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Author Topic: Blu- Disc not catching on?
Paul Adsett
Film God

Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted November 05, 2008 11:03 AM      Profile for Paul Adsett     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I was in my local Wal-Mart yesterday and noticed that the amount of shelf space that they have allocated to Blu-Ray discs has been reduced dramatically since my last visit. Not sure what this means, but if Blu Disc was really a big seller I would think that they would be increasing shelf space for this item.

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Mark Williams
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 846
From: West Sussex
Registered: Mar 2007


 - posted November 05, 2008 11:11 AM      Profile for Mark Williams   Email Mark Williams   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hi-Paul,

It's the opposite here,you can now pick up discs in your local Woolworths or Tesco's,mind you the staff don't have a clue what they are though!!!

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted November 05, 2008 11:16 AM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Maybe people are happy enough with the current DVDs that they aren't buying all the hype!

For me what makes DVDs "better" than VHS is the random access and extra content, much more than the improved picture, which is not really apparent on a standard sized TV anyway. Does Blu-Ray have features comparably better than DVD?

The funky part is the odd feeling I get sliding a VHS into the player these days. You would think somebody that projects Super-8 a couple of times a week would be immune!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005


 - posted November 05, 2008 11:48 AM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
This is very interesting, as I saw a yahoo report about something that i talked about on this very forum. I compared the blu-ray to the Laserdisc.

The yahoo articles title was, "Is Blu-ray the new laserdisc?" and it was quite interesting.

I'm sure I'm like a lot of others who are buying these 1080p DVD players that upgrade the DVD image a good deal, therefore really eliminating the absolute need for a Blu-ray.

I may buy one sometime in the distant future, but no time soon.

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Steven J Kirk
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 873
From: Southern England
Registered: Apr 2008


 - posted November 05, 2008 12:25 PM      Profile for Steven J Kirk   Email Steven J Kirk   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Try watching one of the titles from HD Scape if you think there's no difference from DVD. Or one of the Imax transfers.

Blu-Ray is the Todd AO of digital, not the laserdisc.

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VistaVision
Motion Picture High-Fidelity

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted November 05, 2008 12:49 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I don't think the question is whether or not there is a difference in image quality, but whether the difference is compelling enough to average consumers to make them switch over.

People like us really don't figure in this. Since we tend to obsess on sharpness, color and artifacts on screen as part of our hobby we will notice differences. However, on a day to day basis most people look at images that would make us cringe and don't see a thing!

I call this the "film collector's curse". It's the reason that I can't enjoy a movie that has a line on one edge, but my wife won't even notice it. Much the same way as I saw someone project a VHS ten feet wide recently and nobody but me thought a thing of it!

Who among us hasn't seen a 4:3 image stretched fat to fill a 16:9 TV screen and wondered how people can stand looking at it?!

The change will come though as the "old" format is not available in new titles and the old players die away. The question is what new, new format(s) will come along in the meantime.

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Paul Adsett
Film God

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From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted November 05, 2008 01:34 PM      Profile for Paul Adsett     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Steve, your comment about the 4:3 stretched image really hit home with me. Just about everywhere I go, doctors offices, auto service stations, airports, you name it, they all have that 16:9 LCD panel hanging on the wall with the 4:3 image stretched out to fill it. So everyone on the TV looks 100 lbs overweight - and nobody seems to notice! What does that tell you about Americans!

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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
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Alan Rik
Film God

Posts: 2211
From: New York City, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted November 05, 2008 01:41 PM      Profile for Alan Rik   Email Alan Rik   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have a standard 480P DVD Player and a non HDTV Plasma TV.
While I think the picture is good enough for the garbage on cable tv and the random DVD I put in..I did manage to see a 1080P HDTV Sony Wega 52 inch with Blue Ray disc of "Last Samurai". The scene with the Cherry Blossoms in the background was really stunning. Put my picture to shame. But like Steve said...its still not enough for me to dump all my gear. Maybe in a few years...once the dust settles a bit.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted November 05, 2008 02:31 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What does that tell you about Americans?

