Blu-ray Growing, but 58% Still Confused

[Marcus Yam]

Some people still think standard-def DVD is "good enough" compared to Blu-ray Disc.

Blu-ray Growing, but 58% Still Confused : Read more

 

[toxxel]

Would believe the price would deters people people from getting to know the difference between the two.

 

[scook9]

Thats because they havent seen blu ray on a HD tv yet. It is definately better. Even 720p is better. I have a blu ray drive in both my laptop (for traveling) and my HTPC, it is the way to go. And movies can be bought for as low as $15 now (depending on the title). And for the people who think that an upscaling dvd player is enough, you are idiots. The only advantage upscaling offers is that the LCD panel can now run at its native resolution as supposed to scaling down to the 640x480 (or less) resolution that DVDs come with. The color depth and sound are still much worse than HD (Blu Ray and even HD DVD if you can find them). I have watched "upscaled" DVD's on a very high end sony 52" LCD HDTV and in the dark areas of the screen there was very bad and obvious digital noise where the panel had to aproximate for a lack of color data for those pixels.

Bottom line, Blu Ray is much better, if you dont think so, go to your local bestbuy and look at their demos. If you are really just too cheap, say that, don't try to act all high and mighty and say that Blu Ray is just overpriced DVDs.

ALthough I do agree that paying for software to watch a movie from a disc that you paid for on a player that you paid for is bullshit. Thank god you can download any version of CyberDVD for free these days.

 

[erun]

@ scook9

Sure, Blu Ray is much better for visual quality. However, some people don't mind the difference in quality and can enjoy a normal DVD as well. I don't necessarily watch a movie or TV for the visual quality, but more for the stories told, so despite being tech-savy and liking the higher resolution, I don't feel the need to shell out money for Blu-Ray.

My point is that some people really mean it when they say DVD is good enough for them.

 

[radguy]

I don't think most people are confused. I bet that they didn't have a better answer on the questionare than "not very familiar" compared to other choices.
Personally I still won't buy a blu-ray player until I can find one a good one under a hundred bucks.

 

[fuser]

I saw an article recently that suggested that many people really can't tell the difference because of eyesight problems.

 

[Guest]

Even a nice low resolution youtube video can make most of the people happy. Does Full HD look better... yes, but it doesn't double the joy factor. Well, those shiny scifi movies may look awesome in HD but do people care at what resolution they are watching "Gilmore Girls"?
On the other hand I was interested in blue-ray as backup medium, but HDDs have become so cheap...
So I would say for an average person DVD does the job.

 

[grieve]

I often find myself saying “damn I love the picture” when watching a blue-ray on my PS3. As a matter of fact I notice such a difference it may take away from the movie because I’m busy noticing stones on the road or a needle in the haystack.

I do not own a lot of discs however as they are simply too pricey still.

If I had to choose blue-ray or DVD it would be a no brainer…. Blue-ray.

 

[zerapio]

[citation][nom]scook9[/nom]The only advantage upscaling offers is that the LCD panel can now run at its native resolution as supposed to scaling down to the 640x480 (or less) resolution that DVDs come with.

The color depth and sound are still much worse than HD (Blu Ray and even HD DVD if you can find them).

ALthough I do agree that paying for software to watch a movie from a disc that you paid for on a player that you paid for is bullshit. Thank god you can download any version of CyberDVD for free these days.[/citation]
LCD's don't "scale down", content is always scaled to the display resolution whether by the player (standalone or PC) or the display. Scalers on low end displays usually have very basic interpolation algorithms and that's why the resulting image looks bad compared to that from a player. Some players have sophisticated algorithms for interpolating that exploit spatial and temporal information from the pixels that produce pretty good upscaled images.

I do agree with you that the Blue Ray format brings other improvements than image resolution. I do not agree that because you purchased a BD movie and a BD-ROM that you're entitled to pirating a player. If you feel that HD players should be free and paying for them is "bulshit" then go to SourceForge and start working on an open source one. It's an excellent way of protesting.

