GoldenWheels

Had to chuckle at this coincidence of this one, strictly from my personal point of view.

I certainly would not have just bought Cutthroat Island Blu Ray if Amazon hadn't had it for 8.99 on BF.

Jay G.

So... one title is missing DTS and you're shouting conspiracy?

orangerunner

The studios are surely trying to find ways to make the Blu-ray a more attractive purchase over the DVD, other than reducing the profits (ie. lowering the retail price).

On the other hand, most people that have DTS sound capabilities are probably the types who have already purchased Blu-Ray players anyway thus making it somewhat pointless to bother putting it on the DVD.

I'd rather see that extra MB space on the DVD used for a higher bit-rate on the feature or some extras.

Trevor

Fixed.

Jay G.

This is likely true. DTS was always a niche market, aimed at audiophiles. The demand for a DTS track on DVD has probably dropped considerably since Blu-ray came out with its lossless audio options.

I think it's possible that the rise of digital copies has caused this perceived drop in DTS titles. To take the Wolverine example, on previous X-Men 2-disc SEs, the movie and DTS were on the first disc, with the majority of extras on disc 2. With the Wolverine 2-disc SE, the movie and the majority of extras are on disc one, with the digital copy on disc 2. So disc one is using the space that used to go to DTS for all the extras that used to fit on disc 2.

GoldenWheels

The point may be better made that way Trevor (BR price being WAY less of an issue than it was even six months ago) but the irony is somewhat lost without the price being the same as the example used!

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

For me, not even at $3.99. Never seen it, don't plan on it.

Dane

Majority of the Scandinavian DVDs still carries a DTS soundtrack at the expense of extras.

adrenaline78

I for one want blu-ray(trying to convince the wife that we need a ps3).. but can wait to upgrade until the costs come down some. That being said I think the single biggest reason I have for upgrading isn't the picture.. but the sound... And buying anything other than a action/scifi or animated film would be a waste of $.


I loved the article bTw!

Jay G.

BD players can be had for under $100 now. How much cheaper do they have to become?

Note that you'll either need a receiver capable of receiving and decoding the new codecs, or a BD player that can decode and pass them to your receiver in a usable way (either PCM over HDMI or multi-channel analog).

You say that now, before getting Blu-ray, but afterwards you'll likely change your tune, especially if the cost difference isn't much, or if there isn't a price difference at all.

adrenaline78

Jay G.

I have an Insignia BD player that I paid $120 for back in May. It's probably not offering the best image possible, but it still blows away my DVDs played on my upconverting DVD player.

When better BD players become cheaper, I'll likely buy one and move my current BD player into another room.

I haven't bought many BDs, but I usually rent, and I always rent the BD of any film if available, even comedies. The enhanced image quality just makes the viewing experience that much better for any film, for me. Do I need every film in BD? Probably not. However, I probably didn't need every film in DVD quality, yet I repurchased my meager VHS collection on DVD over the years.

Jay G.

BTW, in case you haven't noticed, the best way to quote someone in a reply is to use the quote tags:
Clicking the "quote" link to reply will automatically generate quote tags around the entire quoted post, but if you want to make inline replies, you should add in more tags so that it doesn't appear as if your replies are part of the original quote.

adrenaline78

I am assuming you use netfilx and I'm assuming it doesn't cost more to rent the bluray titles.. So why not go with those if you have the technology.. I would. As far as purchacing, unless i'm getting a great deal on those comedy titles.. i would rather go with the cheapo dvd version.

You see I used to buy up everything and anything every Tuesday.. but now I rarely spend over $5 for any title. I rent first, if the movie is good then i will wait to buy it. The only time I will buy a new release is if it has cool packaging or something I know will go OOP sooner or later. The last title I bought new was that Star Trek enterprise case from Target.

Still trying to talk the wife into getting me a PS3.. so maybe santa will bring one for me this holiday.



As far as the quote tags. yeah i know how to use em. Just lazy!

Jay G.

Netflix charges from $1-$9 more to rent BDs, depending on your plan. Blockbuster Online doesn't charge anything additional though.

