Questions about Blu-Ray Disk players

[piperut]

Hi Everyone,

It appears that blu-ray might win out. So I am considering purchasing a blu-ray dvd player... but I have some questions.

The television I watch most things on is an Akai 55 inch rear projection TV.
I have a dvd player that upconverts the standard dvds to hd.
I also have a fair collection of dvd's. (I also have a dvd recorder, and many of these were recorded off the air...)

I do not want to be replacing all of my dvd's with blu-ray dvd's.
I have read that the new blu-ray and hd-dvd players will play the old dvd's.
The question I have about that -

Will the blu-ray dvd players upconvert the old dvd's to hd?

I realize a number of people have the dvr's from the satellite companies.
However, most of what I record is something I want to keep. The DVR's are limited by the size of the hard drive as to how much you can store. A dvd recorder, I am not limited by the size of the hard drive. I am only limited by how many disks I can purchase.

Are there any blu-ray dvd recorders (similar to the old vcr's)?

Also, I take a number of photos, and I put the photos on my computer, then add music, and make a dvd that will play on my dvd player. Are there any blu-ray dvd burners for the computer? How memory intensive is this?

Thanks,

roland

 

[duckydan]

Will the blu-ray dvd players upconvert the old dvd's to hd?

Blu-Ray players will upconvert over HDMI but not over component in most cases but if the tv allows upconverting over component it will

I realize a number of people have the dvr's from the satellite companies.
However, most of what I record is something I want to keep. The DVR's are limited by the size of the hard drive as to how much you can store. A dvd recorder, I am not limited by the size of the hard drive. I am only limited by how many disks I can purchase.
Are there any blu-ray dvd recorders (similar to the old vcr's)?

There are no set top blu ray recorders right now


Also, I take a number of photos, and I put the photos on my computer, then add music, and make a dvd that will play on my dvd player. Are there any blu-ray dvd burners for the computer? How memory intensive is this?

There are PC blu-ray burners they run around $400 on ebay and newegg and about $500 for the dual layer ones. The 400 can burn up to 25gb and the 500 can burn 50gb. It uses the same pc memory as burning a regular cd but there have been compatibility issues with them reading in a BD-P.

 

[piperut]

Will the blu-ray dvd players upconvert the old dvd's to hd?

Blu-Ray players will upconvert over HDMI but not over component in most cases but if the tv allows upconverting over component it will

This brings me back to why I was asking questions in the first place.
What do I gain by going to the new format dvd's (after the news this week, it appears that means blu-ray)?

If I am using a dvd player that does upconversion, is there really any picture quality gain by going to the new format?

Thanks,

roland

 

[duckydan]

On a 55in RPTV it may not be as noticable as on a LCD or Plasma but it should be noticable. I know I have a 55" 720p LCD and the difference is night and day between DVD and Blu-Ray. While some movies have poor transfers others (like the pixar films) look 3d and have a picture that is unbelievable. There is a huge difference between upconvert and Blu-Ray (and I refused to beleive it as my Dish HD looks no better than upconverted dvd and thought BD/HD would be the same)

 

[piperut]

On a 55in RPTV it may not be as noticable as on a LCD or Plasma but it should be noticable. I know I have a 55" 720p LCD and the difference is night and day between DVD and Blu-Ray. While some movies have poor transfers others (like the pixar films) look 3d and have a picture that is unbelievable. There is a huge difference between upconvert and Blu-Ray (and I refused to beleive it as my Dish HD looks no better than upconverted dvd and thought BD/HD would be the same)

Years ago, I ended up caught in the BETA-VHS war. I had purchased the BETA vcr, and VHS won out. I had been waiting for the format war to settle on either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. It appears that Blu-Ray is going to win out.
The other problems - no dvd recorder in blu-ray, or a workable dvd burner for the pc... those might have me holding off a bit longer. Also, I am thinking that most electronics, when they come out the price is high, and then the prices starts dropping.

Thanks,
roland

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[ONUOsFan]

Years ago, I ended up caught in the BETA-VHS war. I had purchased the BETA vcr, and VHS won out. I had been waiting for the format war to settle on either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. It appears that Blu-Ray is going to win out.
The other problems - no dvd recorder in blu-ray, or a workable dvd burner for the pc... those might have me holding off a bit longer. Also, I am thinking that most electronics, when they come out the price is high, and then the prices starts dropping.

Thanks,
roland

How would not having a recorder or Blu-Ray drive affect your ability to buy a Blu-Ray player? It will play the recorded/burned DVD's you make just fine while you wait to buy BD recorders as they become cheaper.

And yes, there is a difference in PQ from either upconvert or broadcast HD by going to BD. How much of a difference will depend on your TV, but it will range from very noticable to stunning.

 

[diogen]

RE: Blu-ray recorders/burners.
Forget about them for at least a year. And when talking about 50GB media - even longer.
In terms of $/GB, hard drive storage is less than half as expensive. And likely will stay cheaper.

If you are comfortable with PCs, think about encoding/compressing movies.
You will have a hard time to differentiate between a 8GB 720p re-encode of a BD movie
from the original on anything but high-end 1080p TVs watching really close.

Diogen.