Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

I used to hang in this forum 'til I upgraded to Blu, and I have to report people on the Blu page often say that "some of those folks back in the DVD forum" claim that DVD is a superior format... is that true?

I come here in earnest, not to deride or mock your opinions, but just to see if people really do think that and why? Is it an aesthetic preference, i.e. picture and sound quality, or does it have more to do with the ease and convenience of operating a DVD vs. the long loading times and occassional firmware problems of Blu? Is it a (understandable) hatred of Sony?

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

In terms of variety of titles available, DVD is winner for now until BR catches up. I still think DVD is a great format and I own way more DVDs than BR. In terms of overall quality, BR blows DVD out of the water. Sure BR is more expensive overall in terms of the hardware you need, but prices are coming down.

For anyone who is interested, check out a thread I started in the HD forum:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/hd-talk/584...e-blu-ray.html

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

I think everyone needs to stop worrying about other people and like whatever they like and move on.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

the only thing dvd beats blu ray in is variety of titles and packaging in my opinion.

The variety of titles is something that dvd will always have over blu ray though, with digital downloads and streaming becoming so prevalent I doubt even 30 percent of the titles available on dvd will be released on blu ray. Especially with rapidly evolving technology I question how long blu ray will even be the most superior format. I honestly think the entire home video market will completly collapse in the next 10 years. Everything will be an online streaming purchase. dvd's will become the lp's of its time. the only people who will release anything that you can hold in your hand and put on your shelf will be people like criterion and kino, and other specialty labels who will put together an interesting package that will entice people to purchase the physical items.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

DVDs have a faster load time - some Blus are painfully slow to start or resume a movie.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

It's all in your gear. I end up doing most of my watching on a 32" 720P screen with the audio coming through the TV speakers. Sure Blu looks better, but it's not that much better and the lack of titles and pathetic load times coupled with the inability to remember where the hell I left off if I interrupt a movie in the middle makes the format just less attractive. So, in my viewing environment, the picture is marginally better, the audio is darn near identical, there's less to watch and all I'm left with is the sheer inconvenience of the format. It just doesn't seem worth it, more often than not.

What I really look forward to in these threads is the inevitable post telling me if I'm not seeing a big difference then I'm not doing it right. -rolleyes-

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

Blu-ray is great for certain things, DVD for others, VHS for others. Not everything needs to be seen as clearly as it is in Blu-ray. In fact, I don't believe my eyes can take Blu-ray for extended periods. One movie at a time and that's it. I haven't tested it yet, though. But the only things I'll watch on Blu-ray are movies with a lot of visual spectacle, filled with details that Blu-ray can bring out. A lot of the stuff I watch doesn't have that spectacle and doesn't really need that kind of format. I watch a lot of westerns. Blu-ray is fine for masterpieces like THE SEARCHERS and THE WILD BUNCH. DVD is fine for stuff like various second-tier John Wayne westerns like CHISUM and THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER and whatever Randolph Scott westerns come out in the format. VHS is fine for B-westerns and various TV westerns--which look a helluva lot better on VHS than they did on the old small-screen b&w TV set I grew up watching them on.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

But you can place a bookmark when you stop watching the movie, and just resume it at that point when you restart it. That's what I do. It's not that bad.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

Yes, there is a workaround, I just have to remember to do some button mashing each time I want to make it happen.

Going back to the OPs question, I don't think you'll find anyone here suggesting that DVD is somehow better than BR. Technically, we just wouldn't have a leg to stand on. For a lot of folks though, DVD has been and still is more than adequate for their needs. Kind of like hi-def audio. Everybody knows it's better than CD but CD is more than adequate for a great many people. Like most things, I can buy the cheap version, the moderate version and the most tricked out version. More often than not, the moderate version suits my needs perfectly and the additional bells and whistles are cute but not worth the time/money. For me, that sums up DVD versus BR.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

That bookmark/resume thing is something that still just flabbergasts me. Is there actually something in the Bluray software that makes this so hard to do? Those cheapo $30 DVD players they sell now can resume discs, why is it so hard to do on a Bluray player?

This issue, plus the other comments regarding title availability, loss of special features, load times, etc, make DVD, at the very least, Bluray's equal for the time being.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

The forums should be combined again. I like blu-rays but the BR forum here is just so boring compared to the DVD one.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

^This; but cheers to the millionth thread on DVD vs. Blu-ray. Is there a prize?

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

There actually is something that prohibits it. Discs encoded with BD-Live do not support resume play, I forget the reason though.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

If someone isn't seeing a big difference they aren't doing it right.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

lol

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

or legally blind?

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

We had our Netflix set up to send us Blurays of titles when available, and while we could see the difference, that difference simply wasn't always enough to make it worth the extra money. So our Netflix is now DVD only, but if we rent something that we later want to buy, I'll see if the Bluray is available at a good price.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

Look people, I've said this before and I'll say it again, VHS is far superior to Betamax and anyone that says differently loves Mel Gibson.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

DVD : :thumbsup::thumbsup:
Blu-Ray : :thmbsdwn::thmbsdwn:
:D

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

It's the Java that keeps the blu-rays from resuming. Don't know why, though.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

For New Releases:

Blu beats DVD cold.

