I just upgraded to Blu-Ray after buying my first HD TV. Until recently I was happy with DVDs since they looked fine on my previous TV. Then I saw The Dark Knight being played on Blu-Ray on a HD TV at my local store.......I was then sold.

I remember seeing some posts a while ago where folks stated that they'd refuse to upgrade to Blu-Ray. If you're still out there, I guess one of my questions would be why? (assuming the answer doesn't have to do with cost).

For me:
1. my DVD players still work.
2. VLC still doesn't support BR.
3. May just skip BR and go Digital format like Amazon VOD.

1. my DVD players still work, and DVD titles still look great.
2. don't want to integrate something else into my home theater right now
3. cost [I know players are around 100, but titles are generally more than I want to spend, although they are dropping]
4. content - i currently have lots of content on DVD, and relatively little of the content I want to watch is on BD right now
So it's not so much "I refuse to upgrade", but "I haven't found a compelling reason to upgrade". I'll admit that good bluray on a good tv looks incredible. But very few of the titles I have or am interested in are in bluray. Plus I like having the flexibility of DVD, but most things I would get on bluray I would probably watch only in one place. - although I like the combo disk [but don't like the digital copy].

If I should end up needing a new DVD player, I would most likely go ahead and get a bluray to allow for that upgrading.

I actually was looking in the bluray player aisle last night, but ironically, mostly to see which devices have Netflix built in, since my Xbox Live Gold is expiring soon and I use it for the Netflix instant queue. [Side note: very few of the boxes I saw told you anything about the connections, I guess most are HDMI now, but one was Coax audio only, not optical. Only one had a pic of the rear of the device].

Dark Knight was one that sold me initially as well (and some others to boot, but DK was the biggie). I have lots of friends who haven't upgraded to blu and an equal number who have. Those who haven't contribute it to:

A)They don't want to rebuy their favorites.
B)Extra or new equipment.
C)They think its a fad.
D)Just don't care.
E)Being old and stubborn (my parents ).

I upgrade about 2 years ago and there are some discs that the difference is night and day but for the most part if you have a good TV your upconverted DVD's will look great. The difference between my 46" Sharp Aquos and my 46" Toshiba Regza is stunning on standard DVD's. The Regza blows the picture quality of SDVD's out of the water. That alone is enough for me not to upgrade previously purchased DVDs to blu.

This question might get more responses in the DVD forum....you might want to post it there as well.

While you're there, tell them that you have no problem with exclusive special features found only on the Blu-ray version of the film.

If you check the Blu-ray Bargains forum and Blu-ray.com, there are plenty of dirt-cheap titles on Amazon. There are/have been dozens at $9.99 and below. It seems like Blu-ray disc prices are at their lowest ever right now.

This reason doesn't make sense, because all Blu-ray players play DVDs. Having a Blu-ray player does not require you to "rebuy your favorites." You (generally, not you Kedrix) can just buy new releases on Blu-ray and keep all your existing DVDs.

I only have one other friend who has gone Blu; he's unmarried (though involved) and has no kids. He works on archaeological digs and a hard-earned disposable income as a result. The rest of our friends are generally better off than us financially, but have other priorities. What's odd to me is that the other three friends in our circle (all three married) all have HDTVs and HD cable/satellite. I can't wrap my head around why they want their TV to be in HD, but don't feel compelled to watch their movies that way. Any time it comes up, they just act unimpressed, as though there's a discontinuity in their brains between the two. I gave up.

With players below $100, and many, many titles in the $10-$20 range, there are no excuses left.

I haven't converted, but like the original OP, I have just purchased my first HDTV. Now it's a matter of finding the right BD player for me. I'm pretty frugal when it comes to DVD purchases now (due to streaming/Netflix), so price of Blu-ray discs aren't an issue. I've thinned out my collection of dvds, too. Only keeping what I feel are collector's (Ed Wood, Tron, Criterion's) or have high replay value.

