Go blu or stay with dvd??

decorativeed said:
I must mention though, a decent MKV rip of a Blu-Ray looks far better than the DVD of the same film and is often not much larger than the DVD one. You could get 200 MKVs on a 2TB drive.
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You know that MKV is a wrapper right? You know that your squashed MKVs are using a low bitrate encode right? You can look at it any way you want, maybe you don't see the differences, maybe you're blind or watching on a 24" screen, the fact of the matter is that you could project a well encoded BD disc onto a very large screen. You can't do that with your DVDs or MKVs, which mostly look like blocky crap even on a large flat panel 1080p display.

You and Biscuit it seems are from the generation that puts up with shitty low bitrate MP3s on their iPods, and are now doing the same with video. It makes no sense.
 
Surely storage capacity and bandwidth will likely hold HD downloads back for the forseeable future though?

I don't want to be downloading upto and beyond 50gb per film and having to store them on a hard drive. Even if the file is free (illegal) you are still paying a fair amount for the storage and bandwidth right?

I do download a fair amount of low quality files and am happy to watch them in order to keep up with what is being released (like a rental service) but I rarely keep them and consider anything worth owning as worth owning on Blu ray.
 
WeasteDevil said:
People also like to own physical things, and no DRM or any of that bullshit when you have a disc.
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I love having the physical copy. I love having them on display in my living room(missus hates it though). While I transitioned from CD to mp3, I don't think I'll make the transition to movies on a hard drive anytime soon. I'm a cinephile, not an audiophile.
 
WeasteDevil said:
You know that MKV is a wrapper right? You know that your squashed MKVs are using a low bitrate encode right? You can look at it any way you want, maybe you don't see the differences, maybe you're blind or watching on a 24" screen, the fact of the matter is that you could project a well encoded BD disc onto a very large screen. You can't do that with your DVDs or MKVs, which mostly look like blocky crap even on a large flat panel 1080p display.

You and Biscuit it seems are from the generation that puts up with shitty low bitrate MP3s on their iPods, and are now doing the same with video. It makes no sense.
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So what you're saying is that a good x264 encode of a Blu-ray goes blocky on a large flat panel 1080p TV?
 
Mad said:
So what you're saying is that a good x264 encode of a Blu-ray goes blocky on a large flat panel 1080p TV?
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A well encoded BD is already most likely 264 in the first place. You want to squash it down to a DVD size using the same codec, what the hell do you think is happening there? Bitrate reduction. Take all of your CDs and ecode them at 128kbps MP3s, what do you get?
 
WeasteDevil said:
You know that MKV is a wrapper right? You know that your squashed MKVs are using a low bitrate encode right? You can look at it any way you want, maybe you don't see the differences, maybe you're blind or watching on a 24" screen, the fact of the matter is that you could project a well encoded BD disc onto a very large screen. You can't do that with your DVDs or MKVs, which mostly look like blocky crap even on a large flat panel 1080p display.

You and Biscuit it seems are from the generation that puts up with shitty low bitrate MP3s on their iPods, and are now doing the same with video. It makes no sense.
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Yes I do. Not that it makes any difference to my point. I know that they use a low bitrate - obviously that's how they compress it so it is only 1/4 of the size or less. Despite that, they still look quite noticably better than DVDs.

I could project a BD onto a massive screen, yes. That would of course depend on me having a room big enough, a large projection screen and a very costly projector. I have none of these. Maybe if I won the lottery, then I'd start to worry about it.

As for Ipods, I wouldn't be seen anywhere near one. I can't be doing with badly compressed music. My music is in FLAC for the most part, 320khz at the worst. To be honest though, after years of working in high volume environments I trust my eyes over my ears anyway and the majority of MKV stuff I've watched (admitttedly only on a 37" screen) looks very good, a definate improvement on DVD/broadcast quality. That alone makes "sense" to have those files on my hard drive rather than a straight, uncompressed DVD rip. Compression technology is a lot better than it was a few years ago.
 
WeasteDevil said:
A well encoded BD is already most likely 264 in the first place. You want to squash it down to a DVD size using the same codec, what the hell do you think is happening there? Bitrate reduction. Take all of your CDs and ecode them at 128kbps MP3s, what do you get?
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there are blu ray rips in all sizes...ive downloaded mkv rips of around 20gb.
 
720p MKV are perfectly fine for the most part on my 46" Sony. Blu ray ones anyway, HDTV 720p rips are usually pretty bad so I just wait for Sky to get most stuff.

Blu ray mkv rips are ridiculously superior than DVD, that shouldn't be a discussion, they aren't that much worse than the actualy blu ray either, it's like comparing 320kps mp3 to flac, the difference is there, but unless you have a ridiculous setup, you ain't noticing it.
 
Bought the player, the missus has put it away for christmas :(

Bought toy story 3 today and ordered metropolis, aswell as preordering the special edition of battle royale

My 2 pennys on the whole physical or download debate, id rather have the dvds/blurays, love having them all lined up and displayed and plus you can lend them out hassle free
 
20solskjaer said:
Bought the player, the missus has put it away for christmas :(

Bought toy story 3 today and ordered metropolis, aswell as preordering the special edition of battle royale

My 2 pennys on the whole physical or download debate, id rather have the dvds/blurays, love having them all lined up and displayed and plus you can lend them out hassle free
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And either get them back damaged or not get them back at all. Surely a pro on the side of having a purely digital copy rather than a physical one; The perfect excuse not to lend out. :lol:
 
So the majority of you caftards are saying Blu Ray is not only better but also WORTH it?
 
