Is Blu-Ray really needed right now?
General Discussion

okay, I didn't think I'd have to do this since I gave the position up almost two years ago but here it comes.

Simez, calm down or you will leave the site (either of your own free will or a mod ban). The few threads I have seen you in have had you insulting a load of people who just happen to disagree with you, using overly abusive language and an inability to actually sustain an intellectual conversation. A debate is a series of comments made in reply to each other which work off of each other, not putting your fingers in your ears and screaming NAH! NAH! NAH! NAH! NAH!

So once again, calm down or leave. Its your choice.

I have two PC's, 3 laptops, 2 PS3's, A wii and 5 internet ready mobile phones at my disposal. I don't know if you do the whole banning by IP address thing so banning me would be pointless, I could come back as Julie and you'd never know. but it's a waste of time.

Yep, I will calm down (even though I've never been angry). So what if I disagree, it's my opinion and I'm free to speak it. Not everyone has the same opinion okay, but I stand up for the things I believe in. Are you condemning me for standing up for my beliefs Matthew? Also I haven't sworn at anybody.

/rant over, do what you will.

You haven't sworn at anyone?







Don't try and act like a martyr, you aren't being punished for "speaking your mind" you are being warned for being abusive and disruptive to the forums. If I banned people based on them not sharing my opinion then you would never have heard of Martin or LinkyShinks. So please, no delusions as to your plight on this forum.

One of the main reasons Blu-Ray probably hasn\'t caught on, is because unlike DVDs it requires a new TV. The number of people with HDTVs is rapidly increasing but it\'s still a small number of people in the big picture. Without a large base of people who can actually view Blu-Rays, the prices aren\'t going to go down, but once they do there will be a sort of chain reaction I think, and will spur people to get Blu-Ray players. But then the issue is downloadable stuff. We are seeing more of a shift to this recently, I suppose it\'s a question of which one becomes most feasible first (more HDTVs or faster connections/bigger HDDs). Who knows.

For now I don\'t have a massive desire for watching HD films. But that\'s mainly because I don\'t care much for films. I like HD TV rips though.

You only have to look at the Wii to see that most people don\'t care about high definition, and even half the people who claim to have no idea about what it actually is. (How many people ACTUALLY understand what the difference is between 1080i/1080p?)

( Edited 07.01.2009 21:39 by knighty )

If you come back reformed then why should we care? You're not offending anyone anymore, so we have no reason to ban you even if you come back as Julie. Or you could just reform now and we won't have to ban you at all.

Yet if Julie is a bitch we'll just ban her too, and anyone else who comes along. Trying to be offensive on C3 is futile my friend.

Or more appropriately the difference between true 1080p and Upscaled 1080p.

People know HD is better than SD and that 1080p is better than 1080i or 720p but thats about it. My dad couldn\'t give a monkey\'s about the technology behind but knows that his next TV has to be 1080p and he bought one of these because it outputs Divx at 720p and has a HDMI socket for his next big TV purchase. The fact that it upscales to 720p is beside the point, it outputs at 720p and looks better than normal DVDs

( Edited 07.01.2009 21:57 by MGE )

Well then I guess I need to be more polite then.

1080i is two pictures interlaced together and is best for displaying slow movingg image otherwise it would be susceptible to \"artifacting\". Whilst 1080p runs at double the resolution 1920x1080p and is one picture constantly being refreshed hence \"progressive\"

Interlaced

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Progressive

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( Edited 07.01.2009 22:00 by Simez )

Actually interlacing and progressive just refer to how the image is refreshed. Interlaced merely displays an image of all the odd number horizontal lines quickly followed by an image of all the even numbered horizontal lines.

Progressive just displays all lines at once. Both 1080p and 1080i display at a resolution of 1920x1080

Not many people know the difference between upscaled 1080p and native 1080p. They just see it on the back of the box and think they're getting the real deal. Most games this generation run at 720p native, I really don't like seeing a 720p game forced into 1080p via upscale. IDK it just loses something imo.

Admitedly it doesn\'t lose as much as a PS3 playing Blu-Ray movies on a non 1080 TV with firmware 1.30 and before. No wonder most people couldn\'t tell the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD to begin with.

( Edited 07.01.2009 22:44 by MGE )

Darn posts are getting mixed up. Yeah I forgot to mention the 1080i resolution. No point repeating what you said already.

I think this is an absolutely key point on the matter. Although HD TV sets are becoming more and more wide-spread, the vast majority of people who own one don't actually understand the technology behind the term 'HD'. I find the term itself an absolute farse, invented purely for people who wouldn't understand, to create some sort of marketing buzzword. You now here Sony and Microsoft mentioning 'HD' all the fucking time in their press statements and whatnot.

