Blu-Ray

[GetCarter]

Do I assume that Blu-Ray won the 'format' war and that it's the way to go for hi res DVD?

TIA

[john185k]

It appears so...

P.s. Hope u had a good Christmas

[fastfreddy]

Yes, it is now the 'standard' HD format for disc.

Also makes a very good data backup solution at 50GB+ per dual-layer disc although blank media is still quite pricey.

[jon-]

I think manufactures stopped making HD players around 6 months ago. Sony finally won one

[Famous Graham]

fastfreddy said:

Yes, it is now the 'standard' HD format for disc.

Also makes a very good data backup solution at 50GB+ per dual-layer disc although blank media is still quite pricey.

Do the discs suffer a similar shelf-life to CDs/DVDs though? They've never really been viable for long term storage.

[fastfreddy]

Famous Graham said:

fastfreddy said:

Yes, it is now the 'standard' HD format for disc.

Also makes a very good data backup solution at 50GB+ per dual-layer disc although blank media is still quite pricey.

Do the discs suffer a similar shelf-life to CDs/DVDs though? They've never really been viable for long term storage.

If you choose good quality media and store the discs properly then the lifetime of any optical media is pretty good.

If the data is really important then I would always store at least one other backup anyway, probably on magnetic media, but hard discs and tape are not infallible so you can't have enough backups IMO.

'Juke box' Blu-Ray backup solutions are available now and the media lifetime quoted is between 50 and 500 years, depending on who you believe.

[GetCarter]

Ta chaps - I assume Blu-Ray players will play regular DVDs?

Edited by GetCarter on Monday 28th December 13:42

[BigAlinEmbra]

PS3 certainly does Mr. C. Nice toy for streaming any goodies from your PC to TV too, if you're so inclined.

[jon-]

GetCarter said:

Ta chaps - I assume Blu-Ray players will play regular DVDs?

Edited by GetCarter on Monday 28th December 13:42

Yes, 99.9% of the time.

[cottonfoo]

Famous Graham said:

Do the discs suffer a similar shelf-life to CDs/DVDs though? They've never really been viable for long term storage.

I'd trust a decent quality CD/DVD for much longer than an external hard drive. I back up to DVD, as well as having everything stored on RAID5.

[callyman]

jon- said:

GetCarter said:

Ta chaps - I assume Blu-Ray players will play regular DVDs?

Edited by GetCarter on Monday 28th December 13:42

Yes, 99.9% of the time.

Most will upscale DVD to 1080i too.

[flat-planedCrank]

callyman said:

jon- said:

GetCarter said:

Ta chaps - I assume Blu-Ray players will play regular DVDs?

Edited by GetCarter on Monday 28th December 13:42

Yes, 99.9% of the time.

Most will upscale DVD to 1080i too.

Think some will manage 1080p/24 as well.


From my experience, DVD upscaled to HD res is good enough to not force you to replace your current DVD collection I've just re-bought some films on Bluray that I really like / think will particularly suit it.

The DVD - Bluray price difference is a little hard to stomach at the moment, but if you keep an eye on the online stores then you can find them for reasonable money


Cheers.

[GetCarter]

Interesting stuff... so I guess I need to buy 'what blu-ray' (or some such) mag to find a decent player?

As for replacing my 700+ DVD collection... it ain't going to happen!

[flat-planedCrank]

GetCarter said:

Interesting stuff... so I guess I need to buy 'what blu-ray' (or some such) mag to find a decent player?

As for replacing my 700+ DVD collection... it ain't going to happen!

As was mentioned above, the PS3 is a good bluray + dvd player - if you have been looking for an excuse to buy one then this would be a good opportunity
(You can even buy a 'normal remote' to make it as easy as using a normal bluray player)

For AV forums, well, http://www.avforums.com/ is pretty good They certainly seem to know their stuff.

One other point, best to check which ports your HD TV has - most HD sources use HDMI these days (should only really be an issue with an old TV).


Cheers.

[RobDickinson]

callyman said:

Most will upscale DVD to 1080i too.

Consider your HD TV has to upscale to its native resolution anyhow you end up with a which scaler is better situation and unless your screen is 1920x1080 exactly you end up scaling it twice anyhow (HDMI doesnt 1:1 pixel map like say VGA can).

[agent006]

BluRay has won the format war. This does, however, make an HD DVD player a very cheap way of getting hold of HD content as it and its corresponding disks are next to worthless now.

[DiscoColin]

GetCarter said:

Do I assume that Blu-Ray won the 'format' war and that it's the way to go for hi res DVD?

TIA

It has certainly won the Disk format war. However, there is certainly a school of thought that considers that it is but a transient stage until downloaded content of some kind (not there yet in quality terms, but it should only be a short matter of time) will be the outright winner...

[RobDickinson]

I dont think any content provider realy wants to sell you a product on its own media (music, games, movies). This you can keep forever and sell on to other poeple etc.

They'd rather sell you the rights to something you have to then pay (your provider) to download.

Can already do this for HD movies cant you? but at reduced bitrates without the super audio.

[Woza]

i would recommend a ps3, even though it does play games, i very very rarely play any on it.

fantastic blu ray player and upscales the dvd's also, also great for streaming iplayer or the web on your tv!!

Woza.

[GetCarter]

Woza said:

i would recommend a ps3, even though it does play games, i very very rarely play any on it.

fantastic blu ray player and upscales the dvd's also, also great for streaming iplayer or the web on your tv!!

Woza.

Sounds good... What connects it to the TV... I only have one hdmi socket on the TV but have two component video inputs