Blu Ray

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Christ! I always wondered who still bought DVDs!

The jump from DVD to Blu Ray is massive. Huge. The quality is night and day. Especially on a great massive TV. The jump is far greater than Blu Ray to 4K in my humble opinion.
So now I’m confused. Isn’t Blu ray a dvd also? Don’t they look the same?
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So now I’m confused. Isn’t Blu ray a dvd also? Don’t they look the same?

If I understand correctly, (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong), a Blu-ray is basically a high-definition DVD. It has a higher capacity, so it holds more information, allowing it to have better image and sound quality.

Most (maybe even all) Blu-ray players can play standard DVDs, so if you buy a Blu-ray player, you will still be able to play all of your current DVD discs on your Blu-ray player.
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My Darth Star is in for a service
If you sit close to your screen then 4k/8k will make a huge difference.
The further you move away the less effect it will have and a standard HDTV will be fine.
One advantage of the new tech is less power consumption, those old plasmas eat electricity at an alarming rate as do the older LCDs.
They are also a lot lighter so a 65" plus weighs less than an old 32" plasma.
Oh they are a lot cheaper than they were too, here in the UK you can get a 50" for less than £300.



My Darth Star is in for a service
If I understand correctly, (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong), a Blu-ray is basically a high-definition DVD. It has a higher capacity, so it holds more information, allowing it to have better image and sound quality.

Most (maybe even all) Blu-ray players can play standard DVDs, so if you buy a Blu-ray player, you will still be able to play all of your current DVD discs on your Blu-ray player.
You are correct most Blu Ray players can also play DVDs.
Some can also play the now obsolete HD DVD format.



I still hit the stores pretty regularly, and can sometimes be found ogling the OLED TVs. The ones I have seen look amazing, but they are still a bit out of my price range.
I switched to OLED a couple of weeks ago, and the difference from my old 10 (or 11) years old LCD is quite drastic. I also went from 40 to 55 inches. Even the SD material looks better because of perfect blacks and higher contrast, and proper 4k HDR material is just awesome.

I guess the TV was a little out of my price range too, but the three years no interest payment plan is feasible. Now I'd have to figure a way to buy a 4k Bluray player too.
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Blu-ray (and above) is essential, in my opinion, to experience the full intention of the director and thereby view the film as it should be viewed.

DVD compromises the quality and information of the image greatly, sometimes creating visual artefacts, weird sharpness issues and an overall soft look. Of course it demands the right setup all around to truly be able to see what you are missing. There is a lot of information in the image that you will simply never see with DVD.



At first it might be a bit of a shock. Some may find that it's "too sharp", but remember it also depends on your setup (your tv and the likes). You might also need to learn a bit about your TVs settings and what each of them does. Because suddenly, you are seeing all this insane information in the image that you are not used to, and that also means that all the little things can be seen - including if you have your sharpness setting set too high, your white balance is off and so on... often tv manufactures have standard image settings that will make your tv "pop". But they will in most cases look unnatural. That can easily be fixed though - a quick change to a "cinema mode" setting with only a few clicks will help greatly. And the next steps all depends on how deep you want to dive into it all (calibration of your tv and the likes).

There are a lot of people who hold on to DVDs because it's easy and been around for long, but also because they find the look to be "right" to them. But if you are truly a film purist, you should at least check out the benefits of Blu-ray and 4K. For one, they preserve the natural film grain, so if you like or love older films (or just films shot on film negative) then Blu-ray (and to a greater extend, 4K) will replicate that look very well. Watching a great Blu-ray or 4K disc, it can sometimes feel like watching the movie for the first time all over again.

To put it into perspective, a standard DVD has a size of 4.7 GB (gigabytes) of storage. A standard Blu-ray has 25 GB. That's more than five times the size. But it can go up to 50 GB for the larger disc. As for 4K UltraHD Blu-ray, the standard is around 66 GB, but it can go up to 100 GB. That's a lot of numbers, but just think of them as information. The bigger the container, the more information, the better quality, the closer to the actual film print/DCP. When a movie is shot today, on digital for example, you can easily end up with several Terabytes... now, 1 terabyte (TB) is 1000 GB, if that helps with perspective. I recall when watching All The Money in the World - a two hour film - that the movie file size used in the cinema was about 200-300 GB. So with DVD, all that information is pressed onto a 4.7 GB disc.

