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Are Blu-ray's worth the extra Money? (2 Viewers)

Creativesound

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This is something I have always wondered and would love some feed back. I personally don't see the point in spending the extra money to purchase a Blu-ray disc. With almost all TV's being HD now, I can't really tell the difference between standard dvd and a blu-ray disc. Even when I can, the difference is minuscule. How does everyone else feel about this?
 

Type A

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I never really understand when people say they dont see the difference. You dont have to have 20/20 vision, a large display or a fancy display to see the vast improvement in color and contrast, DVD looks washed out by comparison. The increase in resolution, fine, there are lots of factors that may prevent you from seeing the increased clarity but the increased color saturation should be very obvious to all but the color blind folks in this world. There is also an increase in audio resolution but that will only be apparent with a sound system that reveals that, them Insignia TV speakers aint gonna cut it.

That having been said I dont spend more than $5 on a blu ray. Im a regular at pawn shops, craigslist, ebay, Walmart bins, Black Friday sales and Amazon marketplace for all my blu ray purchases. If its a title I cant find used, or maybe a 3D version, I might step out of my normal price range to own it. I will still buy a DVD occasionally if the title is not available on blu but thats pretty rare.
 

Mark-P

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They are to me. If I only had a choice between a $5 DVD and a $30 Blu-ray, I absolutely could not "throw away" $5 on a DVD knowing that that $5 could go towards a Blu-ray. My entire DVD collection now looks like crap to me and my goal is to eventually replace all of them with Blu-rays.
Don't get me wrong, I still buy DVDs where BDs are not likely to ever happen, mostly old TV series and some Warner Archive titles, but I absolutely will not buy a DVD of a title that is available on Blu-ray.
 

Carl Johnson

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I won't replace a dvd that I already own with a blu ray unless the disc is cheap and it's a title worthy of repeated viewings. That being said I haven't bought more than one or two dvds since I got my blu player. The difference in quality is enough where I wouldn't pay more than $5 for a dvd, and I'm not going to spend a bunch of time digging through the bargain bin looking for a bargain. Sent from my SPH-M830 using HTF mobile app
 

David Norman

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Jim Mcc said:
One misleading thing though is NOT ALL Blu-rays look excellent. I've seen some Blu-rays that look average at best, and I've seen some DVD's that look very good.

ANd many films look horrible even in the theater and often that was the intentional presentation. With 1 or 2 very rare exceptions I've never seen the same movie looke worse on BD that DVD -- some movies were never meant to be pretty.
 

Brian McHale

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Creativesound said:
This is something I have always wondered and would love some feed back. I personally don't see the point in spending the extra money to purchase a Blu-ray disc. With almost all TV's being HD now, I can't really tell the difference between standard dvd and a blu-ray disc. Even when I can, the difference is minuscule. How does everyone else feel about this?
What size TV do you have? How far away do you sit from the TV? This makes a big difference.

If you have a 50" TV and sit 15' away from it, you will be hard pressed to tell the difference between a good DVD and a BD. If you have a 55" TV and sit 10' away, you should be able to tell the difference pretty easily (unless your vision isn't very good).

I am assuming that you have a BD player connected via HDMI.
 

FoxyMulder

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Creativesound said:
This is something I have always wondered and would love some feed back. I personally don't see the point in spending the extra money to purchase a Blu-ray disc. With almost all TV's being HD now, I can't really tell the difference between standard dvd and a blu-ray disc. Even when I can, the difference is minuscule. How does everyone else feel about this?
I see your point, i think technology peaked with VHS and since then the quality just got worse and worse, Laserdisc, pah i use them as frisbees, DVD, not for me, blu ray, no i just don't see any detail increase over my VHS versions, i won't be satisfied until the studio's start releasing on VHS again and that way i can really take advantage of my HD television and projector.
 

Keith Cobby

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This is a nice provocative thread. When I started to collect blu-rays I decided to put them into two categories. The first is for my favourite titles which I play often. These I would replace whatever the cost. The second category would be titles I might play occasionally but which are overwhelmingly better on blu-ray or titles I have wanted but which have not previously been released on home video.

I think blu-ray is the end of the road for packaged media. Given the expense of producing top quality classic titles I cannot believe that many of my favourite titles will ever be released in 4K or what comes after it. Not wishing to stream I am buying the titles I want from wherever they are currently available. I was buying at least 10x the number of DVDs that I am on blu-ray.
 

bryan4999

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Since the advent of Blu-ray, for the first time, I feel like I am making a "lifetime" investment. Every time I bought a VHS, a laserdisc or a DVD, I knew that they would be obsolete someday. The difference with Blu-ray is that, for the first time since I have owned home video technology, with a well-produced Blu-ray, I feel like I am screening film at home. While technology will continue into the 4k realm and beyond, I am, at this point, a satisfied customer. Two years ago I bought an entry level Optoma hi-def projector, for far less than a direct view (at the time), and projected at 100 inches I honestly feel, in many cases, like film is unspooling in my house. I haunted the revival houses in the 1970s and early 1980s, so the film look is important to me. In fact, as an example is the recent Blu-ray of the Cary Grant/Doris Day movie "That Touch of Mink"; the print used for the Blu-ray has a bit of dirt, a few scratches and some minus density here and there. In a way, I like that. After all, if I had the resources to own a 35mm print and project it at home, surely it would have those flaws, at least. The point is, the color and resolution of Blu-ray reproduce that print in all its filmic glory and I love it. DVD just couldn't do that.
 

Mike Frezon

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FoxyMulder said:
After reading that i really need to get my VHS films out of the box and start selling, assuming they aren't all faded away.
I bet you've got some interesting titles in that box...
 

FoxyMulder

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Mike Frezon said:
I bet you've got some interesting titles in that box...
I have the original unaltered Star Wars films in original aspect ratio, plenty of Disney classics, lots of VHS widescreen films, i wonder how long VHS tape lasts.
 

Ed Lachmann

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What REALLY shine in the blu-ray medium are the colorful widescreen films of the fifties, sixties and early seventies. The standard DVDs of films like BEN-HUR or LAWRENCE OF ARABIA were almost unwatchable, largely because the black bands reduced the clarity of the center image to barely VHS full frame quality. To date there are scores of these films in various genres just waiting for the BD treatment. Sadly, these seem to be at the bottom of the studios' list and God knows if we will ever see them in America. Thankfully, a few are released in Germany, France, Japan, Australia and Scandinavia. Criterion, Twilight Time and Olive seem to "get it", but the largest library in the world at Warners is embarrassingly under-represented. I admit that the worn surviving elements of something like THE BLUE ANGEL will improve only minimally in blu-ray form while, say, the BEN-HUR BD becomes a jaw dropping revelation. I'd upgrade all of my old widescreen DVDs to BD in a minute. Just wish the studios would give me the opportunity and hurry it up a bit, at least bring it up to a turtle's pace.
 

RolandL

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VHS is the only way (not counting TCM broadcasts) you can own the roadshow versions of The Alamo and Raintree County!
 

Rob_Ray

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RolandL said:
VHS is the only way (not counting TCM broadcasts) you can own the roadshow versions of The Alamo and Raintree County!
I own the roadshow version of The Alamo on laserdisc. However, the Raintree County laserdisc is indeed the general release version.
 

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