someone wears glasses (and can't wear contacts) how it's a problem, but otherwise....

Shannon Nutt

I think the issue is there's not the visible "leap" in detail between Blu-ray and Ultra HD that one gets between DVD and Blu-ray, so it's not something that's immediately noticeable unless you're doing a side by side comparison or watch one immediately after watching the other. There is, however, a huge color "boost" thanks to HDR. I think that's what everyone notices first, although the "average" non-techy person may just think the image has gotten "darker."

It's one of the reasons I think 8K will be even more niche...unless you need a 100-plus inch TV, there's really no need for it until the day when all TVs just have that resolution as the standard.

E Unit

That's a big problem since even though there is that noticeable leap between DVD and Blu-ray, and the fact that 1080p TV's have been around forever now, yet people are still buying DVD. 4K TV's (lower end models) are as cheap as 1080's, yet 4K is still curving upward to catch up with sales.

orangerunner

The challenge with 4K (as was with Blu-ray) is convincing "Joe Sixpack" that what they are seeing is better. Attempting to persuade them with mathematical facts about pixel-count doesn't cut it.

Even with Blu-ray, trying to explain why one film is stunningly crisp and clear and another film is grainy is a difficult task. "Joe Sixpack" doesn't want to hear how one film, although grainy, is an accurate representation of the director's creative vision or trying to compare one film that was shot on poor-quality 1980s film stock to another film, made in 1967, which looks incredible.

It's amazing how many people don't get the whole aspect ratio concept and continue to curse those dang black bars on the screen while they're trying to watch Star Wars!

PerryD

I think the expanded color gamut and HDR are the more noticeable updates for the 4K standard. How many times have your watched sunrises or fades on 1080p, and the screen turned into a pixelated mess? I never understood why until I read that 1080 HD is only 8 bit color, just like those gifs from back in the 90s.

morriscroy

I remember when I first got a bluray player, I was wondering why there was still "banding" in the color palette.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_banding

jjcool

Checked. Not the case.

OldBoy

i have active 3D and don't mind them at all over my prescription glasses. really fits well and don't even notice. i actually prefer active over passive. i can see a difference with my passive 3D set and it isn't quite as stellar as my active, more used set. what is the glitchy active 3D all about?

mattysemo247

I'm seeing around 43 new 3D titles released in the US in 2016. I wouldn't say that is a sign of a dead format. As long as movies are coming out in theaters in 3D, there is a damn good chance it's going to be released on Blu Ray that way as well.

The only thing I would say is there has been a decline in 3D TV's manufactured in 2016 compared to 2015. Some of that obviously has to do with Samsung dropping support in their models.

BSTNFAN

My boys wear glasses and I got them clip-ons that work well with the glasses. We even bring them to the theater.

DthRdrX

I have active with my projector and passive with my older LG set. Both formats are good but the glasses are so much better with Passive that I would choose that over active.

bruceames

Not sure if you're aware, but new release UHDs are only about $5 more and contain the same Blu-ray disc in the package. So essentially you are getting everything the BD package has plus the UHD disc for an extra $5. In many cases (or most, I'm not sure), the UV/DC code redeems UHD and you could get about $8 for it, making up most if not all the difference in price.

E Unit

Then you didn't look very well. There's actually a few hundred, not a few dozen.

Coral

I find the 4K is usually at least $10 more than the BD for new releases. After a few weeks the gap gets larger with the BD dropping in price while the 4K remains unchanged. I often see a $20 difference between the formats.

Paying $32.99, $34.99, and $39.99 for a single movie is ridiculous in 2016 - especially given all the choices consumers have today.

PerryD

I'm not going to look up every movie but here are the new releases for this week
https://www.amazon.com/Sully-4K-Ultr.../dp/B01LBWHQRA
https://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-S.../dp/B01LTHMF3W
https://www.amazon.com/Storks-4K-Ult...dp/B01LBWHPXU/

Coral

I'm in Canada and Amazon.ca shows a difference of $8. In B&M stores it's usually $10 or more difference for new releases.

And like I said, the gap widens a while after release where the BDs get closer to the bargain-bin and go for $10 or less... while the 4K UHD sticks to it's $32.99 or higher price. For example, at BestBuy The Martian and The Revenant are $9.99 on BD and $34.99 on UHD... and Life of Pi and The Kingsman are $7.99 on BD and $34.99 on 4K UHD. That's a difference of $25 and $27 respectively. That's a lot of money. You could buy 3 BDs for the price of 1 UHD-BD.

If they want any traction at all with UHD-BD, it should NEVER have a premium of more than $5 over BD... not for a new release and not later. If the BD is down to $7.99 then the UHD-BD should be no more than $12.99.

PerryD

okay, I didn't notice that you were talking Canadian pricing, but of course when I refer to $5 difference, I'm only talking about U.S., and namely the retailers that I purchase from like Amazon and Target.

Certainly you can compare retail prices of 4K discs to sale prices of blu-ray discs and find a larger discrepancy. Some studios are pricing their catalog 4K titles very high, I'll admit to that. Several titles were more than I wanted to pay, so I waited until I could get them on sale, and sure enough most of them were available under $20.

But for those that are purchasing new releases as they come out, my statement holds true. For about $5 more, you can get a 4K copy included along with the blu-ray and digital copy. Preorder pricing shows the same difference, so it's an easy choice for me to pay the extra for 4K, especially at the $24.99 pricing (when you include the $5 gift card promotion) that Target has for most 4K movies.

jjcool

I looked well enough. An extremely limited number of titles, with fewer new releases each month it seems. And hardware support that is dwindling as well.

E Unit

Not sure where you see they're extremely limited. Studios are still making and releasing them in 3D. There's been no slowdown at all. Hardware support I can agree with you with, which makes it more confusing that there's still a healthy amount of 3D still being made. But I can't recall the last time we've seen movies in theaters where there weren't any 3D showing of some kind.

OldBoy

dude...it's not worth it for him. he's bitter about something and has problems with every new format. no sense in continuing the argument with this one...

E Unit

I suppose so, just hoping for a stronger argument. Nothing yet.