To me, when I watch films, I want to respect the film and the people behind the making of the film. I want to make sure I watch it the best possible way I can. And perhaps I am a bit more nitpicky about it than most. Sometimes I will even refuse to watch a film if it's DVD quality or less... "But MM, if the movie itself is good the quality doesn't matter all that much. It's the movie itself that counts". I can certainly see the point in that, but I have found that the more "fuzz" I make when watching a movie the greater my experience will be...

There's a reason movie-going was an "event" back in the day. It has always been something more than just a movie. I feel like I'm taking a huge dump on the director if I watch his movie on a small smartphone screen, while riding a bus on my way to work, then pause it halfway and finish the film on my way home. Stuff like that hurts my cinema heart.

I have a 65" OLED at home with a sound system capable of Atmos. I want to make sure that whether I watch Truffaut or Transformers I want to view it the best way I can. Because even though Transformers is what it is, I feel like you haven't really watched the film if you haven't watched it with a great screen and sound system. Because especially for movies like that, it's part of the experience to make sure that every surround element is placed right and every little bass response can be felt. And actually, there's a lot of drama movies too that benefits from a great sound system. Directors like Malick and Lynch, for example, care greatly about this. Their movies can really be elevated if you make sure you get everything that was intended into your own experience of the film. Malick's Knight of Cups even has a title card talking about the sound mixing, explaining how important it is to view this movie at high volume.


This is a massive ass write-up, but my point is that a lot of work is put into making a movie. A small change in the color, a tiny sound in a certain scene. Everything matters. And every cinephile knows this, I'm sure. And I definitely do not think that cinephiles have not made the jump to Blu-ray because they want to sh*t on cinema. Of course not. But if you take your time to invest in a greater viewing experience, you will also be rewarded.



So now I’m confused. Isn’t Blu ray a dvd also? Don’t they look the same?
They definitely do not look the same. I'd strongly recommend investing in a Blu Ray player. Sell al your DVDs and upgrade to Blu!




My Darth Star is in for a service
It isn't necessary to sell off a DVD collection as some Blu Ray players automatically upscale the image.
Granted the Blu Ray version will be better but if you have a huge DVD collection to replace that could end up costing a pretty packet.

I also tend to watch action movies with DTS sound rather than Dolby as the low end has more prominence.
When the time comes book a demo of a full 4k set up with surround sound and I'm sure you will want to move up.
4k Demo scenes to view...
1. The Diva singing in The Fifth Element leading into the shootout.
2. Neo and Trinity saving Morpheous from Agent Smith
3. Opening sequence of Terminator 2



My Darth Star is in for a service


Even on a standard stereo the sound will amaze you.
If you have a sub turn it on.
Image will be as good as your screen/monitor will allow.



Oh they are a lot cheaper than they were too, here in the UK you can get a 50" for less than £300.
I make this about $410. I don’t think here in America you would need to spend this much.



My Darth Star is in for a service
I make this about $410. I don’t think here in America you would need to spend this much.
Oh there are lesser brands here that are cheaper but I personally wouldn't buy one of them.

The extra for a marque name like Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, LG etc will perform better and work well with one of their own Blu Ray players.

Just book a few demos to see what one tickles your fancy then haggle on price.



Blu-ray (and above) is essential, in my opinion, to experience the full intention of the director and thereby view the film as it should be viewed.

DVD compromises the quality and information of the image greatly, sometimes creating visual artefacts, weird sharpness issues and an overall soft look. Of course it demands the right setup all around to truly be able to see what you are missing. There is a lot of information in the image that you will simply never see with DVD.



