Have your say & ask the experts

I'm afraid that when it comes to all things  Hi Defintion the only way most of us are going to get and experience what I guess many of us hoped we would from the outset when we were all sold the idea is to spend at least £5K on a system

Most of Joe public though will however be confined to spending limits of around say £1,500 if they're lucky to even have that kind of a budget at their disposal

There is also so much variation in the quality of a Disc whether DVD or Blu Ray that you can't be certain if s good mastered or remastered Disc until you get it home and play it

Everything seems to be in disarray at the moment and nothing really works the way 'Joe Public' anticiptates it should and then there's of course those so called sales people in the high street that tell you one thing but in reality the outcome is quite different when you get the gear home because they too are badly educated on the subject

Some TV channels whether on SKY or FREESAT also look awful while some look quite good

To remedy all this what we want is:

All TV's to conform to 1080p

All Blu Ray Players to also Upscale to 1080p without having to worry about seperate DVD players to play our old DVD collections  upscaled 1080p....but the Blu Ray quality and Upscalling needs to be excellent too...not just produce great Blu Ray pictures and rubbishy upscaled DVD

All HDMI cables to conform to the same standard.....i.e all the same version

All TV programmes to be transmitted at high quality standard Bitrates and at 1080p

No Lip Sync audio problems.....Manufacturers and TV broadcasters need to ensure that Lip Sync is a problem of the past

As a target to get all this right.....2012

But for the time being we're all faced with a HIT and MISS scenario and I feel sorry for all those out there withy modest incomes who have gone out and invested their hard earned cash on new TV's, DVD and Blu Ray Players and are still not 100% happy with the outcome

My goodness we're talking DIGITAL here and still things aren't right

 

I don't understand this post. It seems to me, the less money you have to spend on a source, Blu-Ray makes more sense than DVD (up to a point of course). We were comparing a £2,500 DVD player in another post with a £300 Blu-Ray player (and not even a dedicated one at that) which seems a little unfair. £1,500 would buy you a very nice Blu-Ray setup (off the top of my head, the Panny DMP-BD30, Onkyo 875 and at least Q Acoustics 1010i, possibly the Tannoy Mercury F1 Custom package if you can find it on a deal). Partner this with some decent Blu-Ray discs and this would trump a DVD system for the same money both visually and sonically.

fr0g:

FuzzyinLondon:

And anything from Pixar.

Although these films upscale incredibly well anyway ;) (I guess the upscaling software doesn't need to be too clever to guess that a bright orange pixel is likely to be next to another bright orange pixel!)

Very true. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Although, you do definitely notice the step in quality on their Blu-Rays.

The idea of a good Blu list is a good one. And a Bad Blu list, too. THE FOUNTAIN, for example has the worst blacks of any disc I have ever seen.
The issue about masters often works the other way, though. They don't upscale a DVD master; Major Studios now make one HD master and then downscale that for DVD and at the same time use it to service their SD and HD broadcast clients. Increasingly, they're using their theatrical release digital master (yummy....) and downscaling that to HD and beyond.
Independents do create true HD masters sometimes, but as funds are often limited might well look to cut corners. Caveat emptor..... And, as Claire says, this is especially true in the early days of the format where returns are pushed to the limit and expenditure restrained.
In terms of Library, there are good masters and bad ones. CASABLANCA (HD-DVD) is EXTRAORDINARY and is coming out on Blu later. THE SEARCHERS (Vistavision and Technicolor) is STUNNING. RIO BRAVO and SPARTACUS (HD-DVD) are disappointing. I can't wait for NORTH BY NORTHWEST next year.
It really is hit and miss, just like at the start of the DVD wave. That's why sites and forums like this are important and will help keep distributors on their toes!

The most dissapointing aspect to me is that Blu ray is sold on the strength of its picture quality - otherwise we may as well all stick with DVD's.

The fact that you can pay £25 plus(dependining where you buy it) for a blu ray disc and still not be sure of the quality is the thing that annoys me most.When you are paying so much, companies should be made to achieve a certain standard and should be regulated as with the utility companies.I know logistically this may a nightmare,but if you are building a film collection potentially costing hundreds of pounds why should you have to chance a large percentage of them being of equal or only slightly better than a DVD costing less than half a Blu ray.

 

One big problem with only having a BluRay player is that as of yet there are no true all round proformers out there. I use for now My PS3 for BD movies and unfortuanatly do not get to enjoy HD sound as My amp is too old, But while the PS3 is ok for BluRay it can be bettered by spending more money on something like the Panasonic BD50, but when it comes to DVD and CD playback My Deono 3930 absolutly beats The Panasonic hands down, not to mention that BD players are still Region Locked for BD playback and most for DVD as well, and seeing as I have over 3000 DVDs fro all around the world then a sole BD player does not come into the equation.

