Does Your Better Half Appreciate Blu Ray?

tonyb · January 2009

My wife,4 years ago,could never understand the whole audio/video thing.HD WHAT??? How much for those speakers?? Are you whacked?? Now,it's painfull for her to watch SD tv,sports on an HD,FORGETABOUTIT....she's hooked.Audio?? Tell me all you married folks,when was the last time you and the wife sat down for 4 hours,cruised the cd rack,and sang to each other?? We do all the time,no fatigue,awesome sound,enjoying each other,she's hooked.Sure the new technologies are better,but at the rate they keep changing,you can't keep upgrading every couple years,so you wait untill it is very noticeable difference,not slight.

Part of that whole recipe thing Darla.:D

olilugo · January 2009

In 10 to 15 years from now... true 3D using hologram technology…

My two cents on DVD vs. Blue Ray. If you have a very good TV that support 1080p and you have DVD's made in the last 2 years I will say there is almost no difference between a Blue ray and a DVD.
Marketing will say: but but but you can see the small letters in the movie.
TO that I would say who cares about the letters I am trying to enjoy the movie and I not paying attention to such a small detail.

However I would say blue ray was made for cartoons, especially the new cartoons, the amount of detail on the picture is incredible.
For normal movies I think the change is very small.
If you are coming from an old TV 480 lines + a regular dvd and compare this setup to a brand new TV + blue ray, then I will say the difference is big to put it mild.

cfrizz · January 2009

Sounds like you got lucky in the wife dept Tony! Congrats.:D

tonyb wrote: »

My wife,4 years ago,could never understand the whole audio/video thing.HD WHAT??? How much for those speakers?? Are you whacked?? Now,it's painfull for her to watch SD tv,sports on an HD,FORGETABOUTIT....she's hooked.Audio?? Tell me all you married folks,when was the last time you and the wife sat down for 4 hours,cruised the cd rack,and sang to each other?? We do all the time,no fatigue,awesome sound,enjoying each other,she's hooked.Sure the new technologies are better,but at the rate they keep changing,you can't keep upgrading every couple years,so you wait untill it is very noticeable difference,not slight.

Part of that whole recipe thing Darla.:D

zingo · January 2009

My wife says BRD looks better, but she says it doesn't matter when she is watching a movie or TV show. It's a pity...

Igo · January 2009

I am SOOO seriously lacking a film critic in my house. I guess it makes me selfish but I have 3 pairs of shoes and a 50 inch screen instead of 25 pairs of shoes and a 42.
hhHahaha

Erik Tracy · January 2009

olilugo wrote: »

In 10 to 15 years from now... true 3D using hologram technology…

My two cents on DVD vs. Blue Ray. If you have a very good TV that support 1080p and you have DVD's made in the last 2 years I will say there is almost no difference between a Blue ray and a DVD.
Marketing will say: but but but you can see the small letters in the movie.
TO that I would say who cares about the letters I am trying to enjoy the movie and I not paying attention to such a small detail.

However I would say blue ray was made for cartoons, especially the new cartoons, the amount of detail on the picture is incredible.
For normal movies I think the change is very small.
If you are coming from an old TV 480 lines + a regular dvd and compare this setup to a brand new TV + blue ray, then I will say the difference is big to put it mild.

Not out to poke anyone in the eye....but I actually tried a direct comparison between DVD and Blu-ray.

I have a 50" 1080p plasma, I have a decent mid-line Sony DVD player, and a Sony PS3.

I have both hooked up to my AVR (PS3 via HDMI, and the DVD via a Blue Jeans ICs- component) then HDMI from the AVR to the plasma.

I played my DVD and Blu ray copies of Pirates of the C. - Curse of the Black Pearl and manually synced them to play at the same time.

At first I watched the DVD and nodded in satisfaction - pretty good picture quality, very watchable, nothing really to complain about.

Then I switched to the Blu-ray and the difference was very noticable - much sharper picture with much better detail resolution thru out the picture - you could resolve detail in the movie frame much easier. More vivid color.

I still watch DVDs and the satisfaction factor is good for titles that aren't out on blu-ray yet. And there are blu-ray titles out there that aren't considered good transfers so the difference to DVDs is probably small.

But - get a good blu-ray disc that is of 'demo' quality and there's no going back for me.

Just stirring the pot...

As for my wife...she still turns on the cable box and watches channels in SD vs. changing them to their HD equivalent...she doesn't care.

MSALLA · January 2009

My wife loves the blue-ray. but buying one did cost me a shopping spree at King of Prussia mall. Fair is fair I guess.

TheOtherSide · January 2009

Luckily I haven't taken the BR plunge yet but I will in the next few months. My wife is crazy for everything HD but we need to move out of our 2nd floor condo before I unpack all my HT gear.