At first it might be a bit of a shock. Some may find that it's "too sharp", but remember it also depends on your setup (your tv and the likes). You might also need to learn a bit about your TVs settings and what each of them does. Because suddenly, you are seeing all this insane information in the image that you are not used to, and that also means that all the little things can be seen - including if you have your sharpness setting set too high, your white balance is off and so on... often tv manufactures have standard image settings that will make your tv "pop". But they will in most cases look unnatural. That can easily be fixed though - a quick change to a "cinema mode" setting with only a few clicks will help greatly. And the next steps all depends on how deep you want to dive into it all (calibration of your tv and the likes).

There are a lot of people who hold on to DVDs because it's easy and been around for long, but also because they find the look to be "right" to them. But if you are truly a film purist, you should at least check out the benefits of Blu-ray and 4K. For one, they preserve the natural film grain, so if you like or love older films (or just films shot on film negative) then Blu-ray (and to a greater extend, 4K) will replicate that look very well. Watching a great Blu-ray or 4K disc, it can sometimes feel like watching the movie for the first time all over again.

To put it into perspective, a standard DVD has a size of 4.7 GB (gigabytes) of storage. A standard Blu-ray has 25 GB. That's more than five times the size. But it can go up to 50 GB for the larger disc. As for 4K UltraHD Blu-ray, the standard is around 66 GB, but it can go up to 100 GB. That's a lot of numbers, but just think of them as information. The bigger the container, the more information, the better quality, the closer to the actual film print/DCP. When a movie is shot today, on digital for example, you can easily end up with several Terabytes... now, 1 terabyte (TB) is 1000 GB, if that helps with perspective. I recall when watching All The Money in the World - a two hour film - that the movie file size used in the cinema was about 200-300 GB. So with DVD, all that information is pressed onto a 4.7 GB disc.

To me, when I watch films, I want to respect the film and the people behind the making of the film. I want to make sure I watch it the best possible way I can. And perhaps I am a bit more nitpicky about it than most. Sometimes I will even refuse to watch a film if it's DVD quality or less... "But MM, if the movie itself is good the quality doesn't matter all that much. It's the movie itself that counts". I can certainly see the point in that, but I have found that the more "fuzz" I make when watching a movie the greater my experience will be...

There's a reason movie-going was an "event" back in the day. It has always been something more than just a movie. I feel like I'm taking a huge dump on the director if I watch his movie on a small smartphone screen, while riding a bus on my way to work, then pause it halfway and finish the film on my way home. Stuff like that hurts my cinema heart.

I have a 65" OLED at home with a sound system capable of Atmos. I want to make sure that whether I watch Truffaut or Transformers I want to view it the best way I can. Because even though Transformers is what it is, I feel like you haven't really watched the film if you haven't watched it with a great screen and sound system. Because especially for movies like that, it's part of the experience to make sure that every surround element is placed right and every little bass response can be felt. And actually, there's a lot of drama movies too that benefits from a great sound system. Directors like Malick and Lynch, for example, care greatly about this. Their movies can really be elevated if you make sure you get everything that was intended into your own experience of the film. Malick's Knight of Cups even has a title card talking about the sound mixing, explaining how important it is to view this movie at high volume.


This is a massive ass write-up, but my point is that a lot of work is put into making a movie. A small change in the color, a tiny sound in a certain scene. Everything matters. And every cinephile knows this, I'm sure. And I definitely do not think that cinephiles have not made the jump to Blu-ray because they want to sh*t on cinema. Of course not. But if you take your time to invest in a greater viewing experience, you will also be rewarded.
Well said.

Anyways, I think DVDs are worth buying only when the title is out of stock or not avabile and you’d have to wait or buy from a secondary source.

In that case and for a good price you could buy it, like for example I got Videodrome for 3£ brand new.



If you have a bigger than 32 inch tv go blu-ray, no question about the improvement- there are a lot of remastered classics that look amazing like Gone with the Wind. However some blurays do look like straight dvd transfers so watch out (in same way some dvds are vhs transfers). I got an Xbox one x last year which plays 4K and am slowly updating my collection as they get released, How good they are depends on the effort and expense the studios gave to remastering. Flash Gordon is very impressive, I heard karate kid isn’t that good though.

You do see some funny things with HD though, for example in Moonraker Roger Moore’s stunt double is Chinese, and in From Russia with Love you notice Connery had a hairy back!