I can't believe this hasn't discussed this before.

Like what has already been said dozens of times in the other threads like this, it is not an either/or situation. DVDs work in blu-ray players. I have a large DVD collection as well as a large BD collection. More options buying both.

-kd5-

I made the switch to Blu many a moons ago (actually went Red first) but would probably not do it again and this is the last format I buy into. Im not a revenue stream anymore and only buy used now and the occasional new if its something I really want. Hell Ive even given up cable for the first time and besides the convienece of it, dont miss it at all. These are words that 5-7 years ago would never have been uttered by me.

I've got 3 BD players, none of which are connected to an "outside source".

They have no way to "screw me", even if I thought such a paranoid possibility was likely.

How do you do the firmware upgrades in order to allow certain discs to play? It's a serious question as I don't have a BR player.

I rarely do firmware updates, but in the cases when I've needed to, I can download the update onto CD-Rom and just install it manually. There's always multi-page threads online with people confirming that the update works and won't "brick" a player.


But, again, I can't remember the last time I updated firmware on any of my machines.

I like old movies and all the movies that came out from 2000 seem to have this green,teal and yellow tint. So I'm not paying for that.
Also the old movies although they may look better don't have the feel of film like when I saw them at the theater. I'll stick with dvd with the price being just right.

Originally Posted by kd5
since my TV doesn't have HDMI, it probably won't do me any good.

I think 1080p is only achievable through the HDMI inputs. 1080i/720p are the highest through component. I heard it has to do with the copy protection on Blu discs that won't allow a component connection to deliver 1080p.

Either way, the quality of Blu-ray is certainly noticable through the component cables.

It's partly financial for me, and partly having the time to research a good player. If I could get a really nice (i.e. Oppo-like) player for around $250 that is also region-free, I would go for it. But I don't believe this is possible, nor do I own an HDTV. I will likely buy the TV first.

OR, if you would like to actually be honest, that's par for the course for the biggest new release dvds of the week.


Try buying something more obscure, and you'll find a tremendous price difference:

http://www.amazon.com/Women-Cages-Co...7701327&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Collection-Cor...7701327&sr=1-2

Nice try, though.

I should've added that my TV is only capable of 1080i and no component cables (no matter what they're made of) will squeeze 1080p out of 1080i. -kd5-

I initially swore off Blu-ray because of a Sony grudge for things like the rootkit fiasco. At the time I was considering dipping into HD, before it lost the format war.

With over 1000 in my collection, rebuying is not attractive. I still enjoy regular DVD on my non-HD widescreen. When I move up to a 1080p I figure I'll see a quality bump from upconverting. I don't want to have a handful of titles that look so much better that the rest of my collection dims in comparison.

My hope is to wait out the Blu phase and skip from DVD to whatever the next phase is, maybe a non-physical-media streaming infrastructure. I do like owning a physical disc, being able to scan through my shelves of titles, pull one out and read the back cover or check the episode listing. But if I can pull up a collection online and have as much control over what I watch and when, I don't think I'd miss my discs so much. I certainly won't miss continually running out of shelf space.

Up until a few months ago, my reason was the cost. I didn't have a player and the movies seemed to overpriced. I bought a PS3 however and after renting a blu ray disc I can tell you that there's a BIG difference between DVD and BR. I won't go out and replace my more than 800 DVDs anytime soon, but I have begun to get the itch to replace my very favorites.

You have something better to do?

Watch Blu-rays?

Hear hear.

Off the top of my head, some recent & upcoming SD-only releases:

The Baby & Bloody Birthday (Severin)
Duck Soup & the rest of the 4 Marx Bros (Universal)
Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive (Discotek)
Gargoyles (Henstooth)
MST3K Volumes XX & XXI (Shout Factory)
Nightmare: 30th Anniversary (Code Red)
Strip-Tease [1962] (Mondo Macabro)
The Witchmaker (Code Red)

There's a whole world of SD cinema out there.

Agreed. Which is why I buy movies, not formats. I still buy DVDs, even with a BD player. Best of both worlds and all of that...

...using the technology to facilitate the cinema, not determine it.

(I still view regional encoding as a worse culprit than formatting. Would anyone mind giving me an estimate of how much a region-free Blu-ray player would cost? I don't feel like doing the tech research. Suffice it to say, I'm on a budget. I don't care about snazzy apps, just something a bit better than defective junk. Reliable & simple. Thank you.)

Regardless of whether you agree with my opinion or not, it is honest.

Yep, the trouble with generalizations is that they'll bite you in the ass. So, I'll revise my previous point:

Most major new releases on Blu-ray are priced competitively with their DVD counterparts and frequently (depending upon studio) come with both formats.

In the instances where this is not the case and you don't want to pay the price difference, a Blu-ray player will also play DVDs. Options are a wonderful thing.

Honest enough for you kinterboy?

I thought so.

Component cables are perfectly capable of 1080p, but the specs for HD formats (HD DVD included) don't permit it. But you're aware, aren't you, that 1080i is still "full HD" and is the format used by most broadcast networks? Most people will be unable to distinguish between 1080i and 1080p, and a Blu-ray player hooked up via component will still look fantastic.

Yes, there is, and a Blu-ray player will play it just fine. bboisvert's post says it all.

I've been told that a Blu-Ray player might make my DVDs (don't own any Blu-Ray discs) look better, but I've also been told that I'll never get 1080p (Blu-Ray standard) out of a 1080i TV with no HDMI, consequently what you've said conflicts with everything I've been told up to this point. So, I trust you'll forgive me if I don't believe everything that everybody tells me. -kd5-

If I was reading what you two were talking about, you were talking about the cables, Mr. Salty commented on what you said about the cables and you are now talking about the TV.

But he's right. 1080i still looks pretty damn good when I watch it cable channels. And my DVDs do look better when played on my blu-ray player. Does it look as good as full HD? No. But it's damn better than straight SD. Maybe my Panasonic player does a very good job of upconverting.

I'll put it this way: Until I upgraded my receiver a year ago with one that has HDMI switching, I had my HD DVD player hooked up with component cables, running 1080i. The diffence between it and my Blu-ray player running 1080p was indistinguishable on a 50-inch screen.

What movies have this tinting you're talking about ? Other than Matrix, I can't think of any strangely tinted movie out lately.

I don't know about the other colors, but every frickin' recent horror movie can't be complete without some green.