Maybe we eat too much!

When you look at William Shatner these days he always looks stretched to 16:9!

(Technically a Canadian, though..)

We have this little DVD viewer my son uses in the car. It has this switch marked "Widescreen Mode" which does the stretch. I didn't know what it was so I tried it.

-Afterwards I said "That just isn't right!".

Maybe with a sensible diet and more excersise we'd know when our pictures are the wrong aspect ratio.

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Graham Ritchie
Film God

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From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006


 - posted November 05, 2008 02:57 PM      Profile for Graham Ritchie   Email Graham Ritchie   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Blu-Ray has been slowly increasing in numbers the price of players are coming down and more discs are filling the shelfs, however the marketing side is non-existent, so for me I will sit on the fence for a while longer and see what happens.

The comments about Joe public that cant see anything wrong with an image is spot on, funny thing about 8 years ago I arrived one night at the cinema the projectionist had wandered of somewhere [Roll Eyes] and one of the movies was running in W/S instead of "Scope" the image as you can guess was stretched "looked awful" I thought I better fix things put it into Scope "thats better" and offered free tickets to the people coming out..saying sorry about that. They looked surprised at me [Confused] as they had not noticed that anything was wrong and that was for over an hour [Roll Eyes] .

As far as Super8 is concerned I go into total "panic mode" if I see a scratch [Eek!] and spend the entire time watching it.. yes its gone... now its back etc etc, and not the movie...what sad case eh! [Roll Eyes]

Graham. [Smile]

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David Park
Master Film Handler

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From: UK
Registered: Nov 2003


 - posted November 05, 2008 03:19 PM      Profile for David Park   Email David Park   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I think it may well take HD TV programmes to come in as the norm, then when people see that HD TV is better than normal TV and DVD then they will want Blu-ray.

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Regards,
David

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

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From: Long Island, NY, USA
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 - posted November 05, 2008 03:27 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
All it may take is for people to think Blu-Ray is better (...even if it really IS better!).

-that's where the Marketing comes in.

You have to be a little scared for people who are on TV and the people who do their makeup once this big screen/Hi-Def thing really gets going.

Every close-up will bring:

"Jeeze!, what huge pores she has! It's kind of gross!"

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005


 - posted November 05, 2008 04:12 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Graham ...

I am one in the same. Sometimes I completely forget the film I am watching, and just look at color, scratch level, ect.

I must admit, strangely enough, that I don't get off on that as much with Black and White prints. I think this could be that for some reason, I feel that the scratch SHOULD be there, and this becomes even more apparent with silent movies, as I feel that the scratches are quite right with silent movies , giving a pseudo feeling of great age to the print. Strange, eh?

The only time when I've felt that way about a color print is with my EXTREMELY scratched edited copy of "Magical Mystery Tour" which is in stereo, and for some odd reason, I don't mind the excessive scratching and color loss. Once again, I have to chock it up to the film being an artifact of a specific time and so the scratches don't take away but enhance the enjoyment of the film.

... strange but true!

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Charles Bramlett
Junior
Posts: 25
From: Atlanta, Georgia
Registered: Aug 2008


 - posted November 05, 2008 08:40 PM      Profile for Charles Bramlett   Email Charles Bramlett   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
" When you look at William Shatner these days he always looks stretched to 16:9!"

I hope I look that good at 77. [Wink]

Anyways, I don't think BluRay is catching on like they had hoped because people just see it as a better DVD. The difference in the formats isn't anywhere near as staggering as DVD/VHS was. Also, by the time DVD came along VHS had been the standard for casual movie-buyers for 20 years.

It's funny... while much of the world is pondering the BluRay upgrade, I'm discovering Super8 for the first time. There might be something wrong with me. [Big Grin]

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James N. Savage 3
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1375
From: Washington, DC
Registered: Jul 2003


 - posted November 05, 2008 08:53 PM      Profile for James N. Savage 3     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Steve and Paul- (Please exuse the over-use of all capitals, but this is a huge pet-peeve of mine)

About those over-stretched images:

THAT TOTALLY DRIVES ME CRAZY!