My brother does have the BR though. I love it. I actually like the sound better than the picture. Since the amount of data on BR disks is huge, the sound doesn't have to be compressed so much and it sounds so much better. We played Transformers (both DVD and BR) back to back through his system and the sound clarity difference was amazing. Plus you get true 7.1 out of Blu-Ray. But my wife was with me and actually noticed the difference so she is onboard for the change when it comes.

cheddar · January 2009

TheOtherSide wrote: »

Since the amount of data on BR disks is huge, the sound doesn't have to be compressed so much and it sounds so much better.

Actually, you don't have to compress the audio at all. Studios like Sony and Disney put uncompressed PCM tracks on their disks as a 3rd 'lossless' option. And TrueHD and DTS-HD MA are supposed to uncompress back to their original uncompressed tracks. It really makes one wonder what vanilla DD and DTS decide to drop out when they compress movie sound tracks...what they think we won't notice is gone when we listen.

obieone · January 2009

JMO, but, I watched 'Ratatouille' on my 32", 720P LCD, and I can't IMAGINE the PQ being so much better as to warrant a $2-3K upgrade. I've seen what MAY be a legitimate difference, but I have my doubts.
Not to mention the fact that Sony DIDN'T support SACD, so I'm NOT gonna get sucked into their 'upgrade koolaid'
Maybe this economic cooling down will teach people some financial discipline.
Rant terminated.

ND13 · January 2009

I haven't been able to tell the difference between 720p/1080i -vs- 1080p unless on a screen over 50-52". I have 20/15 in right eye and 20/20 in lefteye.

MikeC78 · January 2009

ND13 wrote: »

I haven't been able to tell the difference between 720p/1080i -vs- 1080p unless on a screen over 50-52". I have 20/15 in right eye and 20/20 in lefteye.

Sit closer.:)

comfortablycurt · January 2009

ND13 wrote: »

I haven't been able to tell the difference between 720p/1080i -vs- 1080p unless on a screen over 50-52". I have 20/15 in right eye and 20/20 in lefteye.

That's something else that I've heard quite a few times as well. From what I've gathered 1080p is only really going to make a discernible difference on a TV that's 46-50 inches or larger. Unless of course you're sitting 5 feet away from it or something.

bobman1235 · January 2009

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

Of course, don't tell most people, they'll just tell you that THEY can tell the difference, whether science agrees with them or not.

Pablo · January 2009

My wife doesn't seem to see the difference (it's probably more that she doesn't care). I actually change channels on her to the HD version of a show she's watching. But I do think my daughter gets it. She actually said the colors weren't good on the plasma upstairs (but I still haven't had a chance to run a disk for it).

MikeC78 · January 2009

bobman1235 wrote: »

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

Of course, don't tell most people, they'll just tell you that THEY can tell the difference, whether science agrees with them or not.

Doesn't that work with cables too?;)

Igo · January 2009

bobman1235 wrote: »

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

Of course, don't tell most people, they'll just tell you that THEY can tell the difference, whether science agrees with them or not.

Science my arse. A 50 inch screen is meant to be sitting 100 to 150 inches away and I sure as hell can tell the difference.

comfortablycurt · January 2009

Igo wrote: »

Science my arse. A 50 inch screen is meant to be sitting 100 to 150 inches away and I sure as hell can tell the difference.

You just proved his point for him...lol

bobman1235 · January 2009

Igo wrote: »

Science my arse. A 50 inch screen is meant to be sitting 100 to 150 inches away and I sure as hell can tell the difference.

100 inches is a little more than 8 ft, if you go by the chart that is well into the '1080p becomes noticeable' range.

Igo · January 2009

Yeah I read that. I never looked at the chart. Sorry.
But before I bought mine several people were telling me I couldn't tell the difference and in my head I'm thinking " you can't be serious, right?"
Just like there is a formula/math for setting up speakers in a surround sound system, there is math for proper viewing distances for a wide screen TV and it is suggested that people sit 1.5 to 2.5 times the distance from the screen as the screen measure diagonally. So, when I did my testing I did it at 3 times the distance. On every occasion, both in a dark Circuit City and a well lit Best Buy I could tell a marketable difference; each time, and on every for instance, with ease.
I wasn’t being mean but sometimes some people post things as fact or experience here when in reality they seldom have a clue what they are talking about and people depend on these forums for fact or at least experience.
I would have to say though that my old DVDs are very acceptable viewing on this new TV. I use the PS3 for up-converting and it does an exceptional job.

seebee700 · January 2009

Wow, hope you blue ray skeptics are wrong.

My wife very happy with the upgrade from SD to HD (yesterday).

Now we're awaiting the BR player thats backordered, all fired up for nothing?

