Worried my DVDs will look bad on new HDTV (1 Viewer)

[jcroy]

An Oppo bluray (or 4Kbluray) player is likely to be less expensive than a dedicated computer + cutting edge graphics card. (Even with Oppos not being manufactured anymore).

It only takes around 11 minutes to copy an entire 8.5 gigabytes sized dvd disc to the computer's hard drive. I just play that ripped dvd content, instead of the actual dvd disc.

(I still play my bluray discs on a standalone bluray player. I don't really bother ripping my bluray discs, since each disc usually takes around 30 minutes to rip to the computer. 4Kbluray discs takes even longer to rip that I mind as well just watch the enitre movie, instead of wasting 45 minutes to over an hour to rip).

 

[Micah Cohen]

You can open free accounts on some of the digital stores like Vudu or ITunes or FandangoNow. Connect them at Movies Anywhere.
You buy a digital movie and it’s just there in the ether waiting for you to watch it.
No downloading needed.

Ok, you're right. I'm sure my next TV will have the apps already on it, so this becomes an option, I understand.

I can take my DVD off the shelf, fondle the slick plastic of the box, gaze lovingly at the cover art (that Jason Stathem, he's pretty handsome), read the liner notes for the nth time in the dim theater light, and then just play the movie in HD from THE ETHER!

I think I'm getting it. I appreciate this insight. New tech info.

Do I even bother to talk about how I would like to run the audio from the media player to the processor via TOSLINK? That's a whole other neuroses circa 1998, isn't it? I won't even get the option these days, I'm sure.

Micah

 

[Type A]

I think I missed the boat on Oppo, didn't I?

Not at all. Matter of fact the BDP-93 can be had on the used market all day long for cheap. Its a solid player and a good upscaler, just be advised it does not do ATMOS decoding properly (if you are so equipped) when spinning blu rays (and its not a 4k player) but obviously ATMOS is not a concern for dvds. Its also a SACD player, a rarity nowadays.

 

[Sam Posten]

Man, preconceived notions die hard, don't they?

 

[TonyD]

Man, preconceived notions die hard, don't they?

About what exactly?

 

[Type A]

Man, preconceived notions die hard, don't they?

If someone is incorrect, as your vague statement implies, please have the decency to be specific about what.

 

[Sam Posten]

Micah's hesitations to move away from shiny plastic disks and TOSLINK.

 

[Micah Cohen]

Just a bump to say that you all have provided me with much to think about, and some options and solutions I had not known much about before I posted this thread. I'm glad I brought this up before I just dove into buying a big new HDTV. I hope it helps other people who are feeling the way I'm feeling about their beloved DVD collection.

<old man rant>

You're not kidding about my "hesitations."

The problem with all of this is that I just don't feel like I'm in control anymore. I'm not given the options I want or need. Instead, I feel like I'm being railroaded into options that I would not normally choose, options that are outside of my technology comfort zone. (HDMI uber alles!)

And that sounds petty, but I think I really resent it.

When did the technology get away from me like this? You could say it's a march toward better resolution and crisper images and more selection at the touch of a button. But I sort of feel like it's too digitally sharp for my eyes, too inorganic for my tastes. Too much expensive garbage to sort through.

Plus, it renders my old but expensive (and still working) electronic equipment somewhat obsolete, and I resent that maybe most of all; the obsolescence.

I was fully committed, back in the day! Now, even though my love of film and the home theater experience has not abated, I'm less so.

</old man rant>

When the time comes, I will definitely look into these solutions, and I feel more confident about the future of my DVD collection now.

THANK YOU! HTFhighschoolfootballRULES!

Micah

 

[Worth]

If you have no interest in 4K, something else you might want to consider is picking up a second hand plasma. You can get what were once top of the line sets for a couple of hundred dollars, and picture quality that rivals OLEDs costing ten times as much.

