New DVD Player - BluRay?

Bluray does not have DVD compatibility by definition, but every player that has come out has had it as a feature.

Unless you are a real film buff... I'd save your money and just buy a reasonable DVD player for less then $100. You don't even need an upscaling one if your TV does good scaling.

 

Upscaling is done all over the place. You don't need a BluRay player to get it. Your TV does it by default if you have a fixed resolution display (such as a DLP or LCD based display). The difference is the quality of the scaler which is hard for any consumer to quantify before buying. This is where reviews come in.

But if you've spent big money on a TV with a great scaler - there is no reason to spend more money on a DVD player with a good scaler. You only want one to do the scaling job.

DVDs are progressive naively, so there is no worry about deinterlacing. You get 480p out of the component outputs out of just about any DVD player.

If you want to watch DVDs at 1080p... then simply plug a standard DVD player into your TV and let the TV's scaler do the job. If your TV's scaler sucks, then investing in a DVD player with a better scaler is worth it.

There are two big problems as far as I'm concerned with buying a bluray player today for 'future proofing'
- They do not play DVDs as good as a standard DVD player does. They are slow. Buy a decent upscaling DVD player and save your money if you primarily want to watch DVDs.
- BluRay discs are stupid expensive, offer little incentive over standard DVDs in additional bonus features, and show no signs of price slide yet

The netflix point is true, but you could still buy a DVD player, and a separate media box that does netflix and way more and still come out ahead price wise if not immediately, after buying your first disc or two.

Until BluRay discs start selling for $15-$20 (today they are $25-$30) it's just not worth the money to most people.

Buy a $60 DVD player, and a media box and enjoy where movie/TV viewing is actually going.

Unless you are a money is no object, need to have the best I can get right now for my theatre.. I'd pass on BluRay until the prices get to where they should be.

And I do own a BluRay deck and 1080 HDTV.

 

Sure there are discount discs (just like you can get many DVDs for under $5) but most releases, and new releases are still way over priced. DVDs hit a glut where even new releases are often $15.. and drop below $10 quite quickly. The vast majority of BluRay discs are more then 2x that cost. And Netflix does offer BluRay, but currently at an extra $1 a month, and there is a price increase coming this month which will take the fee to roughly 20% of your plan's cost.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/30/netflix-raising-rates-for-blu-ray-subscribers-by-around-20/

I appreciate the thought, but I have no motivation to promote myself or efforts in a way that would make it worth the upkeep. I try to dump technical bits I pickup regarding work topics on my blog now.. because it will hopefully help others in the future trying to tackle the same problems. But that is where I'm providing new content, vs a market that is already heavily oversaturated anyways. Plus.. my dumping back onto the net I see more as a good citizen thing.. if no one ends up using it, doesn't bother me. I'm not trying to grab eyes, just put stuff there if someone looks for it.

Over 'standard DVD' players with scalers or no? Yes, there are huge variances in the quality of scaling performance, even within standard DVD players themselves. But I'd make sure the comparison you are looking at is talking about an upscaling DVD player vs the BluRay player upscaling. I would normally expect the BluRay's scaler to be better... but better enough to justify $100-$300 dollars? For most people the difference will not be significant.

Long time ago.. beta won this time, even with several of it's deficencies. This was a war won with payoffs and politics in the movie biz.

While true.. 'problem' is a lose term there. Yes, many of the initial players were not firmware upgradable, but this isn't really like having your computer software never update. Most consumer electronic devices don't offer firmware updates, and even those that do, rarely get useful updates. Where BluRay differs is the organization that makes the BluRay standards (driven by Sony) had been expanding the standard quite early. The 2.0 version include 'BluRay Live' which is a network connectivity function. Many of the earlier players didn't have the ability to upgrade, or even have ethernet at all.. so there was a line drawn early between those that COULD upgrade and those that wouldn't. The Sony Playstation 3 was boasted for a long time as a great BR player choice because of it's upgradability and it's performance. Plus, for awhile there, it was one of the cheapest players PLUS a game system.

We've crossed that threshold already, and last I checked, most new players offer the upgrading and ethernet port.

But yes, unlike most consumer electronics, this standard is one that continues to expand. It's really untested in large scales if the vendors will continue to push out firmware upgrades... because today there is no revenue model for them in it. In the old model, after a few years, you go out and simply buy a newer system with new features. Now, you hold onto your single device and expect new features for free instead of buying a new player. This one hasn't really played out yet...

IMO.. accessibility and cost is what is driving the market now.. not image quality. This is why you see Plasma makers closing shop even tho they offer a better image quality then LCD. This is why things like Red Box rentals are exploding and taking over the market, vs a traditional video store with more choices and offerings.

Video on Demand has finally hit it's stride technology wise. It doesn't offer the image quality of BluRay in most offerings, but the vast majority of TVs people are buying are low-end HD sets. They will barely see the difference anyways. VoD will continue to get better and better, while fixed media distribution like BluRay will get weaker and weaker. BluRay is burdened with too high of cost, and lots of cost that simply will not go away (in licensing).

Meanwhile, free and every expanding VoD services continue to expand and overtake new markets.

Right now, I enjoy Netflix streaming way more then trying to get new BluRay discs.

 

I stopped buying DVDs for the most part. Even tho they are dirt cheap, I simply didn't have the time to sit down and watch anymore. I have so many that the wrapper hasn't even been broken on. Since its so easy to pop in a DVD, why bother trying to encode them? Unless you want to take the mobile (in which case you'd be trying to rip at a lower bitrate and/or rez) why the motivation to store them on a server?

If Netflix would hurry up and improve their VOD selection.. I'd be so happy. Playing netflix through my xbox360 is such a great experience.

 

If you are willing to do without the DVD cases (and covers) if they are on your PC.. why are you unwilling to do without the cases if they aren't on your PC?

Just put them in binder books and keep an index on the computer. You can put 500 CDs in a book 4" thick.

 

Yup.. which is why I said keep an index vs. trying to keep them alphabetical. That's just not really practical. But fixed locations are practical, you just need to know where stuff is. So create a index for which book and page a disc is located.

Create an index and even scan the covers if you cared to. Then you could browse your collection 'itunes' style if you cared to when looking for films.