For Catalog Titles:

DVD obliterates Blu in terms of extras--
(more often than not we get stiffed on the goodies from the original DVD releases when they get transferred to Blu. Why fricking bother?)

Also:

DVD menus > Blu Ray menus

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

I tell this to the people I stalk, all the time. Last night, for example, they came home and turned on the light and started screaming when they saw me. I'm like, chill, dawg. Stop worrying about other people and whatever they like, alright?

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

It's weird that this has never been discussed before.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

I don't think either is better than the other, I think both have their advantages and disadvantagse. I watch my DVDs on a 53" Pioneer HDTV Projection Monitor (no HDMI) using a Sony SLV-D550P DVD/VHS player, perfectly happy with my setup. I can find practically every movie I ever wanted on DVD (something that's not possible with BluRay). The picture quality is excellent on every one of my DVDs except Outland (Sean Connery) and that's the studio's fault (hopefully they'll remaster & re-release it sometime soon). BluRay has picture quality to boast about, but since the additional picture enhancements are not one of my concerns, I can live without it. Supposedly BluRay is the new technology and I have no problems with new technology, but by the time they get all the bugs worked out and get a selection that rivals DVD, an even newer technology will be unveiled and BluRay will be abandoned in favor of it.

At any rate, I think both have their advantages but right now I prefer to stick with my DVDs. -kd5-

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

rotfl

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

How so?

on blu the menu can be seen without leaving the movie on about 98%
of the discs.
on dvd menu stops the movie completely. I love being able to keep the movie on if I want to check the menu for something.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

I think that Blu Ray absolutely blows away DVD. But, some films (like Lord of the Rings) look great on DVD still to me.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

And deaf.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

Ok, I can see from the responses that the people on the Bluray forum are clearly exaggerating when they say that those guys in the DVD forum are "still claiming" that DVD has better picture/sound than Bluray. Everything you all said is pretty reasonable and I agree with most of it.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

Anyone who claims DVD has better pic quality is lying.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

I just re-read the thread and I don't believe anybody here has made that claim. I'll be the first to admit that BluRay has that advantage, it's just not enough of an advantage for me to want to change from DVD to BluRay. -kd5-

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

I buy Blu for all new movies, favorites that I want to upgrade to a better picture quality and anything really inexpensive on Blu but I still buy dvds when they are catalog titles and am perfectly happy with it. It's great finding older movies on dvd that have commentaries, documentaries, etc for $3...it'll be awhile before Blu can do that. It's all price relative for me...I'll keep buying both for the foreseeable future.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

Depends on what criterion one is using. Volume of titles, number of players in the marketplace, ability to play a disc pretty much anywhere, etc. DVD wins out. Picture and audio quality, Blue ray wins out most of the time.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

All of Criterion's Blu-rays have been better than their DVD counterparts.

;)

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

While that may be true, it still depends upon which criteria one uses.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

Depends.
I own the movie Just Friends on DVD & Blu-Ray. The Blu-Ray has NO special features while the DVD is advertised "PACKED WITH HILARIOUS FEATURES!" and I have the Observe and Report Blu-Ray and DVD. The Blu-Ray is FILLED with bonus features while the DVD has NONE AT ALL.
The BD quality is excellent, but I can live with DVDs.
I only buy blurays when it is a combo pack or if I already own the DVD.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

Something similar to this question was on the blu-ray.com site and almost unanimously people favored Blu-ray. After my own experiments, It's not as black and white a question as I thought. Personally I like Blu-ray but at the same time don't find it to live up to the hype. A very well transferred Blu-ray will be superior, but I am finding some titles are not good transfers and actually look worse overall than the DVD. I find too that consistent picture quality is an issue, one minute it looks great, the next minute the contrast and color is whacked out, almost as if a good Blu-ray transfer needs to be done very carefully, scene by scene. The DVD format is more forgiving, so it winds up a case where some scenes clobber the DVD and some scenes actually look worse. If the DVD is mastered really well and the Bluray just ok than it's a toss up, the 2 may be hard to choose between and you might find yourself wondering as I sometimes do "why did I buy that movie again?". Other factors will be the screen size of display (with Bluray presumably doing better on bigger screens), and the quality of your DVD upscaling- Denon or OPPO players that use the anchor bay 2010 chip make DVD look very close to Blu-ray (on my 40 inch screen anyway). Obviously the quality of the original production is a factor, some things just won't be much of an improvement on BD, others seem born for it.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

At that site? Shocking.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

If you have a good display upconverted DVD's of newer movies will look very good compared to the blu counterpart. However older movies on blu will look vastly superior. That to me is the real night and day comparison. The blu wow factor came to me when comparing John Carpenters Assault in Precinct 13 between DVD and blu. It was unreal how much better the blu looked.

Re: Is DVD better than Blu Ray? If so, why?
 

Do you know of any online screeshots to compare this?