bluray boycott

[tranzor]

a friend sent me this link and with the ranting and raving about anamorphic, new tvs and booray and so on I go about these days, it sounds more like I wrote this article

though slightly dated it is interesting enough

http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/te ... ycott.html

 

[TV's Frink]

Sorry, but I couldn't read through more than a third of this. Blu-rays are now priced like DVD used to be, not $40. How do you "download movies for free?" Who still thinks DVD quality is "almost as good" as Blu-ray?

Rubbish.

 

[TV's Frink]

Oh yeah, slightly dated?

Blu-ray is $1,000+

You can get a player for $100 now. Not to mention HD-DVD is long dead. This article is waaaaaaaaaaaaay out of date.

 

[Captain Khajiit]

I agree with TV's Frink.

They are insisting that your TV supports digital encryption via an HDMI port or an HDCP-compliant DVI port, which these earlier TV's lack. If you have to stoop so low as to hook up your shiny new player via, God forbid, analog (component), the industry thinks you're not worthy. There's a fun little surprise they built in to Blu-ray and HD-DVD for people just like you, and it's called the Image Constaint Token. If it's enabled on a movie, and your connection does not support HDCP, then the movie is downsampled to 1/4 its native resolution, which is essentially the same as a standard DV

While I agree that full HD is not possible with analog -- I wish it were -- you can actually go up to 1080i over component, which is a far cry from DVD resolution.

 

[TV's Frink]

That is in fact what I have to do with my HDTV (which is only 30" btw) and it still looks much better than DVD. I can't wait to graduate to full 1080p :smile:

 

[Captain Khajiit]

You might find 720p looks better than 1080i on a 30" set. I always think a progressive scan looks better, and you would not really notice the difference in resolution at that screen size.

 

[TV's Frink]

Oh don't worry, my next TV will be larger than 30"

 

[tranzor]

Who still thinks DVD quality is "almost as good" as Blu-ray?

Rubbish.

to be brutally honest with you, I have not seen any sort of bluray film that was so mind blowing over it's dvd counterpart that I would run out and repurchase my collection in that format.

I do see it's advantages in video quality but nothing so drastically better (or something an upconvert wont do) that it really warrants me to run out and get one.

Personally I would never get a tv over 30". I have way too much older material (some personal) that blowing it up on like a 60" screen would make it look almost unwatchable. Actually very few things look really good on a 60" tv (video games would be a notable exception). If anything you get to see lots of artifacts with digital broadcast

 

[joebshmoe]

repurchase? no (maybe select few updated releases). buy bluray instead of DVD? hell yeah.

 

[Q2]

You might find 720p looks better than 1080i on a 30" set. I always think a progressive scan looks better, and you would not really notice the difference in resolution at that screen size.

I read an article a few years ago that argued 720p actually is a higher resolution than 1080i. The rational was this:

720p is 720 lines of progressive resolution. 1080i is interlaced thereby cutting the ACTUAL resolution to 540. They all look good to me, but the argument was sound to me.

 

[TV's Frink]

repurchase? no (maybe select few updated releases). buy bluray instead of DVD? hell yeah.

QFT

 

[zeppelinrox]

I don't get why BD is mpeg2 format.
mp4s at less than half the bitrate of blu ray look better.

The point, though a bit dated, is that the industry slapped so much protections that it treats the typical consumer like a criminal, which is true.

Of course, it's the pirates who are unaffected by anti piracy protection.

 

[joebshmoe]

I don't get why BD is mpeg2 format.

well... you just have to remember that BD was around in infancy since 2002ish and AVC in BD has "only" been around since 2006ish (guessing). point is... all the first releases were done in MPEG2.

i totally agree with you tho. AVC for all bitrates/resolutions is such a better option. never going back to xvid and mpeg2. now is the time!

 

[Captain Khajiit]

I don't get why BD is mpeg2 format.

Very few Blu-rays are MPEG-2. A number of early Blu-ray releases were, but they were soon outnumbered by releases in other formats, such as VC-1. Often you would find the same VC-1 transfer on HD DVD and Blu-ray releases, especially those of Warner Bros. AVC should become the standard though, and soon. Early on, the argument was that many studios were not very well equipped to handle AVC, which takes about five times as long to process. As a result, MPEG-2 was used, as studios were used to it, and it could still look very good given Blu-ray's capacity. There are some really good MPEG-2 encodings.

I think that numerous anti-piracy measures are par for the course these days. This is not just a problem with Blu-ray.

@thunderclap, 720p is better for motion sequences, whereas 1080i looks better for static images. Overall I prefer a progressive scan to a higher interlaced resolution , especially if the screen is below a certain size and does not really benefit much from the higher resolution.

 

[TMBTM]

I'd like to buy a blu ra player, but I "only" have a 32'' 720p HDTV and since I'm in PAL I already have some nice 576X720 resolution.
I did comparition and while 720p is obviously better, it's not mind-blowing compared to 1080p (witch I only see on my 23'' PC screen for now).
(Maybe switching from NTSC 480X720 resolution to 720p is more appealing though)

So I'm still waiting for the prices to drop a little more to buy a 1080p HTDV in a couple of years maybe.
I'm just quite pleased with DVD quality for now (as well as the phenomenal drop of their prices).

 

[T-HOPE]

I'm still boycotting bluray. I hate it that the bluray released get the most and better extra's (exclusive alternate ending for clash of the titans, director's cut for terminator salvation, etc. etc.) and they are omitted on the DVD releases. What a way to force fans to buy bluray releases... well fuck them!

 

[tranzor]

I'm still boycotting bluray. I hate it that the bluray released get the most and better extra's (exclusive alternate ending for clash of the titans, director's cut for terminator salvation, etc. etc.) and they are omitted on the DVD releases. What a way to force fans to buy bluray releases... well fuck them!

I just fouind out today that the dirs cut for term salvation DID have a US region 1 dvd release. Evidently for a limited time, you were able to purchase it on dvd exclusively at Target stores. Hmm.. then again it still might be available, otherwise I agree with everything you said. It aggrevates me to no end because it is bullsh*t.

 

[T-HOPE]

I'm still boycotting bluray. I hate it that the bluray released get the most and better extra's (exclusive alternate ending for clash of the titans, director's cut for terminator salvation, etc. etc.) and they are omitted on the DVD releases. What a way to force fans to buy bluray releases... well fuck them!

I just fouind out today that the dirs cut for term salvation DID have a US region 1 dvd release. Evidently for a limited time, you were able to purchase it on dvd exclusively at Target stores. Hmm.. then again it still might be available, otherwise I agree with everything you said. It aggrevates me to no end because it is bullsh*t.

I know. They don't ship internationally and the price for the DVD is bullshit.

 

[Q2]

What's bullshit that was put back into TS to justify it as a "director's cut".

 

[reave]

I'd like to buy a blu ra player, but I "only" have a 32'' 720p HDTV and since I'm in PAL I already have some nice 576X720 resolution.
I did comparition and while 720p is obviously better, it's not mind-blowing compared to 1080p (witch I only see on my 23'' PC screen for now).
(Maybe switching from NTSC 480X720 resolution to 720p is more appealing though)

So I'm still waiting for the prices to drop a little more to buy a 1080p HTDV in a couple of years maybe.
I'm just quite pleased with DVD quality for now (as well as the phenomenal drop of their prices).

On a small screen, BD is not worth it. Anything HD over 32 inches will show a marked difference. I've compared several titles on DVD and BD, and there is quite a difference. So BD is well worth it, if you have a big screen, and you're willing to wait a month or two after the release to get a decent price. I've never paid over $9-17 for BD, minus some boxsets (which I've never paid over $35 for).