For me, at this point, if it's not worth paying for the BD version, if available, it's not worth buying. If I'm only willing to pay up to a certain amount for a film, I can wait until the BD drops to that price.

OK, just making sure since you're a "Cool New Member."

Carcosa

Since I last posted on this thread some time back I've watched the price drop on blu-ray discs far lower and faster than I thought would be possible. Some amazing prices on catalog titles like THE SEARCHERS, BULLITT and BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA ( what ever happened to Baracine?) for $7.99 each...they are actually cheaper than their DVD counterparts in some cases. Latest purchase was ANGELS AND DEMONS...looking quite amazing and well worth the $20 I spent. With players in the $100 range now how can anyone with a few bucks to spare NOT go blu-ray? You can still play all your DVDs on it just fine....

orangerunner

Yeah, it's making much more sense to switch but I still have reservations about the seemingly endless firmware upgrades that requires you to unhook the Blu-ray from your system and connecting it to the internet etc.

Question too, do blu-ray players play DVD-R discs as I have a lot of home videos I transferred? I also receive independant documentaries recorded on DVD-R as well that I wonder if they would play on Blu-ray.

mdnitoil

We've been down this road before, but I can NOT go blu-ray quite easily. I currently have 3 DVD players in the house, a computer player, two portables and one in the mini-van. That's a total of 7 potential locations for disc viewing. So, now I go out and plop a hundo on a blu-ray player and replace one of my DVD players. Next I go out and buy all these amazing cheap discs...well, not all that many since there hasn't been much of squat released. Finally, I go to watch these wunder-discs and...the one stinking television that is connected to the only BR player is unavailable because the wife just had to watch Grey's Anatomy on the big TV. Meanwhile, I can take my crappy old SD disc to any of the other players including the freakin' family vehicle and watch to my heart's content. So, from my perspective it's more like why would I take perfectly good money and waste it on blu-ray when I can get much more flexibility sticking with SD?

Travis McClain

Why not buy "the wife" her own big TV to watch Grey's Anatomy?

RobLutter

It's not blu-ray's fault if you're pussy whipped.

Travis McClain

I think you've just created your own signature!

Jay G.

You don't have to disconnect your BD Player from your system, ever. Some BD players have wifi, if you can't run a network cable to it. And if you don't have wifi, you can download the firmware on a PC and burn it to a disc, then load the disc into the BD player for the upgrade.

I also prefer the firmware upgrades to what happened with my first DVD player: It wasn't capable of playing some newer DVDs (like the T2 Ultimate DVD with seamless branching), so I had to get a new player. Luckily I had a replacement plan for the player.

BD Players can play CDR and DVD+/-R discs. They may even be able to play HD material on DVDR, depending on if it has AVCHD or AVCREC support.

Jay G.

Wouldn't this be a good excuse to get the big TV back from your wife though?

I imagine right now the conversation is:

mdnitoil: I want to watch this DVD.
wife: Go watch it on one of the other TVs. I'm watching Grey's Anatomy.

But with a BD player, the conversation would be:

mdnitoil: I want to watch this BD.
wife: Go watch it on one of the other TVs. I'm watching Grey's Anatomy.
mdnitoil: I can't, this TV has our only BD player.
wife: Oh, OK. I'll go watch my show in the other room at the next commercial break.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I went to blu-ray and I currently have 6 DVD players, 4 portables, 4 game systems that play DVDs, and 4 more players through computers. It's not really that hard to switch plus a lot of movies I'm buying have been DVD/Blu-ray combos.

If there's a will, there's a way(unless the wife has stolen the will).

Jay G.

Also, there's never really going to be a "good" time to buy a BD player, unless you're waiting until you can afford to replace all your DVD players at once.

It's the same as when DVD first came out; most people had only one DVD player, but several TVs and VCRs. Eventually, people bought second, then third, DVD players, game systems with DVD players, PCs with DVD-ROM drives, etc. So viewing options are limited at first, but grew over time after the first DVD player purchase.