But, whats even worse, is when the picture is ALREADY letter-boxed. So, instead of just enlarging the whole picture to fit perfectly on the screen, the whole picture is just stretched- BLACK BARS AND ALL!! To me, thats just BEYOND REDICULOUS.

And just try explaining it to the average Joe. They wonder what your even talking about.

JAMES.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted November 05, 2008 09:22 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
My wife impressed me though...

We were watching "The Sound of Music" last night on DVD and they reformatted it from 'scope to fill a 16:9 letter box.

Out of the blue she said "This looks squished!"

I said "You've been hanging out with the wrong crowd..."

(That "crowd" being ME!)

James, I hear what you say!

I was watching a movie at my sister's house recently and somehow it wound up both letter boxed and pillar boxed! There was almost more blank screen than picture...

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Robert Wales
Expert Film Handler

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From: Toronto
Registered: Nov 2005


 - posted November 05, 2008 10:31 PM      Profile for Robert Wales   Email Robert Wales   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
A DVD that comes up letterboxed and pillarboxed on a widescreen tv hasn't been given the proper anamorphic encoding in the transfer process ( also known as 'enhanced for 16:9 televisions', depending on how they choose to label it ). It happens a lot when a studio recycles an older transfer and most often in the supplements of proper widescreen dvds ( presumably to keep the costs down of mastering anamorphically. )

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Barry Attwood
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From: Enfield, U.K.
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 - posted November 06, 2008 01:50 AM      Profile for Barry Attwood   Email Barry Attwood   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I think one of the reasons for Blu-Ray not taking off as quickly as a lot of people thought, is the fact that the average household, would not only have to buy a Blu-Ray player, but a new HD TV as well, I know the players are gradually coming down in price, but a decent size 1080p (why anyone would go for the "HD" ready lower lines is a mystery to me, if you're going to have HD then go the distance and get the best) TV is still pretty dear, so an overall package can come in at a pretty hefty cost, and that's before you buy any discs. We still use a conventional TV (not even 16/9), a multi region DVD player, although we do have a nice surround system, and at this point I am quite happy, sure I would like to upgrade, but until a combo set up comes into my price range, then Blu-Ray will just have to wait.

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

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From: Bristol. United Kingdom
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 - posted November 06, 2008 03:08 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have a Blu-ray Disc Player. This is so I can watch my collection of "standard" DVDs being uprated to my HD Plasma.

But I do not own any Blu-ray discs. My love for old movies and short films means that these will probably never make it to being released on the Blu-ray format.

And even if they do there would be no point in buying them again in the new format.

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Maurice

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John Clancy
Phenomenal Film Handler

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From: Cornwall
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 - posted November 06, 2008 03:08 AM      Profile for John Clancy   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The answer to that Barry is that smaller televisions can get away with lower resolution. There's little point in buying a 19 inch widescreen TV and having 1080 lines on it as the difference at that size will be minimal, possibly non-existent. By putting fewer lines on the set means the manufacturers can sell it cheaper.

Shame HD DVD didn't win out as that was a more suitable format.

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British Film Collectors Convention home page www.bfcc.biz. The site is for the whole of the film collecting hobby and not just the BFCC.

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David Park
Master Film Handler

Posts: 346
From: UK
Registered: Nov 2003


 - posted November 06, 2008 03:29 AM      Profile for David Park   Email David Park   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Well I'm very happy with my expensive (was £1500) a few years old 32" w/s Panasonic, non of the flat screen LCD/Plasmas can match if for normal TV standards. So I can only guess but I don't think HD TV set when working HD will be such better than it. So I will keep on as now for a bit longer.

Regarding Blu-ray players are they multi region?
As they are major branded Sony/Samsung I am worried that they will only play UK region and I would want USA region as well like on normal DVD.
At first with normal DVD players they were UK only, then came cheaper ones with brand names never heard of before with a 'secret' menu and 2 presses of the RC made them multi region.