 

[Myrdek]

@ scook9

Of course it's better, but if you compare to the earlier format evolution its a very small step forward. When DVD came out, it was one huge upgrade over VHS, making the leap was very tempting.

Blu-Ray is a very small upgrade compared to DVD and most people don't really mind missing out on it unless its very cheap. That and the fact that most people don't even have the TV for it, or its not big enough to see a difference unless you sit right in front.

I doubt companies will bother making a new format after this, and if they do people won't buyt it. Unless they invent real 3D or something

 

[Guest]

Oh I'm sorry would you like an engine with that car?

That will be at extra cost...

Thankfully LG and ASUS are bundling decent HD player software with their products. ( But I have to pay EXTRA for 5.1! )

 

[matt87_50]

"hardware and software was too expensive" agreed, and i'm a big fan of bluray. A dvd player is good enough if you don't care about having the best picture and sound (and especially if you have an SD tv or any tv less than 32" or so). In conclusion: MAKE THE DISKS CHEAPER! and improve the awesome:meh ratio in the library of titles.

 

[LATTEH]

blueray is still to expansive for me and since we are in a recession i dont think i should buy it because if sony stops making them for some reason ill be out 200 bucks

 

[cadder]

We are stuck with standard def. analog cable, and all we have are standard def. televisions. BluRay is meaningless to us. I suspect there are lots of people that can't spend several months salary on a new tv. I think a lot of people, even those with HD sets, sit far enough away from the set that they couldn't tell if it was HD or not. I've seen graphs on the net that tell for a certain screen size and viewing distance what the max. resolution is that you can detect. For our TV and viewing distance, the chart says we couldn't tell if it was HD or not.

 

[spellbinder2050]

I won't be buying a blu ray with these prices anytime soon...

 

[KyleSTL]

[citation][nom]Myrdek[/nom]@ scook9Of course it's better, but if you compare to the earlier format evolution its a very small step forward. When DVD came out, it was one huge upgrade over VHS, making the leap was very tempting. Blu-Ray is a very small upgrade compared to DVD ...[/citation]
You're attempting to make the argument that 480i to 480p was a bigger improvement than 480p to 1080p? You sir, fail.

 

[SchizoFrog]

@scook9
Your comments are rude and naive. First of all, the public general opinion was confused about Blu-Ray. The general public does not go out of its way to learn things, it has to be fed to them. With that said, I wouldn't buy anything that I didn't understand and the issue certainly wasn't helped by the very public battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The next issue was that as one of the reasons for not upgrading was that their current hardware and DVDs were good enough. That doesn't mean Blu-Ray isn't better. It means they are happy with what they have. Not everyone would buy an expensive new car even if they could afford them just for the sake of it. There are other considerations too. Personally I like a TV that is large enough for me to watch what I want but I certaily do not want it to dominate my room, TV is not everything to some people. Therefor I am happy with a 37'' or even a 32'' LCD and my DVDs are fine on it and in my opinion good enough. I have this opinion because I remember when DVDs came out and everyone thought they were great and people were not sitting around complaining about the quality of the picture. Just because there is a newer technology does not mean that the older one is now useless, the failure of Laser Discs would be a good example here. Then there is the issue of cost. Blu-Ray hardware is still way too expensive, especially in this economic climate and that has nothing to do with being 'cheap'. Why should I pay out £1000's to replace my current DVDs for a slightly better picture when I believe that my DVDs are good enough? I have always said that Blu-Ray will fail. Not because of its cost or lack of massive benefits over DVDs. I believe this becuase we as consumers are moving rapidly towards an on-demand culture. With faster and faster internet connections, massive libraries of content, no discs to get scratched or stolen, etc... Surely this is the way to go?

P.S. Try to be consistant in future. Before commenting on other poeple being 'cheap' why do you want 'freeware' software when you can pay for better software? Or are you being 'cheap'?