IMHO the only real way a BD player will ever be a viable option is when You see units that employ a Blue Laser for BD and a Red Laser for both DVD and CD, and truely Multiregion for both formats.

Certain Movies will never look great on BD over their DVD cousins due to how they were shot say on Super 8 or 16mm but Big Budget Movies shold look far better on BD over and DVD player, but these differances are more obvious the larger the screen You are using.

The other BD variable we haven't discussed yet is the good old 'different discs for different regions' one ....

Grrr...

Grrrrrrr indeed. But there's no way round it. Movies are distributed through an increasingly archaic system of territories which may even have different rights holders for each, and often have different release dates, theatrical-home windows, and censorship criteria. Even where a major studio controls the world, the latter three elements will create de facto unique territory-specific versions.
It will always be so, I'm afraid. Again, that's why import/discussion sites are important. Information informs choice.
What's more annoying to me is territory specific pricing. Why (even when you take VAT into account) are discs more expensive here than, for example in the US?

Clare Newsome:

The other BD variable we haven't discussed yet is the good old 'different discs for different regions' one ....

Thats what I was saying about the BD players not being Multiregon for both BD and DVD.

As Clare well knows for previous posts on here, I like t know I am getting the ful version of a Movie and not some edited by the BBFC jobbie which tends to mean Importing a BD or DVD so if either is a Regionally coded disc then without a True Multiregion PlayerMy coice of disc is limited.

The differances between some of these versions are not solely Edits due to strong violence but in a lot of cases differant cuts of a Movie are relased in Differant regions buy differant distrubers. A Prime example is KILL BILL Vol1. We have the same cut of the movie as the US, but the JAP version of the movie differs greatly with a longer cartoon scene, and the HOUSE OF LEAVES sceen here is in black and white where the Jap one is in colour.

The great thing with DVD and Multiregion players is that it hase truely given the Consumer choice as to which Movies and what cut of that movie thay wish to Purchase. And Yes I know that not all BD software is Zone coded but whilst there are some discs and no Multi zonal BD players then it is ultimatly the Consumer who is loosing out.

You're right DJ, multi-region is wonderful, but it's not about consumer choice. It's about control. The argument that the consumer is king only applies within your own territory, and even then, it's arguable. Remember that it's the rights holder himself who applies the Region coding, either the core rights holder (like a Major Studio) or a licensee (who may be contractually obliged to apply Region Coding by the core rights holder).
Multi-region hacks remove that control, and actually encourage breach of copyright. I know nobody ever reads the rubbish they put on the top and tail of discs, but it's all there.
Multi Region will arrive for BD players, but I'm not sure how long it'll stay. BD players that encourage us to get online and download firmware will also give control back to The Man (whoever that might be), and that's one of the reasons (apart from sheer greed, obviously) that the format has such support from the Studios. Every time you upgrade they can push you back to their default settings.
Remember, for example Sony is also Columbia. They have hardware and software to sell, support and protect.
Removing region-coding removes their control, reduces their profits and screws up the way they want to do business with you.
It's worth noting that the Kill Bill colour/b&w issue arose because the MPAA in the US were wary of giving the picture an R rating. And of course, because in far East, they're historically more relaxed about blood and violence than we are. It was a censorship issue, albeit a self-imposed one.

Deja Vu,Hellboy,I am Legend and The Golden Compass all look greattoo.Can only comment on these titles as these are the ones I own at the mo.

3000+ DVDs, 13 BD's and still buying more DVDs than BD's

bot bot:

Deja Vu,Hellboy,I am Legend and The Golden Compass all look greattoo.Can only comment on these titles as these are the ones I own at the mo.

Why would you want The Golden Compass? I rented it the other night, picture is fantastic through borrowing my brothers PS3 (1125i comes up on my Pioneer Plasma for picture, is this true HD??) but the film is awful . Well that's my opinion any way

Luckely we don't have to like the same movies. My girlfriend really enjoyed Golden Compass, so I bought it for her on blu ray.

I own about 30 titles now (seen about half) and the only one I was really dissapointed by until now was Underworld. It's the only disc that's giving me problems when playing it. Blocks, scipping, some sound problems a real pain.

It's probably against forum rules to post commercial links so I won't. But I still want to give other readers a tip. Go and google axelmusic. They are based in Europe and send for european destinations so no import issues. They have a great selection of region free titles on blu ray and also sell australian imports.

A great reference site with a listing of region codes I use: http://bluray.liesinc.net/