I am surprised....I think Blu Ray prices are too high....even older films can be up to £21.99. I just don't feel that the qaulity difference between DVD and Blu Ray makes it worth the extra cost. So I'll still be purchasing DVD's for the time being.
Can El Reg summon up some old data viz. VHS movie sales versus DVD movie sales so we can track the progress of migration. DVD did offer instant access versus VHS's need to fast forward/rewind, but DVD at the time was not recordable... Not a perfect comparison but might be interesting.
I have a blu ray drive in MY PC and I really wanted to buy blu ray films. Only cost me £38.90 for the blu ray/ dvd rewriter, I am not happy at the price of the films.
Over £20 for a film and to be honest the res of dvd is 720×576 where as blu ray is only 1280x720+ but as most basic HD tv's are only 1366x768 so the extra few pixels are not worth another £10 on the top of price's
Also I cannot find many as the like's of Block Buster etc do not seem to hold that many...
Dvd is indeed 720 × 576, but most Bluray discs are 1080p which is 1920 x 1080, not 1280x720. As for the TVs, sure a lot of the _basic_ ones are only HDReady and thus limited to 1080i/720p, but pretty much any tv of 40" or larger will do full HD. There are some 32" tvs that can as well. A quick check also shows you can get full HD tv's for £400 or so.
Even so, I'll agree that the prices are a little high at the moment, but that mostly due to the fact that most manufacturers need to recoup their investment in the production lines (which is considerable as they pretty much have to replace existing DvD lines). Once that is over, the costs should fall a fair bit.
Err.. hate to burst the ranters bubble but where on earth are you paying over £20 for a film?
The biggest films around at the moment are the likes of The Dark Knight (£15.99), Hellboy 2 (£13.98) etc
The comparative standard defs are only 2 or 3 pounds cheaper at the moment so its nowhere near as bad as it was. The main difference is how quickly the prices fall after release, DVDs drop to under £10 pretty quick whereas BD seem to stay up although that also seems to be getting better with the likes of Play offering quite a few at £9.99 at the moment and the many 3 for 2 offers.
Obviously we'd all like the prices to be exactly the same but with any new technology you're bound to pay a premium for a while but to say they are over £20 is complete and utter tosh.
If you are paying over £20 perhaps try learning how to use that new fangled "Internet" to buy your disks?
@Patrick - Most blu-ray films are in 1080p. Aren't they? There's a marked improvement over DVD, at least to my knackered eyes. I only got it because I got a 24" monitor.
I thought blu-ray players were meant to play standard DVDs, with upscaling as an optional extra on some models. Also older films/TV shows would not have been recorded in any kind of HD format, so purchasing re-issues on more expensive disks is surely a bit of a con on the part of the studios.
Films are generally recorded on actual film which has a far higher resolution then even blu-ray can do. When you've got a screen that big in the cinema you need something way higher resolution. While you can't use existing digital masters made for DVD, you can always take the film master and make a new digital one.
As for TV, a lot of older shows will only have been recorded in SD rather then HD and this aren't worth buying on Blu-ray, most of the shows that are now coming out on blu-ray are recent ones that have been recorded in HD with both HD transmission and Blu-ray/HD-DVD in mind
Samsung UN55B8000 55" LED TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
Panasonic VIERA TC-L32X1 32" LCD TV (Widescreen, 1366x768, HDTV)
Panasonic VIERA TC-P50X1 50" Plasma TV (Widescreen, 1366x768, 30,000:1, HDTV)
Samsung LN52B750 52" LCD TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
Toshiba 32AV502R 32" LCD TV (Widescreen, 1366x768, HDTV)
Blu-ray boom prompts festive cheer
James Duncan
Really #
Posted Monday 5th January 2009 13:28 GMT
I am surprised....I think Blu Ray prices are too high....even older films can be up to £21.99. I just don't feel that the qaulity difference between DVD and Blu Ray makes it worth the extra cost. So I'll still be purchasing DVD's for the time being.