 

[Ejanss]

Just a bump to say that you all have provided me with much to think about, and some options and solutions I had not known much about before I posted this thread. I'm glad I brought this up before I just dove into buying a big new HDTV. I hope it helps other people who are feeling the way I'm feeling about their beloved DVD collection.
<old man rant>

No offense, but I literally had to look up the first post to see if this was an old thread from 2010. Hadn't heard HDTV Fears since 2008, back when a lot of mainstream folk disgruntled about the FCC analog/digital changeover said "What, will we now have to watch the news in HD, and see all of the newscaster's pores?"
Remember when folk used to buy "Upscaling DVD players" for their new sets, and claimed they were set for life with their old DVD's because Blu-ray players were too expensive?

Obviously we've gotten a little more used to it, and Blu prices have come down a bit during the digital-happy 10's, when all the studios were convinced disks were "dying". And while your DVD's might not have quite the bright colors and contrast as Blu-ray, they won't look like some washed-out VHS print on a public-domain disk.
More like an old classic TV rerun, which is why Blu fans don't mind keeping vintage reruns on DVD boxset if they can't be upgraded to HD.

 

[DaveF]

You're not kidding about my "hesitations."

The problem with all of this is that I just don't feel like I'm in control anymore. I'm not given the options I want or need. Instead, I feel like I'm being railroaded into options that I would not normally choose, options that are outside of my technology comfort zone. (HDMI uber alles!)

This is the aspect of new technology I'm really happy about In terms of connections and cabling, it's so much easier and cheaper than it used to be! Buy a handful of $10 HDMI cables, connect them from devices to AVR to TV and you're done. There's no fussing with composite vs SVHS vs component vs VGA vs DisplayLInk vs TOSlink vs....

Last Fall, I recycled away a garbage bag full of those analog cables that were going unused in the basement. I had a moment of piquant nostalgia as I reflected on good times watching DVDs on a 25" CRT through that component cable.

But now...cabling...So easy. So cheap.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Seriously, Dave!

Just discarded two big shoeboxes full of spare cables collected over the years that just have no use anymore. So much simpler to have one HDMI cable vs multiple sets of cables to link a single device, splitters, extenders, adapters and all that stuff.

 

[WaltWiz1901]

To the original poster...how about a Sony Blu-ray player? I have one, and I think it does a pretty good job at upscaling DVDs (even down to playing progressive scan content at the 24p it was encoded as as opposed to 30/60p - although it does recognize the disc's pulldown flags when discs with such content are played back in their original resolution).

Plus, you could also buy some BDs to fully take advantage of your new player

 

[Ejanss]

This is the aspect of new technology I'm really happy about In terms of connections and cabling, it's so much easier and cheaper than it used to be! Buy a handful of $10 HDMI cables, connect them from devices to AVR to TV and you're done. There's no fussing with composite vs SVHS vs component vs VGA vs DisplayLInk vs TOSlink vs....
But now...cabling...So easy. So cheap.

I'll second/third/fourth that, whatever it's up to now:
HDMI has become to home theater what USB was to home computers twenty years ago--Whatever device you get, plug 'n play. I remember the fuss about Mac computers going USB, until I discovered it made buying printers and peripherals a LOT easier, and ended up in a lot of old cables being thrown out..
If you have to buy one new video investment, get a reasonable HD screen with an HDMI port, and everything else will follow from there, even for hesitant neophytes.

Plus, you could also buy some BDs to fully take advantage of your new player

Again, prices on both are low, at the moment, since the industry still thinks disks and players are on a "clearance sale" (or *snicker!* they did, a few years ago ), and the format's so common it's now default. You can find a decent average-brand first starter Blu player in the big-box stores for two figures, and the mass-market redips of the most essential big-title movies are going for for the $15-20 that DVD's used to go for.

 

[LeoA]

Analog is alive and well in my household. Thanks to being a fan of classic videogaming, analog connections like composite, S-Video, component, and VGA are still in everyday use.

Even have a few devices hooked up with these adapters, which will be unfamiliar to most.