Meanwhile, I and most people I know, have been looking at 'HD' images for well over a decade- on our PC monitors. My sister has a massive HD telly (really nice Samsung thing, cost her about a grand), but she doesn't understand that her PC monitor is also HD, because "it doesn't have the logo on it". Now, these people (who make up the majority of HD TV owners) think that everything they watch on their new TVs is 'HD', be it if they're watching standard terrestrial TV, or if they're watching normal DVDs.

People think that it's the television that makes whatever you're watching on it 'HD', and because DVDs do look a lot nicer on HD sets than standard ones, this myth is substantiated to a great extent. This is Blu-ray's problem. Whilst the advantage of DVD over VHS was obvious to everyone, people just don't understand why Blu-ray is better and costs more. People don't understand the concept of upscaling, etc.

Blu-ray is too much of a tech-head's toy to really succeed, in my opinion, and will end up as yet another failed proprietary Sony disc format. Anyone remember MiniDISC? I used to know a few people who had them, as well. Didn't stop it going down the pan. Not that Blu-ray is completely and utterly analogous to MiniDISC, but it is in a similar precarious situation, in my opinion.

Great post Martin, starred. I remember MiniDISCs, and I can't help but feel that Sony have been trying to push a new media platform with every games system they release.

BluRay has had a better start than PSP, but that's because PSP was marketed as a handheld that uses discs, and PS3 (IMO) was marketed surrounding BluRay. It's no wonder HD-DVD went down the drain, because compared to the fuss BluRay was getting from anyone who knew about the PS3, noone knew or cared anything about HD-DVD.

And upscaling doesn't really feel right to me either. My TV's not too big so I can't run in 1080p anyway, but 720p is definitely good enough for most games.

I am finding it useful as portable media storage.

I actually gotta dual drive (HDDVD/Blu-Ray) for £50, off a dodgy bloke.

Same here, if it\'s rendered in 720p, that\'s what I watch it in. As far as PS3/360 are concerned, nearly all of the games are rendered at 720p. That \"1080p\" tick on the back of the box merely means that you can upscale it to that resolution (which is quite naughty, really). Setting your 360 or PS3 to 1080p is utterly pointless in most situations. Particularly on the PS3, since it\'s upscaling method is a lot worse than the 360\'s hardware upscaler (which is actually a really excellent upscaler). You probably end up degrading the image.

So as far as console gaming is concerned, you\'re missing nothing. It\'s only if you\'re a PC gamer who plans to use it for his PC, or someone that watches Blu-rays that it\'s really an issue, and even then- 720p is a nice clear resolution. I wouldn\'t be too bothered to the point of needing to \"rush out\" and get a 1080p TV.



That\'s a real bargain!

( Edited 08.01.2009 12:09 by Martin_ )

Generally monitors have a much higher pixel density than HDTVs anyway. You'd be lucky to find a 1080p 22" TV, but I pretty much have a monitor like that (1680 x 1050). So yeah, I like monitors.

Or if you don't know a dodgy bloke

Ment to post for days but never bothered



I disagree. I not \"loaded\" (far from it I\'m in a very middle of the road\" family) but we got a HD TV (My dad bought it, and I know he doesn\'t know the difference between it and a standard set) and I just bought a laptop with a Blu Ray drive.

I think the world is ready for Blu ray they just don\'t know it.

( Edited 08.01.2009 23:08 by Birdo Is A Tranny )

A laptop and a TV aren't quite the level of infrastructure I'm talking about though. Let's look at this for a moment:

My house has ten+ DVD players including computers that have DVD drives and portable DVD players. Every person I know has atleast one DVD player. Most people have three minimum. You can play a DVD absolutely anywhere. BluRay is far from having that sort of clout, and to upgrade to the level that most people currently enjoy DVD, you'd have to have a lot of expendable money.

Even with all those DVD players I still find DVDs annoying to bother to get out and play.

Ya but it doesn\'t mean people do it. I say I\'ve watched only one DVD (and not even the whole DVD) on portable DVD player (I\'m taking portable as watching a DVD on anything other than a TV i.e car or on a plane etc.). Reason? Cause it looks crappy.

I count 5 DVD players in my house (PC, laptop, xbox and 3 tv DVD players)

( Edited 09.01.2009 00:45 by Birdo Is A Tranny )

Maybe I don't care so much about quality, but I watch movies whenever I'm on a trip. Makes thing pass faster. Its not like the resolution is worse than my DS.

Furthermore, I constantly see other people using them...I'd say most people (especially if they have kids) have a portable DVD player. Maybe its different in the UK, but they're everywhere in the States.

I\'m in Ireland and the only time (which is rarely honestly) that I see people using them is in hospitals (and there always kids). I suppose some people use them on long journeys but when your traveling in Ireland and Great Britian there\'s never a long journey when compared to the America\'s.

It\'s not the quality of the DVD, the screen is just too small for comfortable viewing IMHO and the fact that it might be sitting in your lap or in the palm of your hand drivies me mad. I have to have things stable. lol

( Edited 09.01.2009 01:15 by Birdo Is A Tranny )