Universal to Release Blu-ray/DVD Combo Disc

[maydaynomore]

I don't get it.....I don't get people that buy dvds. I never understood this. Why would you buy a dvd for $20 or $30, when you can rent it for $1? Redbox or Family Video have new releases for $1. My local library offers hundreds of movies for free (at least 50 Blu Ray movies). I know its "nice" to have a collection, but its way, way, way overpriced vs renting. You'll spend $100-$150 for 5 movies. I'll spend $5 at the most (probably get them free at the library). The experience is the exact same for both of us. My collection consists of about 10 movies which I picked up on clearance racks ($5 is themost I've ever paid for a DVD.
Somebody please explain!

 

[Regulas]

I don't understand why people want to spend all that money to buy movies in the first place. I can understand listing to music over and over if it is good but after I have seen a movie, even a good one I don't want to watch it any more, well maybe years later. By that time it is playing on my overpriced TV service.

 

[matt_b]

[citation][nom]nodiscsinthefuture[/nom]I wouldn't exactly call them 'future proof' seeing as how movies-on-disc are rapidly becoming obsolete. By the time Blu-Ray drive, player, and media prices drop enough to snuff out DVDs, people will already be streaming movies or storing downloaded movies on portable storage devices.[/citation]
That's exactly the reason for me holding out. Blu-Ray is not the revolution like the DVD was to VHS. There was nothing on the horizon challenging it and it improved/introduced a lot of things worth noting like special features, scene selection, dramatically improved visuals, dramatically smaller in form factor, and a few others - most notably though NO REWINDING! That was a revolution in itself. Blu-Ray has no better capability over DVD other than being able to hold more data to fit non-compressed or at least less-compressed video and audio tracks of higher resolution/more data that DVD at the time was incapable of holding. It's a giant DVD disk - that's all I can see it as.

With the prices of mass storage (who thought you could buy a 1 terrabyte hard drive for less than $90 by now), all we are waiting for is our ISP companies to pony up, catch up to the rest of the world, and provide speeds capable enough to give us a 1080P or at least a 720P show/movie in a reasonable amount of time. Digital content will most likely be the future (even though I am one that likes tangible/physical media). No matter how you say it, Blu-ray may just be the last hoorah for tangible media formats, but it is already competing with the next format. DVD will still be around for several years I'd bet, there aren't many compelling reasons for people to give the format up completely yet. It's almost like the old analog TV sets, just about everyone still has at least one in use even though they were surpassed with superiority several years back. For those people, the technology works and it is good enough for them. "Future-proofing" doesn't exist, if up-converting DVDs are "good enough", then good for you - not everyone has to have the best of the best. If you want to be a bleeding-edge technology buff, then you can deplete your bank accounts all you wish, but you'll never be ahead of the curve no matter how much you think you may already be!

Final words, buy what makes you happy and whatever works best for you!

 

[dkev]

I will be getting a blue ray player in a few weeks. As some one who owns over 600 DVD's, I am looking forward to it. First off, there is no need to replace anything in my collection. Blu Ray players are backward compatible. I would rather buy then rent. I just like to own the physical media. And the particular model I am getting, gets Netflix and a few other movie streaming services. So I'm good.

 

[loomis86]

All optical disks and optical drives are soon going away like iomega zip drives, audio cassettes, and betamax. Blue ray is a joke. It's the latest upgrade to a technology that is already dead but just doesnt know it yet. Dead man walking. The sooner the better, imo.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I went to several stores and took a good look at their selection and prices of blue ray dvd's.

I went to two movie rental stores and looked at their selection and prices of ray dvd's.

I did some research to find out about home theater pc's, downloading videos, and video streaming.

I was not impressed. There was no WOW factor.

 

[jawshoeaw]