I was pretty stubborn when it came to HD mainly because of the price of players & discs and lack of an 1080p TV (I have a 1080i CRT right now) but I caved in this Christmas in an unlikely way.

I bought an Toshiba A2 HD DVD player with 30 movies for $75 off of craigslist and then followed-up buying 49 more movies for $50 on eBay.

Two weeks later I bought a Sony BDP-S360 for $80. The local video store that was going out of business was selling their Blu-rays for 3/$9.99.

Given my set-up the difference isn't jaw-dropping, but it is better than DVD.
What the hell, the price was right so it made sense.

Due to the lack of video stores in my city, renting has become difficult and now that the holiday sales are over, the store prices are still over $25 for new releases and over $10 for select catalogue titles. In Canada, higher shipping costs can kill any deal you might find on the internet.

Probably the same reasons why most Blu-ray owners still haven't upgraded to Blu-ray 3D.

Largely, but 3D has the added factor of people actively disliking the format. With "regular" Blu-ray, it seems to be more a matter of not being sufficiently wowed.

That it gives you a headache and there's nothing available but a handful of CGI films?

I initially refused to buy Blu Ray back when new releases couldn't be found for less than $30. Once that barrier dropped, so did my resistance.

2. Integrate what? just pull out the dvd player and put in the lu ray player. Get rid of extra wires and attach one hdmi cable.

3. Cost, you can still buy dvds if you want to just like you are now.

I don't know what blu ray player would not have hdmi, that sounds very wrong to me.

hell yeah! my grandma, stubborn old lady

I'd probably give up all my hundreds of DVDs to do that if I didn't also have a family to think about...


While we bought a PS3 about a year ago, we still have less than a dozen Bluray movies, and only two PS3 games. We mainly use it for watching DVDs and streaming Netflix.

Most stuff looks a little nicer, but to me there isn't a "killer app" title yet that's really made me go nuts. I've tried to buy new purchases on Blu, but for most things regular DVD is, as so many people put it, sufficient. And of course all the titles I already have on DVD and haven't even watched yet.

I still think it comes back to the old quality vs quantity mentality. Hundreds of titles in the highest quality or thousands in the 2nd best...

My TV has one DVI input, my receiver has no HDMI. Optical audio or 7.1 analog audio. My DVD player is 5 disk and usually has 4 or 5 disks in it. I have no more shelves on my entertainment center.

True. However, I don't need a new dvd player [mine works fine], and as said earlier, there's no 'killer app' for me. Of my last 20 DVD purchases, probably 16 were TV on DVD, only three of which are on blu [for double the cost], and the rest were 4 for 10 dollar random PVD purchases.
I keep considering a PS3 for the multipurpose aspect [less appealing now since standalone players are much cheaper] but again, I've had no major thing pulling me in.
Out of the top ten blurays on Amazon.com, I have a middling interest in seeing 3 of them, and don't care enough to pay the prices, even if I already had a player.

I don't "refuse" to upgrade specifically, but there's no compelling thing pushing me in that direction.

Speaking of other people just based on my own experience, I think it's primarily both "not that much of a difference" and "don't want to spend the extra money" [whether or not those are real or perception.] Younger people might also be more accepting on digital download and instant streaming.

If anybody is watching DVDs on an HDTV without HDMI they are the equivalent of Joe Six Pack was years ago with full screen only DVDs.

That's what I've done. I never understood this concept that Blu-Ray and HDTVs suddenly make DVDs obsolete. I have quite a few DVDs that look fantastic and quite a few more that aren't even on Blu-Ray anyway (and may never be) so I keep them around.

I was going to post this but once fucking again...Groucho is ahead of the crowd.

Can someone please tell me who the hell are 'all of the people switching to digital download'? No one, and I literally mean NO ONE I know has or ever buys a movie via itunes, Amazon VOD, Vudu, or any digital download service. I really wish I knew, because I don't know anyone who is doing this, much less on a consistent basis.

And those who do have their movies stored digitally have bought hard copies at one point. I'm not including people who torrent or anything either, their money doesn't count (since they don't spend it).