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

FWIW - A $250 BD player can play DVD's too....just because you own one does not mean you are forced to buy every $35 release that comes out. I use common sense. I only buy movies that I really want - the others I wait until they show up on TV. Besides taking the family to a movie is even more expenisve!

FWIW: HALF the movie experience is sound - if you can't achieve the dynamic loud surround sound in a movie theatre then you will be missing half of it. IN that sense it is better to go to the movies if you don't have a high end HT (of similar quality to high end two channel).

I am always amazed to hear that some people don't see a dramatic difference between standard DVD and Blu Ray. To my eye it is night and day and if only my audio purchases were as dramatic I would be very happy indeed. I find that with Audio gear it is much more incremental.

At any rate, I have a 50" 720p plasma and as I don't care a great deal for much on TV I just run analog cable which looks pretty awful. I picked up an Oppo player which was highly regarded and it does a great job on standard DVD's. When I got into high def movies I found it to be a significant upgrade and at this point I hardly consider watching a standard DVD. Even if you don't have a 1080p TV the results are extremely impressive, to the point that I haven't even been tempted to upgrade my panel at all.

All that being said, just like with recorded music, some Blu Ray discs look better than others. The biggest thing that you have to get over is that because film has grain, many movies will have a grain to them especially on darker scenes but the detail will still be considerably better. To compare to the audio world, some great recordings have a bit of background noise or hiss but they can still be great recordings all the same. There is a website called High Def Digest which has great reviews listing content, picture quality and sound quality of each disc. It's a great resource to find out if the disc you are considering buying is actually a good transfer etc. The better discs should certainly impress though. If not, you should pay a visit to your local optometrist.

Playstation 3 Plays SACD?? Is that right??

((Playstation 3 Plays SACD?? Is that right??))

Yes.

Has anyone noticed that 720p TVs seem to look slightly better on hi def TV and regular DVD? I was at Circuit City this morning and I compared some of the same brands with the only real difference being 720 or 1080p.