Take Notes

[Don]

When we are talking about music/concert video, let's set aside the video question for a second. If you're buying the disc for the music, wouldn't you want it to sound exactly like it was meant to? Blu-Ray gives you that. No compression, exactly as recorded.DVD doesn't have the size to do that. Liken it to the difference between an CD and a MP3, no need for auditory masking like you get with MP3s to compensate for loss of data. Now, If you're just buying the disc to watch it instead of actually listen to it, then it really won't make a difference.

[journeyrock]

I wasn't aware of that Gun, thanks for the info. Makes perfect sense. This is why I come here for ALL my pertinent news and world affairs updates.

[Deb]

All the blu ray players at Best Buy that are under $200 are "refurbished". F that! The cheapest was $140. I haven't checked other sources. But - Hell no. I will wait with my regular player until prices come down. The blu ray movie prices are starting to drop a little, but I'm not about to blow upwards of $200 for a stupid player. They got me with the regular dvd player in 2000... damn thing was over $250. I still have it and it can't play anything by store bought. The player I have now... $40!!

A little trick I found out, is that most dvd players are set to whatever region they will be sold in, i.e., US/Canada = Region 1, Europe/Japan = Region 2 and so on. But for most makes of dvd players there is a code out there that you can use that will open it up to all regions (region 0 or region free). I mentioned it as I was wanted to buy an Eric Martin live in Tokyo dvd that was from Japan and I knew they were region 2, not the same as us. And somebody told me to google my make and model dvd player, i.e., "Phillips #&*@(model #) region free code". Can't remember what my brand code was but it was like a 4 or 5 digit # that I had to hit enter, type code(on remote), hit enter again on remote while your disc tray is open and a small "region free" should appear in bottom left. And sure enough, it did........and I have had no problem playing any dvds from Japan or Europe or computer made dvds ever since.

[Blueskies]

When we are talking about music/concert video, let's set aside the video question for a second. If you're buying the disc for the music, wouldn't you want it to sound exactly like it was meant to? Blu-Ray gives you that. No compression, exactly as recorded.DVD doesn't have the size to do that. Liken it to the difference between an CD and a MP3, no need for auditory masking like you get with MP3s to compensate for loss of data. Now, If you're just buying the disc to watch it instead of actually listen to it, then it really won't make a difference.

I didn't know that about Bluray. Thanks, GB!

[Behshad]

All the blu ray players at Best Buy that are under $200 are "refurbished". F that! The cheapest was $140. I haven't checked other sources. But - Hell no. I will wait with my regular player until prices come down. The blu ray movie prices are starting to drop a little, but I'm not about to blow upwards of $200 for a stupid player. They got me with the regular dvd player in 2000... damn thing was over $250. I still have it and it can't play anything by store bought. The player I have now... $40!!

A little trick I found out, is that most dvd players are set to whatever region they will be sold in, i.e., US/Canada = Region 1, Europe/Japan = Region 2 and so on. But for most makes of dvd players there is a code out there that you can use that will open it up to all regions (region 0 or region free). I mentioned it as I was wanted to buy an Eric Martin live in Tokyo dvd that was from Japan and I knew they were region 2, not the same as us. And somebody told me to google my make and model dvd player, i.e., "Phillips #&*@(model #) region free code". Can't remember what my brand code was but it was like a 4 or 5 digit # that I had to hit enter, type code(on remote), hit enter again on remote while your disc tray is open and a small "region free" should appear in bottom left. And sure enough, it did........and I have had no problem playing any dvds from Japan or Europe or computer made dvds ever since.

Is it 1999 ??

[Deb]

All the blu ray players at Best Buy that are under $200 are "refurbished". F that! The cheapest was $140. I haven't checked other sources. But - Hell no. I will wait with my regular player until prices come down. The blu ray movie prices are starting to drop a little, but I'm not about to blow upwards of $200 for a stupid player. They got me with the regular dvd player in 2000... damn thing was over $250. I still have it and it can't play anything by store bought. The player I have now... $40!!

A little trick I found out, is that most dvd players are set to whatever region they will be sold in, i.e., US/Canada = Region 1, Europe/Japan = Region 2 and so on. But for most makes of dvd players there is a code out there that you can use that will open it up to all regions (region 0 or region free). I mentioned it as I was wanted to buy an Eric Martin live in Tokyo dvd that was from Japan and I knew they were region 2, not the same as us. And somebody told me to google my make and model dvd player, i.e., "Phillips #&*@(model #) region free code". Can't remember what my brand code was but it was like a 4 or 5 digit # that I had to hit enter, type code(on remote), hit enter again on remote while your disc tray is open and a small "region free" should appear in bottom left. And sure enough, it did........and I have had no problem playing any dvds from Japan or Europe or computer made dvds ever since.

Is it 1999 ??

No, my dvd player is only a year and half old, smartass.

[Don]

All the blu ray players at Best Buy that are under $200 are "refurbished". F that! The cheapest was $140. I haven't checked other sources. But - Hell no. I will wait with my regular player until prices come down. The blu ray movie prices are starting to drop a little, but I'm not about to blow upwards of $200 for a stupid player. They got me with the regular dvd player in 2000... damn thing was over $250. I still have it and it can't play anything by store bought. The player I have now... $40!!