Anonymous Coward
Comparison to days of old... #
Posted Monday 5th January 2009 13:51 GMT
BD 1.5M vs. DVD 235M
Can El Reg summon up some old data viz. VHS movie sales versus DVD movie sales so we can track the progress of migration. DVD did offer instant access versus VHS's need to fast forward/rewind, but DVD at the time was not recordable... Not a perfect comparison but might be interesting.
Patrick
Why #
Posted Monday 5th January 2009 19:13 GMT
I have a blu ray drive in MY PC and I really wanted to buy blu ray films. Only cost me £38.90 for the blu ray/ dvd rewriter, I am not happy at the price of the films.
Over £20 for a film and to be honest the res of dvd is 720×576 where as blu ray is only 1280x720+ but as most basic HD tv's are only 1366x768 so the extra few pixels are not worth another £10 on the top of price's
Also I cannot find many as the like's of Block Buster etc do not seem to hold that many...
But thats just me i guess...
Paul
@Patrick #
Posted Tuesday 6th January 2009 09:43 GMT
Dvd is indeed 720 × 576, but most Bluray discs are 1080p which is 1920 x 1080, not 1280x720. As for the TVs, sure a lot of the _basic_ ones are only HDReady and thus limited to 1080i/720p, but pretty much any tv of 40" or larger will do full HD. There are some 32" tvs that can as well. A quick check also shows you can get full HD tv's for £400 or so.
Even so, I'll agree that the prices are a little high at the moment, but that mostly due to the fact that most manufacturers need to recoup their investment in the production lines (which is considerable as they pretty much have to replace existing DvD lines). Once that is over, the costs should fall a fair bit.
Anonymous Coward
Prices #
Posted Tuesday 6th January 2009 09:43 GMT
Err.. hate to burst the ranters bubble but where on earth are you paying over £20 for a film?
The biggest films around at the moment are the likes of The Dark Knight (£15.99), Hellboy 2 (£13.98) etc
The comparative standard defs are only 2 or 3 pounds cheaper at the moment so its nowhere near as bad as it was. The main difference is how quickly the prices fall after release, DVDs drop to under £10 pretty quick whereas BD seem to stay up although that also seems to be getting better with the likes of Play offering quite a few at £9.99 at the moment and the many 3 for 2 offers.
Obviously we'd all like the prices to be exactly the same but with any new technology you're bound to pay a premium for a while but to say they are over £20 is complete and utter tosh.
If you are paying over £20 perhaps try learning how to use that new fangled "Internet" to buy your disks?
Anonymous Coward
@Patrick #
Posted Tuesday 6th January 2009 09:43 GMT
"blu ray is only 1280x720"
I thought it was 1920 x 1080...
... as does the specification : http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_vs_dvd_comparison
Are there 720p Blu Ray discs out there?
Anonymous Coward
Hm? #
Posted Tuesday 6th January 2009 09:43 GMT
@Patrick - Most blu-ray films are in 1080p. Aren't they? There's a marked improvement over DVD, at least to my knackered eyes. I only got it because I got a 24" monitor.
Oh dear, I seem to have drank the koolaid. Ack.
Anonymous Coward
Patrick #
Posted Tuesday 6th January 2009 11:19 GMT
Patrick was talking about his HDTV's lowly resolution.
Mine does 1080p.
M7S
Why buy older films anyway? #
Posted Tuesday 6th January 2009 11:19 GMT
I thought blu-ray players were meant to play standard DVDs, with upscaling as an optional extra on some models. Also older films/TV shows would not have been recorded in any kind of HD format, so purchasing re-issues on more expensive disks is surely a bit of a con on the part of the studios.
Or have I misunderstood?
Paul
@M7S #
Posted Tuesday 6th January 2009 13:01 GMT
Films are generally recorded on actual film which has a far higher resolution then even blu-ray can do. When you've got a screen that big in the cinema you need something way higher resolution. While you can't use existing digital masters made for DVD, you can always take the film master and make a new digital one.
As for TV, a lot of older shows will only have been recorded in SD rather then HD and this aren't worth buying on Blu-ray, most of the shows that are now coming out on blu-ray are recent ones that have been recorded in HD with both HD transmission and Blu-ray/HD-DVD in mind