WeasteDevil said:
A well encoded BD is already most likely 264 in the first place. You want to squash it down to a DVD size using the same codec, what the hell do you think is happening there? Bitrate reduction. Take all of your CDs and ecode them at 128kbps MP3s, what do you get?
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What I was trying to say was that I have both a large flat panel 1080p TV and good x264 encodes of Blu-rays (Around 10 GB each) and they don't go blocky at all.

In fact I've borrowed BDs from a friend to see if the difference was noticeable, but I have to say it was negligable for the most part.
 
Blue-Ray is so cheap now its daft to not make the switch. However don't expect a massive jump in quality. My old DVD player upscaled and I can barely notice the difference between my old DVDs and Blue-Ray.....and that is on a 65" TV.
 
mjs020294 said:
Blue-Ray is so cheap now its daft to not make the switch. However don't expect a massive jump in quality. My old DVD player upscaled and I can barely notice the difference between my old DVDs and Blue-Ray.....and that is on a 65" TV.
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Your TV is probably a bit shit.
 
decorativeed said:
And either get them back damaged or not get them back at all. Surely a pro on the side of having a purely digital copy rather than a physical one; The perfect excuse not to lend out. :lol:
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Never a problem, ive got decent friends who take care of shit, plus if i dont lend its a bit cheeky if i then raid their bluray collection
 
Blue-rays are so yesterday

3D players are now hitting the markets.
 
Not impressed with the 3D TVs TBH.

Seems pretty stupid to get fixated on TVs alone when many people don't invest in a good receiver and speaker system.
 
mjs020294 said:
Not impressed with the 3D TVs TBH.

Seems pretty stupid to get fixated on TVs alone when many people don't invest in a good receiver and speakers systems.
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They're amazing.

You're just jealous
 
Sultan said:
They're amazing.

You're just jealous
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The are in the same boat HDTVs were over here a decade ago. Not enough media for them to justify even considering one right now. They have a couple of 3D TVs on demo in Costco and I wasn't that impressed with them.
 
mjs020294 said:
The are in the same boat HDTVs were over here a decade ago. Not enough media for them to justify even considering one right now. They have a couple of 3D TVs on demo in Costco and I wasn't that impressed with them.
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Just watching football in 3D justifies buying a set.
 
Sultan said:
Just watching football in 3D justifies buying a set.
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How many games are they showing in 3d, and how many channels do they have. Sales are growing a lot slower than was predicted in the US, which accounts for over 50% of 3d sales.

Maybe in three or fours years when there are more programs available and they sort out the issues with the cost of high quality glasses, 3D TVs might be worth looking at.
 
I used to love collecting movies, but that sort of died when the DVD format passed its heyday and I realized that my collection of movies was worth zilch. These days I'm 100% digital, and I can't remember the last time I bought or rented a physical copy of a movie. To be fair though it was when I stopped renting I started buying instead, because I could never, ever remember to return them on time.

As I'm not overly concerned about picture quality it doesn't really matter that much, but I'd take a HD (720 or 1080) over DVDs every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Quality difference is very much noticeable! Like I said though, I'm not hardcore when it comes to it, so I generally find digital solutions (MKV compressed copies mostly) satisfying.

When it comes to music however, it's V0 or lossless all the way for me (even with high end headphones I more often than not can't tell the difference between those two, so for my purpose V0 is acceptabe). Just pointing it out, since someone tried to make it a generational thing.
 
mjs020294 said:
How many games are they showing in 3d, and how many channels do they have. Sales are growing a lot slower than was predicted in the US, which accounts for over 50% of 3d sales.

Maybe in three or fours years when there are more programs available and they sort out the issues with the cost of high quality glasses, 3D TVs might be worth looking at.
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New tvs are coming out soon that won't need glasses anyway. I'm going to stay clear of 3d until its worth buying into, currently it isn't.
 
RDCR07 said:
So the majority of you caftards are saying Blu Ray is not only better but also WORTH it?
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If you've got a big tv and/or surround sound - definitely.

If not, then I wouldn't say it's a necessity but if you've got the money sitting around then you may as well. It won't be a huge difference but it is an improvement.

Also, something I haven't seen anyone mention. Blu-ray discs are much more resistant to scratches than DVD's. I'd never buy second hand DVD's unless they were virtually free, but I have no problem getting Blu-ray's second hand.
 
RedLars said:
I used to love collecting movies, but that sort of died when the DVD format passed its heyday and I realized that my collection of movies was worth zilch. These days I'm 100% digital, and I can't remember the last time I bought or rented a physical copy of a movie.

As I'm not overly concerned about picture quality it doesn't really matter that much, but I'd take a HD (720 or 1080) over DVDs every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Quality difference is very much noticeable!
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Decent DVD players do a decent job of up scaling. My old DVD player had no problems delivering a 1080p feed to my TV, and the quality was very good.
 
I'm more than happy staying with DVD. Whenever I play one on the xbox the picture quality is far superior to that of my dvd player.
 
MadDogg said:
If you've got a big tv and surround sound - definitely.

If not, then I wouldn't say it's a necessity but if you've got the money sitting around then you may as well. It won't be a huge difference but it is an improvement.
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Most sensible answer so far.

I actually have a big TV and excellent sound system, and the difference between Blue-ray and DVD is fairly small TBH. My old (only used it a year) DVD player probably did a far better job of up scaling than what most people are running.

The big difference I see between my set-up and other peoples, especially in the UK, is my sound stage blows most of them away. Going back to TV speakers or low quality surround systems would be much more of a loss than switching back to DVD for me.

Bottom line is Blue-ray is very cheap now so there really is no reason to stay with DVD.
 
Upscaling is all well and good, but no amount of it is ever going to add back the details that were lost in the original DVD encode. It's still a far softer image, just bigger.
 
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