A little trick I found out, is that most dvd players are set to whatever region they will be sold in, i.e., US/Canada = Region 1, Europe/Japan = Region 2 and so on. But for most makes of dvd players there is a code out there that you can use that will open it up to all regions (region 0 or region free). I mentioned it as I was wanted to buy an Eric Martin live in Tokyo dvd that was from Japan and I knew they were region 2, not the same as us. And somebody told me to google my make and model dvd player, i.e., "Phillips #&*@(model #) region free code". Can't remember what my brand code was but it was like a 4 or 5 digit # that I had to hit enter, type code(on remote), hit enter again on remote while your disc tray is open and a small "region free" should appear in bottom left. And sure enough, it did........and I have had no problem playing any dvds from Japan or Europe or computer made dvds ever since.

Is it 1999 ??

No, my dvd player is only a year and half old, smartass.

Pioneer and Philips sell some like that out of the box. Most of the cheaper brands do it out of the box also, for some players, you just need to burn a copy of the DVD with the region protection removed. Having a player ntsc/pal capable cuts down on manufacturing costs also.

AfterDawn.com or Videohelp.com are both great sites to look for remote codes to unlock a lot of players.. EXCEPT Sony. They're players are pretty difficult to to trick.

[kgdjpubs]

For Wal-Mart's combo price of 20 dollars, I'd rather have the Blu-Ray option available from day one, than have to wait two or three months after the standard disc is released and HOPE an enhanced version gets released. For those who say it's an issue of a cheaper price attracting more buyers, If someone can't afford the 20 dollar price but can afford the 10 dollar offering, maybe they shouldn't be spending money on DVDs anyway.

I think a lot of it depends on whether or not the customer springs for the Blu-Ray or not. Players still aren't cheap, and I haven't found all that many movies where the increase in quality is all that noticeable. The difference in quality from dvd to Blu-Ray isn't nearly as much as the difference of vhs to dvd. As long as Blu-Ray prices stay high, only the people that have to own the best will spring for it. The rest will be happy with "good enough"

define 'high',,,and are you talking about the discs or the bluray players.....

specifically, discs, though the Blu-Ray player prices are only just beginning to come down.

More than half of the people who own a DVD-player, shelled out at least $200 to buy a DVDplayer back when they got one,,,, these days you can get a good bluray player for $200 or less....
Also, except for the last couple of years where DVD prices have gone down , between 98-2008, in average a DVD movie would cost you between $20-$25 , which is the average cost for a bluray player right now....
I think the main reason some people havent made the transition is a) They dont have the TV that would take full advantage of bluray technology & 1080p or b) they dont wanna rebuilt their entire collection from scratch, again! ,,,,, or both......

Yes. Only recently have TVs gotten to the point that you can tell the difference between HD and HD. Beyond those reasons, I don't think there is nearly the quality jump that you got jumping from vhs to dvd. If you take a talky drama without the big vistas, the difference is even less. Going to Blu-Ray is better....but at what price? Outside of your people that want the absolute best, I think most people think dvd is "good enough", especially with the state of the rest of remainder of technology (and the fact that most people don't have/don't want a movie theatre setup in their living room.

Bluray is here to stay and I think within the next 4 years more than 80% of the current DVDplayer owners will have a bluray system in their homes. One major change will happen when auto manufaturers start having bluray players in their new vehicles .....

It may be here to stay, and car blu-ray availability would certainly help it. That said, as long as the disc prices stay high, I don't think the majority will spend $25-30 for a Blu-Ray when they can get the same film on DVD for $15 (or less).

[Peartree12249]

I think a lot of it depends on whether or not the customer springs for the Blu-Ray or not. Players still aren't cheap, and I haven't found all that many movies where the increase in quality is all that noticeable. The difference in quality from dvd to Blu-Ray isn't nearly as much as the difference of vhs to dvd. As long as Blu-Ray prices stay high, only the people that have to own the best will spring for it. The rest will be happy with "good enough"

All the blu ray players at Best Buy that are under $200 are "refurbished". F that! The cheapest was $140. I haven't checked other sources. But - Hell no. I will wait with my regular player until prices come down. The blu ray movie prices are starting to drop a little, but I'm not about to blow upwards of $200 for a stupid player. They got me with the regular dvd player in 2000... damn thing was over $250. I still have it and it can't play anything by store bought. The player I have now... $40!!

I bought a brand new name brand blue ray DVD player at Wal Mart last year on Black Friday for $128 bucks. It works great! It may not have all the fancy bells and whistles, but I just want to watch DVDs so it's great for me.

[Don]

Here's a blurb from one of the guys who worked on the Manila DVD for Journey. Glad to see someone set the record straight that this High Tech filming doesnt really benefit standard DVD.

The double DVD of the 10 RED camera production of Journey "Live In Manila" opened its first week as the top selling music video on the Billboard Charts. Sales of this Journey DVD also represented the second best music video debut sales week of this entire year. The double DVD is sold exclusively at WalMart ($10).

Obviously standard DVD isn't the best presentation for a RED production shot in Quad HD, but I'm guessing that a BluRay version will be released very soon, and ultimately an HDTV program.

RED User members who worked on the production:
Me (a DP and stage front camera), Champe Barton (a DP), Blair Paulsen (stage front camera), Oli Laperal (Manila equipment & some crew). I used my RED #8, and my RED "London" was on the 40' jib. Blair used his RED #19 and also supplied Steve Tammi's RED #17. Champe supplied his RED, and as I remember, the other REDs were supplied in Manila by Oli Laperal's RSVP Films.