Blu ray players and viewing distance?

Question

I've read alot about proper viewing distances for viewing blu ray movies and HDTV. My viewing distance is way outside of the range. I have a 65" RP CRT which is 1080i, and my viewing distance is about 16 feet away. Is buying a blu ray a player a waste of my money or should I invest in a good upconvert dvd player instead.

Answer 1

Best thing you could probably do is get a ps3. It comes with blue-ray and you can also view the Internet. It would practically like having a computer tv with blue-ray. You'll also save money.

Answer 2

Get Blu-Ray - it is a MAJOR leap in quality.  I have 65"  1080p screen (12' viewing distance) there is no comparison! (And I use top-of the line Pioneer Elite DVD vs PS3 for Blu-Ray).

Your difference will be slightly less - mostly due to your viewing distance being 4ft longer - but still great.

(BTW, I suggest an experiment - try to sit 10-12' away from the screen - moving furniture around might be the most productive and the cheapest improvement you can make!)

PS3 is a great Blu-Ray player and a media center - probably the best deal on electronics today.

Answer 3

Your TV is perfectly capable of upscaling SD DVDs. Don't waste your money on something the TV does already.

Buy the BD player and bring that couch about 3 feet closer!!

Answer 4

Get a BluRay player.

While you are so far away perhaps fine detail may not be noticed. But DVD, up-converted DVD was still designed for a 9-inch tube.

There is 7 times more information, not to mention better color, resolution, etc with a HD source.  

Just look at a standard def channel, then switch to HD. Can you see a difference?  You will see the same difference going from DVD to BluRay.

Answer 5

Invest in a Blu-ray player as the quality is great. Even on my HDCP 20" 720p monitor the difference between DVD and Blu-ray is huge, you won't notice the bad quality that DVD has until you watch a Blu-ray Disc movie, even the bad discs are good.

The interactivity is also good if you buy a bonus view player as Blu-ray Disc gives PiP, and Hi-def audio, and upscaled DVD isn't anything as good as Blu-ray Discs. Anyway a DVD upscaler can't upscale audio of interactivity.

However do you have a HDMI connection, because over component which is analouge the studios can freely downconvert the signal into DVD quality, due to the Image Constaint Token, or deny to play in the near future (Digital Only Token (DOT)). Some third parties say that they won't use it until 2010 to 2012, but it is not confirmed, and the studios can use it if they wish, anyway since the format war is over, it might be used. Check wheither you have HDMI, as far as I know not many CRT's have HDMI.

16 Feet away is a huge distance but, since you have a large screen it will look a lot better than DVD, but 10 Feet will be ideak for you.

Blu-ray is great, but make sure you have HDMI, as component isn't future proof. Also buy a PS3 as it's cheap and it can do Bonus View and BD LIVE where most players can't, be upgrade only PS3's and PC Drives can be upgraded.

But since you have a HUGE screen Blu-ray will be a good investment, even if you don't have HDMI (as only Warner hasn't really said wheither they will not use it, and 2010-2012 is a long time), and also if you don't have HDMI I don't think upconvert DVD players can upconvert with component, they might be able to with VGA, not sure though.

But....... if you don't won't to spend money on Blu-ray pickup a HD DVD player with HDMI, for a sweet upconverter, and you can take advantage of the clearance of over 300 HD DVD titiles like Harry Potter, Transformers , Poseidon , Shrek, Troy and much more, and build up a massive library in you home.  It has to be noted that if you won't buy Blu-ray, HD DVD players are the BEST upconverters, and they are going dead cheap though to the format war, and it is always neglected that HD DVD players can upscale very well, but it will always be second rate compared with Blu-ray, or a native HD source.

In the end it depends with you, but if you are going for Blu-ray buy a PS3 with a HDMI connection, and check wheither you have HDMI, as you won't get upscaled DVD's without it most of the time. Still for the time being Blu-ray can do HD via analouge component up to 1080i (which you have), and VGA can do full HD ( no point for 1080i though).

So have a think about it, in the end it's about your budget, but since you have a large TV Blu-ray should be better than DVD even if it is upscaled, anyway you can't be sure that all DVD upscalers are good, although HD DVD players are good upscalers.

But on an upside Blu-ray has better picture quality, better audio (dependant on players decoders for audio) and more interactivity (dependant on Player Profiles).

Answer 6

Too bad so many here don't read.

My guess is an upconverting DVD player would be a better choice.

At 16 feet from a 65" 1080i RPT you will certainly decrease the potential benefit of a Blu-ray player.

At optimum distance  -- basically, close enough for the visual acuity of the eye to be able to resolve detail -- on a 65" 1080p screen Blu-ray would give a pretty spectacular picture. At almost 2x optimum and particularly on a 720p rear projection TV (OK, technically 1080i ... but in most cases that is really a 720p model) the benefit will certainly be reduced noticeably.

Whether, a Blu-ray player or an upconverting DVD player would be a better choice is really something only you can answer. My guess is visual differences would be minor (although the broader colour gamut and advanced sound formats of Blu-ray may also be factors to consider. On the other hand, the extra cost of Blu-ray disks would have to be considered too.)

My suggestion is to get a demo of HD media to provide objective evidence. It may be best to find a friend with a Blu-ray or HD DVD player ... and compare a DVD and HD disk of the same movie on your TV. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray players are capable upconverting DVD players ... so you can use the same player to play both disks. HD DVD actually has some advantages since combo disks exist with a DVD version on one side and a HD version on the other. And since HD DVD and Blu-ray have identical video quality a comparison is valid.

Alternatively, buy a Blu-ray player on condition it provide an acceptable benefit. Most big box stores (e.g. Future Shop, Best Buy) have pretty flexible return policies.

Hope that helps.