So far, I'm not a Blu Ray/HD fan

I have the three Bourne films on HD-DVD and there's no way I'm replacing them with the Blu-Ray counterparts. No way.

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

There isn't any visual difference between HD DVD and Blu-ray, is there? If it is, it must be so minimal. I haven't noticed the difference at all myself.

As always, depends on the disc/studio/codec. I've notced some HD-DVD counterparts having much better black levels than Blu-Ray, but current Blu-Ray releases are just as good as HD-DVDs.

I've not noticed, thought they were both exactly the same.

Has anyone got any thoughts on BD Live?

I got my first BD Live-enabled discs last week (the Bourne Trilogy) and am distinctly underwhelmed. It just sounds like a marketing man has pitched "Web 2.0, HD movies, user-generated content, winner!" to the studios and forgot to fill in the blanks.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Well, Wal-Mart has decided to drop the price of a Magnavox Blu-ray player down to $98, so naturally Sexy Celebrity had to unlock the Blu-ray chastity belt and buy one. Now I've gone and dumped my steady, regular DVD boyfriend (of 10 years) and I'm currently holding hands with the buff Blu-ray (named "Ray", of course). He is oh-so-dreamy.

I bought The Terminator (and today I bought T2). I felt like a virgin when I watched it. Yet, I didn't even need the KY jelly. It's amazing what one simple HDMI cord and Arnold Schwarzenegger can do for you. Now I'm a full on Blu-ray slut.

Now I'm on the hunt for more Blu-rays and I'm hoping that EVERYONE will rush out and make the switch (cause I want these Blu-rays to go down in price). I thought I was an oddball for not having Blu-ray, but after buying the player, I've noticed that you can't find many discs in stores. Only Best Buy seems to have the biggest selection.

So, if you don't have a Blu-ray player, please get your buns to Wal-Mart and buy the cheapo player for $98. Make sure you have an HDTV, of course (buy one). Get on the bandwagon!

Another convert! Glad you joined us and not the Judean People's Front.

A note for PS3 users - it's definitely region-locked for Blu Rays (I'd heard quite a few people say it was region free like it is with games) so went out a few weeks ago, in a Sexy-like rash moment, and bought the (2nd) cheapest player I could get my hands on. The Samsung BD-P1500 was £120 compared to £99 for a Logik model which I couldn't find any reviews on. This was made a bit easier by my 2 month old DVD player going pop and the store I bought the Sammy in giving me a full refund - I figured I may as well spend a few quid more and not have to be extra careful about buying movies for the imported PS3. It's a good little DVD upscaler too.

Picture quality is easily the equal of the PS3 (and I've got a good telly so nyah nyah to the naysayers!) and it's got firmware upgrades to BD 2.0 but load times are sloppier. It's under half the price, though.

Another great feature is its ability to re-encode the HD sound into a DTS stream for people who don't have (ie: me) a HDMI surround system. The quality is definitely a step up from the legacy audio.

Prices are definitely coming down but what you US-based MoFos get to pay for your tech leaves me extremely jealous. Basically, The Sexy One's new Blu Ray player cost less than my broken old steam-powered DVD player...

Wal-Mart in North America is cheap hooker central for merchandise. You may not always get top quality (my $98 Blu-ray doesn't come with a ZOOM button on the remote!) but you'll get your rocks off, regardless, if you have a few bucks.

I'm hoping that everyone switches over so that more and more Blu-ray discs will come out and eventually get cheaper. I'm tired of seeing every movie on Blu-ray be around $30, especially if it's something old that you can find on regular DVD for $5 somewhere (like in the Wal-Mart $5 DVD bins).

Speaking of Wal-Mart, they recently had $3 regular DVDs on sale, things like Blades of Glory, There Will Be Blood, and Year of the Dog.

Mine doesn't have a zoom button either so don't feel bad.

Wal Mart owns Asda over here but their prices are still higher (though on a par with everywhere else locally). We're short changed in everything electrical compared to you guys although the discs themselves seem to be similarly priced.

