Should I get Blu-Ray or just an upconvert DVD player?

Question

Im getting the HDTV and everything. I heard Blu-Ray aint so great.

Answer 1

It depends.  Do you have a good sound system to take advantage of the new hd audio?  How big is your new HDTV going to be?

If this is your first hdtv and it's smaller than 40 inches I would wait on blu ray.  Buy a good upvonverter like an Oppo and see if your happy with the picture quality.  I wouldn't buy any of the blu ray players on the market today except the PS3.  The new players are coming out this summer, so maybe by Christmas they will be a little cheaper.

Answer 2

Blu-Ruy is awesome...not sure who told you that...I use my PS3 for Blu-Ray movies...I have a regular DVD player that upconverts and it's not even close.

Answer 3

I'm not sure how much you know, but Blu-Ray is solely a Sony thing. Personally, I'd stick to dvds . . . who knows if Blu-Ray is really the next dvd, ya know? Just my opinion.

Answer 4

My best advice to you is to get HD service at your home first.

Sony is doing a lot of crappy things like raising prices on players and limiting sales of rental disks to NetFlix and BB to force you to buy Retail.

The technology is good - but the ethics of the company behind BluRay is suspect.

Answer 5

As a starting point I strongly recommend you NOT listen to opinions here on whether you should or shouldn't buy Blu-ray. Read this ... and then decide for yourself.

Basic requirement you will have -- an HDTV, preferably an HDMI equipped 40" or larger 1080p model, although a 720p and/or smaller model will give reduced benefit. You also need a good surround sound system with support for DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD sound to get full benefit from the audio. The degree of difference you see from upconverted DVD will depend on the HDTV, where you watch it from and the relative merits of the DVD and Blu-ray masters (a good DVD can look almost identical to a poor Blu-ray, even on a good HDTV).

You also need to recognize that Blu-ray is a niche premium priced HD alternative to DVD (not a replacement for it ... DVD will be around for a long time to come).

Blu-ray players are still incomplete and expensive (~$350+), and disks are typically $5-$20 more expensive than DVDs.

Blu-ray is advertised as 6X the resolution of DVD. While technically true (there are 6x the pixels) this does not translate to a 6X better picture (see the link for some example pictures). Many people find an up-converted DVD image (from players costing $60+) to be only slightly soft relative to Blu-ray ... particularly under less than ideal equipment (see above).

Another consideration is availability of movies. There are currently 507 Blu-ray titles, and 81 more planned for release before June 30, 2008 (vs 83,217 DVD, and 597 planned for June 30 or earlier).

A final consideration is that equipment is still maturing, with so-called BD-Live! (a.k.a. Profile 2.0 ... really the first complete spec) players expected later this year. Prices will come down, possibly into the $200+ range by Xmas. Furthermore there are rumours that later this year Blu-ray disk prices may fall (since studios are beginning to realize they can't sell $35 movies to most consumers ... Duhh!), but then DVD prices would fall also (One unsubstantiated report published in the last few days suggests average prices of $10 for DVD's and $20 for Blu-ray disks).

So .. first there is no urgency to buy now (wait for equipment to mature and prices to come down), and in the meantime see for yourself. You may consider the benefits worth the premium prices, or you may decide up-converted DVDs are just fine.

You will meet the basic requirements to benefit (i.e. have an HDTV) so get a demo of the SAME movie (don't let the salesperson use animation or video camera based demo disks ... insist on a movie, it's much more representative) in DVD and Blu-ray (Both play on a Blu-ray player, and it up-converts DVDs just like a stand alone up-converting DVD player) on the same size and resolution HDTV you have, AND watch from the same distance as you use at home.

A word about upconverting players. They do not make DVDs into true HD (they can't put in detail not on the DVD), but good ones can clean up video artifacts and give a good looking pseudo-HD image. You can't get the improved colour space of Blu-ray (seen as a bit wider colour range) nor advanced audio ... but for many people it's a better bang for the buck.

Now you can decide for yourself, keeping in mind the higher costs.

I hope that helps