The 26th Century

Just curious if anyone's bothered with the latest formats Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. Since the two formats are currently competing much like the Betamax/VHS wars 30-something years ago, I'm staying out until there's a clear winner.

Even then, I understand the difference between a regular DVD and one of the new formats really isn't a "it'll blow you away" difference. Besides, I've already spent hundreds of dollars upgrading from LD to DVD, and I'm not enthusiastic about going through all this again so soon.

I'm quite happy with my collection for now, thank you Hollywood.

I don't know any thing about the HD-DVD format except it sounds like it's meant to be shown on really good TVs. As for Blu-Ray which I once asked a person what it was ... I see it as the new BetaMax. Big deal so the format can store more, DVDs are still a pretty good format. It's like how BetaMax was better but VHS won the war.






Erin

Sorry HP, I don't know a thing about any of that stuff.




graylady

grayladyfalcon wrote:Sorry HP, I don't know a thing about any of that stuff.

No problem- I'm not following up it too closely myself, because I'm really happy with my home theater setup as it is. I suppose that's not necessarily the best attitude to have, but I'm not exactly made of money and I have a daughter to raise.

(I say not the best attitude because I kind of work in that industry...)

I have seen and used bluray and hd-dvd oh its a great format... wait for it... for data archiving. Both hd-dvd and bluray movies are an absolute waste of time money and valuable gigabytes. there is NO noticeable quality improvement even when viewed on a hdtv. Its all just hype!!!

sorry I just had to get that out.

tron wrote:I have seen and used bluray and hd-dvd oh its a great format... wait for it... for data archiving. Both hd-dvd and bluray movies are an absolute waste of time money and valuable gigabytes. there is NO noticeable quality improvement even when viewed on a hdtv. Its all just hype!!!

sorry I just had to get that out.

No, that's good to know. That jibes with what I've read in a few newspaper articles- the image just doesn't blow you away like regular DVD did compared to VHS.

Although I usually prefer to see it for myself, I'm in no hurry to go out and spend all that money all over again. Regular DVD prices are getting even lower these days- a buddy of mine just purchased Logan's Run for less than $5.00, American!

A thought just occurred to me- since the industry is pushing for these formats to take off, there's little incentive for them to release (or re-release older films) movies in regular DVD format that didn't get a proper edition issued the first time around!

Just off the top of my head, The Rocketeer and Blade Runner are two movies I would love to have on DVD, but I understand that their initial releases were of poor picture quality.

(I also understand that Blade Runner is supposed to be re-released late this year, but I wonder if Blu-Ray of HD-DVD is going to affect that...)

Sigh... looks like I'll have to get one of those newfangled formats sooner rather than later. (grumble, grumble)

Herculean Platypus! wrote:

tron wrote:I have seen and used bluray and hd-dvd oh its a great format... wait for it... for data archiving. Both hd-dvd and bluray movies are an absolute waste of time money and valuable gigabytes. there is NO noticeable quality improvement even when viewed on a hdtv. Its all just hype!!!

sorry I just had to get that out.

No, that's good to know. That jibes with what I've read in a few newspaper articles- the image just doesn't blow you away like regular DVD did compared to VHS.

Although I usually prefer to see it for myself, I'm in no hurry to go out and spend all that money all over again. Regular DVD prices are getting even lower these days- a buddy of mine just purchased Logan's Run for less than $5.00, American!

A year later, and I've been able to view a Blu-Ray demo for myself.

It's incredible.

The picture quality is stunning- it has a clarity unmatched by anything I've ever laid eyes on. I want a player badly, but they still cost at least $400 and that's too much for me right now.

Not to mention that movies themselves cost between $20-30.

I know you're not around to read this, but sorry Tron- you are wrong.

400 dollars for a player, whoa that beats the cost of my first DVD player hands down. But theres some thing to be said for the cost of these players I think. That first DVD player was the best one I've ever owned aside from it couldn't handle most movies with THX encoding .




Erin

systemcat wrote:400 dollars for a player, whoa that beats the cost of my first DVD player hands down. But theres some thing to be said for the cost of these players I think. That first DVD player was the best one I've ever owned aside from it couldn't handle most movies with THX encoding .

The cheapest Blu-Ray player that I've found runs about $330, which is still too much for my liking. I tend to look for an affordable name brand, like Pioneer. (I swear by them!) If Pioneer comes out with one for less than $200, I'm taking the plunge.

The only other thing is that my current DVD player (which I only paid $150 for) is region-free, which means I can watch DVDs from any country in any format. I want my Blu-Ray player to be the same way, because I need backwards-compatibility with my handful of "other-region" DVDs. (a small collection of rare, hard-to-find movies)