It's called an F-type adapter and takes the audio/video cable of an old classic game system like the Atari 2600 and allows it to be connected directly to the coaxial jack of a tv or VCR. Otherwise you'd be stuck using one of these awful things, the infamous tv/game switchbox.

Always had interference with those things back in the 80's and 90's, even brand new ones. Not a part of electronics history that I have any nostalgia for.

 

[Sam Posten]

If you expect any aspect of life to remain static you are gonna be in for a bad time. If you expect -technology- to remain static for long periods of time? Well that's just not gonna happen. Semper gumby =)

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, despite all the changes in (digital) HT, some aspects of the audio side has remained pretty static for 20-plus years... and I'm still pretty satisfied w/ my ~30-yo Vandersteen 2Ci's and B&K 5-channel amp. Haven't gone Atmos so far either, so my emotiva AV preamp is on the older side, but still kicking as well. And that means there are still some need for analog audio cables -- just not quite as much as the old days... although the real old days also had fewer audio/surround channels, so...

For the best quality audio, you still can't go all single-digital for cabling and push the inevitable analog side into one blackbox -- and that's ignoring any religious debates about throwing vinyl into the mix. Maybe some day when we're all in the Matrix or something and get a direct feed into our brains...

_Man_

 

[MitchellD]

Pick up a 2nd generation Blu-ray player such as the Panasonic BD-30 or maybe the BD-60. They are a bit slow to load discs, but they play Blu-rays and upconvert DVD’s just fine. They have both HDMI and TOS-Link outputs.

 

[Bartman]

I can tell you my story. I had a modest collection of laserdics (many digitally mastered) so I immediately saw the advantages of DVD (lower cost, no rot) and bought DVDs frequently. When Blu-ray appeared I was kinda annoyed, I saw my investment deminish and vowed not to replace titles. The cost of Blu-ray players came down quickly, so when I purchased my first plasma TV (on a Black Friday!) I also bought a Blu-ray player. I found myself buying Blu-rays of titles I did not have on DVD or ones with a major upgrade in video quality. Now I have an OLED TV but, guess what, I still watch DVDs (especially older fullframe B&W, as 4:3 has an upsampling advantage over 16:9).

A case in point, I have only just upgraded Gladiator from DVD to Blu-ray. The DVD was superb for its day, the initial Blu-ray was criticized for video quality so I passed. What I didn't know until recently, there was a later secret remaster of the Blu-ray that corrected the problems. I purchased the Gladiator Blu-ray a couple of months ago and it's superb.

So part of the fun (and time consuming part) of this hobby is sorting out the wheat from the chaff for: movies, equipment and discs and; only purchasing stuff that gives long term satisfaction. This is where this site can help. Another case in point, my 1993 laserdisc of War Of The Worlds was one of my best for clarity, color and soundtrack. The CE DVD and a recent HD streaming version were disappointments. A couple of weeks ago I purchased the Criterion Blu-ray, now finally I have something that is the equal of the 1993 laserdisc experience. Good luck on your journey!!

 

[Ejanss]

Pick up a 2nd generation Blu-ray player such as the Panasonic BD-30 or maybe the BD-60. They are a bit slow to load discs, but they play Blu-rays and upconvert DVD’s just fine. They have both HDMI and TOS-Link outputs.

Owie...I'd thought we'd seen the last of the BD-30. Back in the early days, the first generation BD-30, and its infamous half-hour loading time for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2", was one of the most frequently seen weapons in HDDVD's arsenal, and was even more widely used by those folks who were sick of the whole darn war in the first place, and nearly had no intention of getting any hi-def format whatsoever.

If it wasn't for Sony also pushing the Playstation 3--and its more native game-speed data processing with almost no loading time--as their Blu-ray gateway-drug player, we literally might not HAVE Blu-ray today.
As it turned out, the PS3/4 also became a free Blu3D player, back when that was having trouble finding acceptance, and was one of the first home devices to stream Instant Netflix for the living room.