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Regards,
David

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Mark Williams
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 846
From: West Sussex
Registered: Mar 2007


 - posted November 06, 2008 04:06 AM      Profile for Mark Williams   Email Mark Williams   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hi-David,

I think you will be pleasantly surprised,HD will knock your socks off when you see it!!

Yes BD players are regionally coded region A in the US and region B for europe etc but you will find that the majority of the US discs are region free so its really not a problem.

Cheers Mark W

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Christopher P Quinn
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 210
From: Bedfordshire
Registered: Sep 2008


 - posted November 06, 2008 07:54 AM      Profile for Christopher P Quinn     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I think you have to remember that there is a credit crunch on at the moment, i prefer the old fashion term recession myself. This is going to slow down BD sales. But here in the UK it is catching on, and as soon as more newly released films come out on BD this will gather momentum. Blockbuster dvd rental giant now stock Blu rays.

John,
I am shocked that you preferred HD [Eek!] Blimey mate. HD, although i agree was better while BD was sorting it self out, BD will give the average punter much more.

Already BD has morphed its self to BD live with the new profile 2.0 upgrade and that will transform the way you can watch films, with interaction taken to another stage. Menus are no longer slow clunking things that hold up the film, and can be accessed easily while the film is still running.
As far as quality goes BD v DVD, there is no question that BD is far superior in many ways, and upscaling your old DVD collection is a added bonus. I am chomping at the bit here to go 1080P with projection, I was viewing my favorite all timer yesterday The Wizard of Oz, and thinking how good will this look on BD. My special edition DVD is quite good, but when Dorothy moves away from the screen you loose the checks in her dress, it's almost like she has changed into a plain blue dress, in BD this will not happen. surely this can only be good, along with the better colour representation, and sound, BD is unquestionable the way forward for digital entertainment.

I believe that we as film collectors, should keep the two formats separate. Digital has it's own look and although can be made to look more filmy, i have to ask is there a point. I liked Tony Milmans remarked about running a green felt tip pen down one side of the screen [Big Grin] Seriously i prefer film and noisy projectors and DVD for that latest blockbuster. I spend hours fiddling trying to get the colour/contrast right, but not necessarily to match real film, just so it looks natural as possible. Which it a bit strange when modern films are nothing but natural, every scene the director has used a different colour filter, and the Wizard of OZ's Technicolor extravaganza is hardly natural, although great to look at.

Chris..

BTW, Before i get told, i know the Wizard of Oz is at this moment in time not available on BD in either 16:9 or 4:3 [Big Grin] [Wink]

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Chris Quinn Rides again.

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Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 979
From: Manassas, VA. USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted November 06, 2008 08:22 AM      Profile for Gary Crawford     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
My two cents worth...
1. The stretching of the image on widescreen tv's at restaurants , etc....does drive me stark raving mad crazy. The problem is that those who work there don't have any idea how to set the picture ratio....and get used to it and forget it.
2. Hi def tv is a huge improvement over standard TV....no doubt. Once you have it, you never want to look at that old tv again.
3. I suspect many with Hi def sets will be asking for a blu ray player for Christmas. I already have.
4. Film still rocks and still is my favorite way to watch and collect. My recently acquired stereo/scope print of Tomorrow Never Dies is so sharp , with such great sound that I feel like I'm in the theater watching it for the first time. Love to fiddle with the film and the machines, too.

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Christopher P Quinn
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 210
From: Bedfordshire
Registered: Sep 2008


 - posted November 06, 2008 08:44 AM      Profile for Christopher P Quinn     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
As a foot note on aspect, I am aware that there is a problem with HDMI and aspect ratios. Basically you cant change the aspect from 16:9 to 4:3. If this is on all machines i don't know, but my panny when connected through the HDMI socket will not change, so have to use standard connection to get aspect control. [Frown] [Frown] [Frown] This will stop me dead in buying if i can't get aspect control. Wizard of OZ in 16:9 I don't think so. [Mad]

Chris.

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Chris Quinn Rides again.

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