story

I still buy DVDs but only started buying blu rays in the last two years or so. I don't have that many - one shelf just started to overflow compared to 15+ DVD shelves. But something happened last night that really sold me on BD 100%.

I installed a new BD disk drive into my new computer tower and put the Toy Story 3 DVD in the DVD drive and the Blu-ray in the BD drive. I let them play on dual monitors that are quite similar and synced them up so they played at the exact same time. The difference between the SD DVD and the HD BD was amazing. To see it side by side like that made me realize it in a definitive way. I even switched them to the opposite monitors to make sure it wasn't just the monitor but sure enough, the BD was incredibly better looking than the DVD.

I had really hemmed and hawed about whether to make the switch at Christmastime 2010 when we bought a PS3. I'll never question whether going Blu-ray is "worth it" again. I'm even more open to double dipping now! So for me, this was the definitive moment that marks me "getting it" and it completely snuck up on me.

What about you? Did you have a definitive moment when you realized, "Wow, high definition is the only way to go!" and how did it happen?

Solid Snake

The moment I read the specs.

Doing so though just meant I had to wait. BDs were too high at the time, in terms of price. In 2009 I got my PS3. I got TDK on BD the year before. That was my 1st BD. I already knew it was better. More features, bigger disc capacity, etc.

E Unit

When I paid too much for my fatboy PS3 and hooked it up and threw in The Descent, my first blu ray. Haven't gone back to DVD, except for the occasional season set that's not availible on Blu.

PopcornTreeCt

I think King Kong was my first HD DVD and I was blown away. The detail in the close ups of Naomi Watts and the city scenes towards the end were very, very impressive.

Roybq

Watched Cars playing on a tv at Best Buy. Noticed how I could make out the tiniest details on screen and was amazed by the clarity. That afternoon I picked up a Blu-ray player and a new tv. I haven't purchased a DVD since unless it was part of a combo pack.

Deadman31

I kept mostly all of my old dvds as they look perfectly fine to me. Occasionally Ill upgrade to blu ray or if its a new release Ill go blu.

bunkaroo

First viewing really. I had a 57" pro-calibrated display at the time so there was really no way I was not going to notice. For me the audio upgrade was just as important. First HD discs I ever watched was the Kingdom of Heaven Blu-ray and it convinced me right away I made the right choice to convert.

It's very rare now that I watch a film in standard def on DVD. Id guess around 85% of what I owned on DVD is now converted to Blu-ray, and most of the remaining 15% I've been able to catch in some sort of HD broadcast. I think the last DVD I watched was the Duellists which I had never seen and was tired of waiting to watch. Of course they then announced it for Blu so I'll be snapping that up day one.

asianxcore

I'll have to agree with you here. The first HD-DVDs I bought were the first time I was blown away by the differences in format. I believe they were Batman Begins and Mission Impossible 3.

dvd-4-life

Tremors HD-DVD

bruceames

Phantom of the Opera HD DVD on launch day.

Dan

At the Toshiba HD DVD event held at a local hotel. They had two HDTVs set up (both were at least 50"), one playing the DVD of Batman Begins, one playing the HD DVD. The improvement was unmistakable.

Jon2

The first time I saw a blu-ray... even though it was a retail display HDTV with bad (no) calibration and under florescent lighting. Don't remember what was playing, but it was something I was familiar with on DVD. It blew me away.

Unlike my first exposure to DVD, which left going meh. Of course, I was a laserdisc snob at the time and was so unimpressed by my initial look I presumed those "little" discs could never equal the quality of a good CAV laserdisc.

Live and learn.

DeanoBKN

First time I saw a Blu-Ray at a in-store display. Once I got a player in my home, I could never watch a DVD movie the same way again. It's amazing when I think about how great DVDs looked compared to VHS, and now I look at DVD the same way I did at VHS.

Iron_Giant

Ditto.

1. As soon as I read the specs I knew BR would be better.

2. Borrowed a friends PS3 player to hook up to my HDTV. Watched PotC #2 and experienced the difference myself. BR is one of those things you have to watch to understand (kind of like Baseball).

Year or so later...
3. I bought my first BR Player in March of 2009 and my 1st BR was TDK (Also Smallville Season 7).
-Never looked back, bought only 1 or 2 DVDs in the past 3 years 9 months. One by accident and one for my son's school project
-The IMAX scenes in TDK "Blu" me away even more. I now wish every movie was filmed in IMAX. To this day, if I want to show off BR Live Action capability, I use TDK IMAX to WOW all "BR Non-Believers" - gets them every time.

...Love Smalliville on BR

4. What surprised me even more out of BR was how clear the sound/dialog is.
-The sound is so crystal clear
-Even the Sub-Titles are cleaner/crisper/easier to read (for when the wife asks me to lower the sound when she is going to sleep).

Artman

Like others, I knew it before even seeing a demo. During 2006 and 07 I shipped the majority of my DVD's to DVDplanet for credit - best decision I ever made. It took some patience going without the newer films, and waiting for the blu-ray releases... but it's been well worth it. I have about 20 dvds remaining.

PopcornTreeCt

That's awesome. I still have probably a 1000 DVDs. *sigh

SterlingBen

Corpse Bride on demo at Circuit City

milo bloom

Yup.

Yes, there's a difference, and I can usually see it, but it's just not big enough to justify dumping all my old DVDs en masse.

As I pull out older titles and play them on the newer, bigger TV I had than when I first got them, some get upgraded and others don't (the first Austin Powers movie DVD looks like VHS).

orangerunner

I upgraded the titles I really wanted to watch over and over or titles that really benefited from the better picture and sound - and the price was right!

My TV is 46" and I sit probably 7 feet away so DVDs really don't look too bad especially when you don't have a Blu-ray version to compare them to.

I find when I watch a DVD I just settle in and enjoy it for how it looks and sounds.

When I think back to watching movies in the theatre, did I enjoy the movies I saw in 70mm more than I did in 35mm?

I don't really remember which format I saw them in, I just enjoyed (or disliked) the content for what it was.

OldBoy

when more extras were being made for the Blu-ray than its DVD counterpart. i didn't have an HDTV yet, but bought a Blu-ray player just to play the discs on standard so i could have all the extras. now, it's like a whole nother world.

Willh51

For me, it was the moment the WB logo faded into the opening of 300. I was watching my first HD-DVD, and realized then that resolution is king!

wishbone

I saw a Blu-ray played on my BIL's LCD TV but I didn't care much for the "soap opera effect." I read about motion interpolation so the issue was with his TV setting and not Blu-ray itself. I bought a Blu-ray player about two years ago but I didn't have the right cable for my older projection TV so I set it to 480p so I could watch a few Blu-rays. When I got the right cable and set it to 1080p it really was night and day -- the DVDs for Tron Legacy and Thor look pretty good but the Blu-ray presentations really took it to the next level.

I have been upgrading a few titles here and there, as well as picking up some that I have held off on getting, but I'm not going to upgrade most of my DVD titles.

islandclaws

I kinda hate to say it, but when I saw a demo of Transformers on HD DVD I immediately decided to buy a player, that film, and my favorite film: The Thing.

Once HD DVD died, I made the jump to BD around Nov. 2008 and that was that.

kahuna

Starting to sale of my 500+ Laser Disc collection before even dvd hit those test cities. My friends who I talked into getting into Laser Disc told me I was crazy. Then here comes hd-dvd & blu-ray and there goes my 2000+ dvd collection. A whole bunch also was shipped off to Dvd Planet. Now I have maybe 20 dvds left. Mostly concert dvds and movies I already have on BD that I can't even give away.

LosingMyMind

Send me a pm with details, I'll take them.