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Blu-ray format... Do you like it compared to DVD?

Before I get to my questions.
I would like you to know this is our first ventcher into boob tube home entertainment.

We have just replaced our Sony tv with a new Panasonic 37 inch LCD.
Prior to the purchase we were given a used Sony 6 channel surround with "small cube speakers" and a subwoofer, which B.T.W. passes my wife's approval.
A few days ago I mounted the speakers and had it up and running using our Sony tv.

That evening we watched a movie and the both of us enjoyed the added feature of the surround sound in our home.

The both of us are not complete strangers to home theater, we have watched movies in friends home.

Through out our marriage the both of us have never really been interested in spending hours on end in front of a tv.

I recall once having a bumber sticker many years ago that read..."Shoot Your T.V."

Anyway, here we are now.

Last night we watched two dvds on the new Panasonic tv.
Blue planet documentary and a movie called Layer Cake.
The dvds were recommended and lent to us for the weekend.

We enjoyed both of them ,however we were going to spread the time for watching the dvds for Friday and Saturday night, didn't happen, however I borrowed more.

My question to those of you that own a Blu-ray player, how do you like this format compared to standard dvd?

Which brand of player are you using also would it be worth buying into this format at this time?

The current dvd player we are using now is on short term loan.

Basically I would like to experience what this highly rated Consumer Report Panasonic tv can do.


stiltskin
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
If you have a 1080P TV = 1920 x 1080 pixels then there is no question that Blu-ray quality is better. Get Planet Earth by the BBC in HD and prepare to be gobsmacked!
kennyt's avatar
kennyt
1,226 posts
 
You are using a very small TV (sorry, not trying to bash you, but 37" is small by modern standard) at that size it might be tough to fully appreciate the benefit of Blu-ray.

I personally run a 70" Sony and 42" Panasonic, both have had Blu-ray players on them since the format came out, and YES, it is a big step up, especially if your TV does 1080p, and the bigger the set, the bigger the difference.

FWIW I have had 5 different Blu-ray players, and my favorite to date is the new Sony BDP-S350, it loads amazingly fast, and with the addition of a memory stick (which can be had for a few dollars) it is Profile 2.0 should you ever want to use that. I got it on Amazon for $278, and with my vouchers, it cost me $148, tough to beat!
stiltskin OP
499 posts
 
Shadorne
Yes our tv is 1920 x 1080.

We particularly liked the first series of Blue Planet.
Right from the beginning it had me thinking about a higher quality source/ format.
Not that the picture was flawed, I know the picture can be better. We did spend time looking at most of the brands and saw some great looking pictures.

I'll check out Planet Earth.

Kennyt
I can appreciate what your telling me regarding screen size.
Replacing our perfectly good Sony tube tv was purely my wife's idea.
The Sony tv sat in a cabinet/ book case and mini bar which is now gone including the tv.
This was one room in our home she felt needed a make over.

My reasoning/ protest for a larger screen including no need to buy new flooring and furniture for that one room fell short.

I was reminded I had my way with a 1000 square feet of our home for my two channel system.
The rest of the house is hers....Period

As for a Blu Ray player, we will look into them with anticipation.
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
OK, BluRay is better, but I don't see a big enough difference to change from DVD's, especially since I see BluRay as the 8-track of this decade. It's a stop gap. Anyone who has an AppleTV and has downloaded HD movies that I have talked to has the same impression that I do. The HD content looks so good off of the downloads, not as good as BluRay yet, that the logical next step in downloading to 1080p seems just on the horizon.

With that said, why would someon buy a very expensive single disc player (as I did)? I don't want to replace my hundreds of DVD's with BluRay discs, the difference in quality, to me, is not as noticable as say the change from VHS to DVD. Not even close.

Also, the current crop of upconverting multidisc players are so good the difference is just not that big.

I put my BluRay player in the bedroom with the LCD in there, it just didn't get used that much. I may just put it on eBay.

It may not be AppleTV but I think it, or some combination of other downloadable movie formats will be standard in the near future. If you want to keep the movie, you will download it to your network storage, which gets cheaper all the time.
jamesw20
270 posts
 
I just don't get folks who are so in favor of HD downloads. Why spend the money for the download if you can buy a preowned blu for $10-15? Then watch as many times as you like. To download and keep the number of movies I think most of us want you would need several terabytes at a huge cost. Then think about backing up files?? I get pc audio but can someone explain how I'm wrong on HD video?
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