Dan

wingnut4772 · January 2009

I mentioned to her today that one of her favorite movies of late, King Kong, was coming out on BD. Was she interested? LOL NO!:D She's plenty content with the SD version.

metal83 · January 2009

seebee700 wrote: »

Wow, hope you blue ray skeptics are wrong.

My wife very happy with the upgrade from SD to HD (yesterday).

Now we're awaiting the BR player thats backordered, all fired up for nothing?

Dan

Nope, definetly not....Blu-ray is awesome! Don't worry about the naysayers. lol

MSALLA · January 2009

I did notice (imho) that some movies are not worth buying in BR. Stand up comedies and day in the life type movies I still buy SD dvd's. The HD upscaler seems to do a good enough jod for them. Just my 2 cents.

Igo · January 2009

seebee700 wrote: »

Wow, hope you blue ray skeptics are wrong.

My wife very happy with the upgrade from SD to HD (yesterday).

Now we're awaiting the BR player thats backordered, all fired up for nothing?

Dan

It's just like any recording. If the material is good then BluRay is the way to go.

cheddar · January 2009

This thread reminds me of all the threads devoted to things like do you hear a difference with...(new amps, SACD, new speakers). And it usually boils down to some people can appreciate the difference (and it's worth the extra coin to them) and some people just won't pay money for a difference they can't hear or is too small for the coin to them personally. Why the need to convince everyone one way or another? Those that can appreciate what the new technology offers and have the money, enjoy it. Those that can't, you're probably better off than the rest of us, 'cause there's no sense buying what you don't have a use for, and your wallet will feel that much heavier...

For those of us who believe...

Buying a huge collection of blu-rays to simply recomplete a DVD collection is silly. It's been my experience that with both blu-ray and any audio upgrade, you are simply magnifying what is already there. If an original music track is mastered poorly, all an uber-expensive rig is going to get you is hearing what's there in more detail. It can't fix the track and add what's not there. It's the same with blu-ray. The further up the chain you go, (adding a larger screen, better surround system, etc.) the more dirt, muck, or detail killing digital noise reduction you will notice if it's part of the original transfer. As has already been said, there's no reason to buy a bad recording.

Most blu-ray owners who've been around for a while are happy with disk purchases from the top tier of lists like these:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=858316

Blu-ray is just like anything else in this hobby, the higher you go, the fewer will be willing to pay for diminishing returns. There are a lot more BOSE people out there who probably would be better off if they'd just bought some cheap HTiB instead. For the rest of us happy blu-ray viewing and listening!!!

Marty913 · January 2009

MSALLA wrote: »

I did notice (imho) that some movies are not worth buying in BR. Stand up comedies and day in the life type movies I still buy SD dvd's. The HD upscaler seems to do a good enough jod for them. Just my 2 cents.

I think this is an excellent point and may contribute to why some people haven't jumped on the BR bandwagon. For a lot of movie types the increased bitrates just don't produce a huge difference. I suspect also that the producers in some cases are not remastering the films but simply taking the SD $10 version and dumping it on a $29.95 BR with a few extras they didn't have room for the first time around.

On the other hand, some of the ones (high action content) I have seem to benefit quite a bit.

MSALLA · January 2009

High action, Sci Fi, and films like "discovery: planet earth" are awsome in BR.

manman · January 2009

Marty913 wrote: »

I think this is an excellent point and may contribute to why some people haven't jumped on the BR bandwagon. For a lot of movie types the increased bitrates just don't produce a huge difference. I suspect also that the producers in some cases are not remastering the films but simply taking the SD $10 version and dumping it on a $29.95 BR with a few extras they didn't have room for the first time around.

On the other hand, some of the ones (high action content) I have seem to benefit quite a bit.

It's not about the type of movie at all. Any movie CAN benefit from blu-ray, but it's more about what you mentioned about spending the money on a good transfer. It takes up into the realm of about 4k lines of resolution to get close to the level of detail film can give you- so anything from old to new movies regardless of genre can get a big advantage from blu-ray. It's just that some studios do cheap-o transfers- dont' remaster/clean up the source, bad codec etc. Take an older movie like Blade Runner though- they did an amazing transfer of that.

I think maybe the reason some action movies get better treatment is because they expect more people to buy them. Especially early on- since I think the demographic of early technology adopters probably overlaps pretty well with the action movie demo, haha. There are plenty of action movies with poor transfers though too- like the U.S. release of Terminator 2. Just gives them a chance to double dip us...

steveinaz · January 2009

Bev notices on better transfers. I haven't seen a Bluray that looked worse than it's SDVD counterpart, but I have seen some movies that are barely better in quality. "Step Brothers" is a pretty poor Bluray. OTH, some movies really pop with Bluray. We watched Scooby Doo the other night, it was awesome on Blu.

Does Your Better Half Appreciate Blu Ray?

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