Author
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Topic: Disney and Blu Ray
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted March 05, 2009 05:52 PM
Well, I see that Disney is releasing a platinum edition of Pinnochio in Blu-Ray and DVD on March 10. This will be followed by 'Snow White' in BD and DVD in October. The really dismal title selction presently existing on BD has so far discouraged me from taking the plunge, but if anything can change my mind it just might be these classic titles from the Disney archives. Anyway, for now I will hedge my bets and will buy the BD version of these titles for $12.00 more, as it also includes a DVD disc as well. Incidentally, I went to my local Borders book store today and they are selling off all their DVD and BD titles at a 30% discount. The clerk told me they are not going to stock them anymore. The situation at the local Super Wal-Mart is no better for BD, where display shelf space is now down to a handful of shelves, compared with almost a hundred shelves for DVD. The local Blockbuster has now pulled all BD titles from the prime customer shelves around the perimeter of the store, and has relegated them to a couple of discrete display shelves out in the center of the showroom. A year ago Blockbuster told me that their marketing strategy was to totally phase out DVD for BD. Clearly that is not happening. It could be that the world economic crisis will essentially close off any further significant growth in BD, and by the time the economy starts to get better, presumably several years from now, a totally new system of digital movies will have emerged. All of which makes me feel 'reel' good about having some of these Disney masterpieces on super 8.
-------------------- The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection, Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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Steven J Kirk
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 873
From: Southern England
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted March 07, 2009 08:38 PM
Blu-ray discs are a great medium for watching films so I hope they do survive. Sony have been the innovators of a lot of new formats in media: BetaMax, Laserdisc, Minidisc, CD, SACD, UMD, BD, even the 3.5 floppydisk, etc. Some fail. I saw recently that there is dissent in the Sony ranks about this... UMD can go for films as far as I'm concerned but then I'm not the target consumer for that. Recession, depression... who can see what the future holds but entertainment does well in such times. Cinema boomed in its golden age in the 30s' depression and the WW2 years. People bought black wax records too. Who can say?
-------------------- VistaVision Motion Picture High-Fidelity
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Rob Young.
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1633
From: Cheshire, U.K.
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted March 11, 2009 09:03 AM
John, my new Pioneer BDP-LX71 Blu-ray player is a fantastic machine for playing Blu-ray but a mixed bag with standard DVD; for example, layer change can take up to 4-5 seconds!!! Pioneer's attitude is "well, it is first and foremost a Blu-ray player". Still, I'll forgive it as it really is a sparkling Blu-ray spinner.
That said, I now also use a Toshiba XD-E500 for up-scaling standard discs. Not only is it the best upscaling player I've seen (despite the bargain price) it doesn't have any delay at layer change.
Paul, although I haven't used 720 resolution displays, I think it is worth bearing in mind that Blu-ray isn't just about resolution. For me, other huge benefits over standard DVD are the lack of edge enchancement used in mastering Blu-ray. Also, less "colour banding" in evidence. All this adds up to something closer to the actual film master and less "video" looking. Although I think up-scaling can improve the look of some DVD's, it's my opinion that you just can't remove artifacts which are already present in the format...artifacts that just aren't present on a good Blu-ray.
Also, even though I'm using 5.1 for both DVD and Blu-ray (via a standard optical lead to the amp, not HDMI yet) the sound quality on recent releases is much improved from Blu-ray discs compared to DVD (try listening to the opening credits of "Casino Royal" on DVD then Blu-ray with the same gear - like chalk and cheese!).
Looking forward to buying a copy of Pinocchio!
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