 

[hemelskonijn]

What use would a BlueRay player be to those like me who don't have loads of cash laying around.
I have a superb "old-school" CRT TV and my beloved Denon Audio set.
If i wanted to get full use out of the blueray thing i would have to buy a new TV (and to be more correct one that is has at least the same screen size) and a new audio set.

And to be honest you can call me crazy but there is no sound like a good tube Denon (or some other high end brands), its not like we are capable of hearing quadrophonic any way thus making the "suround experience" either depending on cheap chip solutions in overpriced systems or a well regulated setup in an adjusted room.

I think it might be possible the load of people that was not to sure about HD-DVD and or BlueRay thought about the same about the subject.

 

[tayb]

I've seen Blu-Ray on a TV showing all it's glory. It isn't worth the money for eye candy. DVD looks fine for about $15 less per movie and $250 less for the player.

 

[ahmshaegar]

@KyleSTL: and you conveniently forgot about analog --> digital, stereo to surround...

VHS tape can stretch and degrade in a really bad way over time. Remember how sometimes you had to put in the tape and then you had to adjust the tracking? Remember all the static and discoloration? Remember the pitch of the sound shifting up and down?

 

[SchizoFrog]

I see a general pattern here.... DVD is... uh hum... GOOD ENOUGH!!! lol

Another point is that a lot of people have only recently bought a new TV or are even still buying TV's that are not 1080P and without that feature, Blu-Ray is pointless anyway.

 

[Windaria]

2 words: Linux Support.

 

[scook9]

Glad to see I am so popular. I see that I did come off a bit strong, but generally still feel the same about what I said. To clarify a few things:

Up scaling DVD players are not a bad idea they are an improvement, what I meant was they are not comparable to blu ray. Sorry to anyone who felt I was calling them an idiot.

My issue with purchasing a drive, than a disc, and still having to purchase software to view blu ray is just this, the SAME disc, in a standalone player (sometimes with the EXACT same optical drive hardware), will give you the same movie, with no extra software cost. Yes pc drives cost less than standalone typically, but it’s not like the rest of the computer was free. Hopefully Vista SP2 will help this some with its native blu ray support (to write at least – it’s a start). Notice that no special codecs or software are needed to view DVD’s in windows right now.

And don’t get me wrong, I am cheap when it’s appropriate, even when buying expensive things one can research it and make sure they get the best possible price. I still buy about 90% DVD and 10% blu ray, because not every movie needs (or benefits from) blu ray, as has been mentioned by others already.

A common (misconception?) argument that I have heard a few times, that really is kind of annoying, is that people say "I don’t want to have to replace all my dvd's to switch to blu ray." To which, I simply reply, "ok then, don't." Blu Ray players all can play your current DVD's, they are not instantly obsolete when you bring a blu ray player into your home. In order to adopt blu ray, all one has to do is purchase a player (which is a onetime cost, and although higher than DVD, like DVD is quickly eclipsed by the actual cost of the movies being purchased so this argument is not that strong - at least in my mind) and buy some blu ray movies. I would actually recommend to anyone considering the new technology to do what I do, and that is NOT buy 100% of movies from now on in blu ray, just exercise some thought on what movies would be worth the extra cost (because I will recognize that blu ray movies are still on average about $25 - but there are always deals out for the motivated).

Hope that has cleared some things up, not trying to offend anyone or make any enemies here.

 

[Ogdin]

They need to drop the price of the movies so blu-ray can really take off.

 

[deltatux]

My parents fully agree that DVDs are good enough. Plus, that is further enforced by the fact that my media centre upscales the DVD automatically thanks to my video card's UVD. I would love to move to Bluray since my TV supports it ... but these Bluray drives are damn expensive! If these drives are under CAD$100. I'd happily pop one in my media centre!

In this economic freefall, I don't think people will get Bluray since really, for many people, it's good enough. I've had HD movies played on my TV before, and frankly the difference isn't big enough to convince my parents to even subsidize me for the Bluray drive.