[citation][nom]The Schnoz[/nom]I don't care what the fuck you say, their is no upsampling in the world that makes DVD look as good as Blu-ray or HD-DVD. I have a HD-DVD player and Blu-ray hooked up to my 1080p 52". I have the PS3, Xbox 360, and an HTPC with WinDVD9, all hooked up to my TV with HDMI and all can upconvert DVD. I can say there's an improvement, but theres no way neear the quality of Blu-ray/HD-DVD, especially when said format is using AVC or VC-1. Blu-ray discs using MPEG2 suck ass though. The onyl thing I can think is either a.) you were standing too close to the tv in which case all plasmas look horrible or b.) you have no eye or taste for quality. Since you tested with 10,000B.C. I'm guessing its the latter.[/citation]
I actually laughed out loud at this. Oh yeah, I heard there's some lame acronym for doing that. I have to admit, DVDs upscaled onto a 720P projector look way better than they did on 800x600. But I watched Casino Royale (newer) on PS3 both on blu ray and DVD, same time on a 63" Mitsu rear projection TV. You'd have to be blind not to see the huge improvement in resolution on Blu-Ray. The whole movie was enhanced - to be honest it was almost too real, almost painful to watch. Plus the TV's lamp level was set too high. But as they say, you don't know what you're missing - I still am watching upscaled DVDs and no one is bitching because they are too busy watching the movie. We used to watch VHS on crappy tube TVs and after a few minutes, if the flick was any good, you were totally engrossed. Now don't ge me wrong, I love going out to the big screen, and I look forward to setting up a Blu-Ray HTPC once the funds are in. But reality is upscaled DVDs look kick ass and for a good reason. Many of us older guys and gals grew up on VHS and when DVDs came out, no one was watching them on 480 lines of resolution. For many, a 1080p or 720p set is the first device capable of displaying even 480p natively. DVDs in that sense were years ahead of their time. And be honest, how many people actually watch movies with 5.1 speakers and not just the crappy stereo speakers built in to even decent big screen TVs? When I first set up my cheap HTIB 5.1 setup, I couldn't believe how good it sounded compared to the old 2 speaker no sub. When friends come over to watch a movie for the first time, all I hear is how amazing the projector looks and how good the sound is. This is a 3 year old $900 720P Mitsu HD1000u projector and about $200 in speakers, not exactly top of the line.

The DVD is just now being appreciated - Blu-Ray probably won't be appreciated by the masses for another 5 years.

 

[Guest]

Flipper disks are all fine and well... I already have The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Instead of making these pointless disks (IMHO) why not give people with 200+ DVD collections a way to upgrade their normal DVD's to BR? Personally I don't have a BR player yet, and about 40% of my DVD's are out on BR.

I actually think Technology sux. (LoL, jk)

However it makes you wonder... what next?

If I build my Collection up to BR what will come along in 2-3 years and start the cycle from scratch...
My 2c of whining.

Anyone have cheese?

 

[enforcer22]

[citation][nom]Matt_B[/nom]That's exactly the reason for me holding out. Blu-Ray is not the revolution like the DVD was to VHS. There was nothing on the horizon challenging it and it improved/introduced a lot of things worth noting like special features, scene selection, dramatically improved visuals, dramatically smaller in form factor, and a few others - most notably though NO REWINDING! That was a revolution in itself. Blu-Ray has no better capability over DVD other than being able to hold more data to fit non-compressed or at least less-compressed video and audio tracks of higher resolution/more data that DVD at the time was incapable of holding. It's a giant DVD disk - that's all I can see it as. With the prices of mass storage (who thought you could buy a 1 terrabyte hard drive for less than $90 by now), all we are waiting for is our ISP companies to pony up, catch up to the rest of the world, and provide speeds capable enough to give us a 1080P or at least a 720P show/movie in a reasonable amount of time. Digital content will most likely be the future (even though I am one that likes tangible/physical media). No matter how you say it, Blu-ray may just be the last hoorah for tangible media formats, but it is already competing with the next format. DVD will still be around for several years I'd bet, there aren't many compelling reasons for people to give the format up completely yet. It's almost like the old analog TV sets, just about everyone still has at least one in use even though they were surpassed with superiority several years back. For those people, the technology works and it is good enough for them. "Future-proofing" doesn't exist, if up-converting DVDs are "good enough", then good for you - not everyone has to have the best of the best. If you want to be a bleeding-edge technology buff, then you can deplete your bank accounts all you wish, but you'll never be ahead of the curve no matter how much you think you may already be!Final words, buy what makes you happy and whatever works best for you![/citation]


what revolution. switching from vhs to dvd got you better picture better sound and more stuff on hte movie you paid for.. dvd to br gives you.... all the same stuff. other then moving from tape to plastic there is no "revolutionary" switch either way. they both are giving you exactly what the last one gave over what it replaced.

really though this time there is a much larger image quality improvement over the old vhs to dvd as they both used the same resolutions. other then pure digital quality the video quality upgrade was rather limited and not so noticable. the sound quality however was vastly better imo. this time around the video quality is vastly better while the extra couple channels while nice is a small upgrade compaired.

I will agree with you on the no rewinding and sound but the rest were not that mind blowing and were rather limited on thier improvment of the movie. to me BR is no more of a upgrade from dvd then DVD was from VHS

I do love surround sound and 1080p so i will be getting all future movies in BR but dont fool your self and others that its not a large upgrade even if its only in one area like dvd was for vhs.