Unfortunately it's not even a matter of buying a player online and getting it shipped from The States because of the differing electrical set-ups - don't think I ain't tried.

Actually, it's probably just sending the core of the DTS-HD soundtrack over to the receiver. Any receiver with DTS capabilities can decode a track that is 1.5MB/s (which is the core of the DTS-HD tracks). If it's Dolby Tru-HD it will send over the core Dolby Digital track (640kb/s), unless your player actually does recode all HD tracks into DTS 1.5MB/s. For example, that's what the 360 does when you use the HD-DVD attachment. I doubt it does the latter, though. Of course, I could be wrong. Easiest way to find out is to pop in a Blu-Ray with a Dolby Tru-HD track and see what you receiver says.

I miss my Blue -Ray (PS3). Times got tough between jobs and I pawned my PS3 along with movies and games for $100.00. It certainly was my intention to get 'em back out, thats why I pawned 'em so low so I could retrive them. The day I was to go pick them up my mother was in a car wreck and I was in hospital for three days with her not even thinking about it. When I got back into everyday life it was too late. I went back to see if maybe they still had my stuff, of course it was gone like the wind, but no one to blame but fate I guess. Creeping my way back up to getting another - do not see me getting anything other than a PS3, at least at this point.

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

That's what it does do, which is why I mentioned it.

And yes, everything shows up as DTS on the surround amp, even Dubly. You can set it so that it sends the legacy DD and DTS tracks to the receiver but from what I've experienced, that is definitely a step down unless all your disc has is non-HD surround.

Ah, I gotcha. Yea, I just send the legacy tracks over (seeing as how that's the only thing the PS3 does), but I can tell a difference in the legacy track from the Dolby Tru-HD and just the plain Dolby track.

I guess it depends on the film but I noticed it straight away on the first movie I put in (Zodiac, I think) and it's not earth shattering on every disc, definitely, but a nice feature to have all the same especially on a budget player. I also noticed a bigger improvement on discs with Bonus View features like picture in picture. When I can scrape the cash together I'm gonna look into buying a HD amp - the speakers were changed last year so they're fine and my room's not massive so I don't need an expensive receiver.

The PS3 does a great job though, and I wouldn't have entertained the idea of getting another player if the machine had been a European model. Were it not for the fact that it has a bloody good picture, it's wireless and has a built-in hard drive to cope with anything (and this is a long shot, I know ) good on BD Live. The Samsung player needs a USB flash drive plugged into the back before BD LIve will even start and a little thing like the PS3's bluetooth remote is extremely handy when you're too lazy to move your hand a few feet and wave it at the TV.

I like Blu-Ray Disc. It is better than DVD.


Blu-Ray Disc is up top.




Blu-Ray Disc is on the left.




Blu-Ray Disc is on top.


Blu-Ray Disc on top.




Blu-Ray Disc is on right.








Blu-Ray Disc is on left.

Now when people say they don't see the difference in DVD and Blu-ray, they can refer to Sharedin's post.

So the picture is prettier on Blu Ray. So what? To me it's still not worth the extra $$ I'd have to shell out for the player and the discs. I'd rather spend that extra cash on expanding my movie collection.

I'm not making the switch until I absolutely have to.

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That's why I posted it.

I cannot say enough good things about my BluRay player! The up conversion alone is worth it and you haven't seen Bladerunner until you watch it in 1080p Hi-Def on 50 inches of plasma goodness!! I will say the price for the BluRay disks is rather high, but BestBuy has been putting titles on sale every week so that does make the hit a little easier when trying to convert over and I highly recommend shopping at MovieStop (same thing as GameStop, but for movies) for used BluRays at a great price! The only thing that could make the BluRay experience any better is a bigger screen to view the yummy goodness!

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"Vader...You Must Confront Vader..."

I do a great deal of my movie watching on my little 7" portable DVD player anyway. I work like 12 hour days, so sometimes my lunch break is the only time I get for movies.